Posted by:
Uncle Dale
(
)
Date: March 19, 2012 06:13PM
Theodore Schroeder's
"Joseph Smith -- a Polygamist and Abortionist"
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Theodore Schroeder's
"Lucifer's Lantern"
(Salt Lake City, Utah)
(no. 9 - 1900)
[184]
Was Joseph Smith, "The Prophet," an Abortionist?
----
Soon after the Mormons came to Utah, Brigham Young concluded that the time
for the establishment of "The Temporal Kingdom of God" was at hand. As early
as February, 1844, Joseph Smith, pursuant to revelation, instructed the
apostles to send a committee to California and Oregon in search of a location
where the Mormons could establish such a government of their own (22 Mil. Star,
819 and 820; also Plural Marriage H. M. W., 21.) Not long after this the Mormons
from that State, added a strong impetus to the carrying out of this purpose.
The matter of polygamy now became a practical question as a means of building
up this temporal kingdom of God and making it possible for the Mormons to
subdue all the nations of the earth, as they expect to do (7 Journal of
Discourses, 53; 3 J. of D. 71; 1 J. of D., 230.)
The advantages of polygamy for this purpose were carefully estimated and the
conclusion reached that a monogamic family, when its head was 78 years of age,
estimating ten children to each woman, would amount to but one hundred and
fifty-two, while the family of a polygamist would number 3,508,441 (19 Mil.
Star, 432). This estimate seems to have been made upon the basis of forty wives
to each male member of the family (19 Mil. Star, 384.) At least one apostle,
Heber C. Kimball, admits to having had more than this number, (Life of Heber
C. Kimball, 436), and Jos. Smith had double that number (Mormon Portraits, 54).
Brigham Young boasted that his own progeny would be a million within 100 years
(4 Journal of Discourses, 224). With the ambition to beget the greatest number
of children, without regard to their
[185]
quality or parental capacity for imparting superior culture, came also to an
extensive boasting, continued to the present time, that the use of preventatives
and the commission of abortions and infanticides are abominations of the
world which are unknown among Mormons.
This raises the question as to whether or not there is anything in the nature
of Mormonism which will prevent the prevalence of these evils.
The facts as to the Prophet Joseph Smith's polygamous relations when known, at
once rouse suspicion. It is admitted that the polygamic revelation was received
as early as 1831 (Outlines Ecc. Hist., 428). Apostates charged the practice of
something akin to polygamy before the close of that year, (Howe's Mormonism
Unvailed, 220) and soon after the conduct of the Saints was such that their
neighbors accused them of having their wives as well as their property in
common (Evening and Morning Star, 168). In view of these facts and the
subsequently admitted and justified practices of these "Saints," it is
reasonable to believe that the Prophet's sexual adventures began in 1831,
when the Lord first explained the beauties of polygamy, and that they
continued until his death in 1844. According to Mormon theology, they have not
ceased yet (Roberts' New Witness for God, 460; Deseret News, Sept. 14th, 1852,
quoted in Utah and the Mormons, 220).
Among all his numerous biographers, none seem to have been able to give a list
of the Prophet's wives nor of his partners in pious though illicit amours. This
can be explained only on the theory that the former were so numerous, and
perhaps the latter so indiscriminate as to have made the keeping of a list of
his celestial brides an impractical or undesirable labor. There are however,
some clues to the number of the Prophet's wives. One of these clues is a Mormon
boast made in 1882 -- 38 years after the Prophet's death and 51 years after his
commencement of polygamic practice -- to the effect that even then there were
still living in Utah more than a dozen of his wives (Plural Marriage Taught by
the Prophet Joseph, 15). Mrs. Pratt, an apostle's wife who knew the prophet well
and personally, and who was one of those whom he unsuccessfully attempted to
seduce (Mormonism Exposed, 226), estimated the number of his wives at over
eighty (Mormon Portraits, 54).
When we remember that even in Nauvoo, "the Prophet Joseph Smith" demanded that
leading Mormons
[186]
consecrate their wives by making them subject to his will as the agent of God,
(Mormon Portraits, 70 and 71) which duty to consecrate one's wives was, under
Brigham Young, extended to all church members (4 Deseret News, 15; 2 Journal of
Discourses, 14-38), we cannot doubt that the Prophet's celestialized amours
exceeded the estimated eighty. Notwithstanding this (and here is the remarkable
feature) there never has been a single known child of the Prophet by any of
his scores of polygamous wives. We instinctively ask why? Was he an ascetic who
shunned the exercise of the sex function as an evil? Neither his friends nor
his enemies ever accused him of asceticism. Some who knew him pronounced him
the most licentious man on earth (Mormon Portraits, 53), and the Prophet himself
announced that whenever he saw a pretty woman, it was necessary for him to pray
for grace. He is also quoted as having said at another time that if the Lord
had not taken him in hand, he would have become the greatest w----e in the
world (Mormon Portraits, 55).
If all of this "Prophet's" sanctified amours could be published, it would make
a volume of libidinosity, the like of which has never yet appeared. If any
further evidence of Smith's sexual excesses were desired, we might perhaps
find it in a search for evidences of degeneration on the "Prophet's" children,
one of whom was born deformed and a second is an inmate of an insane asylum.
All this forces upon us the conclusion that no ascetism on the part of Smith
can explain the absence of any children of his by any of his scores of
polygamous wives. That the "Prophet" had sexual relations with "spiritual
wives" probably every Mormon of the Utah church will admit and must believe,
else his claims against the "Josephites" that the "Prophet Joseph" was a
polygamist falls to the ground. That in many cases preventatives were used is
probable almost to certainty, as is also the conclusion, based upon human
experience, that their use alone is not an adequate explanation for the
total abstinence of offspring by the "Prophet's polygamous wives. It has been
suggested upon convincing evidence that the result can be accounted for in
part by the fact that a large per cent of the "Prophet's" amorets were other
men's wives "for time" (Mormon Portraits). This partial explanation, though
founded on
[187]
fact, must be rejected by Mormons because it fails to materially decrease any
influence of dishonor drawn from the facts which it is meant to explain. Again
we ask why has the "Prophet" no progeny by any of his eighty or more celestial
mistresses? The Illinois legislature of 1833 had passed laws making Smith's
practices criminal, and of course it was desirable to avoid the furnishing of
live evidences of his guilt. Can they have resorted to abortion? Let us
examine the evidence.
Among Smith's confidants were two doctors named Foster and Bennett. They held
high rank in the church and knew all Smith's iniquity. When Doctors Foster
and Bennett apostatized and exposed Smith's polygamous habits, the "Prophet,"
by way of defence, said that the doctors were as deep in the mire as he was in
the mud. If, then, any abortions were committed, Doctors Foster or Bennett
would most likely have been invited to superintend the operations. Did they
do it?
Mrs. Pratt, the legal wife of a Mormon apostle, says that on one occasion
while Dr. Bennett, then still a good Mormon of the highest rank, was calling
at her home in Nauvoo, she observed that he had partly concealed in his left
sleeve an instrument, which, upon being produced, was apparently composed of
steel and crooked at one end, which from the description was probably a catheter.
Upon speaking of it, Bennett said: "Oh, a little job for Joseph; one of his
women is in trouble." The operation was performed and the woman after a serious
illness recovered (Mormon Portraits, 61-62).
Dr. Wyl says that several credible persons informed him that women who
objected to the "blessings of Abraham" because of fear of consequences were
regularly promised abortions (Mormon Portraits, 133). It is admitted by the
official Mormon Church organ of that time that many Mormons were attempting
to seduce women in the name of God, and that John C. Bennett, at least,
did while he was one of the church chiefs, promise misguided women the
protection of an abortion if they would yield to the criminal solicitations
of himself and his fellow priests (3 Times and Seasons, 870).
I find also one circumstance related in the autobiography of the "Prophet"
which seems to me to furnish unmistakable evidence of the truth of these
statements and the Prophet's connection with the crimes.
In the beginning of 1843 Dr. John C. Bennett and others had apostatized
and were publicly exposing
[188]
Smith's licentious practices. Dr. Foster was believed to be secretly leagued
with the dissenters and opposing the "Prophet" from within the Church, and
among other things, was failing to contribute money to the building of the
Nauvoo House, the construction of which God Himself had directed. Under
these circumstances what was more natural than that the "Prophet" should
threaten to expose the crimes of dissenters as a means of cowing them into
silence?
In the Prophet's autobiography, as published in the Church organ, is a
synopsis of a sermon to which no other sensible interpretation can be given
than that it was a covert threat to expose Dr. Foster's abortions. The
Prophet's language reads thus: "I will whip Hyrum Kimball and Esquire Wells,
and everybody else, over Dr. Foster's head, who, instead of building the
Nauvoo House, BUIL[D] A GREAT MANY LITTLE SKELETONS." "Those who live in
GLASS HOUSES SHOULD NOT THROW STONES." (20 Mill. Star, 582).
What could be plainer? Dr. Foster lives in a glass house because he makes
"a great many little skeletons," and unless he quits throwing stones at
the Prophet, his abortions, these little skeletons, will be exposed to
the public gaze. The words can mean nothing else. Had Smith been guiltless,
he would certainly have been more vigorous in prosecuting these criminals
who were his most bitter personal enemies, and he would never have
contented himself with mere threatenings.
Taking all the facts together, Smith's indubitable virility, his eighty
or more wives, the entire absence of children of his by any except the
first wife, Bennett's admission while he was still a good Mormon, that
he committed abortions for the Prophet, the statements of several other
witnesses to Dr. Wyl that abortions were regularly promised as a
protection to women who hesitated about consecrating themselves, the
admission of the Church organ that this was done at least by Dr. Bennett,
one of the Church chiefs -- all of these facts, together with Smith's
covert and unexecuted threat to expose his enemy, Dr. Foster, who made
"a great many little skeletons," all convince me that the Prophet
Joseph Smith should add to his list of crimes that of procuring the
commission of abortions.
A daughter of "Prophet" Brigham Young, and one of the daughters of his
first counselor have been reported through the press as having died
from the result of abortions.
[189]
In addition, I have quite satisfactory evidence from members of the medical
profession in Utah that the Mormon people of Utah are no more free from the
temptations of abortion (see Mormonism by Hyde, 181), infanticide or the
use of preventatives than people of their same class outside of Utah.
From all of this I infer that there is nothing in the nature of Mormon
polygamy which in itself operates as a restraint upon these criminal
tendencies. We can hardly expect the followers to be more free from these
temptations than was their prophet, except as greater ignorance and
simplicity in relation to the subject might make them hesitate where the
Prophet would boldly commit the crime. At the present time, two thousand
Mormon missionaries are busy endeavoring to convince the world that this
abortionist is the founder of a purer and holier religion, and was the
literal "mouthpiece of God." If God ever had a Prophet that Prophet either
was not an wholesale abortionist or the God who chose him as his servant is
unworthy of human worship.
--------------
See also Elder Ebenezer Robinson's recollection of his being
introduced to secret polygamy at Nauvoo, by Hyrum Smith --
and on Hyrum Smith reassuring Robinson that any resulting
unwanted pregnancies could be taken care of -- by a means
which was obviously abortion. I think Orson Pratt's first
wife also mentioned that there was a place in or near
Nauvoo, where unwanted pregnancies could be taken care
of -- that the girls stayed in a particular house, etc.
Uncle Dale