shall he let her be redeemed: to sell her unto a strange nation he
shall have no power, seeing he hath dealt deceitfully with her.
And if he hath betrothed her unto his son, he shall deal with her
after the manner of daughters.
If he take him another wife, her food, her raiment, and her duty of
marriage, shall he not diminish.
And if he do not these three unto her, then shall she go out free
without money.
What are the significant points in this passage? They are simply
these--According to the Jewish law a destitute Jew was permitted to
apprentice his daughter for six years for a pecuniary consideration;
and to guard the rights of this girl there were certain conditions:
First, the period of her indenture should not extend beyond six years;
she should be free at the death of her master, or at the coming of the
year of jubilee. The next condition was that the master or his son
should marry the girl. What, therefore, are we to conclude from this
passage? Simply this, that neither the father nor the son marry the
girl, but simply betrothed her; that is, engaged her, promised to marry
her: but before the marriage relation was consummated the young man
changed his mind, and then God Almighty, to indicate his displeasure
at a man who would break the vow of engagement, fixes the following
penalties, namely that he shall provide for this woman, whom he has
wronged, her food, her raiment and her dwelling, and these are the
facts: and the gentleman has not proved, the gentleman cannot prove,
that either the father or the son marry the girl. He says the honored
term "wife" is there. Honored term! God bless that term! It is an
honored term, sacred as the nature of angels. Yet I have to inform my
distinguished friend that the word wife is neither in the Hebrew nor
in the Greek, but simply "if he take another," that is if he betroth
another, and then change his mind he shall do thus and so. Where then
is the gentleman's general law in approval of polygamy?
The next passage is recorded in Deuteronomy xxv chap., and from the 5th
to the 10th verses, referring to the preservation of families:
If brethren dwell together, and one of them die, and have no child,
the wife of the dead shall not marry without unto a stranger: her
husband's brother shall go in unto her, and take her unto him to wife,
and perform the duty of a husband's brother unto her.
And it shall be, that the first-born which she beareth shall succeed
in the name of his brother which is dead, that his name be not put out
of Israel.
And if the man like not to take his brother's wife, then let his
brother's wife go up to the gate unto the elders, and say, My
husband's brother refuseth to raise up unto his brother a name in
Israel, he will not perform the duty of my husband's brother:
Then the elders of his city shall call him, and speak unto him: and if
he stand to it, and say, I like not to take her;
Then shall his brother's wife come unto him in the presence of the
elders, and loose his shoe from off his foot, and spit in his face,
and shall answer and say, So shall it be done unto that man that will
not build up his brother's house.
And his name shall be called in Israel, the house of him that hath his
shoe loosed.
What is the object of this law! Evidently the preservation of families
and family inheritances. And now I challenge the gentleman to bring
forward a solitary instance in the Bible where a married man was
compelled to obey this law. Take the case of Tamar! Certainly the
brother that was to have married her could not have been a married man,
because she had to wait until he grew up. Then take the case of Ruth.
You know how she lost her noble Mahlon afar off beyond Jordan, and
how she returned to Bethlehem, and goes to Boaz, a near kinsman, and
demands that he shall marry her. Boaz says--"there is another kinsman.
I will speak to him." It is asked--"Didn't Boaz know whether the nearer
kinsman was married?" but yet that was not the business of Boaz. The
divine law required that this man should appear at the gate of the
city before the elders, and there either marry her or say that he was
disqualified because he was already a married man; and there is no
proof in the Bible that Boaz had been married; nay, more than this, old
Josephus, the Jewish historian, asserts that the reason why the near
kinsman did not marry Ruth was that he had a wife and children already,
so I judge that this law, which is said to be general, is that that I
laid down--"Neither shall a man take one wife unto another," etc. He
refers me to Numbers xxxi, 17th and 18th verses.
Now, therefore, kill every male among the little ones, and kill every
woman that hath known man by lying with him.
But all the women-children, that have not known man by lying with him,
keep alive for yourselves.
This passage has nothing whatever to do with polygamy. It is an
account of the results of a military expedition of the Jews against
the Midianites; their slaughter of a portion of the people, and their
reduction of the remainder to slavery--namely the women for domestics.
My friend dwells upon thirty-two thousand women that were saved! What
were these among the Jewish nation--a people numbering two and a half
millions?
He quotes Deuteronomy xxi, 10th and 13th verses:
When thou goest forth to war against thine enemies, and the Lord thy
God hath delivered them into thine hands, and thou hast taken them
captive;
And seest among the captives a beautiful woman, and hast a desire unto
her, that thou wouldst have her to thy wife;
Then thou shalt bring her home to thine house; and she shall shave her
head, and pare her nails;
And she shall put the raiment of her captivity from off her, and shall
remain in thine house, and bewail her father and her mother a full
mouth: and after that thou shalt go in unto her, and be her husband
and she shall be thy wife.
This passage is designed to regulate the treatment of a captive woman
by the conqueror who desires her for a wife, and has no more to do with
polygamy than it has to do with theft or murder. Not a solitary word
is said about polygamy, no mention is made that the man is married,
therefore every jurist will agree with me that where we find a general
law we may judge a special enactment by the organic, fundamental
principle.
He quoted Exodus xxii chap., 16 and 17, and Deuteronomy xxii, and 28
and 29:
And if a man entice a maid that is not betrothed, and lie with her, he
shall surely endow her to be his wife.
If her father utterly refuse to give her unto him, he shall pay money
according to the dowry of virgins.
In Deuteronomy it is said:
If a man find a damsel that is a virgin, which is not betrothed, and
lay hold on her, and lie with her, and they be found;
Then the man that lay with her shall give unto the damsel's father
fifty shekels of silver, and she shall be his wife; because he hath
humbled her, he may not put her away all his days.
My friend appeared to confound these two laws, as if they had reference
to the same crime; but the first is the law of seduction, while the
second was the law of rape. In both cases the defiler was required to
marry his victim; but in the case of seduction, if the father of the
seduced girl would not consent to the marriage, then the sum usual
for the dowry of a virgin should be paid him and the offense was
expiated. But what was the penalty of rape? In that case there is no
ambiguity--the ravisher married his victim and paid her father fifty
pieces of silver besides. But what has this to do with polygamy? He
says it is a general law and applies to married men. This cannot be so,
because it is in conflict with the great law of Leviticus xviii, 18.
I tell you, my friends, these are simple downright assumptions. The
position is first taken, and therefore these passages are adduced to
sustain that position; and this gentleman goes on to assume that all
these men are married men. It is a tremendous fact, that if a man
seduced a girl or committed a rape upon her, he was bound to marry that
girl. It is a tremendous fact that the same law gives to the father
the right of the refusal of his daughter, therefore the father has the
power to annul God's law of marriage.
The next passage is the 2nd Chronicles, xxiv and 3rd, &c. It is the
case of Joash the king, and when he began to reign Jehoiada was high
priest. He was more than that--he was regent. My friend in portraying
the character of this great man said that because he took two wives for
King Joash, he was so highly honored that when he died he was buried
among the kings. But the fact is, he was regent, and there was royalty
in his regency, and this royalty entitled him to be interred in the
royal mausoleum. All that is said in Chronicles is simply an epitome--a
summing up, that King Joash had two wives. It does not say that he had
them at the same time; he might have had them in succession. I give
you an illustration: John Milton was born in London in 1609. He was
an eminent scholar, a great statesman and a beautiful poet; and John
Milton had three wives. There I stop. Are you to infer that John Milton
had these three wives simultaneously? Why you might according to the
gentleman's interpretation of this passage. But John Milton had them in
succession. But more than this, for argument's sake grant the position
assumed by my friend, then the numerical element of the argument must
come out, and a man can only have two wives and no more. Do you keep
that law here? And yet that is the argument and that is the logical
conclusion.
The last passage my friend referred to was the 1st chapter of Hosea,
and 2nd verse:
The beginning of the word of the Lord by Hosea. And the Lord said
to Hosea, Go, take unto thee a wife of whoredoms, and children of
whoredoms: for the land hath committed great whoredoms, departing from
the Lord.
That is, says Newcomb, a wife from among the Israelites, who were
remarkable for spiritual fornication. My friend is so determined on a
literal interpretation that he gives a literal interpretation, whereas
this distinguished biblical scholar says that it was not literal
fornication, but rather spiritual; in other words, idolatry; for in the
Scriptures, both the Old and the New Testament, idolatry is mentioned
under the term fornication. God calls himself the husband of Israel,
and this chosen nation owed him the fidelity of a wife. Exodus the
xxxiv Chapter and 15th verse:
Lest thou make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, and they
go a whoring after their gods, and do sacrifice unto their gods, and
one call thee, and thou eat of his sacrifice.
The 14th verse of the same chapter says:
For thou shalt worship no other god: for the Lord, whose name is
jealous, is a jealous God.
He therefore sees thee with indignation join thyself in marriage to
one of those who had committed fornication or spiritual idolatry, lest
they should raise up children, who, by the power of example, might
lay themselves under the terribleness of idolatry. The prophet is
directed to get a wife of whoredoms; and, after this, he is directed
to go and love an adulterous woman. My friend cites these as examples
where God makes an exception to a general law. He also cites the case
of Abraham offering up his son Isaac, and the case of consanguinity,
in Deuteronomy xxv, from 5th to 10th verse. Now the first three
cases were merely typical; the first two were designed to set forth
more impressively the relations between God and His people. The
case of consanguinity has nothing to do with polygamy. It is only a
modification or exception in special cases for the preservation of the
families of Israel from extinction. Where, therefore, I ask, is the
general law?
But my friend has forgotten this fact, that after having divorced the
first wife for adultery, as he had a right to do, in chapter ii, 2nd
and 5th verses, he is then directed to go and take another wife. This
is not polygamy. It was represented to us here, yesterday, that this
prophet, Hosea, was first commanded to take a woman guilty of adultery
or fornication, and then to take an adulteress, and the representation
was made that he took them and had them at the same time; whereas,
if Mr. Pratt had read a little further, he would have found that the
prophet divorced the first wife for adultery, and he had a right to do
it; and after he divorced her, then he went and took a second wife.
Professor Pratt admits, mark you, admits that none of these passages,
nor all of them together, can afford in this day a warrant for the
practice of polygamy. Gives it up! Turns the Bible aside! I will read
to you from his own words:
Supposing that we should prove by a thousand evidences from the Bible
that polygamy was practised by ancient Israel, and was sanctioned by
God in ancient days, would that be any reason that you and I should
practise it? By no means. We must get a command independent of that,
which we have received. God frequently repeats His commands, and His
servants are required to obey His commands when they are given. The
Latter-day Saints in this Territory practise polygamy not because the
law of Moses commands it; not because it was extensively practised
by the best of men we know of, mentioned in the Bible, the old
patriarchs, Abraham and Jacob and others, who are saved in the kingdom
of God. We have no right to practise it because they did it.
Then he yields the point! I respectfully ask him, if this is his
position, why does he attempt, in all his writings, and to establish it
in that clever book the Seer? Why did he, in his controversy with me in
the New York Herald? Why has he from this stand attempted to prove that
the practice of polygamy was right from the Bible? Why not, like a man,
come out and say that we practise this system here, not because the
Jews did it; not because the Divine law sanctioned it years ago; but
because a certain man of the name of Smith received a revelation that
this form of marriage was to be practised? You, my friends, can see the
logical conclusion, or in other words the illogical bearing.
Now, I come to the assumptions by the gentleman. First, that there is
no law condemning or forbidding polygamy. Has he proved that? Second,
that the Hebrew nation, as it was in the wilderness, when the Mosaic
code was given, was polygamous. Has he proved that? Can he find in
the whole history of the Jewish nation, from the time they left Egypt
to the time they entered the land of Canaan, can he find more than
one instance of polygamy? Perhaps he may find two. I will be glad to
receive that information, for I am a man seeking light, and to-day
I throw down a challenge to your eminent defender of the faith, to
produce more than two instances of polygamy, from the time the Jews
left the land of Egypt to the time they entered Canaan. I will assist
him in his research and tell him one, and that was Caleb. Now supposing
that a murder should be committed in your city, would it be fair for
Eastern papers to say that the Mormons are a murderous people? No,
I would rise up in defence of you; I would say that that is a crime
and an injury to the people here! Yet, during a period of forty years
we find one man out of two millions and a half of people practising
polygamy, and my friend comes forward and assumes that the Israelites
were polygamists.
Third, that these laws were given to regulate among them an institution
already existing. Has he proved that? Supposing he could prove that
Moses attempted, or did legislate for the regulation of polygamy, as
it did exist in Egypt and elsewhere, would such legislation establish
a sanction? Why in Paris they have laws regulating the social evil;
is that an approval of the social evil? There are laws in most of the
States regulating and controling intemperance. Do excise laws sanction
intemperance? Nothing of the kind. For argument's sake I would be
willing to concede that Moses did legislate in regard to polygamy,
that is to regulate it, to confine its evils; and yet my friend is too
much of a legislator to stand here and assert that laws regulating and
defining were an approval of a system.
Fourth, that these laws were general, applying to all men, married and
unmarried. Has he proved that? I have proved to the contrary to-day,
showing that in the passages which he quoted there is not a solitary or
remote intimation that the men were married.
Now let us, in opposition to these assumptions, remember that monogamy
was established by God in the innocence of the human race, and that
polygamy, like idolatry, and slavery, blood revenge, drunkenness and
murder came into existence after the apostasy of the human family, and
that neither of these evils have any other origin so far as appears
from the Bible than in the wickedness of man. We admit that polygamy
existed among the corrupt nations, just as any other evil, or vice,
or crime existed, and now when God had chosen the Hebrews for His own
people, to separate them from the heathen, He gives them for the first
time a code of laws, and especially on the subject of the commerce
of the sexes. And what is the central principle of that code on this
subject? Read Leviticus xviii, 18--"Neither shall a man take one wife
unto another."
In this code the following things are forbidden: Incest, polygamy,
fornication, idolatry, beastliness, &c.; we therefore deny that
the nation was polygamous at that time, deny it definitely, deny it
distinctly, and on another occasion I will give you the character of
the monogamists and polygamists of Bible times. The Jews had been four
hundred years in slavery, and they were brought out with a strong hand
and an outstretched arm.
We, to-day, then challenge for the proof that as a nation the Jews
were polygamous. One or two instances, as I have already remarked, can
be adduced. We may say again that if, as he assumes, these laws were
given to regulate the existing system, this does not sanction it any
more than the same thing sanctions sheep-stealing or homicide. He said
these laws were general, applying to all men, married or unmarried. Has
he proved it? This is wholly gratuitous. There is no word in either of
these passages which permits or directs a married man to take more than
one wife at a time. I challenge the gentleman for the proof. It is no
evidence of the sanction of polygamy to bring passage after passage,
which he knows, if construed in favor of polygamy, polygamy must be in
direct conflict with the great organic law recorded in Leviticus xviii,
18.
[At this point the umpires announced that the time was up.]
THIRD AND CLOSING DAY.
PROF. ORSON PRATT.
Ladies and Gentlemen:
We have assembled ourselves in this vast congregation in the third
session of our discussion, to take into consideration the Divinity of
a very important institution of the Bible. The question, as you have
already heard, is "Does the Bible Sanction Polygamy?" Many arguments
have already been adduced, on the side of the affirmative, and also
on the side of the negative. This afternoon one hour is allotted to
me in the discussion, to bring forth still further evidences, which
will close the debate, so far as the affirmative is concerned; then to
be followed by the Reverend Dr. Newman, which will finally close the
discussion.
Polygamy is a question, or in other words, is an institution of the
Bible; an institution established, as we have already shown, by Divine
authority; established by law--by command; and hence, of course, must
be sanctioned by the great Divine Law-Giver, whose words are recorded
in the Bible.
Yesterday I was challenged by the Reverend Dr. Newman, to bring forth
any evidence whatever to prove that there were more than two polygamist
families in all Israel during the time of their sojourn in the
wilderness. At least this is what I understood the gentleman to say. I
shall now proceed to bring forth the proof.
The statistics of Israel in the days of Moses show that there were of
males, over twenty years of age, Numbers 1st chapter, 49 verse:
Even all they that were numbered, were six hundred thousand and three
thousand, and five hundred and fifty.
It was admitted, yesterday afternoon, by Dr. Newman, that there were
two and a half millions of Israelites. Now I shall take the position
that the females among the Israelites were far more numerous than the
males; I mean that portion of them that were over twenty years of
age. I assume this for this reason, that from the birth of Moses down
until the time that the Israelites were brought out of Egypt, some
eighty years had elapsed. The destruction of the male children had
commenced before the birth of Moses; how many years before I know not.
The order of King Pharaoh was to destroy every male child. All the
people, subject to this ruler, were commanded to see that they were
destroyed and thrown into the river Nile. How long a period this great
destruction continued is unknown, but if we suppose that one male child
to every two hundred and fifty persons was annually destroyed, it would
amount to the number of ten thousand yearly. This would soon begin to
tell in the difference between the numbers of males and females. Ten
thousand each year would only be one male child to each two hundred
and fifty persons. How many would this make from the birth of Moses,
or eighty years? It would amount to 800,000 females above that of the
males. But I do not wish to take advantage in this argument by assuming
too high a number. I will diminish it one half, which will still leave
400,000 more females than males. This would be one male destroyed each
year out of every five hundred persons. The females, then, over twenty
years of age would be 603,550, added to 400,000 surplus women, making
in all 1,003,550 women over twenty years of age. The children, then,
under twenty years of age, to make up the two and a half millions,
would be 892,900, the total population of Israel being laid down at
2,500,000 people.
Now, then, for the number of families constituting this population.
The families having first-born males over one month old, see Numbers
iii chapter and 43rd verse, numbered 22,273. Families having no male
children over one month old we may suppose to have been in the ratio
of one-third of the former class of families, which would make 7,424
additional families. Add these to the 22,273 with first-born males
and we have the sum total of 20,697 as the number of the families in
Israel. Now, in order to favor the monogamists' argument, and give them
all the advantage possible, we will still add to this number to make
it even--303 families more, making thirty thousand families in all.
Now comes another species of calculation founded on this data: Divide
twenty-five hundred thousand persons by 22,273 first-born males, and we
find one first-born male to every 112 persons. What a large family for
a monogamist! But divide 2,500,000 persons by 30,000 and the quotient
gives eighty-three persons in a family. Suppose these families to have
been monogamic, after deducting husband and wife, we have the very
respectable number of eighty-one children to each monogamic wife. If we
assume the numbers of the males and females to have been equal, making
no allowance for the destruction of the male infants, we shall then
have to increase the children under twenty years of age to keep good
the number of two and a half millions. This would still make eighty-one
children to each of the 30,000 monogamic households. Now let us examine
these dates in connection with polygamy. If we suppose the average
number of wives to have been seven, in each household, though there may
have been men who had no wife at all, and there may have been some who
had but one wife; and there may have been others having from one up to
say thirty wives, yet if we average them at seven wives each, we would
then have one husband, seven wives and seventy-five children to make
up the average number of eighty-three in the family, in a polygamic
household. This would give an average of over ten children apiece to
each of the 210,000 polygamic wives. When we deduct the 30,000 husbands
from the 605,550 men over twenty years old we have 573,550 unmarried
men in Israel. If we deduct the 210,000 married women from the total of
1,005,550 over twenty years of age, we have 793,550 left. This would
be enough to supply all the unmarried men with one wife each, leaving
still a balance of 220,000 unmarried females to live old maids or enter
into polygamic households.