34. Other Odds and Ends
September 2, 202432. New and Everlasting Covenant used to mean Polygamy only
September 4, 2024
Plural marriages were often difficult and full of strife. Despite the positive public statements, polygamy was often described as devoid of love in the private journals of women in polygamous relationships.
Table of contents
- Plural marriages were often difficult and full of strife. Despite the positive public statements, polygamy was often described as devoid of love in the private journals of women in polygamous relationships.
- A1) Plural Marriage caused bitterness.
- A2) It caused wives to be in marriages devoid of love.
- A3) Many viewed it as a trial. It led to persecution and revilement.
- A4) The ghost of Polygamy today leaves women feeling violated, intimidated, held hostage, used, threatened, without dignity, hopeless.
- Questions these Facts Raise
A1) Plural Marriage caused bitterness.
Supporting Sources and Quotes
Emily Partridge stated, “She [Emma] consented to [the marriage] at the time … [then] she was bitter after that … after the next day you might say that she was bitter.”
Emily Partridge, deposition, Temple Lot transcript, respondent’s testimony, part 3, page 365–66, questions 346–51. Quoted at: https://josephsmithspolygamy.org/history/emma-smith-struggles/
When Hyrum shared the D&C 132 revelation with Emma, “Hyrum replied that he had never received a more severe talking to in his life, that Emma was very bitter and full of resentment and anger.”
William Clayton, History of the Church. Also quoted at: https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/doctrine-and-covenants-student-manual-2017/chapter-52-doctrine-and-covenants-132-34-66-official-declaration-1?lang=eng
President Joseph told me that he had difficulty with E [Emma] yesterday. She rode up to Woodworths with him and called while he came to the Temple. When he returned she was demanding the gold watch of F [Flora]. He reproved her [Emma] for her evil treatment. On their return home she abused him much and also when he got home. He had to use harsh measures to put a stop to her abuse but finally succeeded.
So wrote William Clayton in his journal on August 22, 1843. It is one of the great ironies of Mormon polygamy that while so many “first wives” in later church history supported their husbands when they took plural wives, Emma was consistently implacable in her opposition to the “principle.” Even when she allowed him plural wives–the Partridges and Lawrences–for a short period, she fought to keep him from spending time with them. Her anger was probably aggravated when her husband married without informing her, which he apparently generally did. So she was quick to notice when he showed favor to any young woman. Flora Ann Woodworth married Smith when she was sixteen and thus was one of his youngest wives. What little we know about her marriage shows the problems inherent in Nauvoo polygamy when a middle-aged man married a teen secretly, as here.
- Todd M. Compton, In Sacred Loneliness: The Plural Wives of Joseph Smith. Signature Books.
Another, fuller version, in which Charles Rich is an eyewitness, is found in LeRoi’s notes for biographies of his father and aunt. Rich, at the bottom of the stairs, watched Joseph kiss Emma goodbye:
A door opposite opened and dainty, little, dark-haired Eliza R. Snow (she was “heavy with child”) came out … Joseph then walked on to the stairway, where he tenderly kissed Eliza, and then came on down stairs toward Brother Rich. Just as he reached the bottom step, there was a commotion on the stairway, and both Joseph and Brother Rich turned quickly to see Eliza come tumbling down the stairs. Emma had pushed her, in a fit of rage and jealousy; she stood at the top of the stairs, glowering, her countenance a picture of hell. Joseph quickly picked up the little lady, and with her in his arms, he turned and looked up at Emma, who then burst into tears and ran to her room. Joseph carried the hurt and bruised Eliza up the stairs and to her room. “Her hip was injured and that is why she always afterward favored that leg,” said Charles C. Rich. “She lost the unborn babe.”
- Todd M. Compton, In Sacred Loneliness: The Plural Wives of Joseph Smith. Signature Books.
A2) It caused wives to be in marriages devoid of love.
Supporting Sources and Quotes
Some may have been. However, Zina Diantha Huntington, when interviewed by a journalist from the New York World, in 1869, drew a distinction between romantic love and plural marriage. Commenting on women who were unhappy in their polygamous marriages, she said they "expect too much attention from the husband and…become sullen and morose…" She insisted that the successful polygamous wife, "must regard her husband with indifference, and with no other feeling than that of reverence, for love we regard as a false sentiment; a feeling which should have no existence in polygamy." Lucy Walker, who had been sealed for time to Heber C. Kimball, after the death of Joseph Smith said, "There was not any love in the union between myself and Kimball, and it is my business entirely whether there was any courtship or not… It was the principle of plural marriage that we were trying to establish, a great and glorious true principle." -(In Sacred Loneliness pp. 108, 466-467)
- Todd M. Compton, In Sacred Loneliness: The Plural Wives of Joseph Smith. Signature Books.
A3) Many viewed it as a trial. It led to persecution and revilement.
Supporting Sources and Quotes
Plural marriage was among the most challenging aspects of the Restoration. For many who practiced it, plural marriage was a trial of faith. It violated both cultural and legal norms, leading to persecution and revilement.
- Plural Marriage Gospel Topics Essay, https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/gospel-topics-essays/plural-marriage-in-the-church-of-jesus-christ-of-latter-day-saints?lang=eng
A4) The ghost of Polygamy today leaves women feeling violated, intimidated, held hostage, used, threatened, without dignity, hopeless.
Supporting Sources and Quotes
See the Ghost of Eternal Polygamy with Carol Lynn Pearson.https://www.sltrib.com/opinion/commentary/2018/02/10/commentary-the-ghost-of-eternal-polygamy-haunts-the-modern-mormon-church/
It leave women asking, “Who will be married to whom in heaven?” https://www.sltrib.com/religion/2019/11/24/polygamy-lives-lds/
Questions these Facts Raise
Aren’t the fruits of plural marriage obvious? It caused men to contemplate suicide, pressured girls to make monumental decisions which they found abhorrent, deceit, lies, devastating loneliness, led to claims by Brigham Young that Emma tried to poison Joseph over his infidelity, and on and on. By their fruits ye shall know them?
