I have noticed that a man who has but one wife, and is inclined to that doctrine, soon begins to wither and dry up, while a man who goes into plurality [of wives] looks fresh, young, and sprightly. Heber C Kimball, Journal of Discourses V:22
You might as well deny Mormonism and turn away from it as to oppose plural marriage. Let the Presidency of this Church, and the Twelve Apostles and all the authorities unite and say with one voice that they would oppose that doctrine, and the whole of them would be damned. What are you opposing it for? It is a principle that God has established for the human family! Heber C Kimball, Journal of Discourses V:203
I say to those who are elected to go on missions, remember they are not your sheep: they belong to Him that sends you. Then do not make a choice of any of those sheep; do not make selections before they are brought home and put into the fold. You understand that. Amen. Heber C Kimball, Journal of Discourses VI:256
Some of the nations of Europe who believe in the one wife system have actually forbidden a plurality of wives by their laws; and the consequences are that the whole country among them is overrun with the most abomi[na]ble practices. Adulteries and unlawful connections prevail through all their villages, towns, cities, and country places to a most fearful extent. Orson Pratt, The Seer p12
He appeared first to these women, or at least to one of them – namely, Mary Magdalene. Now it would be natural for a husband in the resurrection to appear first to his own dear wives, and afterwards show himself to his other friends ... We have now clearly shown that God, the Father had a plurality of wives, one or more being in eternity, by whom He begat our spirits as well as the spirit of Jesus His First Born ... We have also proved most clearly that the Son followed the example of his Father, and became the great Bridegroom to whom kings’ daughters and many honorable Wives to be married. ibid. p159
This law of monogamy, or the monogamic system, laid the foundation for prostitution and the evils and diseases of the most revolting nature and character under which modern Christendom groans. Orson Pratt, Journal of Discourses XIII:195
... the one-wife system not only degenerates the human family, both physically and intellectually, but it is entirely incompatible with philosophical notions of immortality; it is a lure to temptation, and has always proved a curse to a people. John Taylor, Millennial Star vol 15 p227
We are accused here of polygamy, and actions the most indelicate, obscene, and disgusting, such than [sic] none but a corrupt and depraved heart could have contrived. These things are too outrageous to admit of belief ... Inasmuch as this Church of Jesus Christ has been reproached with the crime of fornication, and polygamy, we declare that we believe that one man should have one wife, and one woman but one husband, except in case of death, when either is at liberty to marry again. John Taylor married to at least twelve women at time of statement 1850
Sometime after dinner we sent for some wine. It has been reported by some that this was taken as a sacrament. It was no such thing; our spirits were generally dull and heavy, and it was sent for to revive us ... I believe we all drank of the wine, and gave some to one or two of the prison guards. John Taylor, History of the Church VII:101
We breathe the free air, we have the best looking men and handsomest women, and if they envy us our position, well they may, for they are a poor, narrow-minded pinch-backed race of men, who chain themselves down to the law of monogamy and live all their days under the dominion of one wife. They ought to be ashamed of such conduct, and the still fouler channel which flows from their practices; and it is not to be wondered at that they should envy those who so much better understand the social relations. George A Smith, The Deseret News 16th April 1856
Beginning in 1841, Joseph Smith took as plural wives several married women, as if exercising a variant of the feudal droit du seigneur: a king’s right to the brides in his domain. This option was presented to the married woman as a favor to her. A woman who wanted higher status in the celestial kingdom could choose to leave a husband with lower status in the church, even if she had been sealed to him, and become sealed to a man higher in authority.
On October 27, 1841, Smith was married for eternity to Zina D Huntington, Henry B Jacob’s wife ... On December 11 1841, the prophet married Zina’s sister, Prescindai Huntington, who had been married to Norman Buell for fourteen years and remained married to Buell until 1846 ...
Smith married Mary Elizabeth Rollins Lightner in February 1842, when she was already married ... Apparently, Smith had planned to marry her long before her marriage to Adam Lightner ... After her celestial marriage to Joseph, Mary lived with Adam Lightner until his death in Utah ... In April 1842, two months after the Lightner ceremony, Nancy Marinda Johnson married Joseph Smith while her husband, Orson Hyde, was on a mission to Jerusalem. George D Smith, cited Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought Spring 10-11, 1994
When that principle was revealed to the Prophet Joseph Smith ... he did not falter, although it was not until an angel of God, with a drawn sword, stood before him; and commanded that he should enter into the practice of that principle, or he should be utterly destroyed, or rejected, that he moved forward to reveal and establish that doctrine. Joseph Fielding Smith ‘Plural Marriage for the Righteous Only – Obedience Imperative – Blessings Resulting’, Journal of Discourses XX:28-29
Some people have supposed that the doctrine of plural marriage was a sort of superfluity, or non-essential to the salvation or exaltation of mankind. In other words, some of the Saints have said, and believe, that a man with one wife, sealed to him by the authority of the Priesthood for time and eternity, will receive an exaltation as great and glorious, if he is faithful, as he possibly could with more than one. I want here to enter my solemn protest against this idea, for I know it is false. There is no blessing promised except upon conditions, and no blessing can be obtained by mankind except by faithful compliance with the conditions, or law, upon which the same is promised. The marriage of one woman to a man for time and eternity by the sealing power, according to the law of God, is a fulfillment of the celestial law of marriage in part – and is good so far as it goes – and so far as a man abides these conditions of the law, he will receive his reward therefor, and this reward, or blessing, he could not obtain on any other grounds or conditions. But this is only the beginning of the law, not the whole of it. Therefore, whoever has imagined that he could obtain the fullness of the blessings pertaining to this celestial law, by complying with only a portion of its conditions, has deceived himself. He cannot do it. ibid. XX:29
My wives will be mine in eternity. Joseph Fielding Smith, Doctrines of Salvation vol 2 p67
The Prophet Joseph Smith there and then explained to me the doctrine of plurality of wives; he said that the Lord had revealed it unto him, and commanded him to have women sealed to him as wives; that he foresaw the trouble that would follow, and sought to turn away from the commandment; that an angel from heaven then appeared before him with a drawn sword, threatening him with destruction unless he went forward and obey the commandment. Lorenzo R Snow, affidavit
Brothers and sisters would marry each other in this church. All our horror at such a union was due entirely to prejudice, and the offspring of such unions would be as healthy and pure as any other. Lorenzo R Snow, sermon 15th July 1886
Others who called themselves Latter Day Saints fled to the West hoping to find sanctuary. Ken Burns, The West II: Empire Upon the Trails, PBS 1996
Everywhere they went, the Mormons gathered converts. And everywhere they went, they made enemies. ibid.
The same year that the Chinese Exclusion Act was passed, Congress also took action against the Mormons in Utah … the Mormon practice of plural marriage. Ken Burns: The West VII: The Geography of Hope
Now, sisters, list to what I say; with trials this world is rife. You can’t expect to miss them all; help husband get a wife! Now this advice I freely give, if exalted you will be, Remember that your husband must, be blessed with more than thee. Chorus: Then, oh, let us say, God bless the wife that strives, And aids her husband all she can to obtain a dozen wives. W G Mills psalm cited Songs of Zion & cited Utah Historical Quarterly p58, 1928
It is a fact worthy of note that the shortest lived nations of which we have record have been monogamic. Rome ... was a monogamic nation and the numerous evils attending that system early laid the foundation for that ruin which eventually overtook her. George Q Cannon, Journal of Discourses XIII:202
Not only were church leaders willing to violate the law to promote polygamy, they did not hesitate to blacken the character of individuals who threatened to expose the secret practice of plural marriage. Sarah Pratt was not the only woman to suffer from this policy. The 27 August 1842 Wasp, for example, branded Martha H Brotherton a ‘mean harlot’ and Nancy Rigdon suffered the same treatment after she opposed Smith’s polygamous proposals ... Jane Law, wife of Smith’s counselor William Law, was also blacklisted for rejecting Smith’s polyandrous proposal. Richard van Wagoner, Mormon Polygamy: A History pp38-29
Though the 1904 Manifesto sought and obtained Mormon confirmation of President Smith’s statements before the Smoot hearings, most Saints knew little of the covert post-Manifesto polygamy that Church leaders had been supporting. ibid. p168