Joseph Smith Recognized Plural Marriage was Difficult

Numerous narratives support that Joseph Smith initially resisted an angel who commanded him to marry plural wives. Benjamin F. Johnson remembered that Joseph "put it off"[1] and "waited untill an Angel with a drawn Sword Stood before him and declared that if he longer delayed fulfilling that Command he would Slay him."[2] Lorenzo Snow recalled that the Prophet "hesitated and deferred from time to time" and that he "foresaw the trouble that would follow and sought to turn away from the commandment."[3] Erastus Snow reported that the angel accused the Prophet of "being neglectful in the discharges of his duties" and spoke "of Joseph having to plead on his knees before the Angel for his Life.”^{^[4]}

Several of Joseph Smith's plural wives recalled similarly. Eliza R. Snow described Joseph as "afraid to promulgate it."[5] Helen Mar Kimball remembered that, "had it not been for the fear of His displeasure, Joseph would have shrunk from the undertaking and would have continued silent, as he did for years, until an angel of the Lord threatened to slay him if he did not reveal and establish this celestial principle.”^{^[6]} She also said that “Joseph put off the dreaded day as long as he dared.”[7] Lucy Walker reported that Joseph “had his doubts about it for he debated it in his own mind.”[8]

According to Mary Elizabeth Rollins, the angel was required to visit Joseph three times between 1834 and 1842 before he fully complied:

“An angel came to him [Joseph Smith] and the last time he came with a drawn sword in his hand and told Joseph if he did not go into that principle, he would slay him. Joseph said he talked to him soberly about it, and told him it was an abomination and quoted scripture to him. He said in the Book of Mormon it was an abomination in the eyes of the Lord, and they were to adhere to these things except the Lord speak… [The Prophet reported that] the angel came to me three times between the years of 1834 and 1842 and said I was to obey that principle or he would slay me.”[9]

Accounts from those who personally heard the Prophet's teachings concerning plural marriage consistently relate that his initial response to the practice was similar to that of most Mormons in the 1840s, with revulsion. An early verse in the revelation on celestial and plural marriage (now Utah D&C 132) seems to anticipate his reluctance as it admonishes him to "prepare thy heart" for the instructions that follow (D&C 132:3). Such language is found in other revelations that discuss difficult challenges (D&C 29:8, 58:6, 109:38).

Additional evidences support that Joseph Smith realized that plural marriage was a difficult principle for his followers to accept, especially women. Polygamy on earth expands the man’s emotional and sexual relationships (as a husband) as it simultaneously diminishes the woman’s emotional and sexual relationship (as a wife). Bathsheba B. Smith remembered that he [Joseph Smith] recognized that it would be a "troubling" doctrine: “I heard the Prophet give instructions concerning plural marriage; he counselled the sisters not to trouble themselves in consequence of it, that all would be right." Then he promised them that it "the result would be for their glory and exaltation.”^{^[10]} Bathsheba also related: “I heard him [Joseph Smith] tell the sisters one time not to feel worried, – that all was right… all will be well in the end.”^{^[11]} The Prophet apparently realized that plural marriage would create worries and anxieties in participants and he sought to assuage those concerns.

To help his potential plural brides overcome their initial disgust at the thought of polygamy, the Prophet promised at least two of them that they could receive their own "spiritual" confirmation that polygamy was right.^{^[12]} Whether he approached other potential plural wives with similar promises is unknown. Mary Elizabeth Rollins Lightner wrote: "I did not believe. If God told him so, why did he not come and tell me? The angel told him I should have a witness. An angel came to me..."^{^[13]} Similarly, Lucy Walker recalled: "He [Joseph Smith] assured me that this doctrine had been revealed to him of the Lord, and that I was entitled to received a testimony of its divine origin for myself. He counselled me to pray to the Lord, which I did, and thereupon received from him a powerful and irresistible testimony of the truthfulness and divinity of plural marriage."^{^[14]}

Available documents support that Joseph Smith reacted to the command to practice polygamy as most people do and that he afterwards sympathized with the challenge that plural marriage represented to Church members, especially sisters.

[1] Benjamin F. Johnson, My Life’s Review, Mesa, Arizona: 21^st Century Printing, 1992, reprint, 95-96; see also Zina Huntington quoted in “Joseph, the Prophet, His Life and Mission as Viewed by Intimate Acquaintances,” Salt Lake Herald Church and Farm Supplement, January 12, 1895, 212

[2] Benjamin F. Johnson, My Life’s Review, Mesa, Arizona: 21^st Century Printing, 1992, reprint, 95-96; Dean R. Zimmerman, ed., I Knew the Prophets: An Analysis of the Letter of Benjamin F. Johnson to George F. Gibbs, Reporting Doctrinal Views of Joseph Smith and Brigham Young, Bountiful, UT: Horizon, 1976, 43.

[3] Lorenzo Snow, quoted by Eliza R. Snow in Biography and Family Record of Lorenzo Snow, Salt Lake City: Deseret news Company, 1884, 69-70; Affidavit signed August 18, 1869; Joseph F. Smith Affidavit Books, 2:19, CHL, MS 3423 fd.

[4] Erastus Snow quoted in A. Karl Larson and Katherine Miles Larson, Diary of Charles Lowell Walker, 2 Volumes, Utah State University Press, Logan, Utah, 1980, 2:611, entry for June 17, 1883.

[5] Eliza R. Snow quoted in "Two Prophets' Widows A Visit to the Relicts of Joseph Smith and Brigham Young," J. J. J., in St. Louis Globe-Democrat (St. Louis, MO) Thursday, August 18, 1887; pg. 6; Issue 85; col E

[6] Helen Mar Kimball Whitney, Why We Practice Plural Marriage, Salt Lake City: Juvenile Instructor Office, 1884, 53.

[7] Jeni Broberg Holzapfel and Richard Neitzel Holzapfel, eds., A Woman’s View: Helen Mar Whitney’s Reminiscences of Early Church History (Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University, 1997), 142.

[8] Lucy Walker, deposition, Temple Lot transcript (full transcript), part 3, 474, copy in possession of the author.

[9] Mary Elizabeth Rollins Lightner Smith, “Remarks” at Brigham Young University, April 14. 1905, vault MSS 363, fd 6. 2-3. See also “Statement” signed Feb. 8, 1902, Vesta Crawford Papers, Univ. of Utah, Marriott Library, MS 125, bx 1 fd 11. Original owned by Mrs. Nell Osborne, SLC. See also Juanita Brooks Papers, USHS, MSB103, bx16, fd 13; Mary E. Lightner to A. M. Chase, April 20, 1904, quoted in J. D. Stead, Doctrines and Dogmas of Brighamism Exposed, [Lamoni, Iowa]:RLDS Church, 1911, 218-19; Letter to Emmeline B. Wells, Summer 1905, MS 282 (copy of holograph in Linda King Newell Collection, MS 447, bx 9, fd 2). See also Juanita Brooks Papers, USHS, MSB103, bx16, fd 13.

[10] Bathsheba Wilson Bigler Smith, Autobiography, MS 8606 (typescript is MS 16633), CHL; see also Barbara Fluckiger Watt, “Bathsheba B. Smith,” in Vickey Burgess Olson, Sister Saints, Provo, Utah: Brigham Young University Press, 1978, 206.

[11] Bathsheba Smith, deposition, Temple Lot transcript, respondent’s testimony (part 3), pages 291, 313, questions 14, 466.

[12] See also example Desdemona Fullmer, Autobiography, [not MS 734 in CHL], quoted in D. Michael Quinn papers – Addition – Uncat WA MS 244, bx 1, Yale University, Special Collections; Helen [Mar Kimball Whitney], to Mary Bond, n.d., Biographical Folder Collection, P21, f11 [Myron H. Bond], item 22, 23, 24, Community of Christ Archives, pp. 3-4. Fawn Brodie observed: “At an early age [Joseph Smith] had what only the most gifted revivalist preachers could boast of – the talent for making men see visions.” (No Man Knows My History: The Life of Joseph Smith, the Mormon Prophet, 2nd rev. ed. New York, 1971, 74.)

[13] Mary Elizabeth Rollins Lightner, “Statement” signed Feb. 8, 1902 (Vesta Crawford Papers, MS 125, bx1 fd 11. Original owned by Mrs. Nell Osborne, SLC (courtesy Juanita Brooks). See also Juanita Brooks Papers, USHS, MSB103, bx16, fd 13; BYU special collections, Ms 1132.

[14] Lucy Walker, Affidavit dated December 17, 1902, MS 3423, CHL; Journal History, May 1, 1843; Joseph Fielding Smith, Blood Atonement and the Origin of Plural Marriage (Salt Lake City: Deseret News, 1905) 68-69; Joseph F. Smith affidavit books, 1:66; 4:68. This affidavit contains the exact same wording as a second affidavit dated October 24, 1902 entitled: “Oath of Lucy Walker Smith: Wife of Joseph Smith, Jr.,” photocopy in possession of the author.