universe is full of spirits waiting, and waiting impatiently,
to be born on this earth. These spirits have already passed
through one stage of discipline and probation and are to enter
upon a second one here. The Rev. Edward Beecher once published
a book setting forth a similar doctrine. The Mormon doctrine
goes farther than Dr. Beecher’s, inasmuch as it teaches that
these spirits may select of their own free will where and how
they will be born into their earthly probation; and that they
are, one and all, anxious to be born in the Mormon church,
as the one true Zion, where alone are to be found safety and
salvation. They also believe that the time is limited during
which these spirits can avail themselves of this privilege of
being born into Zion. They look for the return of Jesus Christ
to the earth before long and for the establishment then of the
millennial dispensation, after which no more of the spirits
can be reborn and reclaimed. Hence the obligation resting upon
every faithful Mormon woman to bring into the world, in the
course of her life, as many children as possible. Not only
does she thus contribute to the building up and strengthening
of the church but she rescues souls already existing and in
danger of eternal death. It is easy to sneer at this doctrine
as inconceivable rubbish; and, in truth, it must be admitted
that it is hard to conceive of an educated mind receiving
it; but it is no more absurd or unprovable than hundreds of
kindred speculations and notions which have been devised,
preached and passionately believed in times past. Neither
has the absurdity or non-absurdity, falsity or truth of the
belief, anything to do with our judgment of its believers.
In furtherance of its plan for temporal power, the astuteness of the
Mormon theocracy is shown in this doctrine of pre-existent spirits[10]
continually waiting birth upon the earth. This together with its
other theory of the superior power and godhood in a future life, of
the father of numerous children, imposes the condition of continual
motherhood upon Mormon wives.
But during the christian ages this theory of woman’s duty to constantly
bear children in order to the upholding of the church has ever been
taught. Even Philip Melancthon, the great associate of Luther in the
Reformation, saying: “If a woman becomes weary of bearing children,
that matters not. Let her only die from bearing, she is there to do
it.” So little does the church yet understand the right of woman to
an existence for herself alone that not five years have passed since
a minister of the Methodist church in the state of New York publicly
declared he saw no reason for woman’s creation but the bearing of
children. In a lecture upon Mormonism in Boston, Prof. Conyear, of the
Salt Lake City Collegiate Institute, speaking of the sufferings endured
by Mormon women in order thus to secure personal salvation, said:
Hate the system as you hate Satan, but have mercy on the
people who are there in such a bondage—a bondage worse than
that in which the negro in the South was ever held.
But these doctrines accepted as truth by devout Mormon women are not
more degrading to them, not more injurious to civilization, than is the
belief of orthodox christian women in regard to the frailty and primal
sin of her sex and the curse of her Creator upon her in consequence.
To this belief she has been trained from her childhood as her mother
before her and her feminine relatives for innumerable centuries, and
without investigation she has accepted these doctrines of the church as
true. Yet all these theories so degrading to woman are of purely human
masculine origin, their object, power for man, and the subordination
of woman to him in every relation of life. The eternal continuance
of the patriarchal order, a doctrine of the Mormons, is paralleled
among orthodox christians by the teaching of an eternal continuance
of the male priestly order, woman forever excluded. The Mormon woman
no more fully places herself in position of servant to her husband,
whom at the Endowment House marriage ceremony she promises to “obey,”
than has the orthodox christian woman through the ages, when she has
promised obedience to her husband at the marriage altar. Nor is the
general religious training of the two very different. The Mormon woman
is taught that her salvation depends upon polygamous marriage and her
subjection to her husband in all things; the orthodox christian woman
is taught that her salvation depends upon her belief that woman brought
sin into the world, in punishment whereof God placed her in subjection
to man; and during the ages her promise of obedience to man has been
held as an integral part of the marriage ceremony. Nor did a change
begin to take place until after the inauguration of the woman suffrage
reform. Not until woman herself rebelled against such annihilation
of her own conscience and responsibility, did a few sects in some
instances omit this promise from their forms of marriage, although it
still remains a portion of the Greek, Catholic and Anglican ceremony
as well as of other Protestant sects. The shock of finding educated
women of New England birth, members of the Mormon church as polygamous
wives, is lessened upon a careful analysis of the Mormon doctrine in
comparison with those of orthodox Christianity regarding women: all
alike rest upon the same foundation; all teach that sin entered the
world through woman; all alike darken the understanding through such
false teaching. The women of the Mormon church received their training
under orthodox Christianity, which laid the foundation of their self
contempt.[11] With the professed revelation of the Book of Mormon,
a class of priests arose who no less positively and authoritatively
asserted its doctrines to be of God than the priesthood of other
divisions of christianity assert the Bible to be of God; and alike each
declare themselves and their followers to be his chosen people. “By
authority of the priesthood of God,” has carried weight in all ages,
and no greater weight among the Mormons of the present day than among
Christians of all ages. Under the christian theory regarding the origin
and duties of woman it is not surprising that polygamy should ever have
found defenders in the christian world, nor is it at all singular that
Mormonism as “the latest founded christian sect” should teach polygamy
as a divinely organized institution, drawing its arguments from the
Bible. Bishop Lunt of that church, defending polygamy as of divine
origin, said:
God revealed to Joseph Smith the polygamous system. It is
quite true that his widow declared that no such revelation was
ever made, but that was because she had lost the spirit. God
commanded the human race to multiply and replenish the earth.
Abraham had two wives, and the Almighty honored the second
one by a direct communication. Jacob had Leah and Zilpah.
David had a plurality of wives, and was a man after God’s own
heart. God gave him Saul’s two wives, and only condemned his
adulteries. Moses, Gideon and Joshua had each a plurality of
wives. Solomon had wives and concubines by hundreds, though
we do not believe in the concubine system. We leave that to
the Gentiles. Virtue and chastity wither beneath the monogamic
institution, which was borrowed from the pagan nations by the
early Christians. It was prophesied that in the latter days
seven women would lay hold of one man and demand to bear his
name, that they might not be held in dishonor. The Protestants
and Catholics assail us with very poor grace when it is
remembered that the first pillars of the religion they claim
to profess were men like the saints of Utah—polygamists. The
fact cannot be denied. Polygamy is virtually encouraged and
taught by example by the Old Testament. It may appear shocking
and blasphemous to Gentiles for us to say so, but we hold that
Jesus Christ himself was a polygamist. He was surrounded by
women constantly, as the Scriptures attest, and those women
were his polygamous wives. The vast disparity between the
sexes in all settled communities is another argument in favor
of polygamy, to say nothing of the disinclination among young
male Gentiles to marrying. The monogamic system condemns
millions of women to celibacy. A large proportion of them
stray from the path of right, and these unfortunates induce
millions of men to forego marriage. As I have said, virtue and
chastity wither under the monogamic system.
There are no illegitimate children in Utah; there are no
libertines; there are no brothels, excepting where the
presence of Gentiles creates the demand for them. Even then
our people do what they can to root out such places. There
is a positive advantage in having more than one wife. It is
impossible to find a Gentile home, where comforts and plenty
prevail, in which there is only one woman. No one woman can
manage a household. She must have assistance. Hence we claim
that when a man marries a second wife, he actually benefits
the first one, and contributes to her ease, and relieves
her of a large burden of care. The duties of the household
are divided between the two women, and everything moves on
harmoniously and peacefully. The whole thing is a matter of
education. A girl reared under the monogamic system may look
with abhorrence on ours; our young women do not do so. They
expect, when they marry a man, that he will some day take
another wife, and they consider it quite natural that he
should do so. In wealthy Gentile communities the concubine
system largely takes the place of the polygamous system. Any
man of intelligence, observation and travel, knows that such
is the case. The fact is ignored by general consent, and
little is said about it and nothing is written about it. It
is not regarded as a proper subject of conversation or of
publication. How much better to give lonely women a home while
they are uncontaminated, and honor them with your name, and
perpetually provide for them, and before the world recognize
your own offspring! The polygamous system is the only natural
one, and the time rapidly approaches when it will be the most
conspicuous and beneficent of American institutions. It will
be the grand characteristic feature of American society. Our
women are contented with it—more, they are the most ardent
defenders of it to be found in Utah. If the question were put
to a vote tomorrow, nine-tenths of the women of Utah would
vote to perpetuate polygamy.
In line with other Christian sects Mormons claim that polygamy is
countenanced by the New Testament as well as by the Old. They interpret
Paul’s teaching in regard to bishops, while commanding them to marry
one wife, as also not prohibiting them from marrying more than one;
their interpretation of this passage but slightly varying from that
of Rev. Mr. Madan. Rev. C. P. Lyford, of the Methodist church, long a
resident of Utah, does not fail to see the degradation of the people as
in proportion to the despotism of the hierarchy. He says:
It took the Methodist church forty years to get a membership
of 38,000. Mormonism in forty-four years counted 250,000.
It seems incredible, nevertheless it is a fact. In this
brief space of time it has also been able to nullify our
laws, oppose our institutions, openly perpetrate crimes, be
represented in Congress, boast of the helplessness of the
nation to prevent these things, and give the church supremacy
over the state and the people. Bills introduced in Congress
adequate to their overthrow have been year after year allowed
to fall to the ground without action upon them.
Our public men can only pronounce against the crime of
polygamy; the press can see only polygamy in Utah; the public
mind is impressed with only the heinousness of polygamy. Back
of polygamy is the tree that produces it and many kindred
evils more dear to the Mormon rulers. They do not care for all
the sentiment or law against this one fruit of the tree, if
the tree itself is left to stand. The tree—the prolific cause
of so many and so great evils in Utah, the greatest curse of
the territory, the strength of Mormonism, and its impregnable
wall of defense against Christianity and civilization, is
that arbitrary, despotic, and absolute hierarchy known as the
Mormon Priesthood.
Mr. Lyford has partial insight into the truth when he says “back of
polygamy is the tree that produces it and many kindred evils;” but in
defining that tree as the hierarchy—the priesthood—he has not reached
the entire truth. He does not touch the ground which supports the tree.
Polygamy is but one development of the doctrine of woman’s created
inferiority, the constant tendency of which is to make her a mere slave
under every form of religion extant, and of which the complex marriage
of the Christian sect of Perfectionists at Oneida Community was but
another logical result.
When woman interprets the Bible for herself, it will be in the interest
of a higher morality, a purer home. Monogamy is woman’s doctrine, as
polygamy is man’s. Bachofen, the Swiss jurist, says that the regulation
of marriage by which, in primitive times, it became possible for a
woman to belong only to one man, came about by a religious reformation,
wherein the women in armed conflict, obtained a victory over men.
While the greatest number of converts to the Mormon church are from
among the ignorant peasantry of foreign countries, still no less than
in orthodox christianity do we find people of culture and education
upholding its doctrines, an irrefragable proof that the power of
religious despotism lies in two conditions; First, ignorance; Second,
fear. To fear must ever be attributed the great victories of religious
despotism. Fear of punishment after death from which obedience to
priestly teaching is believed to free. Such slavery of the human mind
has ever been the greatest obstacle to advancing civilization. Men and
women of the Christian church not daring to use their own free thought
upon such questions, are no less bound than the savage, who makes a
hideous noise in order to frighten away the monster he thinks trying to
swallow the sun during an eclipse.
The strength of the church has ever lain in its power of producing
fear and impelling belief in its assertion that the priesthood alone
can define the will of God, and that as His chosen servants they but
voice His will in every word they utter. Unhesitating belief in this
assertion has been required through the Christian ages as evidence
of a true son or daughter of the church, while the cry of heresy, so
frightful in its significance, so terrible in its punishment under the
priesthood, has most effectively prevented investigation and quenched
the fire of rebellious thought.
The Mormon priesthood look toward the establishment of a temporal
kingdom in connection with their religion. They maintain that the
civil power inherently belongs to the theocracy and should supersede
all other forms of government. Like the priesthood of other sects
they claim divine guidance in the promulgation of their laws as
proceeding from above while those of the state emanate from man
himself and consequently are not binding upon the conscience, the
church as a body ever claiming to hold the keys of heaven and of hell;
and the implicit belief given to such assertion by tens and hundreds
of thousands, has ever been a most powerful method for subduing the
reason. Its anathemas, its excommunications, its denial of church rites
in marriage, in burial, its control of both temporal and spiritual
power, have ever made its weapons of the most formidable character.
Fear of what may be met in a future life over which the church assumes
such knowledge and control, subjugation of the reason, the fostering
of ignorance, the denial of education and the constant teaching that
thought outside of the line formulated by the church is deepest sin,
has held the christian world in bondage during its centuries. Inasmuch
as it is impossible for the candid thinker not to perceive that
all forms of christianity are based upon the statement that woman
having brought sin into the world rendered the sacrifice of a Saviour
necessary, the reason of such persistent effort upon the part of the
church for woman’s entire subjugation becomes apparent. It is assumed
by all theocracies that the church is a temporal kingdom, with supreme
right to the control of all civil affairs. Every theocracy is therefore
a political system seeking control of the civil government and however
greatly suppressed in action, every theocracy proposes such control
as its ulterior design. Early in 1890, an encyclical letter by the
pope declared the supremacy of the church over the state, commanding
resistance to the authority of the state in case of its conflicting
with the pretensions of the Supreme Pontiff of the Catholic church.
The Mormon theocracy and the Catholic here show their affinity. Nor
are Protestants without similar pretensions as is proven by the action
of the “National Reform Association” of the United States; whose aim
is the union of church and state through an amendment to the Federal
constitution, its ultimate purpose being that of theocratic control
over the civil government of this country. These various bodies are
parts of the “Christian Party in Politics;” nor is this party of
recent origin; as early as 1827-8 when composed almost entirely of
Protestants, its designs upon the life of the republic were noted by
the eloquent Scotch reformer, Frances Wright, during her travels,
lectures and residence in this country. Mormonism and Catholicism
do not more greatly threaten the civil and religious integrity of
this republic than does the “National Reform Association,” the
theocracy of the Protestant church equally with that of the Catholic
church constantly striving to incite congressional action in favor
of obligatory religious teaching and seeking control of the common
schools. Yet the history of the world proves that wherever tried,
ecclesiastical schools have lowered the standard of education. Today
the schools under control of the Mormon church in no respect equal
those of adjacent territories. Under the plea of religious freedom
the greatest dangers arise. While the Mormons affirm in reference to
polygamy that their church laws concern Mormons alone, no less do other
theocracies inculcate doctrines contrary to civil law; the catholic
church, its spirit today[12] the same as during past ages, making
civil marriage and the public school system its present objective
points of opposition to the state;[13] while the general body of
protestant churches more openly than the catholic churches proclaim
their intention not alone to control secular education, marriage
and divorce, but to unite church and state through a change in the
fundamental law of the United States. A somewhat wide-spread fear
exists in regard to the encroachment of Catholicism upon civil liberty.
The most potent danger lies elsewhere, the most potent because the
least perceived; the most potent because arising from a body whom the
masses of native Americans, through heredity and training, look upon
as supporters and defenders of both civil and religious liberty—the
priesthood of the orthodox Protestant churches. Mormonism does not
so fully threaten civil and religious liberty; catholicism is not
making greater encroachments upon them than are the great body of the
protestant clergy, under the name and the work of the “National Reform
Association.”
The people of the United States with careless security in the power of
the principles of freedom upon which the government is based, fail to
note the theocratic encroachment everywhere threatened.[14] The very
nature of sacerdotalism professing as it every where does, to hold
authority of a supernatural character, unfailingly creates a claim of
supremacy over civil government. President John Taylor, of the Mormon
church, a few years since openly asserted these claims, saying: “We
are independent of newspapers, independent of kings, independent of
governments.” But it is not the Mormon priesthood alone that declares
its independence of secular governments. This is the same spirit that
seen through the ages of christianity has been so plainly shown by
Catholicism since the temporal power in Italy has fallen into the hands
of a secular monarch, and that is now so fully a part of Protestant
effort. Under the overwhelming amount of biblical proof quoted in its
favor by the most eminent legal and clerical minds of the christian
church we must admit the doctrine of polygamy to be a component part of
christianity. Although like the fagot and the stake, under the light of
advancing civilization it has somewhat fallen into disrepute with the
majority of men and women, yet its renewal as an underlying principle
of a new christian sect need not be a subject of astonishment. The
pulpit, the bar, and legislative halls are still under the control
of man and these institutions still express the form of civilization
that is due to his teachings. But as neither moral nor intellectual
education is of value unless founded upon a material basis, the world
now beginning to see that Wall Street, and the Bourse, with their
fingers upon the business of the world, are fast becoming of greater
importance in determining the future character of civilization than
St. Peter’s, the Kremlin, or Westminster Abbey. Wendell Phillips once
declared that the advance of civilization was not dependent upon either
the pulpit or the press but upon commerce, and a careful study of the
inventions and industries of the age, confirm this statement. Material
needs, underlying all others, direct the tenor of modern civilization.
But commerce of itself is not alone responsible. Within the past
thirty years a new element has widely entered into the business of the
world, and even the most careless observer can but in many ways note
the changing customs and habits of business life, and that under this
change, a new form of civilization is dawning upon the world. Woman
once so carefully excluded is now everywhere seen. At the counter,
behind the cashier’s desk, as buyer, as business manager, and in many
instances as employer, conducting business for herself. Every kind
of industry is opening to her, from that of government employee at
Washington with the financial interests of the nation in her grasp, to
that of electrical business, woman is everywhere found. The commerce of
the world is rapidly changing hands and the next quarter of a century
will find woman in its full control. But few persons foresee the
ultimate result of this change. With a new class at the helm, commerce
will give new ideas to the world. If christianity survive the shock
of coming events, it will present a different aspect within the next
fifty years and its teachings in regard to woman will be totally unlike
those of past ages. As woman comes into new relations with the great
institutions of the world, she will cease to believe herself inferior
and subordinate to man. Polygamy and all kindred degradations of her
sex will become things of the past, and taking her rightful place in
church and state she will open a new civilization to the world.
_Chapter Eight_
+Woman and Work+
And unto Adam the Lord said: “Cursed be the ground for thy
sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy
life; thorns and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and
thou shalt eat the herbs of the field; in the sweat of thy
face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground,
for dust thou art and into dust thou shalt return. Gen. 3:
17-18-19.
Upon man was pronounced the curse of the world’s work. The Bible
declares it was because of _his_ sinfulness that the earth was to be
cursed; for _his_ punishment that he was to eat of it in sorrow all
the days of his life; because of _his_ wickedness that it was to bear
thorns and thistles; and in consequence of _his_ disobedience that
he was to eat the herb of the field in the sweat of his face until
he returned unto the ground from whence he came. No curse of work
was pronounced upon woman; her “curse” was of an entirely different
character. It was a positive command of the Lord God Almighty, that
upon man alone the work of the world should fall and this work he was
to perform in sorrow and the sweat of his brow.