This is the conclusion of the trilogy of posts I have been doing exploring what Latter-day Saint women who lived in plural marriages had to say about the practice. Anti-Mormons today denounce the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and proclaim that its history with polygamy is corrupt, was oppressive to women, and is something we should be ashamed of today. To the ignorant, including many members of the church, this sounds truthful, but the reality was just the opposite. In both Part 1 and Part 2 we read the actual words of the women involved in polygamy, their defense of it as their God-given liberty, their demand that the government cease oppressing them by trying to prevent them from entering polygamous relationships, their proclamations that it liberated them as women, giving them far more freedom and a much greater status in Utah than any woman in the rest of the United States enjoyed, and declarations that they would defy all the powers of the US government by continuing to live the commandments of God no matter what the laws of men said. These were no abused and weak women, rather they were intelligent, powerful, and energized – and they testified that polygamy played a large role in helping them be that way.
Today I will reprint the final portion of the speeches from The Great Indignation Meeting, the mass meeting of Latter-day Saint women come together to protest federal anti-polygamy laws from which I have been using as a source in this series. As with before, any pictures added are my own and any explanatory notes I may add will appear bracketed [in this manner.] Finally, after the speeches I will offer some summary thought about what these women have to say in a brief coda. Instead of listening to the ignorant and our enemies we should listen to the words of those who lived in the era and lived the principles in question. Doing so will offer us greater light and a greater understanding of plural marriage – its trials and its triumphs – than anything we could read from anyone else. To that end, I hope you find the words of these women as powerful and as enlightening as I have.
The Great Indignation Meeting – Concluded
HARRIET COOK YOUNG.
In rising to address this meeting, delicacy prompts me to explain the chief motives which have dictated our present action. We, the ladies of Salt Lake City, have assembled here to-day—not for the purpose of assuming any particular political power, nor to claim any special prerogative which may, or may not belong to our sex; but to express our indignation at the unhallowed efforts of men, who, regardless of every principle of manhood, justice and constitutional liberty, would force upon a religious community, by a direct issue, either the curse of apostacy, or the bitter alternative of fire and sword. Surely the instinct of self-preservation, the love of liberty and happiness and the right to worship God are dear to our sex as well as to the other, and when these most sacred of all rights are thus wickedly assailed, it becomes absolutely our duty to defend them.
The mission of the Latter-day Saints is to reform abuses which have for ages corrupted the world, and to establish an era of peace and righteousness. The Most High is the founder of this mission, and in order to its establishment, His providences have so shaped the world’s history, that, on this continent, blest above all other lands, a free and enlightened Government has been instituted, guaranteeing to all, social, political and religious liberty. The Constitution of our country is therefore hallowed to us, and we view with a jealous eye every infringement upon its great principles, and demand, in the sacred name of liberty, that the miscreant, who would trample it under his feet, by depriving a hundred thousand American citizens of every vestige of liberty, should be anathematized throughout the length and breadth of the land as a traitor to God and his country.
It is not strange that among the bigoted and the corrupt such a man and such a measure should have originated; but it will be strange indeed, if such a measure find favor with the honorable and high minded men who wield the destinies of the nation. Let this seal of ruin be attached to the archives of our country and terrible must be the results. Woe will wait upon her steps, and sorrow and desolation will stalk through the land; peace and liberty will seek another clime, while anarchy, lawlessness and bloody strife hold high carnival amid the general wreck. God forbid that wicked men be permitted to force such an issue upon the nation!
It is true that a corrupt press, and an equally corrupt priestcraft are leagued against us—that they have pandered to the ignorance of the masses and vilified our institutions to that degree, that it has become popular to believe that the Latter-day Saints are unworthy to live; but it is also true that there are many, very many, right thinking men who are not without influence in the nation, and to such do we now solemnly and earnestly appeal. Let the United voice of this assembly give the lie to the popular clamour that the women of Utah are oppressed and held in bondage. Let the world know that the women of Utah prefer virtue to vice, and the home of an honorable wife to the gilded pageantry of fashionable temples of sin. Transitory allurements, glaring to the senses, as the flame is to the moth, but short lived and cruel in their results possess no charms for us. Every woman in Utah may have her husband, the husband of her choice. Here we are taught, not to destroy our children, but to preserve them, for they, reared in the path of virtue and trained to righteousness, constitute our true glory.
It is with no wish to accuse our sisters who are not of our faith, but we are dealing with facts as they exist. Wherever monogamy reigns, adultery, prostitution, free-love and foeticide, directly or indirectly, are its concomitants. [Foeticide is the British spelling of feticide, which is another term for abortion.] It is not enough to say that the virtuous and the high-minded frown upon these evils, we believe they do, but frowning does not cure them, it does not even check their rapid growth; either the remedy is too weak, or the disease is too strong. The women of Utah comprehend this and they see in the principle of a plurality of wives, the only safeguard, against adultery, prostitution, free-love and the reckless waste of pre-natal life practised throughout the land.
It is as co-workers in the great mission of universal reform, not only in our own behalf, but also, by precept and example, to aid in the emancipation of our sex generally, that we accept in our heart of hearts, what we know to be a divine commandment; and here, and now, boldly and publicly we do assert our right, not only to believe in this holy commandment, but to practise what we believe.
While these are our views, every attempt to force that obnoxious measure upon us, must of necessity, be an attempt to coerce us in our religious and moral convictions, against which did we not most solemnly protest, we would be unworthy the name of American women.
MRS. H. T. KING.
My Dear Sisters: – I wish I had the language I feel to need at the present moment, to truly represent the indignant feelings of my heart and brain on reading last evening a string of thirty “Sections” headed by the words “A Bill in aid of the execution of the laws in the Territory of Utah, and other purposes.”! The “other purposes” contain the pith of the matter, and the adamantine chains the compilers of the said “Bill” seek to bind this people with, exceed any thing the feudal times of England, or the serfdom of Russia ever laid upon human beings. My Sisters! are we really in America the world renowned land of liberty, freedom, and equal rights? the land of which I dreamed in my youth as almost an earthly elysium, where freedom of thought and religious liberty were open to all? The land that Columbus wore his noble life out to discover? the land that God Himself helped him to exhume, and that Isabella, a queen—a woman, declared she would pawn her jewels and crown of Castile to give him the outfit which he needed? The land of Washington, “The Father of his Country”—and of a host of noble spirits too numerous to mention? the land to which “The Mayflower” bore the Pilgrim Fathers, who rose up and left their homes, and bade their native land “good night”, simply that they might worship God by a purer and holier faith in a land of freedom and liberty, of which America has long been synonymous? Yes, my sisters, this is America; but oh! how are the mighty fallen! Who or what is the creature who framed this incomparable document? Is he an Esquimaux or a Chimpanzee, or what isolated land’s end spot produced him? What ideas he must have of women! Had he ever a mother, a wife, or a sister? In what academy was he tutored, or to what school does he belong, that he should so coolly and systematically command the women of this people to turn traitors to their husbands, their brothers, and their sons! Short-sighted man of sections and the Bill! Let us the women of this people—the sisterhood of Utah, rise en masse and tell this nondescript to defer “the Bill” until he has studied the character of woman such as God intended she should be, then he will discover that devotion, veneration, and faithfulness are her peculiar attributes; that God is her refuge—and His servants her oracles, and that especially the women of Utah have paid too high a price for their present position, their present light and knowledge—and their noble future to succumb to so mean and foul a thing as the Baskin, Cullum & Co’s Bill. Let him learn that they are one heart, hand and brain, with the brotherhood of Utah—that God is their Father and their Friend—that into His hands they commit their cause—and on their pure and simple banner they have emblazoned their motto—
“God and my right.”
PHOEBE WOODRUFF.
Ladies of Utah, as I have been called upon to express my views upon the important subject, which has called us together this day, I will say that I am happy to be one of your number in this association. I am proud that I am a citizen of Utah, and a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I have been a member of this Church for thirty-six years, and had the privilege of living in the days of the Prophet Joseph and heard his teachings for many years. He ever counseled us to honor, obey, and maintain the principles of our noble Constitution, for which our fathers fought, and many of them sacrificed their lives to establish. President Brigham Young has always taught the same principle. This glorious legacy of our fathers, the Constitution of the United States, guarantees unto all the citizens of this great Republic the right to worship God according to the dictates of their own consciences, as it expressly says, “Congress shall make no laws respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” Cullom’s bill is in direct violation of this declaration of the Constitution, and, I think it is our duty to do all in our power by our voices and influence to thwart the passage of this bill, which commits a violent outrage upon our rights, and the rights of our fathers, husband and sons; and whatever may be the final result of the action of Congress in passing or enforcing oppressive laws for the sake of our religion, upon the noble men who have subdued these deserts, it is our duty to stand by them and support them by our faith, prayers and works through every dark hour unto the end, and trust in the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob to defend us, and all who are called to suffer for keeping the commandments of God. Shall we as wives and mothers sit still and see our husbands, and sons, whom we know are obeying the highest behest of heaven, suffer for their religion without exerting ourselves to the extent of our power for their deliverance? No! verily, no!! God has revealed unto us the law of the Patriarchal order of marriage, and commanded us to obey it. We are sealed to our husbands for time and eternity, that we may dwell with them and our children in the world to come, which guarantees unto us the greatest blessing for which we are created. If the rulers of our nation will so far depart from the spirit and the letter of our glorious Constitution as to deprive our Prophets, Apostles and Elders of citizenship, and imprison them for obeying this law, let them grant us this our last request, to make their prisons large enough to hold their wives, for where they go we will go also.
MRS. HORNE
Had been connected with the Church since 1835, and spoke her indignation at the bill. She is one of the so called oppressed women of Utah; is the wife of a man who practices plurality of wives and expects always to sustain him. Whether the bill is passed or not, it will be all right, if the Saints only are faithful and true to their God and themselves. She thought if the bill was passed, it would fill up the cup of the iniquity of the nation.
MRS. ELEANOR M. PRATT
Said she was born in America, and thought she was free to teach that which came from God. It is many years since three men in rags came to her home in Mississippi, and by the Bible she held, they proved to her Joseph Smith was a prophet of God. Eleven years after, she heard the same principles in California and received them. For so doing she was turned out of doors, her children were taken from her twice, and innocent blood was shed. She longed to see the women of Utah rise and express themselves concerning their rights. When she saw innocent blood shed like as in a slaughter house she did not fear as much as to-day. God gave her strength, and the officers and the soldiers trembled at the power God gave her. Fear falls on the enemies of the Saints because the women of Utah do not fear death; and she was willing to let her blood be shed for the principles of truth, but not for any ignoble purpose.
ELIZA R. SNOW.
My Sisters, My remarks in conclusion will be brief. I heard the prophet Joseph Smith say if the people rose up and mobbed us and the authorities countenanced it, they would have mobs to their hearts’ content. I heard him say that the time would come when this nation would so far depart from its original purity, its glory, and its love for freedom and its protection of civil and religious rights, that the Constitution of our country would hang as it were by a thread,. He said, also, that this people, the sons of Zion, would rise up and save the Constitution and bear it off triumphantly.
I wish to say to my sisters, to the mothers in Israel and to the daughters, cultivate in your bosoms the spirit of freedom and liberty which has been bequeathed unto us by our fathers, or grandfathers I should say. My grandfather fought in the Revolution and was taken prisoner. He lay in a filthy prison, with a companion who was taken with him, and fed on such a scanty allowance as would scarcely support life.
His companion died, and for the sake of having his allowance of food he covered him up in the bed and kept him just as long as he dare to stay with a decaying body. And the spirit of freedom and liberty is what we should always cultivate, and what mothers should cultivate in the breasts of their sons, that they may grow up brave and noble, and defenders of that glorious Constitution which has been bequeathed unto us. Let mothers cultivate that spirit in their own bosoms. Let them manifest their own bravery and cherish a spirit of encountering difficulties, because they have to be met more or less in every situation of life. If fortitude and nobility of soul be cultivated in your own bosoms, you will transmit them to your children, your sons will grow up noble defenders of truth and righteousness, and heralds of salvation to the nations of the earth. They will be prepared to fill high and responsible situations in religious, judicial, civil and executive positions. I consider it most important, my sisters, that we should struggle to preserve the sacred Constitution of our country, one of the blessings of the Almighty; for the same spirit that inspired the Prophet Joseph Smith inspired the framers of the Constitution, and we should ever hold it sacred and bear it of triumphantly.
My sisters, I am happy to meet with you, although this is not the occasion that we could have desired to meet together; at least the circumstance which has led to the occasion, is one not to be so regarded. Yet I am happy to meet with you; and my desire is that we may as mothers and sisters in Israel defend truth and righteousness, and sustain those who preach it. Every sister in this church should be a preacher of righteousness; and I think we all are; I believe it is our aim to be such. Let us be more energetic to improve our minds, and develop that strength of moral character which cannot be surpassed on the face of the earth. We should do this. The circumstances in which we are placed and our positions in life demand this of us, because we have greater and higher privileges than any other females upon the face of the earth.
Having said so much I will close by saying, God bless you and help us all to keep His holy commandments and be valiant for the truth, that whether life or death, in life and in death, we may triumph over evil and return to the presence of the Holy One, pure, having kept the faith and finished our course, that the crown laid up for us may be presented to us in the kingdom of our God in the eternal world. Amen. (amen from the audience).
Mrs. Zinah D. Young then moved that the meeting adjourn sine die, which was carried; and Mrs. Phebe Woodruff offered the closing benediction.
The old Tabernacle was crowded with ladies at this meeting, and as it will comfortably seat five thousand persons, there could not have been fewer than between five and six thousand present on the occasion.
Summary Thoughts
Sister Young starts off as many of the other ladies did, declaring that it was their God given right to practice polygamy and that any efforts to stop them were unethical, unconstitutional, and immoral in nature which they would resist even if it came to “fire and sword.” (The spirit of liberty and Jeffersonian nullification was alive and well with them!) She was no victim of polygamy but a willing participant and she, like every woman of Utah, had the husband of her choice. No man in power compelled or manipulated her into doing anything. Her insight into the future of the nation was absolutely keen. She understood that as the government went beyond its limited purpose of protecting liberty and entered upon the course of trying to regulate what they saw as vice through law then the only results would be the loss of liberty and peace as violence and bloody strife “hold high carnival” (a delectable phrase) in the wreckage. Is this not what we have seen today? Modern American politicians have only sought more and more to compel obedience to their personal visions of utopia on the masses through law and the outcome has been decades of social chaos, riots, mass incarceration, loss of freedom, and destruction. Witness the year of riots that we just passed through for evidence of Sister Young’s assertion.
The other thing that she does which is fascinating is explain how plural marriage was the solution to many of the social ills of society. She says that the concomitants, the natural accompanying phenomena, of monogamy are “adultery, prostitution, free-love and foeticide,” that is elective abortion, the murder of the child in utero. While all the world frowned about these ghastly evils, only the women of Utah had found the solution to them, that being plural marriage. And who can say she was wrong? It is certainly the case now more than ever that men and women have embraced whoremongering openly and proudly proclaim their slaughter of children as normal, all under the aegis of monogamy. In fact one finds it hard to find any discussion about the negative aspects of polygamy that don’t automatically also apply to monogamy. At least in polygamous marriages the men took care of all their wives and children, while in monogamy men run around spreading bastards and wrecking lives as far and as wide as they can. It is doubtlessly true that many of the men who vociferously objected to polygamy in the name of monogamy were themselves adulterers. If plural marriage helped counter these in Utah by increasing a man’s sexual partners in a way that also protected women’s rights and the lives of children then that should be lauded. It certainly didn’t make any of it worse.
Sister King is an absolute firebrand and I love her for it. Her comment that the men who run the nation think they can “so coolly and systematically command the women of this people” inspired an epiphany. These men and women opposing polygamy are all out of whack about the supposed oppression of women that is taking place to Utah women who are “forced” to live polygamously. What is oppression other than people using the violence of the state to deny you your natural right to live howsoever you choose as long as you are not violating the rights of others to do the same? Is tyranny not when one man can demand that others obey him or face imprisonment and death? These being oppression and tyranny, how then is the US government’s using violence to compel the Saints to give up their way of life anything other than tyrannical oppression?
It is not Brigham Young and Mormonism that is oppressing the women of Utah by calling upon them to practice plural marriage. It is the American President and the power of the government that is oppressing the women of Utah by threatening them, their husbands, and their children with imprisonment and even potentially death (as any confrontation with federal agents could lead to them killing the person they have come to imprison.) That the government also threatens to seize all the property of the Saints just reveals them government to be occupied by thugs, tyrants, and thieves ready to wreak destruction against those who dare question it. Of course Sister King was having none of it. She would stand with God and her human rights, the edicts of the oligarchs and tyrants in Washington be damned.
Sister Woodruff’s comment quoting/referencing what we now recognize as Article of Faith 12 is an absolute diamond in the rough. Article of Faith 12 says:
We believe in being subject to kings, presidents, rulers, and magistrates, in obeying, honoring, and sustaining the law.
This is often understood by members of the church the teach that we believe in being obedient to government leaders. This is a false interpretation, something I have talked about at length before and something which Sister Woodruff makes clear here. Notice she says that Joseph Smith taught her not that we should obey, honor, and obey government leaders and whatever laws they promulgate. Sister Woodruff testifies that Joseph Smith taught “us to honor, obey, and maintain the principles of our noble Constitution.” Notice this is loyalty to principles not people. President Dallin H. Oaks recently spoke about the principles upon which the Constitution is founded and to which we should understand the Twelfth Article of Faith is teaching us to be loyal. We are to follow God and obey His law, not the so-called laws of men. Sister Woodruff understood this well and it is something more of us today must understand if we are to protect our human rights and establish a society based on liberty, equality, and prosperity for within it.
Sister Pratt sounds like the kind of person I hope I am when put to the fire. She, nor the women of Utah, feared death and they would die before forsaking polygamy and before submitting to the oppression of the government. It is shameful to me that such a woman today would undoubtedly be shouted down by many of her co-religionists for declaring that she would defy American law. We have been so indoctrinated into obedience to the state that we forget our first loyalty is always to God.
Sister Eliza R. Snow’s comments are interesting for a number of reasons. Here we have a second witness to the truth that Joseph Smith taught that one day mobs would dominate American society (something Brigham Young also taught and which we see today.) Her teaching that the love of liberty begins in the home is very important to understand. Schools, neither public nor private, will inculcate within the souls of children a love for liberty. Schools are places where children are taught subservience to arbitrary rule and conditioned to accept total authoritarian rule as normal and good. In public schools, that is state ran schools, this is especially as they mentally condition people to love the state and its warmongering. If we are to educate the hearts and minds of our children and turn them into lovers of liberty and peacemakers then it can only occur in the home. Abdicating that role, turning them over to the state to be raised and indoctrinated into its morals and values will never make them into the men and women of God that we want them to be, it will only do the exact opposite.
Her comments on the role and purpose of women in the Church should be read in every Young Women’s and Relief Society meeting from now until the end of time. She not only knew the purpose and power of the Relief Society, she understood the purpose and power of Latter-day Saint women in the world. So many of us do not and it shows. These women did though and it made them powerful. They were not shrinking violets dominated by men, but intelligent and independent women. And they repeatedly testified that it was plural marriage which helped them be so. That is something to be proud of and recognize as one of the many great blessings of plural marriage.
****
Note that I originally was going to put a pdf version of the original article here. For the sake of space and time though I am going to forego that this week. When I release the collected edition of this series next week I will include the scan of the original copy in that post.