Mormonism: Its Leaders and Designs/Chapter 3

by John Hyde, Jr.

Chapter III.

Practical Polygamy.

• Family arrangements
• Favorites
• The men
• Domestic happiness
• Sleeping alone
• Making tabernacles
• Mormon salvation
• Wife hunting
• Mothers and daughters married to one man
• Half sister
• The women
• First wives
• Whisky
• Termagents
• Adultery
• Jealousy
• Fanaticism
• Brigham on connubialities
• Single girls
• Proportion of the sexes
• Arguments used to induce young girls to marry polygamists in preference to young men
• Why they do not leave
• The children
• Mortality
• Barrenness
• Boys
• Girls
• Early marriages
• Divorce
• Mrs. M'Lean and Parley Pratt
• Mrs. Cobb and Brigham Young
• Utah marriages.

The only correct method of judging a cause, is by the effects that result from its operation. The most confounding argument against the Mormon doctrine of polygamy, is the Mormon practice of polygamy. The Mormons ever endeavor to conceal the real workings of their system from outside inspection. They must feel great confidence before allowing any one to grow intimate. One must be very intimate, before being competent to correctly describe their "family arrangements."

The intention of marriage was to increase personal happiness, to propagate a healthy offspring, and to secure to those children protectors, instructors, and support. What are the effects of polygamy on these objects?

The Mormon polygamist has no home. Some have their wives lotted off by pairs in small disconnected houses, like a row of out-houses. Some have long low houses, and on taking a new wife build a new room on to them, so that their rooms look like rows of stalls in a cow-barn! Some have but one house and crowd them all together, outraging all decency, and not leaving even an affectation of convenience. Many often remain thus, until some petty strife about division of labor, children's quarrels, difference of taste, or jealousy of attention kindles a flame, only to be smothered by separation. When they live in different houses, they generally have different tables, and the husband has to give each house its turn to cook for him, and honor their tables with his presence in rotation. The evenings at his disposal, his constant distribution of himself among them, has to be by rule. Jealousies the most bitter, reproaches the most galling and disgusting, scenes without number, and acrimony without end, are the inevitable consequences of the slightest partiality. It is impossible for any man to equally love several different women; it is quite possible, however, for him to be equally indifferent about any number. The nature most in unison with his own, will most attract him. The most affectionate will be certainly preferred to the least affectionate. I am acquainted with scores of polygamists, and they all have favorites, and show partiality. To feel partiality, and not to exhibit it, is unnatural. To exhibit it, and for it to pass unnoticed by a jealous women, is impossible. For it to be noticed, is for it to be reproached.

The Mormon polygamist, therefore, has to maintain a constant guard over himself. Any husband might feel to kiss his wife gladly: to go round a table and kiss half a dozen, is no joke. It is so in every thing with him. With a dozen eyes to notice at what time he retires to rest, or arises on any one occasion, and half a dozen mouths to talk about it, he must be perfectly governed by rule. Every look, every word, every action has to be weighed, or else there is jealousy, vituperation, quarreling, bitterness. For this reason, the idea of obtaining domestic felicity is ridiculed. Brigham is the model, and he to some extent adopts the dogma of the Quietists, "Repose is the only perfect happiness." He acts as though he felt, and wished others to feel, that man was the frigid master, performing every act of kindness, not as springing from his heart, but because he had reasoned it out, to be an act of duty. Warmth of feelings, tenderness of attachment, devotedness of attention to a woman, is there called, by that worst of Mormon epithets, "Gentilish." "Man must value his wife no more than any thing else he has got committed to him, and be ready to give her up at any time the Lord calls him," said Brigham one Sunday afternoon; and J. M. Grant followed the remark by saying, "If God, through his prophet, wants to give my women to any more worthy man than I am, there they are on the altar of sacrifice; he can have them, and do what he pleases with them!"

They carry this same coldness of affection into all their connubial relations. Brigham always sleeps by himself, in a little chamber behind his office. I have heard the leading men publicly advocate the adoption of this practice. They quote the animals as an argument in favor of polygamy, and adopt their instincts as models for practice. Marriage is stripped of every sentiment that makes it holy, innocent, and pure. With them it is nothing more than the means of obtaining families; and children are only desired as a means. of increasing glory in the next world; for they believe that every man will reign over his children, who will constitute his "kingdom;" and, therefore, the more children, the more glory! Said Brigham, September 20th, 1856, speaking on this subject:

"It is the duty of every righteous man and every woman to prepare tabernacles for all the spirits they can; hence if my women leave, I will go and search up others who will abide the celestial law, and let all I now have go where they please; though I will send the gospel to them."—Deseret News, October 1, 1856.

Marriage, consequently, is only an addition to man's monster selfishness. Not only do they admit, but they even advocate openly, that salvation is altogether a selfish matter; and Lorenzo Snow, an Apostle (!) publicly contended that "God was the most intensely selfish being in existence." To sacrifice one's self, to the most trivial extent, for a wife, is therefore esteemed as beneath manly dignity. To love home, or seek to make it your rest and heaven, is called "squeamishness;" and men bedin your ears to "take another wife, and that will cure you," and they are right. The first effect of polygamy on the Mormons was to force them to deny the doctrine, and disavow their families. For many years after they practiced. it, did the leading men indignantly deny it. Its next effect was to make them heartless. It first made them liars, and then brutes!

"If it does not increase their happiness, and it certainly does their care and expense, why practice it?" Mormonism teaches that all salvation is material; that men's positions here determine their stations hereafter, and as a man can only rule over his family, then, no wife, no family; many wives, much family; much family, much glory; therefore, many wives, much glory, and as the selfish desire for glory is the only incentive of Mormon action, so, therefore, he tries to get as many wives as he can. They quote Paul's words, "Woman is the glory of man," and argue, the more women, the more glory; no women, no glory at all! Full of this thought, I have seen old men with white hair and wrinkled faces, go hunting after young girls, deceiving them with all sorts of professions and promises, using the terrors of Brigham's name and threatening the penalty of excommunication and consequent perdition, in order to induce them to marry them, and then to leave them, despoiled and degraded, either to the obloquy of a divorce, or to the incurable sorrows of a grieved and a wrung heart. I could mention the names of a dozen such, who ought to be thinking of God and their graves, who instead, visit arriving trains and pester the girls with all the ardor and far more impudence than the young men.

The utmost latitude of choice is permitted to the faithful, in their selection of wives. It is very common for one man to marry two sisters; Brigham advises, indeed, that they both be married on the same day, "for that will prevent any quarreling about who is first or second!" A R. Sharkey has married three sisters, one of whom was married to, and divorced from another man. A George B. Wallace left a wife at Salt Lake and went to England to preach. He made the acquaintance of a very worthy man named Davis, who had three fine-looking girls. Mr. Davis and family were persuaded to embrace Mormonism. When Wallace returned, as he occupied a high position in the Mormon Church, he appropriated Church moneys for the emigration of Mr. Davis and family to Salt Lake City. Poor, and under obligation to this man, and, by "counsel" of Brigham, Davis gave him his three daughters, to all of whom he was married; and, when I arrived at Salt Lake, were all living with Mrs. Wallace, proper, in a little two-roomed house. Wallace kept a butcher's shop, and it was currently reported that he was engaged with others. stealing cattle and selling the meat on his premises. A Curtis E. Bolton is married to a woman and her daughter. A Captain Brown is married to a woman and two daughters and lives with them all. When their children's children are born it will be bewildering to trace out their exact degrees of relationship.

This may appear disgusting enough, and prove degradation enough. A G. D. Watt has excelled either of them. He brought from Scotland his half sister to Salt Lake City: took her to Brigham, and wished to be married to her for his second wife. Brigham objected, but Watt urged that Abraham took his half sister and "reckoned he had just as much right as Abraham." The point was knotty and difficult. If Abraham's example justified polygamy then it must equally justify this action. "God blessed Abraham although he did. it," say the Mormons, "and ought to bless me if I do it too." The girl happened to be good-looking, though, and so, to cut this gordian knot he could not untie, Brigham took her himself. So far so well. But she was not contented, or Brigham had reconsidered- the matter, or from some cause, after a few weeks he told Watt that, after all, there was force in his argument, that it was just as lawful in him as in Abraham, and, accordingly, G. D. Watt accepted his half sister to wife from the arms of Brother Brigham! This piece of complaisance recommended him to the favorable attention of the "authorities;" as a good illustration of the childlike simplicity and implicit obedience of which they so constantly preach.

What the brutalizing effects of such marriages are on the men's minds, can easily be conceived. With small houses and several wives, more than one often sleeping in each apartment, men must soon lose all decency or self-respect, and degenerate into gross and disgusting animals. Many of them frequently sleep with two of their wives in the same bed. Indeed so evident are the effects, that Heber C. Kimball does not scruple to speak of his wives, on a Sabbath, in the Tabernacle, and before an audience of over two thousand persons, as "my cows!!" This he has done on more than one occasion and the people laughed at him as at

"A fellow of infinite jest."

As the Mormons are taught to believe that all their honor and "glory" in the kingdom of God, depends on the number of their wives, all their anxiety is, therefore, to obtain a large number. Irrespective of their ability to provide, careless too about any incongruity in disposition, careless about every thing but obtaining them, they spend their time in courting. If they be poor, it is expected that the woman ought to be able to do enough to support herself. If their temper be incongruous, the Mormons boast "great powers of government," and expect to "break them in, like horses, to the harness." This last is a common and favorite expression among them.

Whether they are on missions, away from their wives, or present with them, their care is to induce more girls to marry them. Many do not do this at Salt Lake, but their faith is considered weak; for unless they entangle themselves inextricably, so that the interests of Mormonism become necessarily their interests, but little attention, and no honor is paid them. As future salvation is made to depend on the size of the family, almost all present reputation is made to depend on the same cause.

Such are the results of this practice on the men. What are its effects on the women?

The females are divided into two classes, first wives, and those taken subsequently. We will view them separately.

I will narrate a few instances as to the first wives. I intend mentioning names, not only to convince the reader of the correctness of my statements, but because I think men who act thus ought to be named and known. Mrs. S. W. Richards is an interesting and intelligent lady at Salt Lake City. She accompanied her husband among the early emigrants. In 1852, he went to England as a Mormon missionary, and was absent several years. During his absence, in the love of her husband, she labored for her own support and that of his children. He returned, and to prove to her his appreciation of her fidelity and affection, he took three other wives! One was his cousin and a mere girl; and one was a lady who ran away from the arms and heart of her father, in Liverpool, and whose attentions, during his stay in that city, had often consoled him for his absence from home. Mr. Richards took his wife round to her share of the balls, theaters, and other amusements; but no one could help remarking, in the wasted and sallow wreck of a woman, all the withering effects of an anguished heart, wounded in its keenest susceptibility, and sinking unloved, unpitied, and with its griefs untold.

"She never told her grief,But let concealment, like a worm i' the bud,Feed on her damask cheek."

Mr. G. P. Dykes accompanied the Mormon Battalion to Mexico, leaving his family at Council Bluffs, Iowa. On returning through Salt Lake, he was appointed to go to Europe as a missionary, which he did. During his residence in Europe, Mrs. Dykes and family toiled their way to Salt Lake, so as not to be burdensome on her husband on his return. They sustained themselves, and made some little provision for the future, hoping and expecting to welcome him on his coming home. He returned, accompanied by a lady who had run away from her husband in England. He was married to this person at Council Bluffs City, and amid the first greetings between himself and his first wife, at Salt Lake City, was, of course, an introduction to the woman who had supplanted her in his affections! The first wife was neglected, till her wrung heart demanded a divorce, which was readily accorded. It was an easy thing to sacrifice the wife of his youth and the mother of his children for the paramour of his affections.

A Mr. Batie was married to an amiable person, and they had a very interesting family. He desired another wife, had seen and loved a young person and courted her. Mrs. Batie, however, for a long time, had refused her consent, and had weepingly told him if he married this girl it would break her heart. To yield to her affection was to submit to be controlled. To consider her feelings was to be "ruled by petticoats." As she would not consent, he was married without her consent, and without her knowledge. Is there any man or woman who can fail to conceive her feelings?

A Mr. Eldredge had a very handsome lady for a wife. She had shared her husband's sufferings and privations. Together they had toiled, happily and affectionately. They had amassed some property around them, and were very comfortable, too comfortable for Salt Lake City. On their dream of peace Brigham Young rudely broke by a command that "Brother Horace must take another wife!" Disobedience would be contumacy, contumacy is to be cut off, and that is taught to be perdition. He chose to obey. He married a second, who was inferior in every thing except in age, to Mrs. Eldredge. She, however, speedily weaned her husband's affection from the first wife, whom he soon after turned out of the apartments she had toiled to furnish, and installed his second wife therein. The feelings of Mrs. Eldredge can be imagined, it is impossible that they be described. I could quote a score of similar cases.

The real effects of polygamy on the first wives can be imagined, when they force Brigham Young to use this language from the pulpit, September 21, 1856:

"Now for my proposition; it is more particularly for my sisters, as it is frequently happening that women say that they are unhappy. Men will say, 'My wife, though a most excellent women, has not seen a happy day since I took my second wife;' 'No, not a happy day for a year,' says one; and another has not seen a happy day for five years. It is said that women are tied down and abused; that they are misused and have not the liberty that they ought to have; that many of them are wading through a perfect flood of tears, because of the conduct of some men, together with their own. folly.

"I wish my own women to understand that what I am going to say is for them as well as others, and I want those who are here to tell their sisters, yes, all the women of this community, and then write it back to the States, and do as you please with it. I am going to give you from this time to the 6th day of October next, for reflection, that you may determine whether you wish to stay with your husbands or not, and then I am going to set every woman at liberty and say to them, Now go your way, my women with the rest, go your way. And my wives have got to do one of two things, either round up their shoulders to endure the afflictions of this world and live their religion, or they may leave, for I will not have them about me. I will go into heaven alone, rather than have scratching and fighting around me. I will set all at liberty. What, first wife too? Yes, I will liberate you all.

"I know what my women will say; they will say, 'You can have as many women as you please, Brigham.' But I want to go somewhere and do something to get rid of the whiners."—Deseret News, October 1, 1856.

Even in Brigham's family, and that is the best-managed in Utah, there is still "scratching and fighting."

From all I have seen of Salt Lake polygamy, I can assert the almost universal rule—a man does not marry a second wife, until he finds somebody he prefers to the first; and when he is married, it is not long before he exhibits the preference. It is pretended that the consent of the first wife is obtained to such subsequent marriages. That consent is asked by the husband, and who knows not the thousand petty tyrannies that a husband can use toward his wife to extort or compel acquiescence! If the consent be given, she is willing to contribute to his glory, and the ceremony is performed. If she do not consent, women must not be an impediment either in doing one's duty, or obtaining one's salvation; so, therefore, the ceremony is performed just the same, whether she consent or no, whether she like the girl or no; for her husband to will it, is for the Lord to will it, and nothing is left to her but to bend and groan. Polygamy, however, does not thus affect all the first wives at Salt Lake. That which will crush one woman into the grave, and I know more than one such case, will sink another into depravity, arouse another to desperation, incite another to retaliation, and by others will be regarded with the most stoical indifference. I can name a dozen families where the men and women have sunk into the most complete and disgusting brutishness. They fulfill the definition of man, "food-cooking animal," and that is almost their only distinction. If superior to the animals at all, it is only in adding disgusting talk to disgusting deeds; in aggravating the instincts of nature with the excitement of meditation; deceiving simple girls, and appeasing their own consciences by disguising their practices with the name of religion. There are many women in Utah who drink whisky to a very great extent. To drown thought, is to kill feeling. Many women who will not become depraved, try to be indifferent. I asked a lady once at Salt Lake, why she never appeared jealous of her husband's attention to his three wives! Her reply struck me painfully, "Mr. Hyde, my husband married me when we were both very young in England; O! I was very fond, and very proud of him. We came out here, and he took another wife. It made me very wretched, Mr. Hyde, but I am not jealous now, for I cease to care any thing about him!" When love dies, jealousy ceases. Nothing makes people more indifferent than does liquor; not only indifferent as to others, but also callous as to one's self. Many Utah. women seeking this callous state of heart, drink very extensively. Of this no resident of Salt Lake can be ignorant. Some, however, become termagants, fiercely jealous, and furiously violent. The quarrels resulting from such matters often cause merriment in the gossiping circles of Utah. The constant policy of the "authorities," however, is to train the mass of the people to despise such proceedings, and to view with contempt any such woman. By this means they crush the voice of nature under the weight of their public opinion. Instead of such a course eliciting sympathy, if it be felt, it falls still-born and unexpressed; and the poor woman, goaded till she is mad, has to stand alone. To stand up under the pressure of public vituperation; to endure the coarse crimination of the Tabernacle platform, where on Sundays Brigham and Kimball will refer most minutely to the persons, and sometimes even name them before the whole congregation, needs a stronger mind than possessed by most women. If she be discontented, there is the divorce alternative; but to be divorced is to lose her children. If she decline divorce, she must submit. Broken and crushed, she must submit!

There is yet another class of first wives. These, finding their jealousy only increases neglect, and their reproaches only serving to drive their husbands from them to others and more affectionate of their wives, fall a step lower. Neglect breeds anger; anger engenders hatred; hatred meditates revenge. They are powerless to retain their husband's affection, but they can retaliate his infidelity. The penalty of adultery is death, unsparing and bloody. It has been inflicted, is being inflicted, and yet they can not arrest the commission of the sin. Startling and frequent have been the disclosures. Brigham, in his public sermons asserts, that even in his own family, he can not preserve his own honor. For that reason, among others, he said, "he wanted to get them all in one house, under his own eye," because he "could trust no one else, and not even them." Just previous to my leaving Salt Lake City, a very flagrant case got into the public mouth about one of the wives of P. H. Young, Brigham's brother. While he was with his other wives, a young man in their employ, was consoling her for his neglect. The women are very poor; many of them almost entirely destitute. Their husbands and fathers, burdened with debts, they can not pay, and with families they can not support, are often unable to buy clothes enough for them to be decent, to say nothing of being respectable. The love of dress is just as strong there, as anywhere else; and to obtain clothes, leads to the same conduct there as anywhere else. Many of the missionaries have to leave their families in penury. No assistance is given such families, in many instances, till they are almost perishing for want. Neglected by absent husbands; knowing that in all probability they will bring home other and better-loved wives when they return; surrounded by suffering children; tempted by flattery and allured by money, it is not unnatural for them to fall; it would almost be supernatural for them not to fall. I could name several such.

It is this fact that makes the Mormons so averse to any outside inspection of their "peculiar institution." Men who are giving constant reasons to be suspected, are the most suspicious of all persons. The Mormons, who are continually wringing their wives' hearts with jealousy, are the most tyrannically jealous. The most rigid watch is maintained; and a look, passing word, a visit, above all when it is repeated, is tortured into

"Proof strong as holy writ."

Heber C. Kimball refused to allow one of his wives to correspond with her friends, lest improper use might be made of the liberty. On the slightest occasion of distrust he will mount the rostrum on a Sabbath, and publicly tongue-lash his wives; and it is a common jest at Salt Lake, that his reason for doing so at such a time and place, is because "they can not reply " Coercive measures never produce virtue. To constantly suspect, is often to suggest crime. To bitterly accuse, is frequently to instigate. These are unfailing truths, and they are as unfailing at Salt Lake as elsewhere. Were it not for the great counteracting influence of a strong religious fanaticism, Utah would be a perfect pandemonium of debauchery.

How can they permit it at all? The whole secret lies in that one word, fanaticism. The women are all sincere: their sufferings and their sacrifices prove that. They are taught. that polygamy is a heaven-ordained institution; that it was countenanced by God anciently and is commanded by God now; that the instincts of their nature which rebel against it are the results of false education and tradition; their pride is flattered to think that the exaltation of man depends on them; they learn to sacrifice themselves to elevate, as they think, their husbands. The desire to be eternally glorious, is made to overcome the wish to be temporarily happy. The ambition to excel their neighbors is also used to induce them to submit patiently to privation and misery. What will not weak minded persons endure from a feeling of rivalry? Where wealth is regarded as the summum bonum, any sacrifice will be made to give wealth to their husbands. In Utah, women are esteemed that summum bonum, and therefore many sacrifice all personal feeling, and give other women to their husbands. The fanaticism that prompts it is old; it is only this peculiar development of fanaticism that is new. It is common that people be fanatical; it is growing to be too common that they should choose Mormonism as their style of exhibiting it. Some women in Utah seem contented enough. The most enthusiastic arguments in favor of polygamy are used by some of the women. That, however, is natural enough. If polygamy be not commanded by God, as they believe it is, then they would feel their fate as others see it. For them to see themselves deceived, is to know themselves dishonored. To maintain their own self-respect, they must maintain their own self-deception. Who knows not what an easy thing it is to find force in weak arguments that justify our position, and not to feel very strong ones that condemn our actions. It is necessary that these poor deluded. and degraded women should debate the questions very often, for they very often feel the necessity to out-clamor the voices of their own hearts.

"Oh that some gude God would gie 'emTo see themselves as others see 'em."

The extent of this infatuation is very extraordinary. Mrs. Joseph K——e was the only wife of her husband, whose position was very comfortable; he having considerable property as well as a profitable situation in the post-office. She was very desirous to obtain a second wife for Mr. K., thereby to increase his glory, and as she could only shine by reflecting his light, thus increase her own glory too. Accordingly, when the new emigrants arrived from the plains, she visited their camps and invited several good-looking single young persons to come and remain with her during the winter. She treated them with all hospitality and kindness; contrived excellent opportunities for her husband to plead his suit, and, as he was a little backward, often plead his cause for him. Unfortunately for her wishes, however, her efforts had failed, and she was, when I left, condemned to be the sole satellite of her planet-master. One of Brigham's wives affords a still stronger proof of this singular infatuation. An uneducated. English girl saw Brigham and loved him. She read in the Old Testament that Jacob served seven years to get a wife; and as the New Testament says, that in the last days, "old things shall pass away and all things shall become new," she interpreted that to mean, a reversal of matters; and, consequently, determined to reverse the case of Jacob. She offered her seven years' service to Mrs. Young, only demanding as her hire, the right to marry Brigham. He was consulted as to this novel method of getting a husband, and, of course, had no objections to offer. Eliza served faithfully, demanded. her wages, the thirtieth share of Brother Brigham. She was married, and I saw Brigham fondle her child, and call him his "English boy." It was an attachment on her part worthy a better object.

A Mrs. Howard is an intelligent person, but madly infatuated with Mormonism. Her husband saw a young lady and admired her; got acquainted with and fond of her. He told his wife of the affair, and desired her to call on this young lady and request her to marry him. The wife wept. bitterly at this singular command; she had lost her power to longer please; another had supplanted her in the affections of the man whom she devotedly loved, and to whom she had borne four children: she felt as a woman in such a position only can feel, but Mormonism was stronger in her soul than her nature itself. She went and asked this girl, who directly refused. She informed her husband of the result, and this man bitterly reproached his madly-devoted wife for not succeeding in persuading her, attributing the failure to his wife's jealousy. Mrs. Howard did not murmur, but only wept; while he blubbered like a boy, told her how much he loved this young woman, how miserable he must ever be without her. I believe he induced this heart-wrung woman to visit and again make this offer, but was again refused. With these women Mormonism is inwound in their hearts, every hope is centered in it; out of it they fancy there is nothing but despair. They are taught to think that God has re-established a priesthood. on this earth; that this priesthood is almost immaculate and quite infallible, as a priesthood; and brought to this standpoint, they blindly believe and as blindly obey all they are commanded. Degraded into slavery by this Mormon step-back into barbarism, they are almost as submissive and as miserable as the Indian squaws around them.

The engine of Mormon power is not brute force; not attempted or threatened violence, but the lever of a skillfully-combined and ably-handled system of religious machinery, operating on duped and bewildered fanatics. They feel its force, are not able to explain or investigate and discern its reality, but supinely obey its impulses.

"While it is not very surprising that the first wife should submit, or be compelled to submit, how is it that the single girls themselves marry old men with several wives, in preference to young men with no wives?" This is more surprising from the fact of there being, in Utah, so many single men. By the census returns of 1851, made by the Mormons themselves, the remarkable fact is proven, that there were seven hundred and ten more males than females in Utah. That is, there were nearly a thousand more marriagable men than women; and as some of the authorities monopolize from thirty to five wives each, and as there are a great number of others with two and three wives each, there must have been a very large proportion of the males compelled to be single, because there were no wives to be had. This proportion is materially reduced, since that time, from several causes. Many young men have left the Church and Utah; many have been sent to the States and Europe and commanded to be sure and bring back wives; many of the married Elders who have been sent out have. been counseled "to bring in as many ewe-lambs as they could into the sheep-fold; though not to appropriate any till they got home." (H. C. Kimball.) There are also a larger number of females than males who emigrate to Utah. Yet, notwithstanding these causes being in operation, there is not a large plurality of females, and there are still hundreds of young men in Utah unable to get wives: and many of the new-coming ladies marry old polygamists in preference.

While nothing proves more plainly their fanaticism than this, nothing proves more plainly their sincerity. Men, who, by a long course of fidelity, have "proven themselves" receive as a reward for their merit, certain mysterious ordinances; pass by secret rites into a sacred order and are finally "sealed up against all sin to salvation, except the sin against the Holy Ghost, which is denying the faith, exposing the mysteries, and shedding innocent blood." These men, who are thus sealed, think that they can not be lost; nor their wives, nor their little ones, nor any who shall "cling to them." Having, they believe, accomplished their own salvation, they are able, like Jesus, "to save to the uttermost all who shall come unto them." To be married to such a man, it is taught to these confiding neophytes, is to "secure eternal salvation with a high degree of glory." They have been previously made to believe that woman can not obtain any kind of salvation but through the man. "Eve led Adam out of Eden and he must lead her back again!" As her future position will be regulated by that of her husband, and as she is taught that to obtain a high position ought to be the only object of her existence, hence she is induced to desire to marry a man who has been thus sealed.

Mormon women go to Utah, zealous in their religion; they go there for its sake; they have made great sacrifices already, and are prepared to make still greater for it; they are firmly convinced that these atrocious dogmas are the precious truths of heaven, and that these men are God's vicegerents; they swallow the gilded bait, marry, and when they wake up to the temporal miseries of their positions, console themselves in more dogmatically believing their fanaticism and their creed.

Not only the prospect of securing their own salvation is held out to these misguided beings, but that of entailing salvation on their children. The Mormons believe that the pure seed of the house of Jacob can not be lost: they are "children of the covenant made to Abraham." It is also believed. that Brigham's children can not be lost: they are "children of the covenant made to Brigham!" It is thus with all those who have been "sealed up to eternal life." Every woman. has a strong love for her children, even when they are only prospective. It is a chord that can be played upon, that will send out deep, vibrations. The Mormons play on that delicate fiber of the female heart. The woman is told that by marriage with this young man, he may apostatize and be lost; she would share his fall and ruin; her children, assimilating, not to her, but to his character, would be lost too, and that thus she would barter eternal loss for a little passing pleasure. To marry this old, well-proven, and sealed man, would not only secure her own salvation but that of her children; and if not to enjoy all the temporal happiness she might with the young man, she should enjoy more of the Spirit of God and secure. eternal gain by suffering a present loss.

If this be not enough to persuade the deluded victim, previously confounded by bad argument, as to the scripturality of the practice, and bewildered by pretensions to infallibility by the Prophet; then they use another and more powerful appeal. Who knows not the love that clings around the sacred memories of the dead? If these men can perform such works of supererogation as to save children yet unborn, they can also save people who are dead. This is inevitable, and hence the Mormons claim to be "saviours to the dead." The rationale they adopt is this: Mormonism is the gospel; not to have heard Mormonism is not to have received the gospel, and that is not to be saved: but the dead can hear the gospel in spirit, and their friends at Zion can receive the ordinances for them as proxies or agents. This then, say they, will be your privilege, if you take this man. Salvation for yourself, for your unborn generations, and for your dead kindred. They went there for the sake of their faith, and on the shrine of their faith, with the devotion of eastern idolatry, they immolate themselves. The sincerity of their hearts or their purity of motives, can not be questioned; whatever is said must be as to their credulity.

"But they must awaken as wives and as mothers, why do they not leave?"

Fanaticism may be strong; self-love is stronger. Many do awaken, and weep bitterly. Many would fly, but they are mothers, they would be forced to desert their children. The mother's love often overcomes the woman's shame. Besides they are dishonored, betrayed; however innocently on their part, they are still degraded. To lose self-respect is to lose the energy of a motive. They are poor, entirely dependent, and could not leave if they would. They are a thousand miles from civilization. To solicit the protection of a company would be to subject herself to the vilest slanders from the Mormon authorities, and, perhaps, death; some shame and much curiosity from the company; and would certainly subject her protectors to arrest for abduction; a suit in a Mormon court for monstrous damages; extortionate fees for officers, and the property of the offender would be sold at auction, for almost nothing; as well as, in all probability, a pistol-ball through his head for daring to interfere in a Mormon's domestic arrangements.

Not only this, but having all her few friends at Utah; seeing polygamy constantly practiced, and hearing submission constantly preached; no adverse public sentiment to support, or sympathy to console, and no one to protect her; alone and wavering in mind, she sinks, and to sink is to be lost. Besides, virtue deferred is virtue lost; for the practice of vice is like the waters of a fabled river, it soon petrifies the heart.

What are the effects of polygamy upon the children?

It is urged that polygamy is beneficial to increase of population. "It is not the question," shrewdly observes Paley, "whether one man will have more children by five wives, but whether those five women would not have more children, if they had each a husband?" That Brigham has more children. by his large number of wives, is certain; but whether there are as many children in the world as there would have been had each of his wives been married to a separate husband, and whether those children of Brigham are any better developed, physically or mentally, is an important question. Nature, as shown in the proportion of the sexes (see chapter on Theoretical Polygamy), points to monogamy, and she will punish any infringement of her law. This is plainly shown in Utah. The proportion of female to male births, is very much in favor of the female sex. In monogamic countries, the surplus is on the male side. In polygamic countries, as in Utah, it is the reverse of this. Were the inhabitants of Utah, therefore, to grow up, intermarry without any mixture from other incoming people, and practice polygamy as they now practice it, the male race in a few generations would become extinct. I have observed, very frequently, that the more wives a man has, the greater the proportion of female to male children he has. This might have been predicted not only from facts observable in all polygamic countries, but also from well-known physiological laws. If the Mormons were to adopt the old Arab custom of burying female children alive, when they had more than one or two, hundreds of babes would be murdered in Utah. Not only is there this disproportion, but there is a fearful mortality among the Mormon children. I think I can say, more children die in Salt Lake City, notwithstanding the salubrity of its climate, than in any other city of its size in the Union. According to their own census, the mortality of Utah is next to that of Louisiana, and the large proportion is children. Salt Lake City is therefore nearly as unhealthy as New Orleans.

This mortality, too, is particularly noticed in the families of polygamists. Brigham Young, considering the number of his wives, has but a very small family, something over thirty children. Quite a number of his wives are sterile; many others have had large families, but who have all died in infancy. His houses are filled with his women, but their children are in their graves. Joseph Smith had many wives; no one but himself knows the number, and many of them had children, but with one or two exceptions they are all dead; and well for them, poor little ones. Many of the Mormon leading men have many wives, but their children are not proportionably many. Facts like these are not confined to Utah. Mohammed had many wives and concubines, some say twenty-five; he had but one son. Fatima, the only one of his children who survived her father, died soon after, and Mohammed's direct line was extinct. There are many barren women in Utah, and as this is regarded as a signal curse, it has led, to my knowledge, to more than one case of adultery. A Mr. Hawkins was absent on a mission to the Sandwich. Islands; he had left behind him a wife, who had never had any family. Boarding at her house was a Mr. Dunn, whose wife was on the road to Salt Lake, coming to join her husband. Mrs. Hawkins was, however, found to be enceinte by this man, and the affair was patched up by a precipitate marriage between them; although her husband was away preaching Mormonism to the "Kanakas." When Mrs. Dunn arrived, her feelings may be imagined. Many expected that Hawkins would shoot Dunn on his return; but Brigham hushed the matter very quietly, and Mrs. Hawkins Dunn now fondles her two children.

If polygamy be inimical to the physical, it is still more so to the moral and mental developments of the children. Parents owe other duties to children than merely to beget them. Many men marry wives, quite indifferent about their means of sustaining them. It is notorious at Salt Lake City, that men have been walking about, doing nothing, and making their wives support them by taking in washing. I could name several such. With all their toil it is as much as most of these men can do to supply their physical wants. Food and clothing, and both scanty and poor, exhaust their purses and energies. They have no time, and if time, no disposition to attend to the mental culture of their children. There are always too many domestic quarrels to adjust; some old wife to scold, or some new wife to court. What they have not time to attend to themselves, they have no money to pay others for. The Salt Lake system of schools is merely a farce and a name (see chapter on Schools). Their children are impatiently turned over to their mother and their aunts, as they call them, who drive them out of their little crowded houses. They companionize with children bigger than themselves; go with them to herd cattle; become early inured to vice, and accustomed to foul thoughts and words; premature observers of the brute creation; practicing, many of them, the worst vices, and making the most sacredly private matters of their families a jest for their playmates. As soon as they can crack a whip or use a hoe, they have to work to help support their brothers and sisters. Education is neglected, and consequently despised. The habits of men are contracted at the age of boyhood. Many of their parents, themselves born in the backwoods, encourage their precocity. Their cheating the confiding, is called smart trading; mischievous cruelty, evidences of spirit; pompous bravado, manly talk; reckless riding, fearless courage; and if they out-talk their father, outwit their companions, whip their school-teacher, or out-curse a Gentile, they are thought to be promising greatness, and are praised accordingly. Every visitor of Salt Lake will recognize the portrait, for every visitor proclaims them to be the most whisky-loving, tobacco-chewing, saucy and precocious children he ever saw. It is true, however, that the Mormons have been driven from place to place; and to some extent this has prevented much attention being directed to the education of their children. This will account, perhaps, for the ignorance of the older boys; but this ignorance is almost universally the case, and indeed could not be otherwise. Large families of young children, and many wives, with frequent female ailments, are all dependant on the toil of one man, where most persons are agriculturists, and where they can not raise even cereals without irrigating the land several times. All are obliged to work as soon as able, women and children as well as men, in the fields and gardens. Add to all this bad school regulations, incompetent instructors, and the leaders fiercely declaiming against the Gentiles and their education; ignorance, wickedness, and corruption among the boys is inevitable.

With the girls, the routine, though different, produces nearly the same result. There is a weekly meeting at Salt Lake Tabernacle attended exclusively by women; it is called the "Council of Health," its object, to discuss the most indelicate subjects. It is presided over by an old man named Richards, whose ordinary topics of conversation make even Mormons blush. It is attended frequently by H. C. Kimball, from whom I have heard the most disgustingly filthy talk before eighty or a hundred men and women. The subjectmatters of this Board of Health form staple for conversation during the week. Marriages and births in detail are the morceaux choisies. The presence of young girls, instead of repressing, excites their garrulity. "To blush at truth," says Kimball, "is from the devil." These women copy their prophet; mock the blush of half shame and half horror; and laugh at the look of childish wonder. The consequences are certain. Children from hearing learn to repeat; from repeating, learn to understand; from realizing, learn to act! The sore begins to bloat with corruption; and as the climax of abomination, the authorities now advocate early marriages!

With snow constantly in sight, they urge the example of tropical nations. They expect to obtain the hardy bodies and sound minds of northern Saxons from the worst practices of effeminate Asiatics. The fact is, some remedy has to be adopted. Passions precociously developed will be precociously gratified. If not licensed, they will be gratified illicitly. "Boys should marry at fourteen and fifteen, and girls at thirteen and fourteen," says Kimball. "Boys should be married," teaches Brigham, "and still live under their fathers' direction." Accordingly both these men had their boys married and living at home. But as to the offspring of these marriages? "The sins of the fathers shall descend upon the children, unto the third or fourth generation." Men can not transgress nature's laws with impunity. To infringe her ordinances, is to secure her penalties.

Where marriage is thus prostituted to gratify licentiousness, either there must be a great facility of divorce, or else there must be an unmitigated hell. Jesus said, Matt., xix. 9, "Whosoever putteth away his wife, except it be for fornication, and shall marry another, committeth adultery; and whoso marrieth her which is put away, committeth adultery." The Mormons are wiser than the Saviour on this subject, as well as on many others. The most trivial imaginable cause justifies and obtains a divorce at Salt Lake. Nor is any scruple made to re-marrying such a divorcee. One woman in Salt Lake has been married six times; four of her previous husbands are, I believe, still in Utah. Several cases occurred where people were divorced a day or two after their marriage; several cases where divorcees were married a few days after being divorced. So common did the applications for divorce become, that in 1854, Brigham had to impose a price to be paid in cash (then very scarce) upon all "bills." He charged. ten dollars if married for time; fifty dollars if sealed for eternity. The money went mostly to the clerk. Not a few amusing scenes occurred, where parties who came for divorce. had to return and live together, because they could not raise money enough between them to pay for the "bill." It had the desired effect: it decreased the applications.

One peculiarity of the Mormon Churches outside Utah, can not but be observed, and that is the number of mis-matches that become Mormons. Motives of interest, advice of friends, thoughtless indifference, or an act of jealousy, have united many men and women. Mormonism to them offers peculiar charms: a divorce to be had for the asking, and a free choice afterward. There are also at Utah many women who have deserted their husbands for the sake of some of the Elders. Some very distressing circumstances have occurred in consequence of this feature. One particularly is very painful. Mrs. M'Lean was married, and had several children. She embraced Mormonism in San Francisco, where she afterward. saw P. P. Pratt, one of the Mormon Apostles, and admired, believed, obeyed, and loved him. She several times endeavored to abscond with her children from her husband; he, who loved her and them very devotedly, prevented her taking his children. The children were finally sent from San Francisco to Louisiana, to their grandparents. Mrs. M'Lean went to Salt Lake and married this man Pratt, where I saw her in 1855. She came with him from Salt Lake in 1856, went to her parents' house, pretended repentance and regret, promised amendment, and accused the Mormons. She obtained their confidence, and then stole the children from their refuge; leaving the grandparents and their father nearly distracted. Mr. M'Lean has subsequently shot Pratt in Arkansas, U. S. I much regret his desperate action, however deeply I sympathize with his misfortunes. I made the acquaintance of Mr. M'Lean in California, where he was universally respected and esteemed as an honorable and an upright man; deeply devoted to his wife, and tenderly attached to his children. Another of this Pratt's wives, I understand, was a similar case, but not so far prosecuted by the husband.

Nor is this Parley P. Pratt the only one of the authorities who has acted in this manner. Both Joseph Smith and Brigham Young may be cited as examples. A Mrs. Cobb saw and loved Brigham at Boston, Mass. She embraced Mormonism, and absconded from her husband, taking with her her daughter Charlotte. She got to Salt Lake, and was married to Brigham. Charlotte is still there; she is considered the belle of Salt Lake; and if Brigham does not take a notion to marry her himself, will most likely be "sealed" to one of his sons.

Marriage with the Mormons is regarded peculiarly as a religious rite, to be performed by the priesthood, wholly irrespective of any civil authority. "Any High Priest, Bishop, Elder, or Priest," can perform it; and as almost all the Mormons hold one of these offices, almost every man has the right to unite a couple. In this way a great many marriages are performed that are only lawful in Utah. Outside Mormondom they would be regarded as concubinage. This is an artful means of keeping people in subjection, and of retaining them at Salt Lake.

Thus far we have reviewed the immediate effects of polygamy. The Mormons have, however, another system of marriage, in the carrying out of which there is still more of the atrocious and corrupt. This is what they term "the sealing for eternity," and will require a separate chapter.

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