Another option would be to study the history of the phenomenon.
Mormon Polygamy:
A History
By
Richard S. Van Wagoner
Second Edition
Signature Books
Salt Lake City
© 1989 Signature Books, Inc.
[p.50]
5.
"If a Man Espouse a Virgin"
Perhaps the most disturbing aspect of the Bennett scandal for Joseph Smith was that it kept him from preaching
plural marriage publicly. Exactly four weeks after his 1 October 1842 denunciation of polygamy in the Times and
Seasons, another publication from the church press was released. The Peace Maker, a thirty-seven-page booklet,
skillfully articulated scriptural and theological justifications for polygamy. Udney Hay Jacob announced in the
preface that "the author of this work is not a Mormon, although it is printed by their press.... But the public
will soon find out what he is, by his work." An intriguing ending to the treatise suggested that "the question
is not now to be debated whether these things are so; neither is it a question of much importance who wrote this
book? But the question, the momentous question is: will you now restore the law of God on this important subject,
and keep it?" [1]
Coming on the tail of John Bennett's lurid spiritual wifery polygamy accusations against Smith, The Peace Maker's
call for a restoration of polygamy caused a stir in Nauvoo. Oliver Olney expressed what must have been an often
thought though seldom expressed opinion: "If the pamphlet was not written by the authorities of the Church, it
by them was revised in Jacobs name" (1843, 10). But Smith responded to the uproar by saying that the work was
published "without my knowledge," adding "had I been apprised of it, I should not have printed it[,] not that I
am opposed to any man enjoying his privileges, but I do not wish to have my name associated with the authors, in
such an unmeaning rigmarole of nonsense, folly and trash" (TS 4 [1 Dec. 1842]: 32).
Despite Smith's denial, it is difficult to understand how such a controversial work could have been typeset and
published in the Times and Seasons office without his knowledge. Smith was, in fact, editor of the newspaper, and
apostles John Taylor and Wilford Woodruff worked in the office. And though his own brother Hyrum decried the
publication as coming "from beneath" (Lee 1877, 246), Smith's own denunciation of the work was not nearly as
emphatic. Some may have even concluded that his willingness in allowing a man to "enjoy his privileges" was a
cryptic approval of polygamy. It is possible, as John D. Lee later suggested, that Smith commissioned Jacob
[p.51]
to put forth his work as a "feeler among the people to pave the way for celestial marriage" (ibid.).
If the Peace Maker was intended to evaluate the reaction of Nauvoo Saints towards polygamy, it was not the first
such test. Helen Mar Kimball Whitney, the fifteen-year-old plural wife of Smith and daughter of Apostle Heber C.
Kimball, recounted in 1882 another trial balloon for polygamy remembered by her mother: "On a certain Sabbath
morning, previous to the return of the Apostles from Europe, in 1841, [Joseph] astonished his hearers by preaching
on the restoration of all things, and said that as it was anciently with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, so it would be
again, etc. He spoke so plainly that his wife, Emma, as well as others were quite excited over it. Seeing the
effect his sermon had upon them, he consoled them in the afternoon by saying that the time of which he had spoken
might be further off than he anticipated" (Whitney, "Plural Marriage," 11).
Joseph Lee Robinson, who was in attendance that day, later remembered Smith's discussing possible difficulties
missionaries could encounter in "Turkey or India or to a people where it was lawfull to have several wives where
they practiced Poligamy." Smith envisioned a Muslim asking, "I have five wives and I love one equally as well as
I do the other and now what are the laws in that land, can I bring my five wives there and enjoy them as well as
I can here, said the Prophet yes, the laws in Zion are such that you can bring your wives and enjoy them as well
as there."
But Smith had underestimated the extent of the opposition of Nauvoo women, especially his wife. When he "went to
his dinner," Robinson wrote, "as it might be expected several of the first women of the church collected at the
Prophet's house with his wife [and] said thus to the Prophet Joseph O mister Smith you have done it now it will
never do it is all but Blassphemy you must take back what you have said to day it is outragious it would ruin us
as a people." So in the afternoon session Smith again took the stand, according to Robinson, and said, "Brethren
and Sisters I take back what we said this morning and leave it as though there had been nothing said" (pp. 23-24).
Smith's denials of polygamy were accepted at face value by most Saints. But Emma so strongly suspected her husband
of practicing it that she enlisted support from other anti-polygamy women to keep track of him. Joseph Lee Robinson
wrote of one such alliance. Angeline, wife of his brother Ebenezer, "watched Brother Joseph the Prophet[,] had seen
him go into some house that she had reported to Sister Emma the wife of the Prophet[.] it was at a time when she was
very suspisious and jealous of him for fear he would get another wife." Robinson alleged that Emma was so angry she
"said she would leave and was making preparations to go to her People in The State of New York it came close to
breaking up his family." [2]
[p.52]
The Smiths' bitter differences over polygamy reached a peak in early 1843. Eliza Roxcy Snow, "Zion's Poetess,"
had been living in the Smith home since 14 August 1842. Her sealing to Smith two months earlier on 29 June had
been kept secret from Emma. Apparently Emma later found out about the relationship, for Eliza abruptly moved into
the Jonathan Holmes residence on 11 February 1843 (Beecher 1975, 402). Eliza's absence from the Smith home evidently
left a void in the prophet's life. Within two weeks he had focused his attention on two other women living in his home.
Emily and Eliza Partridge, youthful daughters of deceased church bishop Edward Partridge, had been living in poverty
after moving to Nauvoo in early 1840. Emma Smith invited Emily to live in the Smith home to care for the Smiths'
baby, Don Carlos, who was born 13 June 1840. Eliza Partridge joined the family a short time later. Emily later
wrote that in the spring or summer of 1842 Joseph Smith approached her about polygamy. "I... shut him up so quick,"
she said, "that he said no more to me until the 28th of Feb. 1843, (my nineteenth birthday)" (Young, "Life," 185).
On this date Smith approached her privately, saying, "Emily, if you will not betray me, I will tell you something
for your benefit." When he asked her if she would burn a private letter he wanted to send to her, Emily replied that
she could not accept it from him. But she reconsidered. On 4 March 1843 Smith sent a "friend to plurality," Mrs.
Elizabeth Durfee, with a message. When Partridge asked the envoy what Smith wanted, Durfee replied "she thought he
wanted me for a wife." At a clandestine meeting later that evening at the Heber C. Kimball home, Emily later recounted,
Smith advised her that "the Lord had commanded him to enter into plural marriage, and had given me to him, and
although I had got badly frightened, he knew I would yet have him, so he waited till the Lord told him." Emily agreed
to Smith's proposal and "was married there and then." [3]
Emily subsequently explained that though she did not know it at the time, her older sister Eliza had also been
approached by Elizabeth Durfee, who "introduced the subject of spiritual wives as they called it in those days." [4]
The older Partridge girl was sealed to Smith on 8 March 1843. Emma Smith knew nothing of these relationships at the
time, but two months later Smith apparently convinced his wife to let him be sealed to the girls with her blessing.
According to Emily's account, "Emma had consented to give Joseph two wives, if he would let her choose them for him,
and she chose E[liza] and myself.... I do not know why she gave us to him, unless she thought we were where she could
watch us better than some others, outside of the house" (Jenson, Historical Record 6 [July 1887]: 226). "To save
family trouble," Emily added in an 1887 account of the matter, "Brother Joseph thought it best to have another
ceremony performed. Accordingly on the 11th of May, 1843, we were sealed to Joseph Smith a second time, in Emma's
presence" (Young, "Life," 185).
[p.53]
Emily is probably incorrect on the date of the second sealing. On 11 May, Emma Smith left Nauvoo at 10:00 a.m. for
Quincy, Illinois, and did not return for four days. Unless the ceremony was performed at an early hour, she could
not have been in attendance. Moreover James Adams, [5] a Sangamo County probate judge who performed the second
sealing, did not arrive in Nauvoo from Springfield until 21 May. The sealing most likely occurred two days later.
Smith's journal entry for 23 May reads: "At home. in conversation with Judge Adams, and others." In discussing the
impact of the event, Emily later noted that "Emma seemed to feel well until the ceremony was over... [but] before
the day was over she turned around or repented of what she had done and kept Joseph up till very late in the night
talking to him." This closely matches William Clayton's journal entry for 23 May: "Pres[iden]t. stated to me that
he had had a little trouble with sis. E[mma] he was asking E[liza] Partridge concerning [Joseph] Jackson['s] [6] conduct
during Prest.['s] absence & E[mma] came up stairs. he shut to the door not knowing who it was and held it. She came
to the door & called Eliza 4 times & tried to force open the door."
Smith may not have provided his scribe with all the details of this situation. What, for example, was the source
of Emma's irritation? Did finding Joseph and Eliza privately together bring back jealous memories of Fanny Alger or
Eliza R. Snow? Or did Emma discover that Smith's relationship with Eliza Partridge was more than "spiritual?" Emma
had not been told about her husband's first sealing to the Partridge girls. Perhaps she had been similarly misled
regarding the real purpose of the second sealing as well.
There is evidence to suggest that on at least one other occasion Smith convinced one of his would-be young wives to
accept polygamy by persuading her that it was a "spiritual order and not a temporal one." Helen Mar Kimball,
fifteen-year-old daughter of Apostle Heber C. Kimball, reported that Smith told her: "If you will take this step,
it will insure your eternal salvation & exaltation and that of your father's household & all of your kindred."
"This promise was so great," Helen felt, "that I willingly gave myself to purchase so glorious a reward" (Whitney,
"Retrospection"). "I thought through this life my time will be my own," she wrote in a letter to be opened after her
death, "the step I now am taking's for eternity alone" (ibid.). But she reportedly had misinterpreted Smith's intent.
She confided to a close friend in Nauvoo: "I would never have been sealed to Joseph had I known it was anything
more than ceremony. I was young, and they deceived me, by saying the salvation of our whole family depended on it"
(Lewis 1848, 19). If this ruse were used to convince Emma Smith to accept the Partridge girls as "spiritual wives,"
her dismay at finding her husband and Eliza Partridge together in an upstairs room the day of the sealing would be
understandable.
[p.54]
Emily Partridge wrote that from that day forth Emma became a bitter enemy of the girls. "She wanted us immediately
divorced, and she seemed to think that she only had to say the word and it was done" (Whitney, "Plural Marriage," 15).
Furthermore, Emily wrote, Emma "kept close watch of us. If we were missing for a few minutes, and Joseph was not at
home, the house was searched from top to bottom and from one end to the other, and if we were not found, the
neighborhood was searched until we were found." Emma soon reached her limit of tolerance. Emily wrote that Emma
called the two girls to her room, where they found a subdued prophet with Emma. "Joseph was present, looking like a
martyr. Emma said some very hard things -- Joseph would give us up or blood should flow. She would rather her blood
would run pure than be polluted in this manner."
Insisting that Smith and the girls "promise to break our covenants that we had made before God," Emma told the
prophet that "she would cease to trouble us, and not persist in our marrying some one else." The promises were made,
Emily wrote, and "Joseph came to us and shook hands with us, and the understanding was that all was ended between us."
The girls went downstairs while Joseph and Emma remained in the upper part of the house. When Smith came down, Emily
noted, he "looked as if he would sink into the earth." Declaring "my hands are tied," he left the room. Emma came in
"on his track," as Emily put it, and asked, "Emily, what did Joseph say to you?" "He asked me how I felt," Partridge
replied. "You might as well tell me," Emma insisted, "for I am determined that a stop shall be put to these things,
and I want you to tell me what he says to you." The feisty Emily responded, "I shall not tell you, he can say what
he pleases to me, and I shall not report it to you, as there has been mischief enough made, by doing that. I am as
sick of these things as you can be."
The Partridge sisters did not remarry until after Smith's death, [7] but they did move from the Smith home shortly
after the confrontation, and Emily said she only spoke to the prophet once before his murder in 1844. Ironically,
sometime after the Partridges left, the prophet was sealed to two other young women living in his home. Emily
Partridge noted that "[Emma] afterwards gave Sarah and Maria Lawrence to him, and they lived in the house as his
wiles. I knew this" (Young, "Life," 186). [8]
Emma was not the only Smith strongly opposed to polygamy. Joseph received almost as much opposition from his brother
Hyrum as from Emma. After citing an anti-polygamy passage from the Book of Mormon (2 Jac.) in his 14 May 1843
public denouncement of the practice, Hyrum "Said there were many that had a great deal to say about the ancient order
of things Solomon & David having many wifes & Concubines -- but its an abomination in the Sight of God.... If an
angel from heaven should come and preach such doctrine, [you] would be sure to see his cloven foot and cloud of
blackness over his head" (Levi Richards Journal, 14 May 1843).
[p.55]
The following day Hyrum joined William Law, William Marks, and perhaps others in a conspiracy to ferret out evidence
of Smith's polygamous relationships. William Clayton recorded in his 23 May diary a conversation with Heber C.
Kimball "concerning a plot that is being laid to entrap the brethren [involved in polygamy]... by bro H[yrum], and
others." Hyrum related to Marks that "he did not believe in it [polygamy] and he was going to see Joseph about it,
and if Joseph had a revelation on the subject, he would believe it" (Newell and Avery 1984, 141).
Before he had a chance to talk with Joseph, however, Hyrum ran into Brigham Young. Young reported in an 1866 address
that the two sat down together on fence rails piled on the Masonic Hall lot. According to Young, Hyrum said he knew
that "you and the twelve know some things that I do not know. I can understand this by the motions, and talk, and
doings of Joseph, and I know there is something or other, which I do not understand, that is revealed to the Twelve.
Is this so?" The canny Young, aware of Hyrum's entrapment plans, replied: "I do not know any thing about what you
know, but I know what I know."
But Hyrum would not be denied: "I have mistrusted for a long time that Joseph has received a revelation that a man
should have more than one wife, and he has hinted as much to me, but I would not bear it.... I am convinced that
there is something that has not been told me." Young requested Hyrum to "sware with an uplifted hand, before God,
that you will never say another word against Joseph and his doings, and the doctrines he is preaching to the people."
After Hyrum consented, Young revealed: "Joseph had many wives sealed to him. I told him the whole story, and he bowed
to it and wept like a child, and said 'God be praised.' He went to Joseph and told him what he had learned, and
renewed his covenant with Joseph" (Young, Unpublished Address).
Evidently it was at this time that Smith explained to Hyrum the full meaning of "celestial marriage." Hyrum's first
wife, Jerusha Barden, had died on 13 October 1837. Smith explained: "You can have her sealed to you upon the same
principle as you can be baptized for the dead." "What can I do for my second wife?" Hyrum asked. "You can also make
a covenant with her for eternity and have her sealed to you by the authority of the Priesthood," the prophet advised.
Hyrum discussed the ordinance with his living wife, Mary Fielding Smith, and she responded, "I will act as proxy for
your wife that is dead and I will be sealed to you for eternity myself for I never had any other husband. I love you
and I do not want to be separated from you nor be forever alone in the world to come" (Ms History, 8 April 1844).
Less than two months later Hyrum became the catalyst for Smith's receiving the key revelation on "celestial
marriage" (D&C 132). On 12 July the brothers, along with William Clayton, were in Smith's office discussing
[p.56]
Emma's opposition to polygamy. Hyrum still harbored concerns that polygamy was adulterous. Charles Smith, a Nauvoo
elder, later said that Hyrum told the Elders' Quorum in the winter of 1843-44 "that the doctrine of Plurality of
Wives had bothered him considerably and he felt constrained to ask wherein Abraham, Moses, David & others could be
justified before God in practicing this to him repugnant doctrine -- He asked his brother the Prophet Joseph to ask
the question of the Lord -- Joseph did so and the Revelation given 12 July 1843 was the answer" (St. George Record).
The new revelation called for the restoration of biblical polygamy, integrated within the framework of sealing for
time and eternity. All marriages not sealed by the power of the priesthood were "of no efficacy, virtue, or force
in and after the resurrection." Those persons sealed under this new law were advised that they would come forth in
the first resurrection and, in the life after death, would inherit thrones, kingdoms, principalities, powers, and
dominions. Announcing that a throne was prepared for Smith "in the kingdom of my Father, with Abraham your father,"
the revelation thus described "the law of the priesthood": "If any man espouse a virgin, and desire to espouse another,
and the first give her consent, and if he espouse the second, and they are virgins, and have vowed to no other man,
then he is justified: he cannot commit adultery." Yet "if one or either of the ten virgins, after she is espoused,
shall be with another man, she has committed adultery, and shall be destroyed; for they are given unto him to multiply
and replenish the earth."
This emphasis on procreation became the basis for the Mormon concept of humanity's progress to divinity. All of
Smith's Nauvoo doctrinal innovations fell into place around this new teaching. Smith explained that God was an
exalted man and that mortal existence was a testing ground for men to begin progress toward exalted godhood.
Salvation became a family affair revolving around a husband whose plural wives and children were sealed to him for
eternity under the "new and everlasting covenant."
According to this developing theology, the family extended backward as well as forward in time. Smith had already
taught that the Saints had spiritual obligation towards unenlightened dead ancestors and friends in the 15 August
1840 funeral of Elder Seymour Brunson. Discussing the new principle of "baptism for the dead," Smith had said that
"people could now act for their friends who had departed this life, and that the plan of salvation was calculated
to save all those who were willing to obey the requirements of the law of God" (JH, 15 May 1840). Plank by plank,
the theological framework for the new eternal Mormon social order continued to build upon the numerous revelations
and ordinances advanced by Smith. The Nauvoo temple became the foundation for this "restoration of all things," the
12 July 1843 revelation on "celestial marriage" (D&C 132) the capstone.
[p.57]
Because Smith had begun to practice polygamy earlier than 1843, Mormon leaders after his death concluded that the
revelation was given as early as 1831 and merely written down on 12 July 1843. A more reasonable explanation is that
while Smith may have justified biblical polygamy at an early period in his life, the revelation on celestial
marriage was a document contemporary to 12 July 1843. Smith's journal entry for the day pointedly says: "Received a
Revelation in the office in presence of Hyrum & Walmart Clayton." And the 25 August 1843 entry in the History of the
Church reads: "My brother Hyrum in the office conversing with me about the new revelation upon celestial marriage." [9]
Furthermore, Smith's nephew, Joseph F. Smith, declared in an 1878 Salt Lake City speech that "when the revelation was
written, in 1843, it was for a special purpose, at the request of the Patriarch Hyrum Smith, and was not then designed
to go forth to the church or to the world. It is most probable that had it been then written with a view to its going
out as a doctrine of the church, it would have been presented in a somewhat different form." Smith gave as evidence of
his conclusion the fact that "there are personalities contained in a part of it which are not relevant to the principle
itself, but rather to the circumstances which necessitated its being written at that time" (JD 20 [7 July 1878]: 29).
One of the personalities mentioned in the revelation is Emma Smith. The intent of the revelation was obviously to
convince her to accept what she had been resisting. William Clayton, in an 1874 affidavit, reported that Hyrum had
asked Joseph on 12 July 1843, "If you will write the revelation on celestial marriage, I will take it and read it
to Emma, and I believe I can convince her of its truth, and you will hereafter have peace." Joseph, knowing better
the extent of her opposition, replied, "You do not know Emma as well as I do." Hyrum pleaded, "The doctrine is so
plain, I can convince any reasonable man or woman of its truth, purity and heavenly origin." So the prophet agreed
to dictate the revelation to Clayton. After three hours, Smith commented that "there was much more that he could write
on the same subject, but what was written was sufficient for the present" (Jenson, Historical Record 6 [July 1887]: 226).
It was not sufficient for Emma. Hyrum returned a short time later after delivering the document to her and said "he
had never received a more severe talking to in his life... Emma was very bitter." [10]
Perhaps Emma resented the revelation's threatening tone. Verse 52 directed "mine handmaid, Emma Smith," to "receive
all those that have been given unto my servant Joseph." "If she will not abide this," the "commandment" warned,
"she shall be destroyed." Adding insult to injury, the revelation directed Emma to "forgive my servant Joseph his
trespasses; and then shall she be forgiven her trespasses against me."
Though Emma's "trespasses" are not spelled out, Clayton's 23 June 1843 diary suggests a relevant concern of the
prophet's. Smith told Clayton
[p.58]
that Emma was "disposed to be revenged on him for some things[;] she thought that if he would indulge himself she
would too." Evidently sometime prior to this date Smith had offered his wife a surrogate husband to compensate for
his plural wives but later had second thoughts. Perhaps Smith thought Emma had her eye on William Clayton. On 29
May Clayton wrote in his diary that Smith asked him "if I had used any familiarity with E[mma]. I told him by no
means & explained to his satisfaction."
Considerable light on this obscure situation is shed by the 12 July revelation. Verse 51 contains a commandment
"unto mine handmaid, Emma Smith, your wife, whom I have given unto you, that she stay herself, and partake not of
that which I commanded you to offer unto her; for I did it, saith the Lord, to prove you all, as I did Abraham, and
that I might require an offering at your hand, by covenant and sacrifice." Verse 54 directs Emma to "abide and
cleave unto my servant Joseph and to none else." Though Smith may have been suspicious of Clayton, his deeper concern
appears to have been directed toward his counselor William Law. Joseph H. Jackson, a non-Mormon opportunist who
gained the confidence of Smith in Nauvoo, recorded in an 1844 expose of Mormonism: "Emma wanted Law for a spiritual
husband" because Joseph "had so many spiritual wives, she thought it but fair that she would at least have one man
spiritually sealed up to her and that she wanted Law, because he was such a 'sweet little man'" (p. 20).
Emma's threat to "be revenged and indulge herself" may have been merely a warning to the prophet to give up
polygamy. Though Smith and Law had serious difficulties in 1844 over Smith's polyandrous proposals to Law's wife,
Jane, there is no evidence to suggest that Law and Emma were ever anything more than friends. Furthermore, Law in
1887 denied his involvement in a "spiritual swop": "Joseph Smith never proposed anything of the kind to me or to
my wife; both he and Emma knew our sentiments in reaction to spiritual wives and polygamy; he knew that we were
immovably opposed to polygamy in any and every form." Law did confirm, however, that the stories came about because
"Joseph offered to furnish his wife Emma with a substitute for him, by way of compensation for his neglect of her,
on condition that she would forever stop her opposition to polygamy and permit him to enjoy his young wives in peace
and keep some of them in his house and to be well treated etc." ("Mormons in Nauvoo").
If the purpose of the 12 July revelation was to convince Emma to accept the plural wives her husband had previously
taken, it failed. The revelation would became the law of the church in 1852, despite the destruction of the original
copy. On 12 July 1843, after Hyrum returned from being rebuked by Emma, the revelation was read to several other
church leaders. Towards evening Bishop Newel K. Whitney asked Joseph if he could make a copy of the document. William
Clayton noted that "it was carefully copied the following day by Joseph C. Kingsbury." A few days later Smith related
to Clayton
[p.59]
and several others that, according to Clayton, "Emma had so teased, and urgently entreated him for the privilege of
destroying [the revelation], that he became so weary of her teasing, and to get rid of her annoyance, he told her
she might destroy it[,] and she had done so, but he had consented to her wish in this matter to pacify her, realizing
that he knew the revelation perfectly, and could rewrite it at any time if necessary" (Jenson, Historical Record 6
[July 1887]: 226). It is unlikely that Emma was told a copy of the revelation had been made.
Brigham Young in Salt Lake City later recounted his version of the story: "Emma took that revelation, supposing she
had all there was[,]... went to the fireplace and put it in, and put the candle under it and burned it, and she
thought that was the end of it, and she will be damned as sure as she is a living woman" (JD 17 [9 Aug. 1874]: 159).
Emma's version, as later recalled by William McLellin from an 1847 conversation with her, differs considerably. She
said that one night after she and Smith had gone to bed, "he told her that polygamy would be the ruin of the church.
He wanted her to get the revelation and burn it. But she refused to touch it, even with tongs." McLellin said that
Smith then got out of bed and burned the revelation himself (McLellin to Smith).
The purported revelation-burning incident may have occurred the same evening the document was first written. Clayton
recorded in his 13 July 1843 journal that Smith called him "into his private room with E[mma] and there stated an
agreement they had mutually entered into[.] they both stated their feelings on many subjects & wept considerable.
O may the Lord soften her heart that she may be willing to keep and abide by his Holy law." Whatever transpired in
their personal conversations during this period, Emma remained unconvinced of the correctness of polygamy, and Smith
continued to take additional wives without her knowledge or consent. Three days after he and Emma had entered into
their "agreement," Smith provided a window into the situation in an address in which he "preached... concerning a
mans foes being they of his own house" (Joseph Smith Diary, 15 July 1843). Apparently Emma had uncovered additional
evidence that the prophet had taken other women to wife without her knowledge. While Emma was on a trip to St. Louis,
Lucy Walker, a seventeen-year-old "dining room girl" living in the Smith home, had been sealed to Smith by William
Clayton on 1 May 1843. [11]
The next morning, prior to Emma's afternoon arrival at the steamboat landing, Clayton noted Smith had spent the
morning riding with sixteen-year-old Flora Woodworth, an activity which was probably noticed by others as well. [12]
Eliza R. Snow described in her 20 July 1843 journal a visit from an angry woman -- evidently Emma Smith. "Her
appearance," Snow wrote, "very plainly manifested the perturbation of her mind."
Incidents evoking Emma's anger and jealousy multiplied. On 16 August Clayton noted in his journal that Smith told
him "since E[mma]
[p.60]
came back from St. Louis she had resisted the P[riesthood] in toto & he had to tell her he would relinquish all for
her sake. She said she would [have] given him E[mily] and E[liza] P[artridge] but he knew if he took them she would
pitch on him & obtain a divorce & leave him. He however told me he should not relinquish any thing." Five days later,
after Smith had promised to "relinquish all," Clayton noted a confrontation he had had with Emma in his 21 August
diary. He explained that Emma had produced two letters to Smith she had discovered in her husband's pockets and
wanted to know if Clayton had delivered them. Clayton recorded, "I had not done it. I satisfied her I had not. They
appeared to be from E[liza] R. Snow... E[mma] seemed vexed and angry." Two days later Smith dropped Emma off at the
Lucian Woodworth home while he attended to some business at the temple. Clayton noted in his 23 August diary that
Smith told him when he returned to pick Emma up "she was demanding the gold watch of F[lora]," the Woodworth's
daughter. (Smith had given a similar watch to Eliza R. Snow.) Emma was furious. Smith told Clayton that he "reproved
her for her evil treatment [but] on the way home she abused him much & also when he got home. He had to use harsh
measures to put a stop to her abuse but finally succeeded."
Emma's position should be viewed in perspective. She loved her husband and desired the exclusive relationship he had
promised her in their 1827 marriage covenant. Furthermore, she was thirty-nine years old -- no longer a young woman --
and found herself competing for her husband's affections with younger women. Utah Mormons have traditionally shown
little sympathy to Emma because of her rejection of plural marriage and her refusal to go west with Brigham Young
and his followers. Emily Partridge, closer to Emma's circumstances than most, displayed remarkable empathy for her
in her 1883 diary: "After these many years I can truly say; poor Emma. She could not stand polygamy, but she was a
good woman, and I never wish to stand in her way of happiness and exaltation. I hope the Lord will be merciful to her,
and I believe he will.... Perhaps she has done no worse than any of us would have done in her place. Let the Lord be
the judge."
Notes Chapter 5:
1 Jacob's scriptural and literary background was known to church leaders. Two years earlier he had written a book
on baptism and sent an extract to Joseph Smith's close friend Oliver Granger, requesting that he show it to "your
Printer, & to Joseph Smith, and to Sidney Rigdon, and let them refute it if they can" (Jacob to Granger, 3 March 1840).
Jacob joined the church in 1843 and died in Salt Lake City in 1860. In a 5 March 1851 letter to Brigham Young, Jacob
said he wrote the Peace Maker "for the citizens of the United States, who professed to believe in the Bible." He
also added that it served as an "apology for this people [Mormons] who were accused by them of Polygamy." For a
complete discussion of the Peace Maker controversy see Foster 1974, 21-34, and Foster 1981, 174-77.
2 Robinson Journal, 49. Robinson added that Smith was so upset over the incident that he had a talk with Angeline,
but "she would not give him any satisfaction, and her husband [Ebenezer] did not reprove his wife, and it came to
pass, the Prophet cursed her severely, but they thought it would not take effect because he the Prophet was angry."
This late 1841 incident appears to be the reason for Smith's abrupt release of Ebenezer Robinson as Times and Seasons
editor.
Respecting Emma's use of the Relief Society to curtail polygamy, Emily P. Young noted: "She took occasion from the
President to work upon the sister's feelings, and cause them to betray their brethren who were in polygamy and in
that way brought about much trouble for Joseph and his true hearted brethren" (Young, "Incidents").
3 The Partridge account, except where noted otherwise, is from Emily Dow Partridge Young's "Autobiographical Sketch."
4 Elizabeth Davis Durfee was sealed by proxy to Joseph Smith on 22 January 1846 in the Nauvoo Temple (Quinn,
"Prayer Circles," 88).
5 James Adams (1783-1843) became a Mormon in 1840. An intimate friend to Joseph Smith, he was in the first group of
Endowment Council initiates on 4-5 May 1842. He was also an early polygamist, sealed to Roxena Repshire on 11 July
1843. Smith anointed him to the office of patriarch in the fall of 1843 (Walgren 1982, 121-36).
6 Jackson, a newcomer to Nauvoo, was a non-Mormon opportunist who passed himself off, according to Smith's diary,
as a Catholic priest but said that he told Joseph he was a fugitive from justice.
7 Emily later married Brigham Young; Eliza married Apostle Amasa Lyman.
8 Maria (1823-1847) and Sarah (1826-1872) Lawrence, seventeen- and nineteen-year-old Canadians, were the daughters
of Edward and Margaret Lawrence. Considering Emma's strong reaction to the Partridge girls' relationship with her
husband, it seems unlikely that she would have willingly consented to another pair of sealings. Evidence for her
having done so is secondhand. The statement of Lucy Walker, who was sealed to Smith on 1 May 1843, is typical: "I
can also say that Emma Smith was present and did consent to Eliza and Emily Partridge. Also Maria and Sarah Lawrence
being sealed to her husband. This I had from [Joseph's] own lips, also the testimony of [Emma's] niece. Hyrum Smith's
Eldest daughter, my brother Loren's wife, said to me that Aunt Emma told her this, as well as the young ladies
themselves" (Kimball, "Recollections," 13).
9 Apostle Orson Pratt, in statements given in the 1850s, made it perfectly clear that this revelation did not come
until 1843. In 1853 he explained that "in the early rise of this church, the Lord gave no command unto any of His
servants authorizing them to take more than one wife, but on the contrary, said unto them that they should give heed
to that which was written in the Book of Mormon." Therefore, Pratt pointed out, early Mormons "were under the
strictest obligations to confine themselves to one wife, until a commandment came to the contrary, which the Lord
did not see proper to give unto any of them, until about thirteen years after the first organization of the church
[1830]" (The Seer 1:30). Seven years later, in 1859, Pratt reaffirmed the date of 1843 for the revelation. "Thirteen
years after the publication of the Book of Mormon [1830]," he said, "the same Prophet that translated the Book of
Mormon received a revelation upon marriage, which commanded certain individuals in this Church to take unto themselves
a plurality of wives for time and all eternity, declaring that it is a righteous principle and was practiced by inspired
men in times of old" (JD 6 [24 July 1859]: 362).
Apostle John Taylor, one of the earliest to accept plural marriage in Nauvoo, also understood the revelation on
"celestial marriage" to have been first given in 1843.
In a 6 November 1869 letter to the Deseret Evening News, responding to U.S. vice-president Schuyler Colfax's
accusation that the original Doctrine and Covenants denounced polygamy, Taylor noted that the Marriage Section was
"published in the appendix to the book of Doctrine and Covenants long before the revelation concerning Celestial
Marriage was given.... The revelation on polygamy was given in 1843."
10 Clayton's 12 July 1843 journal entry states: "after it was wrote Prests. Joseph & Hyrum presented it and read
it to E[mma]. who said she did not believe a word of it and appeared very rebellious."
11 In a court deposition, Lucy testified that "Emma Smith was not present" at the sealing and "did not consent to
the marriage; she did not know anything about it at all" (Complainants, 374).
12 Clayton in a 16 February 1874 statement (Historical Record, 6 [July 1887]: 225) identifies Flora Woodworth as
a plural wife of Smith.