{"collection":"mor","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/mor/tfd/chap11.htm","path":"mor/tfd/chap11.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/mor/tfd/chap11.htm","text":"\"So many gods, so many creeds! So many paths that wind and wind, When just the art of being kind Is all this sad world needs.\"\nElla Wheeler Wilcox\nTHE shot does not leave the gun unless there is a powder charge behind it. The \nthings which I have noted before and behind the Curtain of Events in Utah, could \nnot arise without a sufficient cause.\nThat cause is found in the creed of the people who settled the Territory while yet \na wilderness, the hunting ground of nomadic Indians.\nA history of world populations records the shedding of much human blood at the behest \nof creeds. It is the easy mistake of earnest faith to follow the path of intemperate \nzeal. Egypt, Assyria, Persia, Greece, and Rome, as nations, saw the priests of religion \noffering the blood of human beings to the gods, on splendidly built , altars. The \nsame is true of the New World. Cortez and his men-at-arms, great shedders of human \nblood, beheld the Aztecs of Anahuac, ancient Mexico, offering human sacrifices at \nthe altars' steps; yet these Spaniards in the retreat of \"Noche Triste,\" the Doleful \nNight, shed as much blood of the Aztecs as religion had done in a score of years; \nsince that older Doleful Night, when Caiphas, the High Priest, spoke concerning \nJesus of Nazareth, \"It is expedient that one man die for the people.\"\nIn every land and clime, human blood has been offered in religious sacrifice. In \nJewish ancient days, in Classic days, in the days of Nero, in those of the Inquisition, \nin Auto-da-Fe's, on St. Bartholomew's Eve in Paris, at Smithfield fires in London, \nin Protestant and Catholic revenges, in Florida and Louisiana,-on to the days of \nthe Missouri mob-violence, when the two Mormon Smiths fell, the holocaust of blood \nfor religion's sake was continuous, until the slaughter in the lonely wastes of \nSouthern Utah showed the error of it all.\nTo use a theologic term, the Mormon creed is Anthropomorphic. It teaches a materialized \nDeity with body, parts and passions as a man. Here we have the key to this creed \nof strangely mixed theory and practice. I do not go into the matter of the credibility \nand genuineness of the Mormon books of belief. A war of words has raged since 1827, \nand there is no need of another syllable on the thread-bare subject. What I say \nhere I have gathered from the printed sermons of such leaders as Brigham Young, \nOrson Pratt, Heber C. Kimball, Orson Hyde, and Lorenzo Snow; all discourses published \nby the press of the Mormon Church, between 1855 and 1860, in Salt Lake City. In \nthese discourses I found the doctrines really preached to, and accepted by, the \npeople. These rough, and often rude, pulpit teachings were subsequently withdrawn \nby the Church authorities at Salt Lake, and at the time of my sojourn in Utah, it \nwas difficult to purchase the volumes. However, a friend of mine in Provo, a county \nseat overlooking Lake Utah, loaned four of the volumes to me for examination, but \nwould not sell them at any price, and after returning them I was unable to secure \nother copies. As I remember these sermons to the people, they seemed to teach that \nAdam was the only God of this world; and he was also the God of Jesus Christ. It \nwas admitted that Christ had a previous era before appearing in this world, and \nthat he is to have a future era of Millennial Triumph in Salt Lake City. This is \naffirmed with strength.\nThere is a strong tinge of Millennialism and of modern Russellism in these teachings. \nBut Christ is as God to Joseph Smith, and so this first prophet of the Faith called \nthe Church he established \"The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.\" Now \nfollows the nut of all this. It is this. That Joseph Smith is the god of this generation \nof men, and so the Latter Day Saint regards his assassination with the same feeling \nthat orthodox Christians regard the crucifixion of Christ by the Jews.\nAccording to these sermons, Joseph Smith, when living in Wayne County, New York \nState, was visited by the angel Moroni, son of the prophet Mormon, who revealed \nto him the ancient history of America. He showed him the written plates, whose hieroglyphics \nwere interpreted by the stones, called the Urim and Thum-mim.\nHe learned that America was first peopled by Noah, and later by the family of Lehi, \na remnant of the Jews who had escaped from captivity m the days of King Zedekiah. \nThese came across to Chili, and then traveled north by the Pacific coast, and so \nbecame the progenitors of the Red-men. Eras of faith and apostasy followed to the \nyear before Christ 500, when the prophet Mormon was slain, and these record plates \nwere hidden in the hill Cumorah in Wayne County, there to remain until time was \nripe to reveal them to Joseph Smith by the visit of the angel Moroni. This angel \nfurther revealed that this book of Mormon was to be added to the scriptures of the \nOld and New Testament. The Faith, founded on the whole of these books, was to be \npreached until the Millennial Dawn of Christ's Triumph. This Triumph should be reached \nin the interior of North America, in the tops of the mountains. Moreover this Latter \nDay Faith was to be the recipient of everyday revelation from Heaven to its leaders. \nAs an organization, it was to include all the ancient orders of priesthood.\nIt had two kinds of priesthood: The Melchi-zedek, which included the Prophet, the \nFirst Patriarch, the Twelve Apostles, the Seventy Councillors, and the whole body \nof the High Priests; and the Aaronic priesthood which included the Bishops, Lower \norder of priests, the Elders, Deacons, and Ward Teachers without number.\nWhen I was a resident of Utah, it was claimed that there were 7,234 religious offices \nin the Church, whose membership was then estimated at 100,000 people. This creed \nclaimed to possess the powers of revelation, inspiration, miracles, prophecy, visions, \ntongues, and healing gifts. All these were in active use, and all this was supposed \nto be resident in Salt Lake City in the Church, called the \"Latter Day Saints.\"\nYou can see at once how unlike any other new western city this one was. It was another \nJerusalem brought down to date. Welded to these strange doctrines and excessive \nclaims, were the following very practical, and sensible teachings:-\n\"We believe in being honest, virtuous, and upright; in doing good to all men, and \nthat an idle or lazy person cannot be a Christian nor have salvation.\" You see in \nthis the powder that had explosive force enough to make a telling shot, with the \nmultitude of half taught and visionary people found all over the world of to-day.\nThere is no place here for the grafter, the boodler, the promoter, the liar, the \nbum and the tramp. In fact I did not find that type of humanity among the Mormons. \nI had to go into the gentile mining camps to come across that kind of human trash. \nIf my reader wants a full, detailed account of this strange faith, let him read \none of the many worthy and competent authors who go into this subject exhaustively, \nsuch as Burton, Robinson, Dickson and Stenhouse.\nPolygamy, so prominent, when I was in Utah, was really an afterthought of this faith, \nand came into prominence through Brigham Young, as a new revelation in 1857.\nThe two Smiths, Joseph and Hyrum, the martyrs to Missourian violence, did not proclaim \npolygamy or practice it, if their family descendants are to be credited. The Josephite \nbranch of the Mormon Church repudiates the doctrine, and the practice to this day.\nSo much in the Bible seems to condone if not permit polygamy from the days of Abraham, \nthe father of the Jewish race, with his Hagar as well as Sarah for a wife; to the \ntimes of Jacob-and his concubines with two sisters for wives. Then uxorious David \nand his still more wived son Solomon, whose glory so much bespoken was not seemingly \ndimmed by his harem of one thousand concubines.\nIt is not to be wondered at, that a certain type of mankind should revive the polygamy \nof the ancient world, give it standing by claiming a revelation permitting it among \nthe faithful, in order to build up Zion with a seed of true believers.\nIt was not so difficult for a born leader and master of assemblies like Brigham \nYoung to rivet this practice on a credulous people. He saw if he succeeded in getting \na good many good people and leading men committed to this practice, that he had \nthem bound tight in a bundle of life from which there was no escape and which would \nmake them stick together against all opposition.\nHe saw how it would make the people singular, and keep them intact from the seductions \nof the world. He saw that it would prevent the social evil of great cities, and, \nas a matter of fact, Utah had no white slavers in those days.\nHe knew the Moslem element was strong in many men, that a sensualistic God and carnal \npleasures as a reward would win with such men, where the more spiritual and monastic \nteachings of historic Christianity failed.\nSo with these factors at work, and the apparent sanction of Old Testament scripture, \nto give authority to a new revelation, Brigham Young, a genius for religious leadership, \nproclaimed polygamy as a doctrine of the Latter Day Church.\nYet polygamy has its horrors, and they were constantly out-cropping in domestic \ncircles.\nI will relate a few instances that came under my eyes.\nWhile staying in American Fork, I met Professor Orbs, of the town schools. This \nschool covered the educational ground from the elementary to the academic. It was \nall under one roof. The higher branches were but poorly attended. The young men \nand young women could not come regularly to the school, since their services were \nmore needed in the homes and the fields. Orbs was a scholar, and a graduate of old \nBowdoin College. After the Civil War was over, he went west like many of the enterprising \nyoung men of that period. He was finally invited to teach in Utah Territory, and \nwas offered a principalship by the Mormon church authorities. He was not then an \nannounced convert, and his wife, to whom he had been married only a few years, made \nhim promise solemnly never to become a Mormon. On his agreeing to this, his wife \nconsented to go to the Territory.\nWhen I knew them, they had been in the Territory some ten years, and Professor Orbs \nwas ranking high among the Mormons as one of them. He had not kept faith with his \nwife, and she was full of fears about the future. They then had four children.\nMrs. Orbs came to me one day in great mental distress.\n\"My husband is really going into polygamy.\"\nThe tears were in both eyes and voice.\n\"He promised me years ago never to do it. Now the Church authorities have pursuaded \nhim. He says it is a step up, and will better his finances. Oh! will you not go \nand see him; urge him to give up this thing?\"\n\"He is not sincere in thinking it his duty, is he?\"\n\"He says he is, but the girl he is going to take is but eighteen, and has been one \nof his scholars. She thinks it is a promotion to be a wife of a professor.\"\nI did all that I could to comfort the poor lady and promised to see her husband. \nI did this some days later. He was quite abrupt with me, and said:\n\"I think that this is no matter of yours. Our Church believes in plural marriage. \nIt is my own matter.\"\nI could see at a glance he was fully committed to grieve his wife. It was the old \nincentive. A new young wife was attractive to a middle-aged man. He was ready to \nput aside his promise, the society of his faithful wife, the children she had raised \nin their home. The rosy young girl, offered him by the Church, was irresistible \nto a mind coarsened by the Mormon inoculation.\nThe next I knew of him was a new house he had built for the new wife, adjoining \nhis family home. He left for Salt Lake City, and the Endowment House, where he went \nthrough the ritual of taking another wife, and returned with her, and the Church's \napproval of living his religion.\nHis wife was broken-hearted, and the condolences of other polygamous women did not \ngive her any comfort, since she was not of Mormon stock, and kept intact her old \nEastern views of life.\nEliza Snow came down with several of her associates. She was the great woman of \nthis social horror. In public she spoke eloquently in its favor. Quoted the Old \nTestament times, and characters. She trotted out Abraham, Jacob, David and Solomon, \nall men approved of God she said, and whose polygamous children became the ancestors \nof Israel.\n\"There is a higher exaltation for the women who aid in building up Zion; who do \ntheir zealous part to populate this territory for the Saints.\n\"We must occupy the land. We must keep out the Gentiles. We must give him no place \nof rest for the sole of his foot. Women only fulfill their end when they bear many \nchildren. Children are the great asset of the Church. It is the prophecy of the \nscripture that 'in Zion the streets shall be full of boys and girls playing.' \"\nSuch teaching as this was given to, and received by, a great audience in every town \non Eliza Snow's tour, in the interests of polygamy. I was surprised at the audiences \nshe drew.\nMy early opinion, that all women were opposed instinctively to this doctrinal horror, \nwas upset when I heard these leaders, among the women of the territory, thus advocating \npolygamous marriages. They were women of good education and were apparently refined, \nboth in their manner of speech and dress.\nI felt sure that if it had not been received so meekly, and willingly by the women \nof the Church, and if it had been stoutly and socially resisted by them as a body, \nthat the practice of polygamy would never have existed in the Mormon Church.\nThat Church would then have stood on the same basis for criticism as those other \nreligious denominations of America, that meet with no overt opposition or persecution. \nBy this doctrine it stands alone, singular, as an anachronism; as a reversion to \nthe type of Old Testament days, and is unfit for a place in these later days of \nhigher ideals for women.\nWhile I was in San Pete County, I called at the residence of the Bishop of Mount \nPleasant. It was not a pleasant errand I was on. It was to make complaint of the \nhoodlumism of the youth, supposed to be under his control, in stone throwing at \nthe hall where the Liberal school, and its meetings were held.\nThe Bishop was not an imposing sight. There was nothing stately about him, nor did \nhe wear anything like canonical robes, such as we associate with the historic bishop. \nHe was in his shirt sleeves with slop pants and was carrying swill for his pigs. \nHe was evidently an industrious man, a practical character. He had need to be. His \nhouse was wide and big in style, since his family was large. He had five wives and \nfifteen children, and there was, of course, a financial side to this establishment, \nwhich made the Bishop a rustler.\nWhile I talked, I stood before the front porch, which was a long, low screened affair, \nshadowing the whole front of the house. There were dark shadowy corners in it, but \nnot sufficiently dark to hide the array of womankind seated along its length. Five \nwomen occupied as many chairs, all busy with their hands at woman's tasks. All, \ndid I say? No, I must omit the fifth, the youngest looking, who had nothing to do \nbut look about. She also was the best dressed. She evidently was . the favorite \nwife of the Bishop.\nThe oldest woman was grey, with eyes that had in them a look of shyness, as well \nas pain. What a history those eyes had seen in that household. She was the wife \nof the Bishop's youth, and by her age she must have seen something of the earlier \nhistory of the territory.\nThe other three women were stout and healthy looking and graded in their ages from \nthe first to the last wife; for no new wife, added to the Mormon household, is older \nthan her predecessor on the polygamous list. This is so common, that it is of the \nnature of a rule. It is the way also of human nature, the way of the world, and \nmay I say, the way of foolish womankind; for without woman's consent, this matrimonial \nhorror could not exist in a land of laws and freedom.\nThe wonder to me was the placidity of these wives. The situation was accepted. What \nMoslem ideas were growing up among the younger generation, as they advanced in years \nand became familiar with such a scene as I have described. They had to recognize, \nfrom their infancy almost, the many mothers of a Mormon home. There was no fear \nof racial suicide in these houses. Children were all around, playing in the dust, \nbefore their homes, or out on the squares or streets of the town, in fact visible \neverywhere.\nThe advocates of polygamy claim that for health and growth they outdo the children \nof monogamy, since they say that the mothers have more time and leisure to fulfill \ntheir maternity.\nIt is a subject that has its physical and medical side, as well as its sociological \none, but hardly fit for discussion in a popular book for all sorts of readers. I \nmust say that I never saw healthier, sturdier young ones than the Utah children.\nOf course the splendid climate and the air of these valleys, sheltered from the \nchilly blasts of the eastern Rockies, with easy temperatures and generous sunlight, \naccounted for much of the rude health that I saw.\nAlso the outdoor life and the frugal food, due to limited circumstances, together \nwith the active labor in the gardens and the field, from early childhood, wrote \nhealth on the cheeks, put good blood into the arteries, and a firelight and snap \ninto their eyes. Yet I also saw how this anomalous state of matrimony coarsened \nthe speech and habits of young Utah, both girls as well as boys.","title":"Chapter XI: The Creed That Caused the Deed","type":"page"}