perfectly consistent, and who delights in the salvation of the human
family. A wicked man may take unto himself a wife, and raise unto
himself a posterity. He may set before that wife and her posterity a
very wicked example. He may lead those children by his drunkenness, by
his blasphemy, by his immoralities, down to destruction. A righteous
man may take fifty wives, or ten, as you choose; and he will bring
up his children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord; he will
instruct them in the great principles of righteousness and truth,
and lead them along and bring them up by his example and by his
teachings to inherit eternal life at the right hand of God, with
those polygamists of ancient times, Abraham and Jacob of old, who are
up yonder in the kingdom of God. Which of the two is the Lord most
pleased with? The man who has five, or ten, or twenty wives, bringing
up his children, teaching them, instructing them, training them so
that they may obtain eternal life with the righteous in the Kingdom
of God; or the monogamist that brings up his children in all manner
of wickedness, and finally leads them down to hell? Which would you
prefer with your limited wisdom when compared with that of the great
Creator? Who among you would not prefer to entrust your offspring with
your friends instead of your enemies? Would not God, therefore, upon
the same principle, do the same? Does God delight in the marriages that
exist among the wicked? Go to the antediluvian race. They married and
were given in marriage until the day that Noah entered into the ark.
They were not righteous men nor righteous women; and their children
were taught in the wicked precepts of their fathers, who committed all
manner of wickedness until all flesh had corrupted itself before the
Lord. Therefore the Lord had to destroy those evil workers of iniquity
that had received wives, but did not honor nor regard the Lord. Instead
of those marriages consummated before the flood, the marriages and
intermarriages among the sons of God and the daughters of men, being
acceptable to the Most High, He was obliged to destroy those that were
married and their offspring from the face of the earth. How much better
it would have been had they been righteous polygamists who would have
brought forth a pure offspring that the Lord could have exalted to
eternal life. Consequently, when we examine the subject of polygamy
in regard to this matter, we must acknowledge, from these scriptures,
and from various other testimonies, that the marriages of the wicked
are not approved by the Heavens. There are many passages of scripture
to support me in what I have now said. The Lord in one place commands
the destruction of a people, parents and children, "lest they should
fill the world with cities," lest all the world should be filled with
people who had married contrary to His law. No person can pretend that
a marriage consummated between an unrighteous man and an unrighteous
woman, is a marriage in which God has joined the parties together. You
might as well take the ordinance of baptism, and say that Simon Magus,
when he went forward and was baptized, had complied with the ordinance
of Heaven, while he yet remained in a condition of hardened sinfulness;
and that because he had passed through the outward observance of the
ordinance it was acceptable in the sight of Heaven. God never had
anything to do with the marriages of the wicked only to permit them,
perhaps for a wise purpose, as he permitted Joseph to be sold into
Egypt by his brethren. He permitted the deed for his own wise purposes,
but He did not justify the instruments who did the deed. So he permits
these unauthorized marriages between wicked men and wicked women, to
perpetuate the human race, because they will not hearken to Him, until
the time shall come when he can have a pure people who will obey his
laws, educating their posterity to honor and serve him. He permits, but
He does not sanction such marriages.
If we should argue with the reverend gentleman that the census shows an
equality of males and females, this argument that I have now advanced
will rebut the idea thus sought to be established. The idea is that
because there may be made to appear an equality in numbers, therefore,
every man must be confined to one wife and every woman must have one
husband. Is that the way God dispenses his gifts and blessings to the
human family? Does he give the same amount of blessings to the wicked
that He does to the righteous? In some respects He does. He sends the
rain from heaven upon the just and the unjust. But there are many
great and important blessings that are bestowed more abundantly upon
the righteous than upon the wicked. God has holy designs to accomplish
when He makes a distinction between the righteous and the wicked in
dispensing His blessings. Therefore if the wicked take wives without
their being joined together by divine authority, those wives have
allied themselves to their husbands without the Lord's sanction.
Because the Lord permits this it does not prove that He sanctions
it; and He would prefer that a people should be like Israel of old,
a nation of polygamists as well as monogamists, and the blessings
be dispensed between them, rather than have this so-called perfect
equality between the males and females, and a wicked generation be
the result. To prove this I will refer you to the 37th Psalm. God in
that Psalm has expressly said, and repeated again and again, that
the seed of the evil-doers should he rooted out of the earth, while
the righteous should inherit it and should prosper. He bestows His
blessings upon the one and His curses upon the other.
I shall expect this afternoon to hear some arguments to refute those
passages brought forward to sustain polygamy as well as monogamy; and
if the gentleman can find no proof to limit the passages I have quoted
to monogamic households, if there is no such evidence contained in the
passages, and there is nothing in the original Hebrew as it now exists
to invalidate them, then polygamy as a divine institution stands as
firm as the throne of the Almighty. And if he can find that this form
of marriage is repealed in the New Testament; if he can find that God
has in any age of the world done away with the principle and form of
plural marriage, perhaps the argument will rest with the other side.
I shall wait with great patience to have some arguments brought forth
on this subject. We are happy, here in this Territory, to have the
learned come among us to teach us. We have embraced the Bible as a
rule of faith; and if we misunderstand it, if we are acting contrary
to its precepts, how very happy we should be to have the learned come
from abroad--people who are acquainted with the original languages--to
correct us and set us right. I think this is generous on the part
of those gentlemen; much more so than it would be to enact laws and
incarcerate in dungeons those who practice a form of marriage laid down
in this book; to send them for three, or four, or five years to prison,
tearing them from their poor wives and children, while their families
would suffer hardship and hunger, being robbed of their natural
protectors. We thank Mr. Newman and those who have come with him with
their hearts full of philanthropy to enlighten us here in this mountain
Territory, and if possible convince us of our errors.
I have many arguments that I have not drawn upon, not only to reason
upon, but testimonies as well in favor of polygamy; but I am informed
that only seven minutes of the time remains to me. I cannot, therefore,
pretend on this occasion to enter into these arguments and examine
them with that justice that should be expected before the people. Mr.
Newman has said he would like nine hours to bring forth his arguments
and his reasonings for the benefit of the poor people of Utah. I wish
he would not only take nine hours, but nine weeks and nine months, and
be indeed a philanthropist and missionary in our midst; and try and
reclaim this poor people from being the "awful beastly" people they are
represented abroad. We are very fond of the Scriptures. We do not feel
free to comply with a great many customs and characteristics of a great
many of those who call themselves Christians. Much may be said upon
this subject; much, too, that ought to crimson the faces of those who
call themselves civilized, when they reflect upon the enormities, the
great social evils, that exist in their midst. Look at the great city
of New York, the great metropolis of commerce. That is a city where we
might expect some of the most powerful, and learned theologians to hold
forth, teaching and inculcating principles and lessons of Christianity.
What exists in the midst of that city? Females by the tens of
thousands, females who are debauched by day and by night; females who
are in open day parading the streets of that great city! Why, they are
monogamists there! It is a portion of the civilization of New York
to be very pious over polygamy; yet harlots and mistresses by the
thousands and tens of thousands walk the streets by open day, as well
as by night. There is sin enough committed there in one twenty-four
hours to sink the city down like Sodom and Gomorrah.
We read that there was once a case of prostitution among the children
of Benjamin in ancient days. Some men came and took another man's wife,
or concubine, whichever you please to call her; some men took her and
abused her all night; and for that one sin they were called to account.
They were called upon to deliver up the offenders but they would not do
it, and they were viewed as confederates. And what was the result of
that one little crime--not a little crime--a great one; that one crime
instead of thousands? The Lord God said to the rest of the tribes of
Israel, Go forth and fight against the tribe of Benjamin. They fought
against Benjamin; and the next day they were again commanded to go
forth and fight against Benjamin. They obeyed; and the next day they
were again so commanded; and they fought until they cut off the entire
tribe except six hundred men. The destruction of nearly the whole tribe
of Benjamin was the punishment for one act of prostitution.
Compare the strictness that existed in ancient Israel with the
whoredoms, the prostitution and even the infanticide practised in all
the cities of this great nation; and then because a few individuals
in this mountain Territory are practising Bible marriage a law must
be threatened to inflict heavy penalties upon us; our families must
be torn from us and be driven to misery, because of the piety of a
civilization in which the enormities I have pointed out exist.
To close this argument I now call upon the reverend gentleman, whom I
highly respect for his learning, his eloquence and ability, to bring
forth proof to rebut the passages laid down in yesterday's argument in
support of the position that the Bible sanctions polygamy. I ask him to
prove that those laws were limited. If they were limited--
(Here the umpires announced that the time was up.)
Dr. NEWMAN Rose and Said:
Messrs. Umpires and Ladies and Gentlemen:
I understand the gentleman to complain against me that I did not
answer his Scriptural arguments adduced yesterday. If I did not the
responsibility is upon him. He, being in the affirmative, should have
analyzed and defined the question under debate; but he failed to do
that. It therefore fell to me, not by right, but by his neglecting to
do his duty; and I did it to the best of my ability. It was of the
utmost importance that this audience, so attentive and so respectable,
should have a clear and definite understanding of the terms of the
question; and I desire now to inform the gentleman, that I had the
answers before me to the passages which he adduced, and had I had
another hour, I would have produced them then. I will do it to-day.
Now, my learned friend will take out his pencil, for he will have
something to do this afternoon.
A passing remark--a word in regard to the original manuscripts, written
by Moses, or Joshua, or Samuel, or the prophets. You sit down to
write a letter to a friend; you take it into your head to copy that
letter; you copy that letter; the original draft you care nothing
about--whether it is given to the winds or the flames. What care I
about the two tables of stone on which the original law was written,
so that I have a true copy of this law? A passing remark in regard to
Mother Eve. I will defend the venerable woman! If the Fall came by the
influence of one woman over one man, what would have happened to the
world if Adam had had more wives than one? More, if one woman, under
monogamy, brought woe into the world, then a monogamist, the blessed
virgin Mary, brought the Redeemer into the world, so I think they are
even.
My friend supposes that the Almighty might have created more women than
one out of Adam's ribs; but Adam had not ribs enough to create fifty
women. My friend speaks against polyandry, or the right of woman to
have more husbands than one. He bases his argument upon the increase
of progeny. Science affirms that where polygamy or polygyny, or a
plurality of wives prevails, there is a tendency to a preponderance or
predominance of one sex over the other, either male or female, which
amounts to an extermination of the race.
I will reply, in due time, to the gentleman's remarks in regard to
Gideon and other Scriptural characters, and especially in regard to
prostitution, or what is known as the social evil. But first, what was
the object of the gentleman yesterday? It was to discover a general
law for the sanction of polygamy. Did he find that law? I deny it.
What is law? Law is the expression of the legislative will; law is
the manner in which an act is performed. It is the law of gravitation
that all things tend to a common centre. It is the law in botany that
the flowers open their fan-like leaves to the light, and close them
beneath the kisses of night. What is the civil law? Simply defining
how the citizens should act. What is the moral law? Simply defining
the conduct of God's moral subjects. Laws are mandatory, prohibitory
and permissive: commanding what should be done; prohibiting what
should not be done, and permitting what may be done. And yet, where
has the gentleman produced this general law which he spent an hour in
searching for yesterday? And then remember, that this law must sanction
polygamy! Perhaps it is not necessary to repeat our definition of the
word "sanction." My learned friend, for whom I have respect, agrees
with me as to the definition of that term, therefore we need not spend
a solitary moment further touching these two points.
There is another vital point in reference to the nature of law. In
legislating upon any subject there must be a great, organic central
principle, mandatory or prohibitory, in reference to that subject; and
all other parts of the particular law as well as of the general code
must be interpreted in harmony therewith.
Now I propose to produce a law this afternoon, simple, direct and
positive, that polygamy is forbidden in God's holy word. In Leviticus
xviii and 18 it is written: "Neither shalt thou take one wife to
another, to vex her, to uncover her nakedness, besides the other in
her life time." There is a law in condemnation of polygamy. It may be
said that what I have read is as it reads in the margin, but that in
the body of the text it reads: "Neither shalt thou take a wife to her
sister, to vex her, to uncover her nakedness, besides the other in her
lifetime." Very well, argumentum ad hominem, I draw my argument from
the speech of the gentleman yesterday. Mr. Pratt said, in his comments
upon the text, "If brethren dwell together,"--Now it is well enough in
the reading of this to refer to the margin, as we have the liberty,
I believe, to do so, and you will find that in the margin the word
brother is translated "near kinsmen." I accept his mode of reasoning:
he refers to the margin, and I refer to the margin; it is a poor rule
that will not work both ways; it is a poor rule that will not favor
monogamy if it favor polygamy. Such then is the fact stated in this law.
Now it is necessary for us to consider the nature of this law and
to expound it to your understanding, it may be proper for me to say
that this interpretation, as given in the margin, is sustained by
the most eminent biblical and classical scholars in the history of
Christendom--by Bishop Jewell, by the learned Cookson, by the eminent
Dwight, and other distinguished biblical scholars. It is an accepted
canon of interpretation that the scope of the law must be considered
in determining the sense of any portion of the law, and it is equally
binding upon us to ascertain the mind of the legislator, from the
preface of the law, when such preface is given. The first few verses of
the xviii chapter of Leviticus are prefatory. In the 3rd verse it is
stated that--
After the doings of the land of Egypt, wherein ye dwelt, shall ye not
do and after the doings of the land of Canaan, whither I bring you,
shall ye no do: neither shall ye walk in their ordinances.
Both the Egyptians and the Canaanites practised incest, idolatry
sodomy, adultery and polygamy. From verse 6 to verse 17, inclusive, the
law of consanguinity is laid down, and the blood relationship defined.
Then the limits within which persons were forbidden to marry, and in
verse 18 the law against polygamy is given--"neither shalt thou take a
wife to her sister," but as we have given it, "neither shalt thou take
one wife to another," etc.
According to Dr. Edwards, the words which are translated as "wife" or
"sister," are found in the Hebrew but eight times, and in each passage
they refer to inanimate objects, such as the wings of the cherubim,
tenons, mortises, etc., and signify the coupling together one _to
another, the same as thou shalt not take one wife to another_.
Such then is the law. Such were the ordinances forbidden which the
Egyptians and the Canaanites practised. Now we propose to push this
argument a little further. If it is said that this passage does not
prohibit a man marrying two sisters at the same time then such a
marriage is nowhere in the Bible pronounced incestuous. That is the
objection of my friend. To which I reply that such a marriage is
forbidden by sequence and analogy. As for example where the son, in
the 7th verse, is prohibited from marrying his mother, it follows
that the daughter shall not marry her father; yet it is not so given
and precisely stated. In verse 14 it is said--"thou shalt not uncover
the nakedness of thy father's brother;" so I infer that it would be
equally criminal to uncover the nakedness of a mother's brother,
though it is not so stated. In verse 16 it is said--"thou shalt not
uncover the nakedness of thy brother's wife," so I infer that a man
shall not uncover the nakedness of his wife's sister that is, if two
brothers shall not take the same woman, then two women shall not take
the same man, for between one man and two sisters, and one woman and
two brothers is the same degree of proximity, and therefore both are
forbidden by the law of God. Furthermore, if for argument's sake, we
consider this means two literal sisters, then this prohibition is
not a permission for a man to take two wives who are not sisters;
for all sound jurists will agree that a prohibition is one thing and
a permission is another thing. Nay, more, the Mormons do or do not
receive the law of Moses as binding. That they do not is clear from
their own practices. For instance, in Leviticus, xx chap. and 14 verse
it is said--
And if a man take a wife and her mother, it is wickedness; they shall
be burnt with fire, both he and they.
Yet Mr. John Hyde, jr., page 56 of his work called "Mormonism," states
that a Mr. E. Bolton married a woman and her daughter; that Captain
Brown married a woman and her two daughters. These are illustrations
of the violation of the law. More than this Leviticus xviii, 18,
prohibits a man from marrying two sisters; yet Mr. Hyde informs us that
a Mr. Davis married three sisters, and a Mr. Sharkey married the same
number. If the question is, Is the law of Moses obeyed here or not?
and supposing this gentleman can prove that the text means two literal
sisters, and two literal sisters are married here, then I affirm that
you do not keep God's law, or that which you say is God's law, as given
through his servant Moses. Nay, more than this: if it here means two
literal sisters, and, whereas, Jacob married two sisters; and, whereas,
the great Mormon doctrine that God worked a miracle on Leah and Rachel
that they might have children; and, whereas, it is here said that said
miracles were an approval of polygamy, so also were such miracles
an approval of incest; if it be true that God did not express this
approval at Jacob having two wives, neither did he express disapproval
of his having two sisters; therefore the Divine silence in the one case
is an offset to the Divine silence in the other case. Even you are
driven to this conclusion, either my interpretation of this passage is
correct,--neither shall a man take another wife,--two wives, or you
must admit that this passage means two literal sisters, and in either
case you live in violation of God's law. It is for my distinguished
friend to choose which horn of the dilemma he pleases. I thank him
for the compliment he paid me--that I came here as a philanthropist.
I have only kindness in my heart for these dear men and women; and
had not this kindness filled my heart; had I believed in a crushing,
iron, civil law, I could have remained in Washington. But I came here
believing the truth as it is in Jesus, and I am glad to say that I have
the privilege of speaking what I believe to be God's truth in your
hearing.
The gentleman quoted Deuteronomy xxi, 15-17, which is the law of
primogeniture, and is designed to preserve the descent of property:
If a man have two wives, one beloved and another hated, and they
have borne him children, both the beloved and the hated; and if the
first-born son be hers that was hated;
Then it shall be, when he maketh his sons to inherit that which he
hath, that he may not make the son of the beloved first-born before
the son of the hated, which is indeed the first-born:
But he shall acknowledge the son of the hated for the first-born,
by giving him a double portion of all that he hath: for he is the
beginning of his strength; the right of the first-born is his.
How did he apply this law? Why he first assumed the prevalence of
polygamy among the Jews in the wilderness, and then said the law
was made for polygamous families as well as for monogamous. He
says--"inasmuch as polygamy is nowhere condemned in the law of God, we
are entitled to construe this law as applying to polygamists." But I
have shown already that Leviticus xviii, 18, is a positive prohibition
of this law, and therefore this passage must be interpreted by that
which I have quoted. I propose to erect the balance to-day, and try
every scriptural argument which he has produced in the scales of
justice.
I have recited to you God's solemn law--"Neither shall a man take one
wife unto another:" and I will try every passage by this law. My friend
spent an hour here yesterday in seeking a general law; in a minute I
gave you a general law. How natural is the supposition, where a man
has two wives in succession, that he may love the last a little better
than the first! and I believe it is common out here to love the last
a little better than the first. And how natural it is for the second
wife to influence the father in the disposition of his property so
that he will confer it upon her child! while the children of the first
wife, poor woman, perhaps dead and gone, are deprived of their property
rights. But supposing the meaning of this passage is two wives at the
same time, this cannot be construed, by any of the accepted rules of
interpretation, into a sanction of polygamy; if it can, I can prove
that sheep stealing is just as divinely authorized. For it is as if
Moses had said: "for in view of the prevalence of polygamy, and that
you have so far forgotten and transgressed God's law of monogamy as
to take two wives at the same time, therefore this shall not work the
abrogation of the law of primogeniture, the first-born son shall not
thereby be cheated out of his rights." Now it is said: "if a man have
two wives:" very well, if that is a privilege so also are these words:
"If a man shall steal an ox or a sheep and kill it and sell it, he
shall restore five oxen for the ox he stole, and four sheep for the
sheep." If the former assertion is a sanction of polygamy, then the
latter assertion is a sanction of sheep stealing, and we can all go
after the flocks this afternoon.
The second passage, in Exodus xxi, 7th to 11th verses, referring to the
laws of breach of promise, Mr. Pratt says proves or favors polygamy, in
his opinion; but he did not dwell long upon this text. He indulged in
an episode on the lost manuscripts. Now let us inquire into the meaning
of this passage.
And if a man sell his daughter to be a maid-servant, she shall not go
out as the men-servants do.