It is very common today to see Latter-day Saint women bemoan the past practice of plural marriage and people inside and outside of the church describe it as sexist and immoral. Last week I began an investigation into the history of the church to see if these accusations bear out and in order to do this I began looking at the words of the women who themselves practiced polygamy, republishing speeches given as part of what came to be known as The Great Indignation Meeting. In Part 1 of this effort, we saw these women not only defend polygamy/plural marriage as a religious right of theirs that the government had no authority to restrict, but they also declared that they would rather suffer and die than surrender to the unconstitutional orders of the government to stop practicing polygamy and, in an act of nullification, announce that because the law was unconstitutional they would obey their state laws over federal laws. Polygamy, they explained, actually protected their rights better than monogamy practiced in the rest of the United States. All of these things are the exact opposite reactions than what you would expect from women who were oppressed, abused, and mistreated, which demonstrates that these women were not abused, oppressed, or mistreated by plural marriage. These are powerful, empowered, intelligent women and they teach that plural marriage is a large part of why they are so, especially in comparison to the rest of the United States and the world.
Here in Part 2, I will pick up right where I left off last week, starting with the words of Ms. Wilmarth East. As with last week, if I need to correct anything or add clarifying information it will be placed in brackets like these [ ]. Otherwise, the only information I have added is pictures of people and places named to better help the reader imagine who is speaking in their mind’s eye. In all other ways I’ve tried to preserve the original text. It picks up after the heading below.
The Great Indignation Meeting – Continued
MRS. WILMARTH EAST.
It is with feelings of pleasure, mingled with indignation and disgust, that I appear before you my sisters, to express my feelings in regard to the Cullom Bill now before the Congress of this once happy and Republican government. The Constitution for which our forefathers fought and bled and died, bequeathes to us the right of religious liberty,—the right to worship God according to the dictates of our own consciences! Does the Cullom Bill give us this right? Compare it with the Constitution if you please, and see what a disgrace has come upon this once happy and Republican government! Where, O, where is that liberty, bequeathed to us by our forefathers, the richest boon ever given to man or woman, except eternal life or the gospel of the Son of God? I am an American citizen by birthright and, having lived above the laws of the land I claim the right to worsoip God according to the dictates of my own conscience and the commandments that God shall give unto me. Our Constitution guarantees “Life liberty and the pursuit of happiness to all who live beneath it.” What is life to me if I see the galling yoke of oppression placed upon the necks of my husband, sons and brothers as Mr. Cullom would haev [have] it! I am proud to say to you that I am not only a citizen of the United States of America, but a citizen of the kingdom of God, and the laws of this kingdom I am willing to sustain and defend both by example and precept. I am thankful to-day that I have the privilege of living the religion of Jesus our Savior. I am thankful to-day that I have the honored privilege of being the happy recipient of one of the greatest principles ever revealed to man for his redemption and exaltation in the kingdom of God, namely plurality of wives; and I am thankful to-day that I know God is at the helm and will defend his people.
MRS. KIMBALL
Felt thankful to be numbered with this people. We feel to honor God and the gospel communicated to us. She was sorry that Congress is engaged in framing measures for the overthrow of the Latter-day Saints. She prayed that the spirit and feelings of that audience might be felt in the Congress of the United States and that any measures that are calculated to bring evil upon this community, might be thwarted; and that Congress will be made to see the injustice of such measures as those contemplated by the Cullom bill, against good, honest, virtuous and loyal citizens, such as are the people of Utah.
[Possibly this was Sarah Kimball, the leader of the Meeting. (Saints Vol. 2, pgs. 372-375)]
MRS. MCMINN
Could not refrain from expressing herself in unison with her sisters, and her indignation at the bill. She was an American citizen. Her father had fought through the revolution with General Washington, and she claimed the exercise of the liberty for which he had fought. She was proud of being a Latter-day Saint.
In answer to an inquiry she stated that she was nearly eighty-five years of age.
E. R. SNOW.
[Eliza Roxcy Snow, one of the leading Latter-day Saint women and re-founder of the Relief Society.]
My sisters: – In addressing you at this time I realize that the occasion is a peculiar and an interesting one. We are living in a land of freedom – under a Constitution that guarantees civil and religious liberty to all; black and white, Christians, Jews, Mahometans [Muslims] and Pagans; and how strange it is that such considerations should exist as those which have called us together this afternoon.
Under the proud banner which now waves from ocean to ocean, strange as it may seem, we, who have ever been loyal citizens, have been persecuted from time to time and driven from place to place, until at last, beyond the bounds of civilization, under the guidance of President Young, we found an asylum of peace in the midst of these mountains.
There are, at times, small and apparently trivial events in the lives of individuals with which every other event naturally associates. There are circumstances in the history of nations, which serve as centres, around which everything else revolves.
The entrance of our brave pioneers and the settlement of the Latter-day Saints in these mountain vales, which then were only barren, savage wilds, are incidents with which, not only our own future, but the future of the whole world is deeply associated.
Here they struggled with more than mortal energy, for their hearts and hands were nerved by the spirit of the Most High, and through His blessing they succeeded in drawing sustenance from the arid soil; and here they erected the standard on which the Star Spangled Banner waved its salutations of welcome to the nations of the earth; and, although it had been stained with the blood of innocence, here it has been rescued from the withering touch of tyranny and oppression—here it has been honored and respected, and here it will be bequeathed unsullied to future generations. Yes, that “dear old Flag,” which in my girlhood I always contemplated with joyous pride, and to which the patriotic strains of my earliest muse were chanted, here floats triumphantly on the mountain breeze.
Our numbers, small at first, have increased, until now we number one hundred and fifty thousand, and yet, we are allowed only a Territorial Government. Year after year we have petitioned Congress, for what it was our inalienable right to claim,—a State Government; and year after year our petitions have been treated with contempt. Such treatment as we have received from our rulers, has no precedent in the annals of history.
And now, instead of granting us our rights as American citizens, bills are being presented to Congress which are a disgrace to men in responsible stations, professing the least claim to honor and magnanimity—bills, which, if carried into effect, would utterly annihilate us as a people. But this will never be. There is too much virtue yet existing in the nation, and above all, there is a God in heaven, whose protecting care is over us, and who takes cognizance of the acts of the children of men.
My sisters, we have met to-day to manifest our views and feelings concerning the oppressive policy exercised towards us by our Republican Government. Aside from all local and personal feelings, to me it is a source of deep regret that the standard of American liberty should have so far swayed from its original towering position as to have given rise to circumstances which not only rendered such a meeting opportune but absolutely necessary.
Heretofore, while detraction and ridicule have been poured forth in almost every form that malice could invent—while we have been misrepresented by speech and press, and exhibited in every shade but our true light, the ladies of Utah, as a general thing, have remained silent. Had not our aims been of the most noble and exalted character, and had we not known that we occupied a standpoint far above our traducers, we might have returned volley for volley; but we have, all the time, realized that to contradict such egregious absurdities, would be a great stoop of condescension—far beneath the dignity of those who profess to be Saints of the living God; and we very unassumingly applied to ourselves a saying of an ancient apostle in writing to the Corinthians, “Ye suffer fools, gladly, seeing that yourselves are wise.”
But there is a point at which silence is no longer a virtue. In my humble opinion we have arrived at this point. Shall we – ought we to be silent when every right of citizenship – every vestige of civil and religious liberty is at stake? When our husbands and sons – our fathers and brothers are threatened, being either restrained in their obedience to the commands of God, or incarcerated year after year in the dreary confines of a prison, will it be thought presumptuous for us to speak? Are not our interests one with our brethren? Ladies, this subject as deeply interests us as them. In the Kingdom of God, woman has no interests separate from those of man – all are mutual.
Our enemies pretend that in Utah, woman is held in a state of vassalage—that she does not act from choice, but by coercion – that we would even prefer life elsewhere, were it possible for us to make our escape. What nonsense! We all know that if we wished, we could leave at any time – either to go singly or we could rise en masse, and there is no power here that could or would ever wish to prevent us.
I will now ask this intelligent assembly of ladies: Do you know of any place on the face of the earth, where woman has more liberty, and where she enjoys such high and glorious privileges as she does here, as a Latter-day Saint? “No!” The very idea of women here in a state of slavery is a burlesque on good common sense. The history of this people, with a very little reflection, would instruct outsiders on this point, it would show at once that the part which woman has acted in it, could never have been performed against her will. Amid the many distressing scenes through which we have passed, the privations and hardships consequent on our expulsion from State to State, and our location in an isolated, barren wilderness, the women in this Church have performed and suffered what could never have been borne and accomplished by slaves.
And now, after all that has transpired, can our opponents expect us to look on with silent indifference and see every vestige of that liberty, for which many of our patriotic grandsires fought and bled, that they might bequeath to us, their children, the precious boon of national freedom, wrested from our grasp? If so, they will learn their mistake, we are ready to inform them. They must be very dull in estimating the energy of female character, who can persuade themselves that women, who, for the sake of their religion, left their homes, crossed the plains with handcarts, or, as many had previously done, drove ox, mule and horse teams from Nauvoo and from other points when their husbands and sons went at their country’s call, to fight her battles in Mexico; yes, that very country which had refused us protection and from which we were then struggling to make our escape I say, those who think that such women and the daughters of such women do not possess too much energy of character to remain passive and mute under existing circumstances are “reckoning bills without their host.” [an old proverb about jumping to conclusions.] To suppose that we should not be aroused when our brethren are threatened with fines and imprisonment for their faith in and obedience to the laws of God, is an insult to our womanly natures.
Were we the stupid, degraded, heartbroken beings that we have been represented, silence might better become us; but, as women of God, – women filling high and responsible positions – performing sacred duties – women who stand not as dictators, but as counselors to their husbands, and who, in the purest, noblest sense of refined womanhood, being truly their helpmates; we not only speak because we have the right, but justice and humanity demand that we should.
Instead of being lorded over by tyrannical husbands, we, the ladies of Utah, are already in possession of a privilege which many intelligent and high aiming ladies in the States are earnestly seeking i. e., the right to vote. Although as yet we have not been admitted to the common ballot box, to us the right of suffrage is extended in matters of far greater importance. This we say truthfully not boastingly; and we may say farther, that if those sensitive persons who profess to pity the condition of the women of Utah, will secure unto us those rights and privileges which a just and equitable administration of the laws of the Constitution of the United States guarantees to every loyal citizen, they may reserve their sympathy for objects more appreciative.
My sisters, let us, inasmuch as we are free to do all that love and duty prompt, be brave and unfaltering in sustaining our brethren. Woman’s faith can accomplish wonders. Let us, like the devout and steadfast Miriam, assist our brothers in upholding the hands of Moses. Like the loving Josephine, whose firm and gentle influence both animated and soothed the heart of Napoleon, we will encourage and assist the servants of God in establishing righteousness; but, unlike Josephine, never will political inducements, threats or persecutions prevail on us to relinquish our matrimonial ties—they were performed by the authority of the holy priesthood, the efficacy of which extends into eternity.
But, to the law and to the testimony. Those obnoxious, fratricidal Bills – I feel indignant at the thought, that such documents should disgrace our National Capital. The same spirit that prompted Herod to seek the life of Jesus – the same that drove our Pilgrim Fathers to this Continent, and the same that urged the English Government to the system of unrepresented taxation, which resulted in the independence of the American Colonies, is conspicuous in those Bills. If such measures are persisted in, they will produce similar results. They not only threaten extirpation to us, but they augur destruction to the Government. The authors of those Bills would tear the Constitution to shreds. They are sapping the foundation of American freedom – they would obliterate every vestige of the dearest right of man – liberty of conscience, and reduce our once happy country to a state of anarchy.
Our trust is in God. He that led Israel from the land of Egypt – who preserved Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego in the fiery furnace; who rescued Daniel from the jaws of hungry lions, and who directed Brigham Young to these mountain vales, lives and overrules the destinies of men and nations. He will make the wrath of man praise Him; and His kingdom will move steadily forward, until wickedness shall be swept from the earth, and truth, love and righteousness reign triumphantly.
Summary Thoughts
Again we see a common theme of religious liberty and constitutional right running through the addresses given by these women. Practicing plural marriage is their God-given natural right and they demand the government respect it. Sister’s East’s declaration that polygamy was one of the greatest things every revealed to man is surely something that would shock and dismay many men and women today so mislead are they by anti-Mormon arguments about plural marriage that they are incapable of seeing it as anything other than a burden. That these women saw plural marriage/polygamy as a blessing and something to be honored and protected are in complete contradiction to what we have been told to think about polygamy. This is exactly why listening to these women is so important. Despite whatever unique difficulties plural marriage introduced, these women still found it to be a greater blessing than a burden.
Not to discount the words of Sisters East, Kimball, and McMinn, but isn’t Eliza R. Snow absolutely phenomenal? Her comments on polygamy are highly instructive. From then to now plural marriage has been presented by anti-Mormons as degrading, oppressive, tyrannical, and destructive to women, and Eliza. R. Snow is having none of that stupidity. She knows that such claims are completely absurd. Unlike the rest of the world, women in the Kingdom of God work as equals to men as they mutually work to do accomplish the will of God. Women are not trapped in Utah, they are not kept there by some manipulative or oppressive male domination (an argument often made by modern anti-Mormons as well). They can leave any time they please, both individually or as a group. But they choose to stay? Why? Because polygamy was liberating to them. They had and continued to act as equals to men in the work of settling Utah and building the Kingdom, something that couldn’t be done without them or if they resisted. To think this strong and powerful women would not stand up and resist when the government comes in to deny them their rights and to imprison those they love is utter stupidity and only proves the ignorance of those outside of Utah.
Importantly she points out that women in the Kingdom of God have the right to vote. That women had a right to vote in the appointment of men and women to offices in the church and that they could obstruct or even prevent a man from holding a position of authority be refusing to consent to his appointment was something then very unique to LDS religious practices. That Eliza saw women’s right to vote to sustain church leaders and appointments as more important than political power demonstrates she had a better understanding of the church as the Kingdom of God than many members today. While other American women were striving for some equality in the worldly and temporal American state, Latter-day Saint women already had the power to vote in the most important and eternal government to ever exist – the Kingdom of God, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. This would have an important influence on the secular society as well. Within a month of Eliza’s comments here Utah women would have the right to vote in political elections as well, being the first women in American history to vote in political elections. These are no weak or powerless women, they are empowered and powerful and they would use that to defend plural marriage against the wicked and corrupt government that seeks to destroy it and them.
In addition to her truth-telling on the subject of polygamy, her keen insights into the political situation of her era are fantastic. I would give an eyetooth to have a modern day Relief Society President talk like this or for any church leader today to be so honest about calling the governments of the world on their garbage, wickedness, and lies like Sister Snow does here. She doesn’t mere stop at the correct charge of anti-polygamy laws being unconstitutional. She declares that they, and the treatment of the Latter-day Saints generally, have been a total betrayal of everything the United States was supposedly founded upon and without precedent in American history. She is not only correct, but in making these observations she is seeing something that most Americans today are completely ignorant of – the way in which the period from the Mexican- American War to the conclusion of the Civil War totally transformed the nature of the US government.
Founded as a union of equal and semi-autonomous states cooperating on issues of foreign interaction and self-defense, the United States of America did not have a national government, but a federal one. It had limited powers, limited reach, and limited ability to do anything. It was the partner and equal of the individual States. Likewise, it had no concept of territorial rule wherein an area would be directly administered by Congress and the President in defiance of the will of those living within it. Instead people living in an area would form their own independent state (read country) with its own republican constitution, laws, and leaders that then petitioned to join the rest of the United States in their union. This was destroyed when Southern secession was put down by brutal force through a Northern military invasion. No longer were the states semi-autonomous and independent, no longer was the government a federal one, no longer were its powers limited.
Now it became a national government with ever increasing power to control the lives of the American people. The balance of power struck in the Constitution between the federal government and the state governments was forever broken with the balance ever tilting towards the national government. Now, as Eliza rightfully recognizes, it claimed the right to annihilate anyone who stood against its will – whether that be Southern secessionists or Mormon polygamists. Utah, by all constitutional rights, should have been admitted as a state two decades before this meeting in 1870 or allowed its own independence from US political authority. Keeping it in a constant servile status to give legal justification for using state power to persecute the Latter-day Saints was illegal, immoral, unconstitutional, and evil. It didn’t just serve as a warning of the destruction of the imminent US government, but was evidence that the original American union had already been obliterated with a far different and worse monster erected in its place. Rightfully she teaches that this increase in central power and its efforts to destroy the Saints is not of God, but comes from the same source that drove Herod to try and kill the Infant Christ by murdering all the babies of Bethlehem – that is it comes from Satan.
****
That is it for Part 2. Next week I will post the final section, Part 3, picking up right where I left off here, with the words of Harriet Cook Young. A photographic replica of the original article will be provided with the final part of the series in its conclusion.