Joseph Smith Faught Polygamy
The Personal Fruits of Joseph Smith Against Polygamy
Joseph Smith Gave 1831 LDS Doctrine
A revelation received on February 9, 1831, and published to this day in the Utah edition of the Doctrine and Covenants as well as our own, commands: "Thou shalt love thy wife with all thy heart, and shall cleave unto her and none else" (RLDS Section 42:7; Utah Section 42:22).
Joseph Smith Gave Second 1831 Doctrine and Covenants Revelation Against Pural Marriage
The following month, March 1831, another revelation contained this language: "Marriage is ordained of God unto man; wherefore it is lawful that he should have one wife, and they twain shall be one flesh, and all this that the earth might answer the end of its creation" (Doctrine and Covenants 49:3).
On August 18, 1835, a conference of the Church considered the form of marriage ceremony to be used in the Church and adopted the following covenant, which is used in every marriage ceremony in this Church to the present day: "You both mutually agree to be each other's companion, husband and wife, observing the legal rights belonging to this condition; that is, keeping yourselves wholly for each other, and from all others, during your lives?" (Doctrine and Covenants 111:2b).
The same section which includes this marriage covenant incorporates also this declaration of belief from the Church: "We declare that we believe that one man should have one wife; and one woman but one husband" (Doctrine and Covenants 111:4b. This section was removed from the Utah edition in 1876, and the "revelation" on polygamy substituted).
The Book of Mormon, which was translated by Joseph Smith, calls polygamy an abomination and states the rule that one man shall have one wife, "and concubines he shall have none" (Jacob 2:36).
Joseph Smith Sued Chauncey L. Higbee in Court at Carthage
Joseph Smith took immediate action when he discovered that Lawyer Chauncey L. Higbee had used his name to seduce women into practicing spiritual wifery. The Prophet was so disturbed by this news that he not only brought Chauncey before the Church's High Council and had him expelled from the Church, but he took the case two steps further: He sued Chauncey in Nauvoo before Justice of the Peace Ebenezer Robinson, and later in the Hancock County Circuit Court at the county seat at Carthage Missouri. In doing so Joseph provided one of the strongest evidences that:
(1) he was not a polygamist,
(2) that he had not had a revelation commanding the practice of polygamy, and
(3) that polygamy had its origin in some other source (which was in Dr. Bennett's brand of Cochranism).Attention Reader! These are excepts and evidences Joseph Smith was not a polygamist. The amount of evidence is so massive, I cannot post it all! To read about Joseph's Law Suit, and discover the true dephs of Utah Mormon Church conspiracy, click below link:
http://restorationbookstore.org/articles/nopoligamy/jsfp-vol1/chp13.htm
(It is recommended that the reader study the entire sermon in the LDS History of the Church, Period I, 6:408–412.)
Another indictment has been got up against me [the polygamy indictment]. It appears a holy prophet [William Law] has arisen up, and he has testified against me [causing the polygamy indictment to be brought forth].... God knows, then, that the charges against me are false.I had not been married scarcely five minutes, and made one proclamation of the Gospel, before it was reported that I had seven wives. I mean to live and proclaim the truth as long as I can.This new holy prophet [William Law] has gone to Carthage and swore that I had told him that I was guilty of adultery. This spiritual wifeism! Why, a man dares not speak or wink, for fear of being accused of this.... William Law ... swears that I have committed adultery. I wish the grand jury would tell me who they [the alleged wives] are—whether it will be a curse or blessing to me....A man asked me whether the commandment [revelation] was given that a man may have seven wives; and now the new prophet has charged me with adultery.... Wilson Law [William's brother] also swears that I told him I was guilty of adultery.... I have rattled chains before in a dungeon for truth's sake. I am innocent of all these charges, and you can bear witness of my innocence, for you know me yourselves.... What a thing it is for a man to be accused of committing adultery, and having seven wives, when I can only find one.I am the same man, and as innocent as I was fourteen years ago [when charged with polygamy shortly after his marriage to Emma Hale]; and I can prove them all perjurers.
(LDS History of the Church 6:410–411; italics added)
Court Rulings Joseph Smith Did Not Teach But Fought Polygamy
"That the said Plaintiff, the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is a Religious Society, founded and organized upon the same doctrines and tenets, and having the same church organization, as the original Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, organized in 1830, by Joseph Smith, and was organized pursuant to the constitution, laws and usages of said original Church, and has branches located in Illinois, Ohio, and other States.
That the church in Utah, the Defendant of which John Taylor is president, has materially and largely departed from the faith, doctrines, laws, ordinances and usages of said original Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, and has incorporated into its system of faith the doctrines of celestial marriage and a plurality of wives, and the doctrine of Adam-god worship, contrary to the laws and constitution of said original Church.
And the Court do further find that the Plaintiff, the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, is the True and Lawful continuation of, and successor to the said original Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, organized in 1830, and is entitled in law to all its rights and property."
In a case tried before Judge John F. Philips, in the Circuit Court of the United States, for the Western District of Missouri, Western Division, at Kansas City, Missouri.
In his decision, rendered March 16, 1894, Judge Philips said:
The Book of Mormon itself inveighed against the sin of polygamy.... Conformably to the Book of Mormon, the Book of Doctrine and Covenants expressly declared "that we believe that one man should have but one wife, and one woman but one husband." And this declaration of the church on this subject reappeared in the Book of Doctrine and Covenants, editions of 1846 and 1856. Its first appearance as a dogma of the church (the dogma of polygamy) was in the Utah Church in 1852.
Claim is made by the Utah Church that this doctrine is predicated of a revelation made to Joseph Smith in July, 1843. No such revelation was ever made public during the life of Joseph Smith, and under the law of the church it could not become an article of faith and belief until submitted to and adopted by the church. This was never done ....
(History of RLDS Church Vol 5 pp. 238-239)
Joseph Smith the martyr
Joseph III testified on other occasions of the peace and harmony between his mother and father. He wrote:"It has been reported by those who pretended to be friends of father, that mother was quarrelsome and was antagonistic to my father, and frequently made trouble for him. I have this to say now, that tracing my memory back through the period of time in which my father was permitted to stay with his family, that I never heard any quarreling or harsh language between them under any circumstances, and that even disagreements between them were not conducted in a noisy or angry manner, that mother's language was quiet and temperate, and so was father's. (Journal of History 3 [July 1910]: 337–338)
Emma Smith, who was the wife of Joseph's youth, testified in her old age: "He had no other wife but me; nor did he to my knowledge ever have.... He did not have any improper relation with any woman that ever came to my knowledge.... I know that he had no other wife, or wives, than myself, in any sense- spiritual, or otherwise." "Young Joseph," the son of Joseph and Emma, though not quite twelve years old at his father's death, was old enough to know whether his father's family life was all that it should be, and his evidence corroborates the statement of his mother.
"If Joseph Smith ever taught or practiced the doctrine of polygamy, we ask, When? Where? or by what testimony can he be thus convicted? And until these interrogations are properly answered, we shall feel justified in flaunting back the statement that he taught or practiced polygamy in the face of his accusers as an unmitigated slander and villainous persecution". --
Mary Page Eaton Testified that Joseph Was Not a Polygamist
Throughout her long life, Mary Judd Page Eaton declared that Brigham Young, and not Joseph Smith, had introduced polygamy into the Church. As recorded in the Vision magazine, December 2002 (No. 42), Mary and her husband, Apostle John E. Page, lived in Nauvoo after Joseph’s death. During that time, Apostle Page was expelled for opposing Brigham Young’s measures, which included the introduction of false temple endowments and plural and celestial marriage.Mary later asserted:I can prove, by some of the covenants we were required to make, that Joseph never originated them. Mr. Page was with me, and went through the same ceremonies. The words of our covenants were spoken to us by Brigham. After we had received the endowment in the temple, as soon as we were alone in our house, Mr. Page said to me, "Mary, I tell you that endowment is all of the devil." (The Saints’ Advocate 5 [March 1883j: 295)Lorenzo Wasson Testified of Bennett's Guilt and Joseph's Innocence
One of Joseph's primary witnesses to his fidelity and Bennett's immorality was Emma's nephew, Lorenzo D. Wasson, a son of Emma's sister, Elizabeth Wasson. Lorenzo joined the Church and lived with his Aunt Emma and Uncle Joseph, where Bennett also boarded. During the summer of 1841, Lorenzo was upstairs in Joseph and Emma's bedroom at the Homestead, and heard Joseph berating Bennett in the room below. The next summer, on July 30, 1842, while on a missionary journey, Lorenzo wrote Joseph these words: "Uncle, ... If I can be of any service in this Bennett affair I am ready. I was reading in your chamber last summer—yourself and Bennett came into the lower room, and I heard you give J. C. Bennett a tremendous flagellation for practicing iniquity under the base pretence of authority from the heads of the church—if you recollect I came down just before you were through talking. There are many things I can inform you of, if necessary, in relation to Bennett and his prostitutes. I am satisfied of your virtue and integrity. I have been with you to visit the sick, and time and again to houses where you had business of importance, you requested me to do so—many times I knew not why, but I am satisfied it was that you might not be censured by those that were watching you with a jealous eye, and I now solemnly protest before God and man, I never saw a thing unvirtuous in your conduct.... I am your most obedient nephew, L. D. WASSON. (Times and Seasons 3 [August 15, 1842]: 892)
Lorenzo was Joseph's faithful attendant in life and in death. In 1843 Joseph was taken prisoner by Sheriff Reynolds of Missouri at the Wasson home in Dixon, Illinois. Lorenzo and his father's quick action provided Joseph with attorneys and prevented Joseph from being taken to Missouri (see Saints' Herald 82 [January 22, 1935]: 112).
It was Lorenzo who hastened to Nauvoo with a message from Emma, bearing the news to the Saints of Joseph's arrest. And alas, it was Lorenzo that Joseph III remembers seeing "covered with dust, bringing the news" that Joseph and Hyrum had been murdered at Carthage (ibid. [January 29, 1935]: 143).
After a mock funeral and entombment for Joseph and Hyrum in June of 1844, Lorenzo and others, carefully chosen by Emma, secretly buried the bodies of the Martyrs in the basement of the Nauvoo House (see George Q. Cannon, The Life of Joseph Smith the Prophet, 529–530). Lorenzo refused to follow the leadership of Brigham Young
1,000 thousand Women Defend Joseph Smith's Innocence
Eliza R. Snow reputed polygamous wife to Joseph Smith
One of the reasons Eliza wanted to barely touch on the subject of polygamy at Nauvoo was because she had helped lead a thousand women in signing a petition, stating that Joseph was not guilty of polygamy as Bennett had charged (see Times and Seasons 3 [August 1, 1842]: 869). After Dr. Bennett left Nauvoo in late June 1842 and published many statements declaring that Joseph was a polygamist, Joseph made a great effort to fight against that false doctrine. Joseph himself published that he "preached ... much against it" (Times and Seasons 3 [July 1, 1842]: 840).
Also, the Ladies' Relief Society, with Emma as the president and Eliza Snow as the secretary, made a strong public stand against polygamy. The Relief Society prepared and published a certificate which declared:
We the undersigned members of the ladies' relief society, and married females do certify and declare that we know of no system of marriage being practised in the church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints save the one contained in the Book of Doctrine and Covenants....
Emma Smith President...
Eliza R. Snow, Secretary.
(Times and Seasons 3 [October 1, 1842]: 940)Want to read More? Click below...
http://www.restorationbookstore.org/articles/nopoligamy/jsfp-vol1/chp10.htmWas Innocent of Polygamy
It is significant that approximately one thousand men voted to adopt the resolution to "manifest to the world" that they knew Joseph to be virtuous, and one who upheld the laws and constitution of the state of Illinois and the United States. Bigamy was a crime in 1842 in the state of Illinois. Therefore, if Joseph had (as the LDS Church teaches) plural wives under the title of celestial marriage, spiritual wifery, or polygamy, he would have been guilty of committing a crime. Joseph was so well known that if he had had several wives, many people would have known it, and there would have been more votes against him.The thousand men knew of Bennett's plural marriage charges against Joseph in the cases of Martha Brotherton, Nancy Rigdon, Sarah Pratt, and others. Yet, they voted that he was moral, virtuous, and law-abiding—a thousand additional testimonies that Joseph was not a polygamist.
Joseph Smith's Personal Clerks Betrayed Him
Most of the "good, faithful, and efficient clerks" were not good and faithful to Joseph. Some were polygamists themselves, and they rewrote Joseph's history under Brigham's direction to make it appear that Joseph was the author of polygamy.
The Mormon Church has published, "Moreover, since the death of the Prophet Joseph, the history has been carefully revised under the strict inspection of President Brigham Young, and approved by him" (LDS History of the Church 1:v–vi).Click to continue reading:
“It is the word of the Lord, and I wish to say
to you, and all the world, that if you desire
with all your hearts to obtain the blessings
which Abaham obtained, you will be
polygamists. . . . This is as true as that God
lives. . . . The only men who become Gods,
even the sons of God, are those who enter
into polygamy.”
Journal of Discourses, vol. 11, pp. 268, 269.
Joseph Smith II
“While I have power of body and mind; while water runs and grass grows; while
virtue is lovely and vice hateful...I or my posterity will plead the cause of injured
innocense.”
(Letter written by Joseph Smith to Honorable J. C. Calhoun, January 2, 1844, six months before
his death. Times and Seasons, January, 1844, Vol. 5, p. 395.)
When Bennett and Francis M. Higbee had been brought into Church court in July 1841, it was discovered that Bennett had been promiscuous with Sarah over an extended period while Orson was in the British Isles on a mission. But because both Bennett and Francis had shown such sincere repentance, they were forgiven, as mentioned in previous chapters, and the findings of the court were not made public. However, when Bennett and Chauncey L. Higbee were found in the summer of 1842 to still be practicing spiritual wifery, they were expelled from the Church. Thereupon Bennett retaliated by publishing his infamous six letters in the Sangamo Journal, beginning July 7. To make Joseph appear to be a villain, Dr. Bennett claimed in his letters, among other charges, that Joseph had tried to take Sarah as a plural wife, but that she had refused him.
After the Sangamo Journal published Bennett's accusations, they were republished in newspapers nationwide, and Joseph was obligated to answer those charges. His welfare, and that of his family and the Church, was dependent upon his response. Therefore, the Prophet proclaimed his innocence in sermons, in public meetings called for that purpose, and by publishing what had hitherto been confidential information known only to Church officials—information concerning John Bennett's affair with Sarah Pratt.
Church authorities discovered in 1841 that Bennett had seduced women by teaching them the falsehood that Joseph had received a polygamous revelation and was practicing polygamy (known also as spiritual wifery). By teaching this untruth, Bennett was able to lead young men and women into practicing that doctrine. When confronted with his sins, Bennett admitted his guilt, declared that he had lied about Joseph, wept much, and attempted suicide by taking poison. He was given an antidote and survived. He then called upon God and the angels to witness his repentance, begged for mercy and forgiveness, and pleaded that his sins not be made public. Dr. Bennett was forgiven—and it was hoped that he and his clique would repent, and the Saints could be spared the trial of the public learning of polygamy in the Church.
To continue reading click this link: http://restorationbookstore.org/articles/nopoligamy/jsfp-visionarticles/sarahprattcase.htm
Joseph Smith's sermon in which he denied being a polygamist is a fitting closing for this volume, even though there are many more conclusive proofs of his innocence in the long and complicated story of Utah Mormon polygamy. The additional proofs are to be treated in later volumes.In 1844 William Law, a former member of the First Presidency at Nauvoo, formed a conspiracy along with others to depose Joseph and take the leadership of the Church from him. This group of conspirators went so far as to organize a new church called the "Reformed Mormon Church" and issue a call to the Saints to reject Joseph and join the new church (see the Nauvoo Expositor, Friday, June 7, 1844).
To continue reading click link:
http://rldsincourt.blogspot.com/2008/10/joseph-smiths-sermon-against-polygamy.html
Or Click: http://restorationbookstore.org/articles/nopoligamy/jsfp-vol1/chp19.htm
Where are DNA Proofs of Joseph Smith's Polygamous Children?
Many say Joseph Smith had many wives. Yet what one of these marriages was consumated? What marriage resulted in children?
DNA testing as well as history, has proven Brigham Young had many wives and Children.
If you're going to quote Eliza R Snow, be sure to include all her affidavits.
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