As a personality of the nineteen

In the decades after Joseph Smith's death, hundreds of authors accused him and the Mormons of licentiousness in conjunction with their practice of plural marriage. Below are nearly a hundred examples. Many similar sensationalized allegations can be identified in the historical record.

I have not located any accusations of improper sexual relations leveled at Joseph Smith published prior to 1842, when John C. Bennett wrote his exposé. In other words, no authors were accusing him of being a womanizer before he first introduced plural marriage in Nauvoo in 1840 or for two years thereafter. Writers who allege the Prophet had reputation for womanizing during the 1830s are going beyond all available evidence. Many anti-Mormon pamphlets, books, and articles were prior to 1842, but none accused the Prophet of sexual impropriety.

Concerning the "Mormons" in general, I have encountered only three allegations of possible immorality during that same period.

Year	Witness	Quotation	Reference
1831	Unidentified	“They [the Mormons] have all things in common, and dispense with the marriage covenant.”	Evangelical Magazine and Gospel Advocate, Utica, N.Y., February 5, 1831
1838	Unsigned letter to the editor.	“The citizens of Davies viewed their emigration into their county with a jealous eye, at the very beginning for they were not unaware of the fact of their having been driven from other communities on account of their indecent and immoral habits.”	Missouri Argus, St. Louis, November 8, 1838,
1839	Unidentified	“Resolved, that the principles and practices of the Mormons, tend to vice and immorality…”	Jefferson Republican Jefferson County, Missouri, January 19, 1839, [SSI 1:285]
Post - 1842 and John C. Bennett's Exposé
1842	John C. Bennett quoting Fanny Brewer quoting Martin Harris	“Martin Harris told me that the Prophet was most notorious for lying and licentiousness”	History of the Saints: Or an Exposé of Joe Smith and Mormonism. Boston: Leland & Whiting, 1842, 85.
1842	John C. Bennett	“I can only say that I have not told the tenth part of the Prophet’s licentiousness. Numerous scenes and incidents could not, of course, be related, because of their obscene and disgusting nature, and because they involve the names and future reputation of his victims.”	History of the Saints: Or an Exposé of Joe Smith and Mormonism. Boston: Leland & Whiting, 1842, 225.
1842	John C. Bennett	“Joe Smith had seduced scores of innocent women, and that there is a general system of debauchery and prostitution prevailing amongst the Mormons.”	Illinois Republican, July 20, 1842.
1843	Oliver Olney	“When I came to see with my own eyes and hear with my own ears, I found Nauvoo a sink of iniquity inhabited by a people whose leaders are whoremongers instead of those who I fondly thought were among the first to condemn vice and foster the germs of virtue… I found Nauvoo a sink of iniquity… “Hundreds of honest hearted females are there [in Nauvoo], who have no means with which to get away, and scarce any means of subsistence there, except at the expense of virtue, and who are continually subject to the importunities of those fiends in human shape who, after having gratified their passion for lust, will straightway, upon the public stand, declare before God and the Angels, that no system of spiritual wifery is practiced or tolerated by them… “Think not, my readers, that this is a fancy piece, or the suggestions of an overexcited imagination, for it is but a few out of thousands of testimonies that might be brought to show that virtue and truth have fled from their midst, and vice, in almost every form, has stalked forth, and holds, unchecked by any pure principle, the sway over almost the entire community… “Hundreds are convinced of the fact that fornication and adultery [are] common in the Nauvoo… Many at this time are suffering under the stigma of being seduced.”	The Absurdities of Mormonism Portrayed: A Brief Sketch, Hancock, Co: Illinois, March 3, 1843, 5, 7, 16
1843	George Peck	“Joe Smith’s… success in imposture has emboldened this originally stupid villain… [Mormonism’s] principles have long been fundamentally atheistic, and now it openly courts the favor of organized infidelity.”	“Mormonism and the Mormons," Methodist Quarterly Review, volume 25, series 3, January, 1843, 117. [111-27]
1843	Henry Caswall	“[Joseph Smith] taught the doctrine, that ‘the blessings of Jacob were granted to him;’ in consequence of which he asserted that he might indulge, like David and Solomon, in unrestricted polygamy. In conformity with these instructions of their infallible head, many English and American women, whose husbands or fathers had been sent by the prophet on distant missions, were induced to become his ‘spiritual wives,’ ‘believing it to be the will of God.’”	The Prophet of the Nineteenth Century, or, the Rise, Progress, and Present State of the Mormons…London: J.G.F. and J. Rivington, 1843, 226.
1844	William Law et al	“We are earnestly seeking to explode the vicious principles of Joseph Smith, and those who practice the same abominations and whoredoms.”	Nauvoo Expositor, vol 1, no.1 page 1, June 7, 1844.
1844	Joseph H. Jackson	“Joe Smith boasted to me that he… from the commencement of his career had seduced 400 women… “If protection could be afforded to some of those females who were the victims of these wretches (the leaders in Nauvoo,) I could, I believe, from their own mouths, procure confessions that would startle the world. I have visited frequently, those women whom Joe supported for the gratification of his lust – I have found them subsisting on the coarsest food, and not daring to utter a word of complaint, for they feared Joe Smith more than they did their God. I have appealed to the finer feelings of their nature, and seen them weep as children, when dwelling on the degraded state to which their credulity had reduced them… “From my knowledge of the spiritual wife system I should think that the number of secret women in Nauvoo cannot be much less than six hundred.”	A Narrative of the Adventures and Experiences of Joseph H. Jackson in Nauvoo, (1844); reprinted for Karl Yost, Morrison, Illinois, 1960, 13, 25.
1844	Thomas Ford	“It was also believed, that Joseph Smith had announced a revelation from heaven, sanctioning polygamy, by some kind of spiritual-wife system, which I never could well understand; but at any rate, whereby a man was allowed one wife in pursuance of the laws of the country, and an indefinite number of others, to be enjoyed in some mystical and spiritual mode; and that he himself, and many of his followers, had practiced upon the precepts of this revelation, by seducing a large number of women.”	Journal of the Senate of the Fourteenth General Assembly of the State of Illinois, Springfield: Walters and Weber, December 23, 1844, 94.
1844	George T. M. Davis	“The most obnoxious and licentious traits in [Joseph Smith’s] character, I have studiously refrained from alluding to, with a view of excluding from these pages everything like obscenity… Though he has outraged every feeling of decency and humanity, in the gratification of his beastly propensities.”	An Authentic Account of the Massacre of Joseph Smith, St. Louis: Chambers and Knapp, 1844, 47
1844	Robert Baird	The Mormons were guilty of “the grossest of all the delusions that Satanic malignity or human ambition ever sought to propagate.”	Religion in the United States of America, Glasgow, England: Blackie and Son, 1844, 654.
1844	Samuel Bennett	“We must conclude, that he [Joseph Smith] transgressed the law of God; the question then arises, how did he transgress the law of God? I answer, he taught the doctrine that a man could have ten wives; the Lord has declared ‘thou shalt have one wife, and cleave unto her and none else.’ Joseph taught that David did not sin in having many wives, only in the case of Uriah.”	“To the Members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints,” The Latter-day Saint’s Messenger and Advocate, vol. I, no. 2, (November 1, 1844).
1844 (or later)[1]	John Whitmer	“In the fall of 1836, Joseph Smith, Jr., Sidney Rigdon and others of the leaders of the Church at Kirtland, Ohio… lusted after the forbidden things of God, such as covetousness, and in secret combinations, spiritual-wife doctrine, that is plurality of wives.”	John Whitmer History, Chapter 20, quoted in Bruce N. Westergren, editor of From Historian to Dissident: The Book of John Whitmer, (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1995, 83.)
1845	Edward Brotherton	“Suffice it to say, that it is clearly established that a system of all but universal female prostitution exists at Nauvoo, as a secret regulation of the church, none but the faithful being permitted to have the privilege.”	Mormonism: Its Rise and Progress and the Prophet Joseph Smith, Manchester: 1845, 15.
1849	George Frederick Augustus Ruxton	“One of their tenets was the faith in spiritual matrimony. No woman, it appeared, would be admitted into heaven, unless passed by a Saint. To qualify them for this, it was necessary that the woman should first be received by the guaranteeing Mormon, as An earthly wife… The consequence of this state of things may be imagined. The most debasing immorality was the precept of the order and an air of universal concubinage existed among the sect… Their disregard to the laws of decency and morality was such, as could not be tolerated in any class of civilized society.”	Life in the far West, Edinburgh and London, William Blackwood and Sons [1849], 274-75.
1849	[n.a.]	Says that the wealth in Nauvoo “was the direct result of a most extensive and successful system of robbery, and operations in base coinage and other counterfeits… and the “spiritual wifeism’ was neither more or less than rank adultery… [under the system a man] might have as many spiritual wives as he liked, though from three to six were the average numbers.”	An Authentic History of Remarkable Persons, New York: Wilson and Company: 1849, 7.
1850	John Frere	“[Latter-day Saints] founded their City of Nauvoo, and built an enormous temple… where they established a mockery of religion, consisting in burlesque imitations of holy things, in preaching, praying, prophesying, and dancing.”	A Short History of the Mormonites; or Latter Day Saints, London, Joseph Masters, 1850, 20.
1850	[n.a.]	“It was stated that Joe’s death was ordained of the Lord, on account of his transgressions; that he did not apostatize, but that he “wrought abominations,” and was therefore deemed unfit to direct “the kingdom,” and share in the triumphs. The “transgression” consisted in his introducing what Smith called the “spiritual wife” system, by which each elder was allowed to have ten wives. It is alleged that, under Smith’s rule, this system of “spiritual wives” was universally prevalent at Nauvoo; and if so, it forms a more tangible and definite ground for the animosity exhibited by the surrounding population.”	California: Its Past History, Its Present Position, Its Future Prospects, London: n.p. 1850, 208.
1851	F. B. Ashby	“[Joseph Smith] taught that… he had Divine authority for indulging in polygamy. And he induced several American and English women whose husbands or fathers he had sent on distant missions to become his spiritual wives, or ‘ladies of the white veil.’”	Mormonism: an Exposure of the Impositions, London: John Hatchard, 1851, 8.
1851	Charles Mackay	“It is utterly incredible that Joseph Smith, who, great impostor as he was, never missed an opportunity to denounce seducers and adulterers as unfit to enter into his church, should have been concerned directly or indirectly in proceedings like these [of seducing women and spiritual wifery].”	The Mormons, or Latter-day Saints; with memoirs of the Life and Death of Joseph Smith., the American Mahomet. Edited by Charles Mackay. Fourth edition, London, 1851159.
1851	“Providence”	Says Joseph Smith “very generously allowed his chief supporters polygamy, provided the additional wives… and the marriage ceremony was performed by himself This privilege was of course unmentioned in any of the sacred writings, and extended at Smith’s good pleasure.”	American Whig Review, Vo. 13, p. 554, (June 1851), New York, 559.
1852	John W. Gunnison	“[Joseph Smith was] denounced… for licentiousness, drunkenness, and tyranny. Women impeached him of attempted seduction.”	The Mormons, or Latter-Day Saints, in the Valley of the Great Salt Lake. Philadelphia: Lippincott, Grambo, 1852, 122.
1852	R. W. Mac	“The two Law brothers “had become alarmed at the sensuality of the Prophet, and the open encouragement which he gave to a system of polygamy… Suspicious husbands and father found it necessary to arm themselves, for the purpose of guarding their wives and daughter from the seductive arts of the Prophet and his twelve apostles.”	American Whig Review, New York: Wiley and Putnam, Mar-Apr-June-Dec 1852. [I don’t have page numbers]
1852	“A Country Clergyman”	“To avoid the charge of adultery, [Joseph Smith and his followers] invented a strange doctrine; namely, that men may have “spiritual wives” besides their regularly married wife.”	The Mormonites, or Latter-day Saints, London: Wertheim and MacIntosh
1852	C. Lee	“The Mormons are said to have professed (certainly some of their professors practiced) a gross polygamy, or still worse than this, a communism of wives which they sanctioned under the name of ‘The spiritual wife doctrine”… Where there was so much smoke it is more than possible there was some fire.”	Mormonism. A sketch of its rise and Progress..., Derby England: W. Rowbottom [no page number]
1853	Dawson Burns	“From… in contestable testimony, nothing is more certain than the appalling social demoralization and degradation, into which Mormonism, like a monster whirlpool, is drawing its myriads of members… Here, polygamy, with all its train of curses is elevated into a religious ordinance and duty.”	Dawson Burns, Mormonism, Explained and Exposed, London: Houlston and Stoneman, 1853, 28, 30.
1853	A. M. Pigott	“One of the most remarkable of their doctrines, and one which has caused their expulsion from several American States, is called the spiritual wife system. Gross and revolting as it is, I am bound to bring it before you, so as to exhibit Mormonism in all its impurity. The doctrine is, that a married woman is under no obligation to her husband, but may take as a spiritual husband any Mormon Elder.”	Mormonism: Its History, Doctrines, and Practices, London: Aldine Chambers and Paternoster Row, 1853, 51.
1853	Edmund Clay	“[Joseph Smith] died in disgrace and infamy, a profane and ignorant impostor, palming himself off on the credulous and designing as a prophet sent from God – a deliberate, cold-blooded, persevering deceiver, possessed neither of talent nor originality, whose insane ravings, gross ignorance, and blasphemous assertions were only equaled by the loathsome profligacy, reckless duplicity, and grasping selfishness of his daily life… The life of Smith, from his earliest years to the moment of his death, is stained by the grossest crimes. There is not even recorded of him any redeeming qualities. Living by craft, deceit, and robbery, yet pretending to the closest communion with Him whose eyes cannot look upon iniquity… a low and profligate being – alternately a “bankrupt, adulterer, seducer, drunkard, and deceiver,” could such a wretch come from that great God whose highest attribute is that of holiness?”	The Doctrine and Practices of “The Mormons,” and the Immoral Character of Their Prophet Joseph Smith, London: Wertheim and Macintosh, 1853, 14-16.
1853	Sparrow Simpson	“Gross and revolting as it is, I am bound to bring it before you, so as to exhibit Mormonism in all its impurity. The doctrine is that a married woman is under no obligation to her husband, but may take as a spiritual husband any Mormon elder.”	Mormonism: Its History, Doctrines and Practices, London, A.M. Pigoot, 1853, 51
1853	Edward John Bell	“It would seem that Mrs. [Emma] Smith was not quite prepared for admitting others to share so largely in her connubial rights, and threatened, as any virtuous woman would, to leave Mr. Smith and his many wives to enjoy the delights of the Harem without her.”	Latter-day Delusions or the inconsistencies of Mormonism, Norwich, England: Thomas Priest, 1853, 14:
1854	Benjamin G. Ferris	“The most fruitful element of internal commotion… was the introduction of polygamy as one of the numerous privileges of the Saints. This extraordinary addition to the curious collection of Mormon doctrines and practices grew legitimately out of the character of Joseph himself, which was a combination of cunning and sensuality… “The remarkable tenacity of purpose which he exhibited under discouraging circumstances, and the apparent sincerity of his professions, have been suggested as evidence that he was really a religious enthusiast, who became the victim of his own delusions… “[Joseph Smith’s] death was not at the hands of Gentile persecutors, but at those of… The husband whose wife had been dishonored – the brother whose sister had been seduced… “[Polygamy] grew out of the polluted mind of the prophet, who established it as an institution of the Church to legalize his own licentiousness, and the effect has been to diffuse the poison from a portion through nearly the whole mass.”	Utah and the Mormons, The History, Government, Doctrines, Customs, and Prospects of the Latter-day Saints. New York: Harper and Brothers, 1854, 113, 130-31, 134, 235.
1854	Thomas Ford	“It was also believed that [Joseph Smith] had announced a revelation from heaven sanctioning polygamy, by a kind of spiritual wife system whereby a man was allowed one wife in pursuance of the laws of the country and an indefinite number of others to be enjoyed in some mystical and spiritual mode; and that he himself and many of his followers had practiced upon the precepts of this revelation by seducing a large number of women.”	History of Illinois From Its Commencement as a State in 1818 to 1847, reprint Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1995, 229; original 1854.
1854	Thomas L. Nichols	“The Mormon prophet, Joe Smith, engrafted the spiritual wife system, upon the religion of Christianity, that he might draw around him numbers of men and women, who require a sanction for the indulgence of their appetites.”	Woman in All Ages and Nations, New York: Fowlers and Wells, 1854, 105
1855	n.a.	“It was in this temple that the abominations of Mormonism were practiced, -- the spiritual unions contracted – and the spiritual marriages celebrated. Smith now pursued a course of the grossest licentiousness; and being fearful, that even his infatuated followers would be unable to reconcile such iniquitous proceedings, with the purity which ought to be the distinguishing feature is the character of one professing to be a “Prophet” of the Lord, he resorted again to a revelation, in which, he wickedly represents the Almighty, no only as justifying his sins, but blessing him because he committed them.”	The Most Complete Authentic Exposure Ever Publishes of the Spiritual Courtship and Marriage of the Mormons…, London: Hewitt, 1855 (Flake 5651).
1855	Thomas Low Nichols	“The doctrine of ‘spiritual wifery’, taught and practiced at Nauvoo, by which the most beautiful of the female saints, both married and single, were by a species of solemn consecration set apart as the concubines of the Mormon leaders, gave great offense.”	Religions of the World, Cincinnati: Valentine Nicholson and Co., 1855, 98.
1856	n.a.	“Dissolute in his youth and only moral in obedience to the necessities of imposture during his early manhood, he was rapidly relapsing into licentious excesses during the latter years of his life.”	“The Book of Mormon,” The British Quarterly, vol. 23 p62 (Jan. 1856).
1857	Solomon Nunes Carvalho	Tells of a case in Nauvoo where two men exchanged wives because they were not spiritual mated.	Incidents of Travel and Adventure in the Far West, London: n.p. [no #]
1857	Fred Gerhard	“[Joseph Smith] instituted a female order, called “Spiritual Wives;” revealing this doctrine, that no woman could be “sealed up to eternal life,” except by selecting a Mormon elder, with whom she was to share at least one her bed; and that any man was allowed to have one wife, and yet, at the same time, in a mystical, spiritual way, might enjoy the possession of many others… [Joseph Smith was] the most daring imposter in modern times, and by many of the Puritan stock believed to have been the very incarnation of Satan… The animal nature largely preponderating in the man, he had not the genius to form an6 vast and comprehensive plans for the future; but whatever he did, was merely intended for present convenience, and gratification of his beastly lusts and desires.”	Illinois as it is, Chicago: Keen and Lee, 1857, 110, 114-15.
1857	n.a.	“The ruin of many once happy families, demands the instant organization of Christian fathers, husbands and brothers, throughout England, America, and all those lands who natives have suffered, with the view to suppress effectually the new Sodom established by Mormon impostures at Utah…”	n.a. Appalling disclosures! Mormon revelations, being the history of fourteen females… (Flake 185a) London: H. Elliot, 1857?
1857	Frederick Gerhard	“[Joseph Smith] instructed a female order, called “spiritual wives,” revealing this doctrine, that no woman could be “sealed up to eternal life,” except by selecting a Mormon elder, with whom she was to share at least once her bed.”	Illinois as It Is, Chicago: Keen and Lee [no page number]
1857	Samuel Hawthornthwaithe	States that Emma adopted five orphan girls and two of them were turned out because of scandals with Joseph.	Mr. Hawthornthwaithe’s Adventures Among the Mormons, Manchester: by the author, 1857, 51.
1858	John C. Van Tramp	“Talks of polygamy, debauchery, theft, and murder, were told of the Mormons [in Missouri], and their utter expulsion from the state was demanded… Sidney Rigdon and others began to receive monstrous revelations, and among other things was authority for one man to have several ‘spiritual wives,’ a doctrine which has now become settled as correct, and which is manifested by polygamy openly practiced and defended.”	Prairie and Rocky Mountain Adventures, Columbus: Missouri, J. and H. Miller, 313-38,
1858	John Theobald	“Smith’s Spiritual-Wife System, proves him not a very holy prophet, and certainly not sent of God, but an unclean fellow… It is clearly established, that a system of all but universal female prostitution existed at Nauvoo, as a secret revelation of the church, none but the faithful being permitted ot have the privilege. They teach that this system is what we are to understand by the blessings of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. It was from this system of adultery that the commotion arose which issued in the death of the prophet, Joseph Smith… Smith fell a victim to his unbridled lust.”	Mormonism Harpooned, London: W. Horsell, 185817, 19.
1859	George Frederick Ruxton	“One of their [Latter-day Saints] tenets was the faith in ‘spiritual matrimony.’ No woman, it appeared, would be admitted into heaven unless “passed” by a saint. To qualify them for this, it was necessary that the woman should first be received by the guaranteeing Mormon as an “earthly wife,” in order that he did not pass in any of whom he had no knowledge. The consequence of this state of things may be imagined. The most debasing immorality was a precept of the order, and an almost universal concubinage existed among the sect.”	Life in the Far West, New York, Harper and Brothers, 1859
1860	Samuel M. Smucker	“This doctrine [of polygamy] had its sole origin in the lust and sensuality of the founder of Mormonism, and it has had its strongest defense and perpetuity in the same qualities of his successors. Smith pretended to receive the Bible as authoritative when he first stet up as a prophet… Where was the necessity for giving polygamy so great a prominence in the new system, unless it was to minister to the lusts of the leaders of the imposture?”	Life Among the Mormons, or the Religious, Social, and Political History of the Mormons, New York: Hurst and Co., first edition 1860, 413
1862	Sir Richard Burton	In his 1862 historical narrative, The City of the Saints, Sir Richard Burton penned.: “There is a prevailing idea, especially in England, and even the educated are laboring under it, that the Mormon are communists or socialist… that wives are in public, and that a woman can have as many husbands as the husband can have wives – in fact, to speak colloquially, that they ‘all pig together.’”	The City of the Saints, and Across the Rocky Mountains to California, 1860. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1862,, 426.
1867	Pomeroy Tucker	“Joe Smith” [had] “forty wives all told. His children could not be enumerated with any degree of accuracy.”	The Origin, Rise, and Progress of Mormonism. New York: D. Appleton and Co., 1867, 171.
1869	“correspondent”	“It has been proved by a great many witnesses, some of whom, now leading men in the Brighamite church, made affidavits to the fact, which were placed on file in the archives of the State of Illnois, and therefore could not be destroyed by them when they fell into the arms of Brigham Young, that a promiscuous intercourse of the sexes was carried on at Nauvoo by Joseph Smith and his leading men, and that a woman had several husbands as well as a husband several wives.”	“The Mormon Church War,” Daily Evening Bulletin, San Francisco, September 1, 1869.
1870	John Hanson Beadle	“It is a notorious fact, that almost from the first, the Prophet had used his powers of fascination to triumph over the virtue of his female devotees, and had anticipated polygamy in accordance with revelation, by unauthorized promiscuous intercourse. His intrigues with various women had involved the rising sect in constant trouble at Kirtland and in Missouri… “[Polygamy] seems to have been merely the Mormon version of modern ‘free-loveism.’”	Life in Utah: Or, the Mysteries and Crimes of Mormonism. Philadelphia: National Publishing Co., 1870, 339-41.
1873	Henry Howe	“In order to more readily gratify his passim and to make his very lusts minister to the advancement of his power [he] proclaimed that he had received a revelation from heaven, not only justifying a plurality of wives, but even making it the duty of the saints to take a number of virgins to wife, and lead them on to heaven.”	Historical Collection of the Great West, Cincinnati, H. Howe, 1873 (1^st ed. 1851), 542.
1877	Alexander Davidson	“A female order previously existing in the Church, called spiritual wives, was modified so as to suit the licentiousness of the prophet. A doctrine was revealed that it was impossible for a woman to get to heaven except as the wife of a Mormon Elder”	A Complete History of Illinois from 1673 to 1873, Springfield: Journal Co., 1877, 501.
1877	Ballard S. Dunn	“Joseph Smith… desired many wives; because, to a sensual, fanatical, emotional nature like his, sexuality was the chief good. The same kind of desire that blinded the eyes of David in the matter with Bathsheba produced in Joseph Smith the expectancy which resulted in the revelation to take may wives.”	How to Solve the Mormon Problem, New York: American News Company, 1877, 7.
1877	Alexander Davidson and Bernard Stuve	[In 1844] a female order previously existing in the church, called spiritual wives, was modified so as to suit the licentiousness of the prophet. A doctrine was revealed that it was impossible for a woman to get to heaven except as the wife of a Mormon elder; that each elder might marry as many women as he could maintain, and that any female might be sealed to eternal life by becoming their concubine. This licentiousness, the origin of polygamy in the church, they endeavored to justify by an appeal to Abraham, Jacob and other favorites of God in a former age of the world.	A Complete History of Illinois from 1673 to 1873, Springfield, Illinois, D. L. Phillips, 1877, 501.
1879		“The greatest mountebank and imposter that ever disgraced the cause of Christian religion… was Joseph Smith the Mormon Prophet.”	History of Lee County, Iowa, Containing a History of the County… Chicago: Western Historical Company, 1879 465-483.
1881	John Hanson Beadle	“It is clearly proved that unlawful sexual relations were maintained by the Prophet from the very start. Unless all the women who left the Church in those early days have testified to a lie, he claimed sexual freed for himself as long ago as 1834.”^{^[2]}	Western Wilds, The Emn Who Redeem Them, Cincinnati: Jones Brothers, 1881, 540.
1881	“Historicus”	“Emma Smith, Joseph’s wife, had a young girl in her employment, by the name of Fanny Olger or Alger. It was at the time the present Joseph Smith [III] was an infant (he was born in November, 1832) and in consequence of the free-loveism of the prophet, Emma’s recovery was very much retarded, and for several months she was in a very low condition. She discovered that Joseph had been celestializing with this maiden, Fanny, who acknowledged the truth, but Joseph denied it in toto, and stigmatized the statement of the girl, as a base fabrication. Emma, of course, believed the girl, as she was very well aware that no confidence could be placed in her husband, and she became terribly worked up about it. She was like a mad woman, and acted so violently that Oliver Cowdery and some other elder were called in to minister to her, and cast the devil out of sister Emma.”[3]	Anti-Polygamy Standard, Salt Lake City: The Ladies Anti-Polygamy Society of Utah, April, 1881 [no page number]
1881	Linus Pierpont Brockett	“The moral condition of Utah is very low. So far as the distinctive Mormon institution – polygamy – is concerned, it could not well be worse. Licentiousness in all its worst forms, is openly sustained under the forms of polygamous marriage, and incest of the grossest character is not uncommon. There is, among the Mormon population, nothing of the family relation, and the Mormon youth, the boys, especially, are early taught the most atrocious depravity.”	Our Western Empire; or, the New West Beyond the Mississippi, Philadelphia: Bradley, Garretson and Co., 1186.
1882	Jennie Anderson Froiseth	“Joseph Smith, while in Nauvoo had entered into criminal relations with a number of his female disciples, and the scandal because so notorious as to threaten his influence and compromise him as a leader and teacher of religion, when he pretended to have had a revelation from Heaven commanding the Saint to adopt what Is termed, “The order of celestial or plural wives… “From the very first the majority of the women had considered the ‘revelation’ in it true light – a cloak to cover immorality – and in many cases they were strongly supported by their husbands. But the authority of the church was so complete, and the influence of Joseph so great, that the infatuation soon became uncontrollable. “There are women living in Salt lake City in this year of grace, 1882, who were secret plural wives to Joseph Smith or Brigham Young, deceiving their own husbands, because they dared not brave the prophet’s anger and its consequences.”	The Women of Mormonism: the Story of Polygamy, Detroit: C.G.G. Paine, 1882, 33, 35, 37-38.
1884	Clark Braden	“Dr. McIntyre, family physician of the Smith’s in Manchester, N.Y., declares that the house of Joseph Smith, Sr., was a perfect brothel… “Ezra Pierce, Samantha Payne and other schoolmates and associates of the Smith’s testify that Smith was lewd and so were the family and the entire money hunting gang, and that the digging was done at night by a gang of low men surrounded by lewd women, who loafed in the daytime and prowled around at night, and that the Smiths were the worst of the gang. A sister of Joe left New York enceinte [enceinte] and unmarried… “At one time he had in the Mansion House eleven girls, that he called his daughters, saying that he had adopted them to take care of them. His wife left the house and he had to dismiss his harem, to silence the scandal, and get his wife back… “We could quote the affidavits of scores of men and women that positively swear that they knew of his lewdness with scores of women… Joe had had scores of spiritual wives before this [1842], but without the farce of a ceremony of marriage… Smith’s character for fraud, lying, cheating and deception were notorious all his life. The impudence of persons who will appeal the denials of such a person in the face of hundreds of witnesses whose testimony is clear and direct, is idiotic.”	Braden and Kelley Debate, Public Discussion of the Issues Between The Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and The Church of Christ (Disciples) Held in Kirtland, Ohio, Beginning February 12, and Closing March 8, 1884 Between E. L. Kelley, of the Reorganized [p.264] Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and Clark Braden, of the Church of Christ. St. Louis: Clark Braden, 1884, 202-06
1885	Joseph Johnson	“When the Prophet Smith desired to take a second and many wives, and when his companions were similarly evilly disposed, he had a convenient revelation, his usual custom when purposing any wrong, or immoral indulgence.”	The Great Mormon Fraud, Manchester, Butterworth and Nodal, 1885, 16.
1885	J. E. Stephenson	“As early as 1835, I think, I was told that Brother Joseph was quietly, cautiously, and to a select few, advocating the doctrine of spiritual wifery. I learned from them that prophet Joseph Smith, with a few others would frequently resort to the upper room in the [Kirtland] Temple each accompanied by a female friend, and, in view of their sinliness [sic] and holiness, would adopt the garb worn by Adam and Eve before their fall and would continue their sessions long into the night. One of the favorites was Eliza Snow, who before her connection with the Mormon church acquired considerable literary fame as a prose writer and poetess.”	Stephenson, J. E., Statement January 7, 1885 in Deming, Naked Truths about Mormonism, Oakland, California: Deming and Co., 1888, page 3, column 3.
1886	Wilhelm Wyl quoting Sarah Pratt	“[Joseph Smith] had many more [than eighty wives], my dear sir; at least he had seduced many more. He had mostly intercourse with married women… He had a terrible influence over women… Many pure and good women, who never would have fallen, became his victims through his prophetic pretensions.”	Mormon Portraits, or the Truth About Mormon Leaders From 1830 to 1886. Salt Lake City: Tribune Printing and Publishing Co., 1886, 54, 61, 90.
1886	Wilhelm Wyl quoting “Mrs. P”	“[Joseph Smith] sometimes seduced mothers to keep them quiet about his connection with their daughters.”	Mormon Portraits, or the Truth About Mormon Leaders From 1830 to 1886. Salt Lake City: Tribune Printing and Publishing Co., 1886, 54
1886	Wilhelm Wyl quoting Sarah Pratt	“As to the rest of the ladies, fifteen in number, Mrs. Pratt states that the prophet had seduced most of them before the date of the declaration, October 1, 1842. ‘He had a terrible influence over women,’ says Mrs. Pratt. ‘Many pure and good women, who never would have fallen, became his victims through his prophet pretension.’” (Italics in original..)	Mormon Portraits, or the Truth About Mormon Leaders From 1830 to 1886. Salt Lake City: Tribune Printing and Publishing Co., 1886, 90.
1886	Wilhelm Wyl	“[Joseph Smith] seduced a goodly number of wives and daughter of his immediate slaves, the apostles.”	Mormon Portraits, or the Truth About Mormon Leaders From 1830 to 1886. Salt Lake City: Tribune Printing and Publishing Co., 1886, 146.
1886	William A. Wood	Regarding quarrels in 1838 in Far West, Missouri, “These were first produced by the actions of the so-called prophet Smith and his immediate circle of counselors who made pretended revelations an excuse and shield for many licentious and immoral acts of their own and their friends.”	“An Old Mormon City in Missouri,” Magazine of American History, vol. 6:98 (Jul 1886).
1887	William Law	“[Joseph] Smith admired and lusted after many men's wives and daughters… He was a tyrant; self-exaltation and gratification of his grosser passions with an entire disregard of other’s rights. “	Letter written January 20, 1887; cited in “The Mormons in Nauvoo: Three Letters from William Law on Mormonism, The Daily Tribune: Salt Lake City, July 3, 1887.
1888	Warren Smith	“I have often see Jo Smith, Rigdon, P. P. Pratt, Orson Hyde and other men with a lot of women go into the temple and hold private meetings in the upper story.”	Warren Smith Affidavit,” In Naked Truths About Mormonism, 1888, page 203, col. 3-1.
1888	Henry Carroll	“It was claimed all things were common, even to free love, among the Mormons at Kirtland.”	Henry Carroll Affidavit,” In Naked Truths About Mormonism, 1888, page 203, col. 3-6.
1889	Benjamin Winchester	“About the time of this organization there was a good deal of scandal prevalent among a number of the Saints concerning Joseph's licentious conduct, this more especially among the women. Joseph's name was then connected with scandalous relations with two or three families… “It was a subject of common talk among many good people in Nauvoo that many of the elders were sent off on missions merely to get them out of the way, and that Joseph Smith, John C. Bennett and other prominent Church lights had illicit intercourse with the wives of a number of the missionaries, and that the revelation on spiritual marriage, i.e. polygamy, was gotten up to protect themselves from scandal.”	“Primitive Mormonism,” The Salt Lake Daily Tribune, September 22, 1889, 2.
1890	Marcus Whitman Montgomery	“Many accounts came to the public of Smith’s shocking immoralities, and of the secret practice of polygamy by himself and many of his boon companions. These things became notorious… The immorality that prevailed at Nauvoo was shocking. The worst feature of it was that the example was set by Joseph Smith himself, and by those who stood nearest to him… their distinguishing wickedness was their licentiousness… At Nauvoo he sought the ruin of the wives and daughters of his flock…	The Mormon Delusion; its History, Doctrines and the Outlook in Utah, Boston: Congregational Sunday School, 50-54.
1894	Irving Berdine Richman	“The steps in [polygamy’s] development were substantially as follows. Certain elders who were regretting that their union with their wives, in whom they had chanced to be exceptionally fortunate, would terminate wit the present life, conceived the novel idea of being remarried for eternity. A ceremony to this end accordingly was performed. Thereupon certain other elders, whose conjugal relations were not satisfactory, suggested that there be permitted to lighten their burden by contracting with some of their sisters in the faith, more congenial to them than their wives, an alliance actually to be enjoyed only n the world to come, but prospectively to be enjoyed here. No objection being made to this proposal, it was carried out… The lines between virtue and license, before sharply drawn, grew more and more indistinct. Spiritual companionship for the world to come, deriving its sanction from our earthly priesthood might (it was thought) under the same sanction, be antedated and put to actual test here… a wife in fact was supplemented by one in spirit who in easy transition became one in fact also.”	John Brown among the Quakers, Des Moines: The Historical Department of Iowa, 1894, 163-64.
1898	Alonzo Manfield Bullock	“In Utah was the mask thrown off, and the “Affectionate Spirit” (Free-loveism) of Ohio, the “Spiritual wife” system of Missouri and Illinois, because the “Plural Marriage” of Utah.”	Mormonism and the Mormons: An Epitome, Meansha, Wisconsin: The Breeze Printing Company, 1898, 25
1898	A. T. Schroeder	“The natural weakness of the flesh probably made it easy for [Joseph Smith] to accept the teachings and spirit of free love, and he announced even before becoming a Prophet, that he did not consider adultery a crime.”	Some Facts Concerning Polygamy, Salt Lake City: n.p., 1898, 3:
1899	S.J.S. Davis	Speaking of the Kirtland days: “The membership continued to increase, but as the female members far exceeded the males in number, Smith began to have some strange revelations. WE will not mention these revelations in detail, but the crowning iniquity of them all was the ‘Incarnated Catechism,’ or the form of inquiry as to the eligibility of applicants for communion, which, as described to me, was too shocking in indecency to allow of publication.”	Origin of the Book of Mormon together with an account of the Rise and Progress of the Mormon church, Louisville, Kentucky: Pentecostal Publishing, 1899, 42-43.
1900	Duncan James McMillan	“To cover up [charges of immorality against the Prophet] the doctrine of spiritual marriages and the practice of polygamy began to be justified under certain restrictions as early as 1836.”	Historical Sketch of Mormonism, New York City: League for Social Service, [c.a.1900]
1900	Thomas Gregg	“Fifteen years from the time I met [Joseph Smith] at the printing office [1829], he had become a millionaire, notwithstanding his harem of numerous spiritual wives and concubines.”	Thomas Gregg, The Prophet of Palmyra, New York: John B. Alden, 1890, 40, quoting S. S. Harding.
1900	Edgar Estes Folk	States that during the early days at Kirtland, there was “a disposition to free loveism among the Saints.”	The Mormon Monster, Chicago: Fleming H. Revell Co., 26.
1902	Foster Walker	“A family (whose name I wish to withhold) came into the county over 60 years ago and settled a few miles from the sacred city, and gave tithes with a liberal hand towards erecting the temple and were counted good Saints; always went to religious services, and fully believed in the seer, Joseph. The prophet of the Lord wanted one of the daughters of the family to wife (he then had his wife Emma and several children). So he took into his confidence one of the faithful and proceeded to the family domicile and no one being present except the mother and daughter—then a prepossessing lass of 17 and very beautiful—he made known his errand and called on God as witness to manifest his revelation. The mother, in scathing terms denounced the prophet and his elder; and, on being remonstrated with for her folly in resisting the revelations of the Lord. She sailed in on the Lord's prophet, smashing his plug hat and breaking a broomstick (the only weapon at hand) over his head, and he, with the elder, got out. The church lost two members.”	"The Mormons in Hancock County: Facts in Regard to the Turbulent Times—Gentiles Have Been Sadly Misrepresented," Published serially on consecutive Thursdays in the newspaper The Review (Dallas City, Hancock County, Illinois), March 13, 1902 through March 12, 1903, May 29, 1902 issue.
1903	John T. Bridwell	“Joseph Smith was the author of the “revelation” on polygamy. He both taught it and practiced it. His sole authority was his own lusts.”	“Origin of American Polygamy,”The Arena: The World’s Leading Review, May 1903, 471.
1904	John R. Haldeman	“Those advocating Sealing, and who attempted to perpetuate the marriage relation, eternally, were guilty of an innovation, and alike all other things not ordained of God, doomed to end in disaster.”	Origin of Polygamy Among the Latter-day Saints, Independence, Missouri: Church of Christ (Temple Lot), 1904.
1904	James Vincent Coombs	“Joseph Smith, the ‘seer,’ was a practical polygamist both at Kirtland, Ohio, and in Missouri; i.e. as opportunity offered, he enjoyed what were afterwards called the ‘blessings of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.”	Religious Delusion: Studies of the False Faiths To-Day, Cincinnati: The Standard Publishing Co., 1904 [no .#]
1906	Lillian Dauskin	Speaking of the Church in Kirtland, Ohio: “it would soon have gone to wreck on the rocks of Smith’s licentiousness… had not a young man by the name of Brigham Young… become allied with the church at this time.”	“Nauvoo in Illinois History,” paper presented before the Chapter of Daughters of the American Revolution, Jacksonville Daily Journal, Nov 18, 1906
1913	Winifred Graham	“To cover immorality, the doctrine of spiritual wives and polygamy began to be justified, under some restrictions, in 1838… To set these blunders right, every man might exercise the privileges of a husband towards another woman, thus sanctioning ‘free love.’”	The Mormons, London, 1913, 8.
1918	Theodore Calvin Pease	“It is possible that men like the Smiths, who were prone to use their spiritual authority for their pecuniary advantage, did not refrain from using it to win over women devotees who took their fancy.”	The Frontier State 1818-1848, Springfield, Illinois, Illinois Centennial Commission, 1918, 346.
1919	George Seibel	“There is awful evidence of immoralities practiced by Smith and others at Nauvoo, and perhaps earlier.. A man might wed as many ‘spiritual’ wives as he could persuade to enter into that relation with him, while they might at the same time be the temporal wives of other men.”	The Mormon Saints: The Story of Joseph Smith…” Pittsburg: Lessing Company, 1919, 77-78.
1919	William Earl LaRue	“Polygamy is one of the foulest blots upon the pages of American history. It revives a barbarous practice in the midst of a Christian civilization; it turns love into lust; men into despots and women into slaves; it desecrates the family hearth; it is contrary to the law of our physical and moral being; it is a sin against society and a crime against God… Polygamy was the crowning iniquity of all the iniquities perpetrated by Joseph Smith, and this fruit of his life and teaching stamps him as one of the vilest of the false Prophets of ancient or modern times.”	The Foundations of Mormonism: A Study of the Fundamental Facts in the Hitsory and Doctrines of the Mormons from Original Sources, London: Fleming H. Revell, 1919, 233-34.
1920	Stuart Martin	“Deny it as they may, that is, those who know the history of their Church, are well aware that polygamy was in vogue among the heads of the sect many years before the ‘revelation’ authorizing it was given to the world.”	The Mystery of Mormonism, London: Odhams Press, 1920, 70.
1920	Sheridan Jones	“When the sharp edge of persecution drove them [Church members] to each other’s arms, or again when the wild emotionalism of the revival meetings stirred them to the roots of their being, there had been a strong tendency to that ‘free loveism’ which is inseparable to all but a said and ordered community. Some, indeed, of the Mormon Elders, with the Bibliolatry that cemented their faith, had discovered in the habits of the patriarchs a justification for such a sanction as polygamy gave their passions. Over and over again polygamy had been mooted and discussed, and by Smith it had been denounced. But never had it been put forward as a cardinal doctrine of the Church until Smith, flushed both with passion and with power, gave out the ‘revelation’ that was to scandalize the whole modern world, and to disrupt his sect.”	The Truth about the Mormons: Secrets of Salt Lake City, London: William Rider and Son, 1920, 46-47.
1922	Ephraim Edward Ericksen	“On July 12, 1843, when Joseph Smith was contemplating the marriage from of ancient Israel, he received the revelation which has so profoundly influenced Mormon life…” States that the people quickly accepted polygamy because it conformed to their “Native human instincts.”	The Psychological and Ethical Aspects of Mormon Group Life, Chicago: The University of Chicago, 1922, 75.
1930	Bernard Devoto	“The Prophet’s extraordinary sexual energy reinforces the diagnosis of paranoia… Polygamy, indeed, appeared in the Mormon system as an essential part of the Restoration. Abraham and the other patriarchs had practiced it; therefore it was part of God’s plan. Here Joseph’s natural inclinations carried him along. The daughters and wives of his converts were comely, and eager to be gracious to the Lord’s anointed… [Joseph Smith] had loosed the doctrine of polygamy and was canvassing his flock for recruits for his harem.”	"The Centennial of Mormonism." American Mercury 19 (Jan. 1930): 5-6 [1-13.]
1931	Harry M Beardsley	“With increased leisure and freedom from pursuit and worry, Joe had opportunity to extend his researches into the spiritual wife theory. By this time [early 1843] he had acquired some half-a-dozen wives, and had ‘sold’ the theory to several of the leaders who had begun to acquire celestial harems of their own.”	Joseph Smith and His Mormon Empire. New York:Houghton Mifflin Co., 1931, 268.
1856	Theodore Earl Dickerson	“The doctrine of polygamy was a gradual evolution; as Smith’s prestige increased he found it easier to persuade women that the practice of polygamy was not a sin but an assurance of divine favor. He located various passages in the Bible authorizing it… The non-Mormons [became] convinced that the Mormons were using a religious creed to cloak sin and as an excuse to pursue debasing and lustful purposes.”	Conflicts Between the Mormons and Non-Mormons, Nauvoo, Illinois, 1839-1846,” masters thesis, University of Illinois, 1956.
1961	Irving Wallace	“It is said that, at the Prophet’s insistence, Emma made a home in Nauvoo for girls without family and funds. There were twelve of these girls in all and all were their host’s plural wives without Emma’s knowledge. When Emma finally did learn the truth, she threw out ten of the girls, permitting her husband to marry two of them.”	The Twenty-Seventh Wife, New York: Signet Book, 1962, 49.

[1] Bruce N. Westergran, editor of From Historian to Dissident: The Book of John Whitmer, (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1995, ix), observed: “Whitmer’s first-hand account ends with his excommunication in March 1838, which he duly recorded in chapter 19.” At some point Whitmer added chapters 20-22, which include the excerpt quoted above. The contents of chapters 21 and 22 show that they could not have been written any earlier than late 1844. The timing for the writing of chapter 20 is unknown, but I believe it was penned during the same period as 21-22. However, it is possible that the three chapters were written at different times. If so, the earliest chapter twenty could have been composed would have been mid-1839, since it contains a reference to Joseph Smith’s April, 1839 escape from Missouri. See also, n.a., Question Time: Volume 2, Independence, Missouri: Herald House, 1967, 169.

[2] J. H. Beadle, Western Wilds, The Men Who Redeem Them, Cincinnati: Jones Brothers, 1881, 540.

[3] The July issue defended this story by stating: “There is an old lady living in Salt Lake City at the present day who was an intimate of Smith’s household at this very period, who was thoroughly acquainted with the circumstances, and her story agrees in every particular with the narration of our contributor.” (Anti-Polygamy Standard, Salt Lake City: Ladies Anti-Polygamy Society of Utah, July, 1881.) Precisely who might have been living in the Smith household during the Kirtland period and allegedly substantiated the narrative is unclear.