Women of Mormonism The Story of Polygamy

Chapter 1 - The Case Stated

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

Polygamy as a Religion - As a Social System - Address of the Gentile Women of Utah - Appeal of Mrs. Ann Eliza Young - Design of this Work - Degrading Influence of Polygamy

[19] WHAT is your opinion of Mormon polygamy as a religious tenet?" was asked of an eminent divine, upon his return from a visit to Utah, where he had spent several weeks in investigating the system, with eyes, ears, and heart wide open.

"It may be good enough for a certain class of men," was the reply, "but for the women, it is a damnable doctrine. Religion was designed by the Creator to satisfy that longing for infinite good and purity, which exists, in some degree, in every human soul; its mission is to elevate and purify mankind, and a system which tends to degrade any portion of humanity is but a libel upon the sacred name of religion. The best resources of our language cannot supply me with strong enough terms in which to [20] denounce this infamous doctrine of the Mormon creed ! "

"And how do you consider Mormon polygamy as a social system?" was inquired of a philosopher, who ignored all creeds and dogmas, and expressed belief in only what he termed "natural religion. "

"As a social system, it is a miserable failure," was the answer, “because it is founded on the law of retrogression, which cannot be tolerated in this advancing age. The corner-stone of polygamy is the degradation of woman, and it can flourish only where she is regarded and treated as a slave. The question suggests itself, Does this country intend going back to the conditions of semi-barbaric civilization? For, whatever degrades woman, degrades man also. The future of our race depends entirely upon the character and position of the women. If we make them slaves, how can we expect that our children will be anything else than children of bondwomen, and slaves, like their mothers? "

In the address issued by the Gentile women of Utah, to the women of the United States, asking co-operation in measures for the suppression of this great crime against nature and the law, there appeared the following statements: "considering all our surroundings, polygamy has never taken such a degrading and debasing form in any nation, or among any people above the condition of savages, as in Utah; and there are facts which cannot be repeated, that reduce the system to the lowest form of indecency. It is degrading to man and woman, [21] a curse to children, and destructive to the sacred relations of family. That it should be practiced in the name and under the cloak of religion, only adds to the enormity of the crime, and makes it more revolting to our common Christian principles."

Mrs. Ann Eliza Young, in dedicating her book, "My Life in Bondage," to the Mormon wives of Utah, says, “So long as God shall spare my life, I shall pray and plead for your deliverance from the worse than Egyptian bondage in which you arc held. Despised, maligned, and wronged; kept in gross ignorance of the great world outside,-its pure creeds, its high aims, its generous motives,-you have been led to believe that the noblest nation on earth is but a horde of miscreants, and that every one outside of your own church is your enemy, and plotting your destruction."

In the closing chapter of the same work, Mrs. Young makes this eloquent appeal for assistance to the women of America: "And you, happier women, you to whom life has given of its best, and crowned right royally,-can you not help me? The cry of my suffering and sorrowing sisters sweeps over the broad prairies, and asks you, as I ask you now, Can you do nothing for us? Women's pens and women's voices pleaded earnestly and pathetically for the abolition of slavery. Thousands of women, some of them your country-women and your equals, in moral and intellectual worth, are held in a more revolting slavery to-day. The system that blights every woman's life who enters it, ought not to [22] remain a curse and a stain upon this nation any longer. It should be blotted out so completely that even its foul memory should die! "

It is for the purpose of making another appeal to those happier women of the United States, that the present work has been undertaken. We make another effort to enlist the sympathy and co-operation of good women everywhere in the labors of that little band of noble workers who have devoted their lives to the task of freeing our common country from a most loathsome ulcer, of liberating their sex from the most degrading bondage possible, and of inducing Congress to do something for the redemption of thousands of women who are slaves in the heart of the Republic!

And theirs is as noble a work as was ever undertaken. For if to break the fetters from the wrists of slaves was a worthy deed, how much more worthy is a struggle to emancipate enslaved souls. If the women of the United States could only realize that it is the sacred duty of every individual woman throughout the length and breadth of the land to aid in this work of enfranchisement, the evil would be of short duration. An active public sentiment would soon be awakened against it, as irresistible as that which made the people furious against slavery when their first dead were sent home from the war.

If the present volume is productive of no other result, it will at least make the women of America better acquainted with the degraded position of the deluded and down-trodden women of Mormonism, [23] and this in itself is one step in the way of ameliorating their condition. It has often been asserted by those who were interested in defeating legislation against the peculiar institution, that polygamy could not be perpetuated except by the consent of the women, and if they are contented, who has any right to interfere, especially when it is practiced as a religious belief ? It has always been a favorite argument with Mormon enthusiasts in defense of this doctrine, that their women are so much happier and more contented than women anywhere else in the world, and for that reason they claim to have discovered the true sphere of woman. The true nature of this "consent," how "contented " and how "much happier" (?) they are, will be learned from these pages. We shall also show that these enthusiastic defenders of woman's " true sphere " are those who in reality hold their wives in about the same estimation that they do their cattle, and who show the most indignation when outsiders call the poor slaves the deluded and down-trodden women of Mormonism.

We reiterate the words deluded and down-trodden both indignantly and sorrowfully, and we know they [24] cannot be gainsayed,-indignantly, that such an expression should be applicable to any inhabitant of this, our boasted land of light and liberty,-sorrowfully when we think of the many broken-hearted women now lying in the dreary Mormon cemeteries, victims of this monstrous system of iniquity; and we know that those words cannot be gainsayed, because they are truths which are self-evident to the casual observer, as well as to the calm, dispassionate philosopher who has studied all phases of the question, disregarding all prejudice,-truths which can be verified by all those who have been identified with the delusion, but who have outlived it,-women whose finer feelings and womanly instincts could not longer submit to the degradation into which their superstition had led them.

The lives of some of these women have been more pathetic and full of tragedy than any of which the tragic muse has ever sung. The sacrifice of Jephthah's daughter, the immolation of the Hindoo widow, or the desolation of the lonely nun, who, through a mistaken faith gives up her hopes of maternity, and surrenders the dream which is innate in every woman's breast to sometime be the central figure in a happy home, is not a feather in the balance when compared with the sacrifices made by some of these women, and the sorrows endured by them in silence and alone. Is there not a whole volume of tragedy expressed in these simple words of a wife who had been supplanted m her husband's affections by another woman, "They say I am dying of consumption, but it is only my heart that is wasting away ? "

Travelers and strangers in Utah have often asked the questions: "What is the cause of the Mormon women being in such a degraded position ? Is polygamy the entire cause of it ? " It may be here remarked that there is something peculiar and almost indescribable about the majority of Mormon women.

Next: CHAPTER II. THE ORIGIN OF POLYGAMY Mormon Policy. - Joseph Smith. - Crusade against Women. - Special Revelation. - Treatment of Those Who Rebelled Against the Doctrine. - Polygamy a Curse.

Index: INTRODUCTION AND TABLE OF CONTENTS

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