The plural marriage was a practice of the Mormon S of the 19th century making it possible a man to have several wives.

Origin

In 1831, Joseph Smith, the founder of the Church of Jesus-Christ of the Saints of the Last Days, affirmed to have had a revelation on the plural marriage and spoke about it with a small number of associated close friends. It however was put in writing at the time, neither not practiced in an even publicly announced general way nor. In 1840, the Doctrine was taught with a small number of leaders who, with Joseph Smith, married other women secretly the following year. This secret character could not be kept a long time, nevertheless the doctrines were not discussed openly. This state of affairs was particularly responsible for the persecution which fell down on the Church until the abrogation of this practice in 1890. Since this date, any celebration of a plural marriage involves the excommunication of its protagonists by the Church of Jesus-Christ of the Saints of the Last Days. The few American polygamous families which are Mormon are in fact members of the Fundamentalist Église of Jesus-Christ of the Saints of the Last Days, which is a movement resulting from the mormonism.

Revelation on the marriage

July 12th 1843, Joseph Smith made put in writing and read with the large council of Nauvoo the revelation “relative to the new eternal alliance, including the eternity of the alliance of the marriage, as well as the plurality of the wives” (Doctrine and Alliances, hat of section 132). No doctrines, undoubtedly, of the young Church caused as many dissensions in and apart from the organization.

During years, after being informed of the doctrines by the divine revelation, Joseph could not be solved to practice it nor to teach with others to do it. The very whole Anglo-Saxon company was opposed to the plural marriage, though this one had never been prohibited, that it was by the State or the federal Constitution. Even after being itself installed in Nauvoo, when the prophet known as to have received from the Lord the command to put the law of the plural marriage into force, it hesitated to do it. Evening after evening, it took the hundred step along the banks of the the Mississippi, accompanied sometimes by his Hyrum brother, struggling with the problem. He was convinced of what the practice of the doctrines would attract on the Church of violent persecutions and would finally lead it to lose the life.

The historical reports/ratios show that neither Joseph Smith, neither Brigham Young, nor any of the leaders of the Church accommodated with joy the doctrines of the plural marriage. Brigham Young says later: If one had asked me what I would have chosen when Joseph Smith revealed these doctrines (the plurality of the wives), I would have said, provided that did not decrease my safety: `I want to have only one woman… I did not wish to move back in front of any duty, nor to miss if little that was to do what it was ordered to me, but it was the first time of my life which I had wished death and for a long time I have evil to overcome this feeling

John Taylor, which became the third president of the Church, adds:

I had always nourished strict ideas concerning the virtue, and I estimated, in time that man married, that it was there for me, apart from this principle, a dreadful thing to make. The idea to go to ask an young girl to marry me whereas I had already a woman! Here is a thing suitable to move the feelings with deepest by the human heart. I had always maintained the most strict Chasteté… With the feelings which I had nourished, nothing less than knowledge God and the revelations of God and their veracity could not have incited me to obey such a principle

For Heber C. Kimball and his wife, Vilate, the command of the prophet that Heber takes another woman was an extraordinarily difficult test. This command was hidden during a certain time with the woman of Heber. Vilate noticed that it was extremely concerned. She affirmed that in answer to her prayer concerning what caused so many concern to her husband, she accepted a vision of the world eternal. Nobody knows what she saw, but in any case, she became partisane thereafter convinced of the doctrines of the plural marriage.

If the doctrines caused such a crisis at the firmest men of the Church, it is not astonishing that a great number of men refused it. Only the secrecy which surrounded its practice prevented a general apostasy in the Church in 1844. When the doctrines were publicly proclaimed in the fields of mission, the opposition to the Church increased considerably and often had recourse to violence.

The secret character which surrounded the introduction of the practice produced coarse lies and charges of adultery. It was an extremely important factor which contributed to return as well the Mormons as nonthe hostile Mormons to the prophet. None the lesson of the Church ran up in such a direct way against the social order of the time nor did not cause such a violent hostility.

Circumstances of the introduction of the plural marriage

In the first times of the Church of Jesus-Christ of the Saints of the Last Days, a larger number women than men had become members of the Church. It was the case of the period of Nauvoo and that remained the case during a certain number of years after the arrival of the saints in Utah.

This disproportion persisted as much as the converts constituted the mass of the members of the Church. The saints of the last days were people as isolated as if they had been in an island of the sea. The marriages apart from the Church were disadvised. There were not sufficient men. Many women were to live and die unmarried, private of the occasion of development which the marriage and the hearth bring.

The plural marriage was never at any time a general law for the very whole Church, and was never at any time practiced by more than two percent of the male population. The president of the Church held the key of the practice of this marriage, and only those which were supposed being able to live the law in justice had the permission to contract it. Thus the surplus women of the Church were absorbed in the family life. However, a small number among those which lived this law misused this law and the confidence which were given to them and fed calumnies and the mocking remarks against the Church.

In spite them company names advanced to justify the plural marriage, he was directly opposed to the traditions as well in the Church as outwards. The secret character even which stuck to it prevented that any explanation was given to the public, which created a favorable ground with the most nourished rumors.

Joseph Smith expected the crisis

Joseph Smith knew that the social order that it considered would cause a violent opposition in Illinois. The experiments of the Church in Ohio and in Missouri had indeed shown it. The presence of the Mormons in great number in an unspecified part of colonized America of the time would have produced a similar result. And this not because it was difficult to get along with the Mormons, nor because nonthe Mormons were bad people, but because the lesson of the Church and the existing social order were directly opposite. It was to prepare with this inevitable opposition and perhaps to a certain extent to prevent it that Joseph Smith had written the remarkable charter of Nauvoo and the passage had ensured some. It is to prepare against the illegal arrests which it absolutely held so that it had there an independent municipal court with Nauvoo. It was to protect its people from the inevitable violence of the popular opposition that it organized and formed the Legion of Nauvoo.

He did not believe besides either that even these precautions would protect its people a long time. He envisaged a crushing opposition inevitable. Since 1842, it started to seek a not colonized part of America where its people could carry out his “Sion” without conflict. Its attention necessarily turned to the West, and, this year, he pronounced a prophecy with a group of saints of the last days with Montrose (Iowa). August 6th, he wrote in his diary: “I prophesied that the saints would continue to undergo many afflictions and would be driven out in the Rocky Mountains, that much apostasieraient, that others would be put at died by our persecutors or would lose the life in consequence of the exposure to the bad weather or the disease, and some among you will on the occasion to go to help to install colonies and to build cities and to see the saints becoming powerful people in the middle of the Rocky Mountains”.

Plural marriage

With a conference which took place August 28th and 29th 1852 in Salt Lake City, the doctrines of the “plural marriage” were announced for the first time in public. The revelation made with Joseph Smith on this subject was read, and Orson Pratt made a speech from the point of view of the Bible. The limits and the restrictions of the law stated by the modern revelation were explained. A certain number of the leaders practiced already these doctrines. After this conference, other people accepted from Brigham Young, which held the keys of this kind of the marriage, the authorization to practice it. In certain cases, the president exhorted the leaders of the Church to marry and provide a hearth to the women worthy of the community who had seen themselves refusing the occasion to marry.

At the end of the first year of migration in Utah, the number of women exceeded the number of men. This excess of the female population persisted during one half-century. In practice Mormon of the “plural marriage”, these women were absorbed in the family life of various communities. The practice was necessarily limited, two percent of the eligible men for the marriage only having more than one woman. The law was not either applicable to the general population of the territory nor even to the members in general of the Church. Only the men who obtained the sanction of the president, which considered the personality and the dignity of the individual, could marry a second woman, and this, only with the assent of the first.

A census makes in 1858 changes to 3617 the number of polygamous husbands in Utah. This figure breaks up as follows:

• Husbands having 7 women and more: 387
• Husbands having 5 women: 730
• Husbands having 4 women: 1100
• Husbands having more than one woman and less than 4: 1400 Total
• : 3617

Awakening of the opposition

The practice of the plural marriage produced considerable movements in the press and became the center of the attacks of the enemies of the Church against this one. As Utah was a territory of the United States and that the laws of the territories are determined by the Congress, the question of the plural marriage was carried before this institution and became the principal argument against the admission of Utah like State.

The attacks against the Church became so violent that the Congress, under the influence of policies and from the press, passed in 1862 a “law against the bigamy”, of which the goal was to remove “polygamy” among Mormons.

July 8th, 1862, the president Abraham Lincoln signed the act and returned the fact of contracting a punishable plural marriage of a fine of 500 dollars or five years of prison or both.

As a whole, the president and the members of the Congress were not hostile to the Mormons, but they were opposed to the practice of polygamy. The political program on which Lincoln was elected, contained a point condemning the practice of polygamy.

By friendship for the Mormons, of which it had made knowledge in Illinois, president Lincoln neglected to name officers to impose the application of the law against the bigamy.

The enemies of the Church were not satisfied to drop the problem. The law contained a provision prohibiting with a religious grouping in a territory to hold land goods whose value would exceed 50.000 dollars. This had as a direct objective the Church of Jesus-Christ of the Saints of the Last Days. An attempt of the governor Harding d' Utah in 1863 to make punish Brigham Young under the terms of this law failed, the constitutionality of the very whole law being doubtful.

Agitation against polygamy increased during the years, but it was only into 1874 that the constitutionality of the “law against polygamy” was tested and that one tried to apply it. The Mormons were certain that the law was anticonstitutional and that if a lawsuit were carried in front of the higher authorities, she would be proclaimed anticonstitutional and that would clear up the business. Consequently, George Reynolds, private secretary of Brigham Young, went voluntary to put the law to the test. The federal officers of the territory seemed quite as eager to clear up the business by a friendly lawsuit. Consequently, Reynolds was accused. He voluntarily presented himself in front of the court and provides the proof of the facts by which he had enfreint the law. He was considered guilty condemned to one year of prison and accepted the order to pay a fine of 500 dollars. Call was made to the Supreme court of the territory where it was refused under pretext that the Room of the committal for trial which had accused Reynolds was illegal.

Constitutionality of the laws against the bigamy

The constitutionality of the law still not being decided, a second lawsuit took place in 1875 front Alexander White, judge supreme of Utah. The friendly nature of the preceding lawsuit was completely absent, the charge becoming violent with respect to the defendant, and the defendant in his turn refusing to provide the elements making it possible to prove that there had been violation of the law. However a judgment was obtained, and Reynolds accepted the heavy judgment of 500 dollars of fine and two years of forced labors to the penitentiary. The Supreme court of Utah confirmed the decree and call was made to the Supreme court of the United States, which, with surprised Church and of many expert lawyers in constitution, confirmed the constitutionality of the law. It was a terrible blow for the Church, and the one period beginning of intense persecutions. The decision fell however only on January 6th, 1879. Meanwhile, Brigham Young had died, and the college of the twelve apostles became the authority president of the Church. An attempt to reopen the lawsuit of George Reynolds and a petition so that forgiveness was granted to him failed. It was put in prison on June 16th, 1879.

In October 1880, the First Presidency was again organized with John Taylor like chair Church. It is under its administration that fell all violence from the countryside against “the bigamy”. After the death of Brigham Young and especially after the decision of the Supreme court in the case Reynolds, the enemies of the Church worked to obtain the end of polygamy and to crush the Church. Their agitation and their lies reproduced in the press had as a result the passage of a new legislation having for goal to remove the polygamous practices. In March 1882, the Congress passed “Edmunds' Bill” which amended the “law against the bigamy” of 1862. This measurement added to the punishable offense of the plural marriages or “polygamous life”, which one defined as “an illegal cohabitation”. The law deprived of the right to vote or to hold public offices all those which lived in polygamy. Moreover, the possibility of belonging to sworn was refused with any person who only professed to believe in the doctrines of the plural marriage.

Moreover, this law declared vacant all the stations - keys of the territory and envisaged federal officers in their place. The law Edmunds virtually deprived Utah of the rights of self-government which had become a factor characteristic of the government of the territories. The law was backdated from the point of view of the civic rights, so that whoever had lived the law of the plural marriage was private right to vote, even if it did not live it more.

A persecution campaign violent started against the men who had contracted the plural marriage before or after the passage of the law. This countryside lasted during all the administration of John Taylor. Hundreds of residences were violated, the husbands and fathers sent to the penitentiary. Because they refused to testify against their husband, of the women were sent in prison for “insult to the court”. After the severe judgment pronounced against Rudger Clawson in October 1884, the “discriminatory legislation developed”. This decision of the courts made it possible to pronounce judgments separated against a man for each day when one found it guilty food with a plural woman.

This decision of the courts resulted in to drive out the leaders of the Church in exile, because it amounted proclaiming that a man who practiced polygamy, or even tried to provide the needs of his various wives, could, by an accumulation of separated judgments, being sent in life imprisonment.

This “discriminatory policy” was condemned by the Supreme court of the United States in the case of Lorenzo Snow, which was presented in front of it in February 1887.

Law Edmunds-Tucker

In March 1887, the Congress passed a measurement even more Draconian to remove polygamy, measures called the “law Edmunds-Tucker”. This law allowed the dissolution of the Church of Jesus-Christ of the Saints of the Last Days, which taught the doctrines, and of the Company of the funds perpetual of emigration. The goods of these corporations would be allocated to the federal government and would be used with the profit of the schools of the territory. Only were exempted law the cemeteries and the buildings and grounds with exclusively cultural function. This law was denounced with the Congress per many nonnotable Mormons, but the popular movement against polygamy ensured the passage of it.

United States Marshall Dye took care of the land and personal goods of the Church. To preserve the use of the offices of the dîme and the office of the historian, the Church was obliged to pay with the government an annual rent of 2400 dollars. The Church paid 450 dollars per month to preserve the use of Guardo House and a sum raised to obtain the use of Temple Public garden.

For this period, the Church had large financial problems. It could not borrow the least dollar. Only the faithful payment of said allowed him to face this situation. Places of hiding-place, generally called “underground”, the First Presidency exiled directed the businesses of the Church. John Taylor died in exile on July 25th, 1887 with Kaysville in Utah.

After the death of John Taylor, the crusade against polygamy continued, but with a great tolerance on behalf of the officers. President Grover Cleveland forgave with a certain number of men who had received extraordinarily severe judgments, among which Charles Livingston, Rudger Clawson and Joseph H. Evans.

In Idaho and Arizona, the opposition against polygamy became intense. In 1885, Legislature of Idaho passed law which deprived of their rights electoral all members of Church which taught similar doctrines, which deprived all the Mormons of the right to vote or hold offices, that they are or not polygamous. Although questioned, the constitutionality of the law was maintained by the Supreme court of the United States in a returned decision on February 3rd, 1890. A bill of the same kind, called “Stubble Bill”, was introduced with the Congress for the territory of Utah. Even noneminent Mormons of Utah opposed it, and it was rejected.

Proclamation

Within these difficulties, Wilford Woodruff, which had been constant like chair Church on April 7th, 1889, suspended the “plural marriage”.

The laws against polygamy had imposed to the members of the Church a dilemma. They were to disobey, either with the divine law, or with the law of the country. The decision was for them a relief. September 25th, 1890, president Woodruff proclaimed his famous “Proclamation” which put an end to the celebration plural marriages in the Church and required of the saints to obey the law of the country. With the general conference of October, the “Proclamation” was supported and became thus obligatory for the Church.

With this conference, Wilford Woodruff declared: “I make a point of saying to any Israel which measurement that I took by publishing this Proclamation it was not without enthusiastic prayer in front of the Lord… I am not unaware of the feelings which were caused by what I made… The Lord will never allow me, neither with me, nor with any other which fills the position of president with this Church to lead you in the error. It is not in the program. It is not in the will of God. If I were to test it, the Lord would remove me of my place”.

The result of Proclamation was a notable change in the attitude with respect to the Church. January 4th, 1893, president Harrison made a statement of amnesty to those which had contracted “polygamous marriages” before November 1st, 1890. The restrictions against the right vote were removed and in 1893 and the personal goods of the Church were returned to their owners. Three years later, when Utah accepted the statute of State, the land goods which had been confiscated in the same way were returned to the Church.

Mormon belief

The Mormons believe that, just as the practice of the plural marriage was the result of a revelation with Joseph Smith, his abandonment was also the application of a divine revelation given to the president of the Church of the time, Wilford Woodruff.

Wilford Woodruff declared itself: “I would have let all the temples escape to us, I would have gone myself in prison and would have let all the other men go there, if God of the sky had not ordered me to do what I did; and when came the hour when it was ordered to me to do that, it was completely clear for me. I went in front of the Lord, and I wrote what the Lord says to me to write”.

For the Mormons, the law of the plural marriage constituted a testing period of their faith. The Book of Mormon sign who the divine law is the monogamy, except when God decides some differently:

This is why, my brothers, hear me, and listen to the word of the Lord: because no man among you will have more than one wife; and concubines it will not have any of it; because me, the Lord God, I make my delights of the chastity of the women. And the fornication is an abomination in front of me; thus known as the Lord of the armies. This is why, these people will keep my commands, known as the Lord of the armies, if not the country will be cursed because of him. Because if I want, known as the Lord of the armies, to cause a posterity, I will order it from my people; otherwise they will observe these things

Joseph Smith confirmed this concept while writing, on October 5th, 1843: “I constantly said that nobody will at the same time have more than one woman, unless the Lord does not decide any differently”.

Fiction

In 2006, the American Televised series " Big Coils " tell the history of polygamous, member of the Fundamentalist Église of Jesus-Christ of the Saints of the Last Days.

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