The reaction of modern women to polygamy is fairly predictable – declarations of it being sexist and evil are as typical as are cries of despair from women who describe it as their “absolute personal hell.” These messages are repeated so often that many of us feel ashamed of our own past and have unconsciously adopted the anti-Mormon propaganda as our basic assumptions – that polygamy was oppressive, evil, and harmful to women and that it is a horrific and sexist past for which modern day Latter-day Saints should feel shame over and for which we should endlessly apologize. But, should we? Should women today be terrified of polygamy, either historically or potentially in Heaven? Should we feel shame for the practice of polygamy in the church? Was it oppressive to the women who practiced it? Should we react the way present day society has enculturated us to react to polygamy and plural marriage? I propose a novel idea:
Let’s ask the women involved themselves to see what they had to say about polygamy.
The first bill aimed at destroying the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for practicing polygamy was the 1862 Morrill Anti-Bigamy Act (also known as the Morrill Act for the Suppression of Polygamy.) When it failed to either end polygamy or lead to the dissolution of the church, anti-Mormons proposed newer, harsher laws which would augment the previous legislation by further degrading the liberties of the Saints and by giving federal agents even greater power to imprison the members of the church. One such proposed law was the 1869 Cullom Bill which would not only imprison members of the church for practicing plural marriage but which would deny citizenship to members of the church. In respond to this new round of legal persecution the women of the church organized a mass protest meeting through their various ward Relief Societies in order to denounce the actions of the government and demand their natural and human rights be respected by the government. They had already began to actively work for the right of women to vote (pgs. 36-38) and this protest meeting would be a major step in that work.
During the effort to organize their response Latter-day Saint women’s leader, women’s rights activist, and suffragette Sarah M. Kimball thundered, “We would be unworthy of the names we bear and of the blood in our veins should we longer remain silent while such an infamous bill was before the House.” (Saints Vol. 2, pgs. 372-375) The outcome of their efforts to make their voice heard was what has come to be known as The Great Indignation Meeting held in the Salt Lake City Tabernacle. It is to the words of these women at this meeting that I now turn. In the following speeches these women actively attack the fallacious accusations of anti-Mormons, denounce the hypocrisy and lies of the United States government, demand that their rights be respected by the state, and actively defend plural marriage/polygamy on numerous grounds. These are some of the smartest and most intelligent women in Latter-day Saint and western American history. These women were ardently dedicated to the cause of women’s rights and equality with more members of the National American Woman Suffrage Association in Utah than anywhere else in the United States. These were no mewling weak-willed women, but brilliant, passionate, and powerful women and their words directly apply to, counter, and disprove many of the claims made against plural marriage and polygamy which are made not only by Latter-day Saint detractors but by confused and ill informed Latter-day Saints themselves.
Below is a transcription of their words as printed in the January 9, 1870 edition of The Deseret News. As the addresses altogether are much longer than would fit into an article here, even one of my longer ones, I have broken the records of the meeting into multiple parts which I will post over the coming weeks. The only additions I have made to the text are short notes which will appear in brackets [like so] and pictures of those involved and events mentioned in order to help the reader better understand the speaker and what she is saying. The only subtractions I have made are from the very start of the article where it lists the women chosen to direct the meeting and the committee to draft resolutions. I did this so I could skip directly to the writings of these women. One final thought before going farther – Could you imagine today’s Relief Society leaders, whether on a local level or at a church level organizing such an amazing protest action today? I cannot, which is a sobering and saddening fact. It makes me think that we have lost some of our understanding of the purpose and power of the Relief Society as explained by President Eliza R. Snow (herself part of The Great Indignation Meeting) in the LDS Classic I shared last week about that very thing. Hopefully our modern Saints can recapture the fire, zeal, strength, and independence that their great forbearers demonstrated on this occasion and during countless others.
****
GREAT INDIGNATION MEETING
Mrs. Kimball, in rising to address the meeting, said she desired the prayers of all present, that she might be enabled to express herself in a comprehensive manner. They were there to speak in relation to the Government and institutions under which they lived, and she would ask: Have we transgressed any law of the United States? (Loud “No”—from the audience.) Then why are we here to-day? We have been driven from place to place, and why? Simply for believing in and practicing the counsels of God as contained in the Gospel of Heaven. The object of that meeting was to consider the justice of a bill now before the Congress of the United States. She said: “We are not here to advocate woman’s rights, but man’s rights.” The bill in question would not only deprive our fathers, husbands and brothers of enjoying the privileges bequeathed to citizens of the United States, but it would also deprive us, as women, of the privilege of selecting our husbands, and against this we most unqualifiedly protest.
While the Committee on resolutions were absent speeches were made by various ladies, the first, as follows, being delivered by
BATHSHEBA W. SMITH.
Beloved Sisters and Friends:—It is with no ordinary feelings that I meet with you on the present occasion. From my early youth I have been identified with the Latter-day Saints; hence I have been an eye and ear witness to many of the scenes that have been inflicted upon our people by a spirit of intolerant persecution.
I watched by the bedside of the first Apostle, David W. Patten, who fell a martyr in the Church. He was a noble soul. He was shot by a mob while defending the Saints in the State of Missouri, Ray County, on the 25th of October, 1838. As Bro. Patten’s life blood oozed away, I stood by and heard his dying testimony to the truth of our holy religion, declaring himself to be a friend to all mankind: he sacrificed his life freely to defend the innocent. He had no feelings of hostility to his race, but labored to exalt them. His last words, addressed to his wife, were: “Whatever you do, oh! do not deny the faith.” This circumstance made a lasting impression upon my youthful mind. In Missouri, mobs were burning houses and killing the Saints, when an army was sent by Governor [Lilburn W.] Boggs, which we supposed had come to protect us; but, alas! time proved that it came to continue the same dreadful work—reducing the whole people from competence to extreme poverty, sending them forth, under an exterminating order, in mid-winter, 200 miles across bleak prairies, among strangers in a strange State, leaving their homes and property to be possessed by their persecutors.
I was intimately acquainted with the life and ministry of our beloved Prophet and Patriarch, Joseph and Hyrum Smith. I know that they were pure men, who labored for the redemption of the human family. For six years I heard their public and private teachings. It was from their lips that I heard taught the principle of celestial marriage, and when I saw their mangled forms cold in death, having been slain for the testimony of Jesus by the hands of cruel bigots, in defence of law, justice and Executive pledges, and although this was a scene of barbarous cruelty, which can never be erased from those who witnessed the heart-rending cries of widows and orphans, and mingled their tears with those of thousands of witnesses of the mournful occasion, the memories of which I hardly feel willing to awaken, yet I realized that they had sealed their ministry with their blood and that their testimony was in force.
[Note: Above Bathsheba Smith says in defence, which is the correct British English spelling of defense, but I can’t help but think Bathsheba meant defiance as that makes more sense in the historical context of the Martyrdom taking place despite what happening being illegal, unjust, and despite promises from Illinois Governor Thomas Ford that he would protect Joseph and Hyrum from exactly what happened to them.]
On the 9th day of February, 1846—the middle of a cold and bleak winter—my husband, just rising from a bed of sickness, and I, in company with thousands of Saints, were driven again from our comfortable home, the accumulation of six years’ industry and prudence, and, with two little children, commenced a long and weary journey through a wilderness, over prairies, deserts and mountains, to seek another home, for a wicked mob had decreed we must leave. Governor Ford, of Illinois, said the laws were powerless to protect us. Exposed to the cold of winter and the storms of spring, we continued our journey amid want and exposure, burying by the way side a dear mother, a son and many kind friends and relatives.
We reached the Missouri River in July. Here our country thought proper to make a requisition upon us for a battalion to defend our national flag in the war pending with Mexico. We responded promptly, many of my kindred stepping forward and performing a journey characterized by their commanding officer as “unparalelled in history.” With the most of our youth and middle-aged men gone, we could not proceed, hence we were compelled to make another home, which, though humble, approaching winter made very desirable. In 1847–8, all who were able, through selling their surplus property, proceeded; we, who remained, were told, by an unfeeling Indian Department, we must vacate our houses and re-cross the Missouri River, as the laws would not permit us to remain on Indian lands! We obeyed, and again made a new home, though only a few miles distant. The latter home we abandoned in 1849, for the purpose of joining our co-religionists in the then far off region, denominated on the maps, “The Great Desert,” and by some later geographers as “Eastern Upper California.”
In this isolated country we made new homes, and, for a time, contended with the crickets for a scanty subsistence. The rude, ignorant and almost nude Indians were a heavy tax upon us, while struggling again to make comfortable homes and improvements; yet we bore it all without complaint, for we were buoyed up with the happy reflections that we were so distant, and had found an asylum in such an undesirable country, as to strengthen us in the hope that our homes would not be coveted, and that should we, through the blessing of God, succeed in planting our own vine and fig tree, no one could feel heartless enough to withhold from us that religious liberty which we had sought in vain amongst our former neighbors.
Without recapitulating our recent history—the development of a people whose industry and morality have extracted eulogy from their most bitter traducers—I cannot but express my surprise, mingled with regret and indignation at the recent proceedings of ignorant, bigoted, and unfeeling men, headed by the Vice-President, to aid intolerant sectarians and reckless speculators, who seek for proscription and plunder, and who feel willing to rob the inhabitants of these valleys of their hard earned possessions, and what is dearer, the constitutional boon of religious liberty.
The following is a verbatim report of the remarks of the next speaker:
MRS. LEVI RITER.
In rising before this vast assembly my heart is filled with feelings that words cannot express. We have not met here, my beloved sisters, as women of other States and Territories meet, to complain of the wrongs and abuses inflicted upon us by our husbands, fathers and sons; but we are happy and proud to state that we have no such afflictions and abuses to complain of. Neither do we ask for the right of franchise; nor do we ask for more law, more liberty or more rights and freedom from our husbands and brothers; for there is no spot on this wide earth where kindness and affection are more bestowed upon woman, and her rights so sacredly defended as in Utah. We are here to express our love for each other, and to exhibit to the world our devotion to God our Heavenly Father; and to show our willingness to comply with the requirements of the gospel; and the law of Celestial Marriage is one of its requirements that we are resolved to honor, teach and practise, which may God grant us strength to do (“Amen,” from the audience). And that we may have a continuation of liberty I ask in the name of Jesus Christ! (“Amen,” again by the audience).
The resolutions drafted by the Committee were then presented, and carried unanimously, being greeted with loud cheers. They were as follows:
Resolved.—That we, the Ladies of Salt Lake City, in mass meeting assembled, do manifest our indignation and protest against the Bill before Congress, known as the Cullom Bil, also the one known as the Cragin Bill, and all similar Bills, expressions and manifestos.
Resolved.—That we consider the above named Bills foul blots on our national escutcheon – absurd documents – atrocious insults to the Honorable Executive of the United States Government, and malicious attempts to subvert the rights of civil and religious liberty.
Resolved.—That we do hold sacred the Constitution bequeathed us by our forefathers, and ignore, with laudable womanly jealousy, every act of those men to whom the responsibilities of government have been entrusted, which is calculated to destroy its efficacy.
Resolved.—That we unitedly exercise every moral power and every right which we inherit as the daughters of American citizens, to prevent the passage of such bills; knowing that they would inevitably cast a stigma on our Republican Government by jeopardizing the liberty and lives of its most loyal and peaceable citizens.
Resolved.—That, in our candid opinion, the presentation of the aforesaid bills indicates a manifest degeneracy of the great men of our nation; and their adoption would presage a speedy downfall and ultimate extinction of the glorious pedestal of Freedom, Protection and Equal Rights established by our noble ancestors.
Resolved.—That we acknowledge the Institutions of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as the only reliable safeguard of female virtue and innocence; and the only sure protection against the fearful sin of prostitution and its attendant evils, now prevalent abroad, and, as such, we are and shall be united with our brethren in sustaining them against each and every encroachment.
Resolved.—That we consider the originators of the aforesaid bills disloyal to the Constitution, and unworthy of any position of trust in any office which involves the interests of our nation.
Resolved.—That, in case the Bills in question should pass both houses of Congress and become a law by which we shall be disfranchised as a Territory, we, the ladies of Salt Lake City, shall exert all our power and influence to aid in the support of our own State Government.
MRS. SMITH,
Relict of Elder Warren Smith, who was murdered at Haun’s Mill, then spoke:
Sisters, as I sat upon my seat listening, it seemed as though if I held my peace the stones of the streets would cry out. With your prayers aiding me I will try and make a few remarks.
I obeyed the gospel on the first day of April, 1831, almost thirty-nine years ago; and I have been in the midst of this people ever since. I have seen their travels, their sorrows, their afflictions. I have seen the mourning and sorrow of this people in their calamities, and many is the time my heart has been pained at the scenes of distress I have witnessed. I moved to Kirtland with my husband, a good man and a faithful elder in Israel. He moved his family to Kirtland and bought a beautiful place, but he could not live on it. Our persecutors said we must not stay there. We sold our beautiful home for a song, and we had to sing it ourselves. We traveled all summer to Missouri, our teams poor, and with hardly enough to keep body and soul together. We landed in Caldwell County, near Haun’s Mill, nine wagons of us in company. Two days before we landed there we were taken prisoners by an armed mob that demanded every bit of ammunition and every weapon we had. We surrendered them; gave up all. They knew it, for they searched our wagons. A few miles more brought us to Haun’s Mill where that awful scene of murder was enacted. My husband pitched his tent by a blacksmith’s shop. If I mistake not Bro. David Evans had made a treaty with the mob that they would not molest us. He came in and called the company together, and they knelt in prayer. I sat in my tent, and looking out saw the mob coming, the same that took away our weapons. They came like so many demons or wild Indians. Before I could get to the blacksmith’s shop door to tell them, the bullets were whistling amongst them. Among those who fell were my husband and a son, and one beautiful boy, now here, a man, in your midst, was wounded worse than death. I was obliged to stay on that awful ground all that night to take care of my poor children. Another sister who had a son wounded, stayed there all night with me. The scene was terrible beyond description. One poor brother was lying in the shop and could not be moved; and the moans of the dying and wounded were heart-rending. Our enemies were not far off and we did not know but they would return. Next morning Brother Joseph Young came to see what could be done. He inquired what should be done with the dead, as there was not time to bury them, for the mob was coming on us, and there were not men to dig the graves. I said anything but leaving their bodies to the fiends that had killed them. There was a deep, dry well close by, and into this the bodies had to be hurried, seventeen in number, some head downwards and some feet downwards.
And this was in America! In the land of liberty and freedom, that boasts of the rights guaranteed to its citizens! We are here to-day to say if such scenes shall be again enacted in our midst. I say to you, my sisters, you are American citizens; let us stand by the truth if we die for it (applause).
Summary Thoughts
There are some fascinating insights into how these women viewed polygamy that can be glean from the first speeches as from the list of resolutions. It is perhaps unsurprising that all three women quoted thus far have defend plural marriage as the counsel and commandment of God. What is interesting is that Sarah Kimball places practicing plural marriage in context of women choosing their own husbands. We are often told to think of plural marriage as men coercing women into relationships when the exact opposite was true, it empowered the women to choose whoever they wanted as a husband, even if he had been previously married. Rebecca Riter argues that women in polygamous Utah have their rights more firmly secured and defended than anywhere else in the entire world. I found Amanda Barnes Smith speech particularly moving. She is well-known for having followed the guidance of the Spirit after her son Alma was shot during the Haun’s Mill Massacre, guidance which not only saved his life but restored his ability to walk after his hip was destroyed by a gunshot. Hearing her describe the events of the Massacre herself, the slaughter of her husband and children, and then declare that she would rather die than abandon plural marriage is a powerful testimony.
All of the women and the list of resolutions make it clear that laws outlawing polygamy actually take away their rights as women, attacking and degrading their constitutional and natural rights. In today’s terms we would argue that opposition to polygamy was anti-feminist in nature and those who support them are assaulting the rights of women. Plural marriage also helped fight against other assaults on women such as prostitution and all the evils attending it, which means plural marriage further helped to protect not only the rights of women but their social and physical safety as well and that attacks on plural marriage didn’t make these women safe but exposed them to greater abuse and danger.
Finally, the Civil War is often described as the last gasp of the original constitutional construction of the country where the federal government has limited powers and people were as loyal to their semi-autonomous states as they were to the federal government. But you in the last resolution that by 1870 this belief hadn’t died out completely in Utah as these women pledged to be loyal to their state over the federal government and implicitly promised to break any federal anti-polygamy laws in favor of following their own state laws. In other words, this whole thing is a mass act of Jeffersonian nullification. This is something I certainly wasn’t expecting when I began reading these addresses, but I am delighted in discovering nonetheless. It also fits well with President John Taylor’s later teachings about when Latter-day Saints should break the law.
That is it for Part 1. Next week I will post Part 2, picking up right where I left off here, with the words of Mrs. Wilmarth East. A photographic replica of the original article will be provided with the final part of the series in its conclusion.