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Women of Mormonism
Chapter 12 - Tools of the Priesthood
THE WOMEN OF MORMONISM:
or
THE STORY OF POLYGAMY
As Told by the Victims Themselves.
Edited By
JENNIE ANDERSON FROISETH
Editor of the Anti-Polygamy Standard, Salt Lake City,
PUBLISHED BY
C.G.G. PAINE, DETROIT, MICH.
1886
Copyright, 1881 and 1882
By Jennie Anderson Froiseth
Remarkable
Statement.-Polygamy Instilled into the Young.- Apostates
Become Infidels or Spiritualists - No Sympathy for the Tools.-A Young Girl's
Statement.-Attempts to Keep a Young Lady from Apostatizing.-Corruption Fund.-Woman to the
Rescue.
[144] THE very worst class of
women of Mormonism, and those who do the most injury, are the hypocrites,-women who are
too intelligent to believe that there ever was a revelation on polygamy, and who cannot
close their eyes to the evil effects of the system. Some of these women were brought into
Mormonism at an early age by their parents. others were born in it, and in some cases were
forced by circumstances to marry into polygamy. They are degraded; and being themselves
shameless, they are continually endeavoring to drag others down to their own level.
It may perhaps seem a very harsh and uncharitable judgment to say
that the earth holds no viler of their sex than some of these women, but it is,
nevertheless, only too true.
Ho. James B. McKean, Late
Chief Justice of Utah, 1881
A young girl who had been brought up in the polygamous household of
one of the highest Mormon [145] dignitaries, and who was familiar with the domestic life
of all the principal apostles, and who knew certain of these women thoroughly and the part
they were constantly playing in the polygamous tragedy, made these remarks regard to them:
"I can only compare these women to those
dreadful, characters that they say exist in the outside world, and whose business it is to
lure young girls to destruction. They are nothing but tools of the priesthood; and while
professing to be working for the elevation of women, they are in reality doing nothing but
seeking for new victims to gratify the base passions of their infamous masters."
We have before alluded to an organization of women which exists in
this Territory under the name of the "Female Relief Society." This association
was not formed for the purpose of relieving the poor and needy; for do not all the Mormon
emissaries abroad, declare that there are no paupers, in Zion, no poverty or misery among
this industrious, thrifty, and godly people? But it will be seen that there were other and
more potent reasons for the existence of these Societies.
None understand better than the Mormon autocrats the importance of
thorough and perfect organization. It is by means of their organization that such a
complete system of espionage is kept over the Mormon people, and the policy of the church
so rigidly enforced. It is this complete organization that had made the Mormon power as
"absolute a despotism over its own people as ever existed upon earth."
[146] The "Relief
Society" was organized by the command of the head of the Mormon church, and a branch
exists in every settlement throughout Utah, no matter how small or remote. We are told by
Mormons that it also extends into all surrounding Territories. This Society has two
principal objected, the propagation of polygamy, and the gathering of tithes for
replenishing the church treasury, especially for the purpose of corrupting members of
Congress, and subsidizing the national press.
At the meetings of these Societies, which are held regularly, the
main topics of discussion,-for they make a show of free thought and free speech,-are the
principles of polygamy, subservience to husbands, and implicit obedience to the holy
priesthood.
Does any person ask why polygamy is on the increase today in Utah,
notwithstanding the counteracting influences brought to bear against it by the
establishment of Christian churches and schools, and why young and ignorant girls are
every day entering into the unlawful relation? The reason is obvious: Because this female
organization is constantly at work, carrying out the plans of a licentious and tyrannical
priesthood.
The young girls are brought to these meetings every week. and the
principles of polygamy thoroughly and systematically inculcated. With such a belief
impressed upon the plastic hearts and minds of children, what is the natural result? When
they are fourteen or sixteen years of age, and are told that they must be sealed to
brother [147] So-and-So, and that thus their eternal happiness and glory will be assured,
they go to the Endowment House and become the plural wives of the brothers selected,
almost without hesitation.
If they stop to think or reason at all, it will be in this wise:
"Polygamy must be right. We are taught that it is. There is a great deal of
unhappiness in it, but if our religion is worth anything at all, it is worth making
sacrifices for."
Others again will say to themselves, " We may as well marry in
polygamy, for we shall have to live in it any way. If we become first wives, our husbands
will be .sure to take others after awhile; and as plural ones, we stand as good a chance
of comfort in this world, and we shall be better off in the next." And so the young
girl will take a step that not only ruins her happiness on earth, but too frequently
causes her to lose faith in both God and man.
The majority of people who leave the Mormon church, become either
spiritualists or infidels. And it is not strange that they do. They have seen such
atrocities committed in the name of God and religion, that when once free from Mormon
trammels, they appear to hate their very names. " Don't talk to us of God or
religion," is a very frequent remark of apostate Mormons, "we have had enough of
that for both time and eternity!"
The motive power of the
female polygamic organization is the class of women of which we have been treating.
[148] Were it not for
certain of these women the organization could not
live a year. But they make a semi-annual tour of the Territory, visiting every
settlement, and holding, as it were, revival meetings, expounding the beauties and glories
of a polygamous life, and exhorting the sisters to be faithful followers of the "new
and everlasting covenant of marriage. "
Of course these women are called the most noted in the Church, and
are regarded very highly by the priesthood for their inestimable services in propagating
the peculiar doctrine and in continually furnishing new victims to be sacrificed on the
altar of that insatiable monster, polygamy.
For the fanatics, we must have a little sympathy and commiseration.
They are deserving of real pity, for they should be regarded as partially insane. People
whose infatuation completely overpowers their reason can scarcely be declared in a normal
intellectual condition.
But what sentiments shall good women entertain for others who are
described as "endowed by the Creator with more than the poet's soul, gifts that are
not of mere religious training, or growth, but have come down from the ages; who are
inspired by t.he mystic memories of the past,-daughters of Judah's royal house, possessing
fine sentiment, richness of fancy, quick sympathy, rare enthusiasm, and deathless
devotion,-genius which God wills them to manifest for the great work's good, whose lives
are devoted to labors for the benefit and elevation [149] of woman?" What sentiments,
we repeat, shall be entertained for these, who, were but one tithe of what is said about
them true, would walk as sisters to the gods? And yet, they are hailed by the ignorant and
deluded dupes of Mormonism as the "early exponents, by precept and example, of the
new and everlasting covenant of marriage, and as leaders in the self-sacrifice at first
necessary to establish its principles. "
What sentiments shall be entertained for women possessing these noble qualities and God-like attributes, and who
can permit themselves to be .styled, " honored wives of our revered and martyred
prophet, Joseph Smith,"-who can announce themselves exponents of a faith that is
alike dishonoring and degrading to womanhood; a faith that makes a beast of man and a
slave of woman; a faith that renders marriage a by-word, and imprints a mark of shame on
the brows of innocent children; a faith that entails untold wrongs and misery upon
generation after generation; a system which is characterized by shameless indecencies,
fearful brutalities, and almost incredible beastliness?
Did God endow women with the divine gift of genius, that they should
openly advocate a system which permits a man to marry a woman and her two daughters and
live with them, raising families, and only one room ? a system that permits a man to marry
the children of his own brother? a system that sets at defiance all law, order, morality,
and [150] decency? Verily, this may be called the "Divine curse of genius!”
A certain young girl who had been allured into polygamy through the
instrumentality of one of these women, said not very long ago, "The names of some
representative women of Mormonism should be handed down to posterity, branded with eternal
infamy, for the part they have had in the ruin of young girls and women. They are
responsible for the destruction of more girls, during the half century that they have been
tools of the priesthood, than all the bad women of the United States put together.
Hundreds of young girls have been destroyed every year, body and soul, through the direct
influence of these creatures. Hundreds of women are lying in unwept graves, murdered by
polygamy, who embraced the doctrine through the teaching of these women. Women, did I say?
No, they are not women, they are not human, they are ghouls!"
Another young lady who apostatized lately, the daughter of a very
high Mormon dignitary, said that when it was known that she was becoming weak in the
faith, a number of the sisters-leading Mormon women-came to expostulate with her, and get
her back into the fold. They did not want her to apostatize because she knew too much, and
as she was fearless enough to express her opinions very freely in regard to the degrading
institution and its upholders, they were afraid that her revelations would cause a shaking
among the dry bones.
[151] But it was the
"ministrations" of two of these women that was the last straw in the camel's
load. Her eyes had been opened by the wholesale perjury and falsehood she had seen
committed by the leaders in order to conceal their crimes and iniquities, but she was
scarcely prepared for the consummate hypocrisy displayed by these " priestesses.
"
In reference to one of them, she said: "The idea of that woman
talking religion to me, prating about the faith
of my father, and the pure doctrines of this holy church, when she knew that I was well
aware of the fact that she had deceived one
husband, and lived as a plural wife to Joseph Smith, before she had become the concubine
of my own father. When she spoke of my father, I said to her, 'I loved my father,
because he was good to me; but I cannot disguise this truth which you know very well, that
polygamy made him a cruel tyrant who broke the hearts of many women. You know also that
polygamy destroyed the life of your only daughter; and yet whenever you hear of a. young
girl who is intelligent or independent enough to think for herself, you can never rest
until you get her bound in these chains.'
"But what angered and disgusted me the most," continued
this young lady in speaking of the interview, " was the fact that I knew to well that
they did not believe one word they were saying, and the only motive they had in pleading
with me to remain in the church was, they were afraid that if I apostatized I would
ventilate some of the wrongs and [152] impositions of Mormonism. And I had more than one
fact in my keeping regarding themselves which did not redound much to their credit, and,
if exposed, would not add to their reputations as true wives or virtuous women. And yet
they can talk by the hour in the Relief Society about the pure doctrines of
Mormonism,-doctrines that rob women of purity, modesty, womanliness, and all that a true
woman can hold dear in this life."
But preaching polygamy is not the only way in which these infamous
women assist in maintaining the power of the Mormon theocracy. Two sources of that power
are, the keeping of the people in ignorance and in poverty. This last condition is
maintained not only by forced contributions, called tithing, for the support of the
church, but by the unestimated amount of corruption money that is annually wrung from the
poor, to cement more firmly the chains that bind the wrists of justice. Some idea of the
amount of the corruption fund required annually, may be imagined by simply quoting some of
their own statements. Brigham Young said frequently in public that he could and would buy
every member of Congress in the United States, if necessary, in order to defeat
legislation against this people.
A former delegate from this Territory openly boasted that he owned a
good man in every bureau in each department in Washington.
In the early part of 1881, at the time that Gov. Murray of Utah
issued the certificate of election to [153]
Hon. A. G. Campbell and denied it to George Q. Cannon, when it looked
as if the sentiment of the country would soon force the Mormon question to a climax, it
was currently reported throughout the Territory, that Cannon telegraphed from Washington
to Salt Lake City, that he would need the sum of $800,000 to insure him success, should
there be an extra session and a contest ensue; and no sooner was the news received than a.
system of extortion was commenced to compel the Saints to contribute to this fund. There
was manifested a disposition among some to let Cannon take care of himself, and a
reluctance, if not a positive determination among the poorer classes not to allow
themselves to be bled for this enormous sum.
But a Mormon cannot remain a Mormon and not comply with the demands
of the church, however unjust they may be. And as soon as the mandate had gone forth that
this money must be raised, the Relief Societies commenced their work of levying on the
poor.
" These ghouls," said one outspoken woman, " will
divest the poorest class of people of every available egg and ounce of butter, under
penalty of excommunication. They will do more than that, they will even take the bread out
of the children's mouths to cast it to the dogs. 'Corruption fund' is truly an appropriate
name for this money, which is, fairly squeezed out of the body and blood of these poor,
misguided people."
We could pursue this subject still further, but it is heart sickening
and repulsive. It is bad enough [154]
to know that men with untamed passions and lust for power will
subjugate women and hold them at their mercy; but to see women prostituting, talents,
capacity, and energy to the service of these vile masters is more than enough to make a
woman curse her sex, and wish that she had been anything else than a woman. Is it not
sufficient to make the women of the country rise en
masse and demand the immediate abolition of a system which renders WOMAN only a term
of reproach and dishonor?
Women of America, we have shown you how woman is most cruelly wronged
under this infamous system, and is it not fitting that women should be the most active in
working for its suppression? The victims of polygamy are women, and is it not meet that
women should take the initiative measures that will lead to its complete abolition?
And do you wonder now, that we whose lot has been cast in the midst
of this deluded people, who have seen the hypocrisy and brutality of the Mormon leaders,
who have learned the workings of this infamous system, who have listened to these tales of
tyranny and outrage from the lips of the women themselves, who have seen their hopeless,
dejected countenances, from which the light of hope and faith has forever fled, who have
heard them declare that they had no trust in either humanity or God,-do you wonder that we
sometimes think that our Christianity is but a mockery, and the boasted freedom of our
nation a by-word of shame and reproach, so long as there exists in our country such a
class as the " Women of Mormonism?"
Next: CHAPTER XIII. AN EARNEST APPEAL
Quotation from the Deseret News Joseph Smith's Widows.- Changed Views.-Smith's
Denunciation of Polygamy.-Married or Single.-Controversy with God.-Polygamy Binding upon
All or None.-No Plural Marriage.
Back: CHAPTER XI. FANATICISM
Degradation of the Fanatics.-Joseph Smith's Holiness.-Brigham Young's Opinion of
Joseph.-Mormonism Justifies Lying for the Truth.-No Cross, No Crown.-One Man the Husband
of Three Generations.-The Mormon Elder and His Wives.- Advice of a Mormon Woman.
Index: INTRODUCTION AND TABLE OF CONTENTS
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