The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1859-09-01


world that of plurality of wives-is the sys-
tenn of your Church acceptable to the majority
of its women ?
b. Y.-They could not be more ayerse TO IT
than / was when it was first revealed to US as
the Divine viii. I think they generally accept
it, as do, as the viii of God.
81. Glow general is polygamy among
you?
B. VI could not say. Some of those pres
ent (heads of the Church) have each but one
wife; others have more each determines what
is his individual duty.
ii. G.-What is the largest number of wives
belonging to any one man?
b. VI have fifteen know no one who
has more; but some of those sealed to me are
old ladies, whom l regard rather as mothers
than wives, but whom have taken home to
cherish and support.
ii. G.-Does not the Apostle Paul say that
bishop should be the husband of one wife P"
B. Y.-So we hold. We do not regard any but
a married man as fitted for the Office of bishop.
But the Apostle does not forbid bishop having
more wives than one.
II. G.-Does not Christ say that he who puts
away his wife, or marries one whom another
puts away, commits adultery?
B. Yes; and hold that no man should
ever put away wife, except for adultery-not
view of the matter. / do not say that wives
have never been put away in our Church, but
that do not approve of the practice.
ii. Glow do you regard what rs commonly
termed the Christian Sabbath?
B. Y.-As divinely appointed day of rest.
We enioin all to rest from secular labor on that
day. We would have no man ensayed to the
Sabbath, but we enjoin all to respect and en-
joyit
Such is, as nearly as l can recollect, the sub
stance of nearly two hours conversation, where
in much was said incidentally that would not
be worth reporting, even if could remember
and reproduce it, and wherein others bore a
part but as President Young is the first min
lister of the Mormon Church, and bore the prin-
cipal part in the conversation, have reported
his answers alone to my questions and obserya-
TONS The others appeared uniformly to defer
to his views, and to acquiesce fully in his re-
sponses and explanations. He spoke readily,
not always with grammatical accuracy, but with
no appearance of hesitation or reserve, and
with no apparent desire to conceal anything
nor did he repel any of my questions as i'm
pertinent. He was very plainly dressed in thin
summer clothing, and with no air of sancti
mony or fanaticism. In appearance he is a
portly, frank, good-natured, rather thick-set
man of hfty-fve, seeming to enjoy life, and to be
in no particular hurry to get to heaven. His
associates are plain men, evidently born and
reared to life Cf labor, and looking as little
like crafty hypocrites or swindlers as any body
of men l ever met. The absence of cant or
shuttle from their manner was marked and
general, yet / think may fairly say that their
MOrmonism has not impoverished them-that
they were generally poor men when they en-
braced it, and are now in very comfortable cir
cumstancsG-as men averaging three or four
wives apiece certainly need to be.
If / hazard any criticisms on Mormonism
generally, reserve them for separate letter,
being determined to make this a fair and full
expose of the doctrine and polity, in the very
words of its Prophet, so far as | can recall
them. do not believe President Young him.
self could present them in terms calculated to
render them less obnoxious to the Gentle world
than the above.
But have right to add here, because l
said it to the assembled chiefs at the close of
the above colloquy, that the degradation Tor, if
you please, the restriction) of woman to the sim
gle Office of child bearing and its accessories,
is an inevitable consequence of the system here
paramount. | have not observed a sign in the
streets, an advertisement in the journals, of
this Mormon metropolis, whereby woman pro-
poses to do anything whatever. No Mormon
has ever cited to me his wife's or any woman
opinion on any subject; no Mormon woman has
been introduced or has spoken to me; and,
though l have been asked to visit Mormons in
their houses, no one has spoken of his wife Tor
wives) desiring to see me, or his desiring me to
make her Tor their acquaintance, or voluntari-
ly indicated the existence of such being or
beings. l will not attempt to report our talk
on this subject, because, unlike what have
above given, it assumed somewhat the charac-
ter of disputation, and l could hardly give it
impartally but one remark made by President
Young l think / can give accurately, and it
may serve as sample Of all that was offered
on that side. 1t was in these words, think,
exactly: of l did not consider myself compe-
tent to transact certain business without ia
king my wife's or any woman's counsel with re-
gard to it, think l ought to let that business
alone" The spirit with regard to woman, of
the entire Mormon, as of all other polygamic
systems, is fairly displayed in this avowal. Let
any such system become established and preva-
lent, and woman will be confined to the harem,
and her appearance in the street with unveiled
face will be accounted immodest. joyfully
trust that the genius of the nineteenth century
tends to a solution of the problem of woman's
sphere and destiny radically different from this.
b. G..