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Women of Mormonism
Chapter 19 - Spread of Mormonism in the U.S.
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
The People of the
Nation Have the Power.-The Let-Alone Policy not Sufficient.-Steady Influx of
Foreigners.-Concealment of Second Marriages.-Mothers Will not Make Known the Fathers of
Their Children.- Mrs. Young's Letter.-Danger to the Nation.-"Danger to Every Household
in America."-Mormon Church at Covington, Ind.-Mormonism in Michigan.-Canton,
Ill.-Young Girl in Colorado.-An Appeal.-Young Lady in Indiana.-An Infatuated Daughter in
Massachusetts.-Will Another War be Needed?
[284] ONE to the most specious
and dangerous arguments which has been advanced as a reason why Congress should not take
measures to arrest the evils of Mormonism, and one that has influenced the opinion of
thousands of well-meaning, intelligent, and law-abiding citizens, is the plea that if left
alone, Mormonism will execute its own death sentence. Never was there a more fatal and
less excusable mistake,-an error that if perpetuated will become a deadly crime.
There are other crimes also, which bind the wrists of justice. The
great railroad corporations which practically rule Congress, many of the large wholesale
business houses which sell goods to the Mormon merchants, and a great number of the
commercial newspapers, are covert friends of the Mormons, and covert enemies of all who
would have United States laws obeyed in Utah. But beyond Congress, a majority of whose
members go to the legislative halls bound hand and foot to corporations, there are the
people, and when they become aroused in earnest, corporations and a venal press are all
too glad to hedge, and to become as furious in attack as before they were subtle to frame
reasons why nothing should be done. It was so in the old slavery days; it has always been
so. When the people of the United States understand that the leaders of the Mormon church,
knowing the utter fraud of the entire institution, employ it as a gigantic political and
commercial machine in order to impose upon, rob, and make slaves of the masses; that their
weapons toward their people are superstition and ignorance, and toward the world hypocrisy
and perjury; and that beyond all, they are doing what they can to overthrow all respect
for, and all power of, the United States Government,-then avaricious merchants, soulless
corporations, and a subsidized press, will stand aside, even as they did in 1861, and the
will of the people must prevail. It is essential, then, that the people should not be
misled by false theories, or specious arguments, nor by those who willfully circulate
falsehoods for the purpose of retarding or preventing the administration of justice.
The let-alone theory is a very plausible one, and the let-alone
policy a very satisfying one, for those who do not wish to bear the reproaches of
conscience [286] for neglect of duty. It is very easy to say, ·' Mormonism is a crime,
and a disgrace to the nation. It ought to be, and shall be, abolished, but there are other
methods than congressional interference."
Yes, we answer, there are other methods, and so thought those who
were continually opposing the old Anti-Slavery agitation. But those " other methods
" terminated in the blood and wreck of a civil war.
It is also very easy to say, " Open the doors of Utah to the
outside world, and let civilization, wealth, fashion, luxury, and culture pour in. These
will prove more effective than the most stringent legislation."
Even people who have been in the Territory, and think they have
studied the subject, will say, " Send bandboxes instead of troops to Utah. Let the
milliners and dressmakers have full sway, and they will soon make it possible for a man to
have more than one wife. Then let schools, churches, and civilization (that much abused
and misappropriated word) do the rest."
These people will do well to remember that the gates of Utah have now
been opened to the world for more than ten years, and that the great transcontinental
railroad, which the advocates of the let-alone policy contended would destroy the barbaric
institution, has actually given the system the means of indefinite growth, enlargement,
and power. Look at the facilities for importing whole cargoes of foreign dupes and slaves,
as compared with those of twenty years ago ! Then,
the long, toilsome journey [287] over the plains by ox-teams, or perhaps on foot, with
household and personal effects in a hand-cart, was a matter not to be lightly considered,
or undertaken without a large measure of faith and courage Now, the iron horse whirls them
over that ground in a very few days, and in such numbers that the railroad companies deem
them not unprofitable travelers, even at very low rates of transportation.
Who has not marked in the coast journals almost every week from early
spring to late in the fall, the announcement that another shipload of Mormon immigrants
has arrived en route for Utah ?
And when it is recollected that a large majority of these immigrants
are gathered from the most ignorant and credulous classes of Europe, that they are steeped
in superstitious fanaticism, and already shorn of manhood and womanhood by being pledged
to obey their leaders in all things, temporal a well a spiritual, it may easily be seen
how the system is kept up in Utah by these constant reinforcements.
A late writer in Harper's
Magazine has remarked with great truth that, " But for the steady influx of
foreigners-low, base-born foreigners, hereditary bondmen,-the two dreadful features of the
Mormon church, polygamy and the exalting of the Church over the State, would die out in
America in two generations."
But instead of dying out, one feature, polygamy, is alarmingly on the
increase. The Mormon priesthood know only too well that they have an additional fetter on
a man when he becomes a law [288] breaker; consequently, men are continually being urged
into polygamy, who, if let alone, would never think of committing that crime.
The times may not be quite as bad
as the old “Reformation”
period, but there is no disguising the fact that the Mormons weld their forces together by
polygamy, and more of these plural alliances have taken place lately than can be estimated
or even imagined.
People who have every opportunity for knowing, state as an undeniable
fact, that hundreds of first wives are wretched beyond expression because they are afraid
their husbands have taken other wives, though they have not sufficient evidence to prove
it. The men of course deny it, but there are many attending circumstances which go to
prove that they are acting under orders in declaring what is not true.
It seems to be the present policy to conceal second marriages from
the first wife, especially if it be thought that she cannot be implicitly trusted, so that
if she should be inclined to prosecute her husband, she has not the slightest evidence
against him. The plural women are sworn to the greatest secrecy, and are even enjoined to
deny the paternity of their infants, rather than compromise their saintly husbands.
Almost any day in the week, women may be seen in the streets of Salt
Lake City, carrying infants whose fathers they would not reveal under torture. If it came
to an issue, and these women [289] were brought into court, they would declare under oath
that they were never married to any man and did not know who were the fathers of their
children.
The demoralizing influences of the system are now being felt in
hundreds of homes which only a few months ago were as happy as pure. Hundreds upon
hundreds of children have been and will be ushered into the world, the innocent victims of
priestly tyranny and licentiousness. And yet, while this system is daily spreading and
being strengthened in Utah and the adjacent Territories, the people of the country do not
seem to be much concerned. They even complacently assert that Congress has no right to
interfere in the matter. The system must be left to die out before the influences of the
Gentile fashions!
It is not so much of foreign reinforcements to Mormonism that this
chapter designs to treat, as of the spread of the evil in our own country,, and the
consequent danger to American homes. The
following statements of recent personal experience are from the able and trenchant pen of
For the benefit of those who think Mormonism is a matter about which
the American people need not concern themselves, or who believe that it is confined to
Utah, and is even there in the process of self-extinction, I write of some late
experiences of mine, and other facts which decidedly negative these ideas.
To those who know what Mormonism is,-what [290] its designs are, and
what it will soon be able to accomplish,-the indifference to the subject shown by so many
intelligent people is simply astounding! They may have read in history of religious
fanaticism, and the bloody wars it has caused, but they do not realize that Mormonism
contains all the elements for producing such a conflict. They know that the issue of a
contest for the presidency may depend upon a single vote, but they do not seem to remember
that with Utah admitted as a State, the Mormon church may hold that decisive vote, and may
demand and obtain, as the price of that vote, privileges which would add ten-fold to its
power for mischief! I am glad that the Governor of Utah has taken so brave a stand, and
that the Governor of Idaho has sounded the note of alarm. We know that their fears are not groundless. In
addition to the Territories,-Utah, Idaho, and Arizona,-in which the Mormons now hold the
balance of political power, it will not be long, according to present appearances, before
Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, and perhaps Oregon, will be in a like condition.
These facts cannot be repeated too often, nor with too great
emphasis. Those who do not care for " the balance of political power," may be
aroused by calling attention to the fact that the fairest and richest valleys, and the
best town sites, are being taken up by Mormon colonies. It often happens that the -
Mormons control the schools, but not at all in the interests of good education. And the
fact that a family will have Mormon neighbors, with the debasing [291] practices of
polygamy under their eyes, contaminating and corrupting their children, will certainly be
no inducement for them to settle in such a locality.
But it is not only in the "far West " that Polygamic
Mormonism is at work, and at work earnestly and successfully. It is safe to say that no
place is secure from its attack, no home sacred from its encroachments.
It should not be forgotten that Mormonism originated in Central New
York, among people whose religious culture was of the highest kind. It is a fact that
should be more widely known than it is, that the Mormon missionaries are reaping rich
harvests in the Southern States. In Georgia alone, many hundreds of converts have been
made, and dispatched to Utah and Colorado. From one place in Kentucky, twenty proselytes
were forwarded to Utah last spring, and Mormon emissaries are doing a deadly work even in
cultured New England and the enlightened Middle States. It is only a short time since a
number of converts were made in the neighborhood of Oberlin, Ohio, almost within the
shadow of that well-known and widely influential Christian College. The emigration and
spread of Mormonism in the Territories and some of the Western States is terrible to think
of. And yet in the face of all this, our newspapers have little to say against the crime,
and some of them raise the cry of " persecution " if the Government shows the
slightest signs of dealing with it.
[292] The people do not know the institution. They think and often
say, " It will never hurt us, or ours." But there is danger to every household
in America, as the following incidents, will show:_
I went to Covington, Ind., recently to fulfill a lecture engagement.
I found there three Mormon missionaries, actively engaged in preaching Mormonism and
polygamy. But so quietly and cunningly had these men conducted their work, that many of
the best people in the place had no realization of the mischief that had been done,
although the work had been going on for nearly three years.
My lecture seemed to have aroused the first general attention to the
subject. There was an organized church of fifteen or twenty Polygamic Mormons, and the
number was constantly increasing. Their meetings were held in a Methodist church,* a short
distance from the town.
The elders and several of their converts attended my lecture, and it
was plain that the audience, although evidently much interested in the subject, were so
decidedly influenced by Mormonism that they hesitated to show positive approval of words
which directly attacked and condemned the proselytizing there going on. They acted as
though they had come to regard the system as having some respectability, or to feel that
policy demanded silence when it was attacked.
* The trustees of that church are
either extremely ignorant or almost criminally indifferent. It is certainly not true
" liberality " to permit those Mormon elders to scatter " firebrands,
arrows, and death," as they are doing in that community
[293] I must not be understood to say that Mormonism is predominant
in the place. The best people are now thoroughly awakened to the evil which has so long
been developing itself among them. They not only showed me great kindness, but sympathized
with my work. They asked me to give a second lecture, which I did. But it was alarming to
find Utah Mormonism existing; tolerated, making proselytes, in such a place. It may appear
to some a little thing, but I hope that the great majority of my readers will see what it
reveals. The Mormon leaders desire only to be "let alone." Their missionaries
work quietly and cunningly until a few converts are made. Social and business
relations,-" policy,"-cause many to be silent, and some to excuse. Before the
people are aware of it, the evil becomes established. Sometimes the missionaries are
helped by a mistaken " liberality." The newspapers at Covington had not only
said nothing against Mormonism, but I was informed that their columns had been open for
the use of the Mormon elders.
If this was the first instance of Polygamic Mormonism in the United
States, it would not seem so serious, but it is only one among many thousand cases.
In Northern Michigan, converts are constantly being made. I have been
told, upon seemingly reliable authority, that polygamy is actually practiced there, one
man having six wives, and another two. I cannot vouch myself for the truth of the
statement, but I have heard it repeated several times, [294] and believe that it is true.
One of my informants claimed to have boarded in a Mormon family where the man had two
wives. But such is the slavery of Mormonism that if this man were arraigned for bigamy,
the probabilities are that both women would swear in court that he was only married to one of them, that the other was an inmate of the
household in some other capacity. To each other they will not only excuse their atrocious
falsehood, but consider it a meritorious action. Truth with them means simply that to a
brother Mormon they must be true. The rule does not apply at all where outsiders are
concerned. It is by this means that the courts are baffled in Utah, and justice defeated.
At the close of a lecture delivered at Canton, Ill., a lad of about
sixteen came behind the scenes, and introduced himself to me. He was so bright,
intelligent and well-informed that he seemed much more like a grown man than a boy. He
expressed his sorrow at hearing me speak so harshly of Mormonism, and said he hoped I
would see the error of my way before it was too late.
I asked in surprise, " Are you a Mormon? "
He replied that he was, and that his parents had recently been
converted by Mormon missionaries, who had been that evening in my audience. He said he
knew they were good men. He was so enthusiastic and vehement that at first I was
speechless from astonishment. I asked him how he knew they were good men.
He replied, " By the way they talk."
[295] I told him that hypocrites and fanatics might talk well, that
he must not judge people by what they said alone I also told him how I was born and reared
in Mormonism, and had had full opportunity to see its baneful results; that my knowledge
had come through terrible suffering, while he had but the words of those men from which to
form conclusions. He said it would be impossible for me to destroy his faith, and that he
and all his family were soon going to Utah.
I inquired about the matter, and found that his statements were true.
I was informed that the family had been universally respected before their conversion to
Mormonism, and that the people of Canton felt great regret at their course. This lad was
as bright, intelligent, and handsome a boy as any mother need wish for and it made my
heart ache to think of his future under Mormon influences.
I found an intelligent and well-educated lady, a teacher in a public
school in Iowa, who avowed her firm belief in the Mormon doctrines, and it is not
improbable that she, too, will soon find her way t the promised land. May Heaven comfort
her when the day of her awakening comes! But the case which touched me most of all was
that of a young girl from Colorado. She was sent to Utah by her parents for the benefit of
her health, in the summer of 1879. The
Christian Gentile family to whom she had letters of introduction were temporarily absent,
and she was unfortunate enough [296] to be directed to the house of a Mormon elder, who
keeps a number of boarders. There she met an other prominent Mormon polygamist, the editor
of the Mormon church organ. She spent but two weeks in Salt Lake City, and what black arts
they employed to pervert and fascinate her young mind I cannot conceive; but she returned
to her home not only a baptized convert, but determined to go back to Utah and there spend
her life. Her parents were horrified to learn the change that had come over their
daughter. From being an innocent and pure-minded girl, she had come to believe in the
horrible doctrines of Mormon polygamy. She carried on a secret correspondence with the high-minded and honorable editor. This the parents accidentally
discovered. They also ascertained that he had asked her to be sealed to him as a plural
wife, while she was in Utah, and was now urging her by letter to return and make her home
at his house. The intense grief and strong opposition of her parents caused her to
postpone for some months her departure for Utah, but her determination remained unchanged.
This girl's father was a lawyer, she herself a teacher who had been tenderly nurtured, and
whose mental strength seemed more than ordinary. She was fairly successful as a writer,
modest and womanly in her demeanor. I went to the place to lecture last summer, and the
mother, whose health was utterly broken by her grief, sent the young lady's aunt and her
father to ask me to call and try to save their daughter. I [297] went, and for several
hours, with most intense feeling, I talked with her, but she seemed entrenched against
every possible influence. After telling her my own history, and of the pain and sorrow I
had seen polygamy bring to women, I asked her how she could leave her broken-hearted
parents who loved her so dearly? She said she should pray for them, and she believed that
they, too, would soon embrace the Mormon faith. Later, when in a room alone with her I
,said:-
" Gertrude, what reason do you think I have for talking to you
as I am doing? Do I not seem sincere and truthful? and do you not feel that what I have
said comes from my heart? "
She replied, " Yes, you do seem sincere; but you do know I have
been taught by the Mormons to regard you. They told me you were an ambitious dissatisfied
woman, only seeking notoriety.”
"Well," I asked, " do you still believe that? Do I
look or act like such a. woman? Will you not have faith in my sincerity, at least? "
She placed her arms around my neck, and replied: I will, Mrs. Young;
I am sure you are a true woman, and have spoken only for my good; but if an angel from
heaven should come and tell me that Mormonism was not true, I could not believe him until
I had gone there and tried it for myself."
I said, "Yours is a hopeless case; nothing but the sorrow that
it has in store for you will open your eyes."
These instances show that it is not alone from the [298] ignorant and
degraded that Mormon converts are made, but that cultured, intelligent people can also be
deluded. It would seem that belief in any false doctrine does not necessarily depend upon
ignorance, but rather that peculiar organizations are easily fascinated by the idea of
direct communication with Heaven. Their readiness to accept everything marvelous makes
them willing to receive as a divine revelation and a modern miracle the story of the
golden plates, and to believe in the prophetic power of Joseph Smith, Brigham Young, and
John Taylor. However this may be, Mormon missionaries are at work, and Mormon converts are
being made all over the country, North, South, East.
And now, in the face of these indisputable facts, comes the question,
How do the American people dare to permit Mormonism to flourish and increase? How can they
ignore or trifle with it any longer? The population of Utah does not show how fast
Mormonism is increasing, because there are so many settlements of Mormons in the
surrounding States and Territories. Over
3,000 came from Europe in 1880, and the Southern States contributed hundreds which were
sent to Colorado and other parts of the country.
From a sad personal experience, I solemnly aver that Mormonism and
polygamy bring no good to man, woman, or child; but on the contrary, darkness,
destruction, and despair.
I appeal now to our new President and his Cabinet, to our Senators
and Congressmen, to our [299] ministers of the Gospel of every denomination, to our
newspapers, which are so mighty a power, and most strongly of all, to the people of this
country, whose will can accomplish anything,- I beseech you all to allow no opportunity
for action to pass by unimproved. Permit no law by which Mormon polygamy may be abolished
to go unenacted. Leave no prayer unspoken, no word unsaid, that may help to destroy this
foul and shameful crime against religion, society, and free government.
MRS. ANN ELIZA YOUNG.
These experiences of Mrs. Young are supplemented and confirmed almost
every week by events which are happening all over the country. The Mormon church papers
are continually publishing correspondence from their missionaries, giving glowing accounts
of their success in proselyting; and although some of these letters may be written for
effect among the people of Utah, yet results prove that they contain a great deal of
truth.
During the month of September, 1881, a prominent United States
Federal Official in Salt Lake City received a letter from a young lady in Indiana. who
thought he must be a Mormon from the position he held. The writer, who from appearances
was possessed of some education and culture, and who said she was a school teacher by
profession, after apologizing for addressing a stranger, avowed that she had been
completely captivated by what she had [300] learned in regard to Mormonism, and had a
strong desire to investigate the system still further.
She was convinced that a greater knowledge of Mormon doctrines would
conduce both to her physical and spiritual advantage, and desired to know where to obtain
the proper books and papers. She also wanted to know how she should proceed in order to
reach Salt Lake City, as she ardently wished to gather with the Saints. The gentleman
referred the letter to some non-Mormon ladies, who undertook the task of trying to
enlighten her and break her infatuation, but with what success their labors will be
crowned remains yet to be seen.
Another recent case is that of a young girl from a highly respectable
and cultured family in Massachusetts. She became infatuated with the teachings of a Mormon
missionary, and with himself; and when he wooed her for his wife, she never thought to ask
him whether another woman had previous right to that name. Her family tried to reason with
her, and when that proved of no avail, more stringent means were adopted. She managed,
however, to elude their vigilance, and escaped to Utah with the Mormon elder, who, in
order to satisfy her, "married" her on the way. She had no sooner reached Salt
Lake than she found that she was only the third
woman whom the retch had deluded in the same way. She met some kind friends who assisted
her with means to return to Massachusetts, but she never wrote after she left the city,
and they know not whether she [301] reached home again.
She felt herself a ruined and betrayed woman, and the probability is, that
instead of returning, like the prodigal, to the home which her folly had left desolate,
somewhere out in the great world wanders another woman, eternally lost!
And now the important question presents itself, What is to be the
end? Is this absolute theocracy which holds
itself above the Government of the United States, which teaches its adherents that
“all governments founded by men are illegal, which claims that its founder was a
prophet inspired by God, and that when he died his mantle fell upon his successors with
all its divine powers-“ is this institution to be permitted to wax stronger every
year, and without let or hindrance, flaunt its treasonable presence in the face of the
American nation? Worse than all, shall it be permitted to continually forge the chains of
an ignominious slavery on the wrists of women, to offer a perpetual permission for
men’s lusts in the name of religion, and to blast and destroy the honor and
sacredness of home?
The people of America will do well to remember "that once before there was an institution in
this country around which there was a shield of sympathy : its divine rights were declared
from a thousand pulpits; Congress was too sordid and too cowardly to deal with it;
wholesale merchants and great corporations lent their influence to perpetuate it, and a
venal press rang with anathemas against any who dared to denounce it. But there came a day
at last [302] when men had to choose which should live and rule, that institution, or this
nation. The history of what followed is fresh in all minds; and little as the masses
believe it now, there will come a time, if this monster in Utah is left to grow, when
there will be another call for volunteers and for money; and as before, tens of thousands
of brave young men will go away, never to return; as before, there will be enormous debt
incurred; as before, the country be hillocked with graves, and the whole land will be
moistened by the rain of women's tears ! "
Next: CHAPTER XX. WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO
ABOUT IT?
BY THE LATE REV. LEONARD BACON, D.D., LL.D.*
Something Now.-Thirty Years' Compromise.- National Sovereignty.-People Unfit for Self
Government.-No State Rights.-The First of Human Right.-Jim Fisk
Back: CHAPTER XVIII. A HEART HISTORY
CONTINUED
A happy Home Picture.-"Brother Ellis."-The Message.-A Stormy Scene.-Attempt
at Reconciliation.- Mrs. Parker's Visit.-Her Advice.-Christmas.-Sealed to Jesus Christ.-
Joining the Church.-"Brother Ellis " Again.-Interview with the President. The
Terrible News.-" One of Papa's Women."-Attempt to Escape.-Death.
Index: INTRODUCTION AND TABLE OF CONTENTS
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