Part 35 (1/2)

Surprise has been expressed that Smith would permit the newcomer, General John C. Bennett, to be elected the first mayor of Nauvoo under the new charter. Much less surprising is the fact that a falling-out soon occurred between them which led to the withdrawal of Bennett from the church on May 17, 1842, and made for the prophet an enemy who pursued him with a method and vindictiveness that he had not before encountered from any of those who had withdrawn, or been driven, from the church fellows.h.i.+p.

The exact nature of the dispute between the two men has never been explained. That personal jealousy entered into it there is little doubt.

Smith never had submitted to any real division of his supreme authority, and when Bennett entered the fold as political lobbyist, mayor, major general, etc., a clash seemed unavoidable. It was stated, during Rigdon's church trial after Smith's death, that Bennett declared, at the first conference he attended at Nauvoo, that he sustained the same position in the First Presidency that the Holy Ghost does to the Father and the Son; and that, after Smith's death, Bennett visited Nauvoo, and proposed to Rigdon that the latter a.s.sume Smith's place in the church, and let Bennett a.s.sume that which had been occupied by Rigdon.*

* Times and Seasons, Vol. V, p. 655.

The Mormon explanation given at the time of Bennett's expulsion was that some of their travelling elders in the Eastern states discovered that the general had a wife and family there while he was paying attention to young ladies in Nauvoo; but a very slight acquaintance with Smith's ideas on the question of morality at that time is needed to indicate that this was an afterthought. The course of the church authorities showed that they were ready to every way qualified to be a useful citizen. Smith directed the clerk of the church to permit Bennett to withdraw ”if he desires to do so, and this with the best of feelings toward you and General Bennett.” But as soon as Bennett began his attacks on Smith the church made haste to withdraw the hand of fellows.h.i.+p from him, and framed a formal writ of excommunication, and Smith could not find enough phials of wrath to pour upon him. Thus, in a statement published in the Times and Seasons of July 1, 1842, he called Bennett ”an impostor and a base adulterer,” brought up the story of his having a wife in Ohio, and charged that he taught women that it was proper to have promiscuous intercourse with men.

As soon as Bennett left Nauvoo he began the publication of a series of letters in the Sangamon (Illinois) Journal, which purported to give an inside view of the Mormon designs, and the personal character and practices of the church leaders. These were widely copied, and seem to have given people in the East their first information that Smith was anything worse than a religious pretender. Bennett also started East lecturing on the same subject, and he published in Boston in the same year a little book called ”History of the Saints; or an Expose of Joe Smith and Mormonism,” containing, besides material which he had collected, copious extracts from the books of Howe and W. Harris.

Bennett declared that he had never believed in any of the Mormon doctrines, but that, forming the opinion that their leaders were planning to set up ”a despotic and religious empire” over the territory included in Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, and Missouri, he decided to join them, learn their secrets, and expose them. Bennett's personal rascality admits of no doubt, and not the least faith need be placed in this explanation of his course, which, indeed, is disproved by his later efforts to regain power in the church. It does seem remarkable, however, that neither the Lord nor his prophet knew anything about Bennett's rascality, and that they should select him, among others, for special mention in the long revelation of January 19, 1841, wherein the Lord calls him ”my servant,” and directs him to help Smith ”in sending my word to the kings of the people of the earth.” There is no doubt that Bennett obtained an inside view of Smith's moral, political, and religious schemes, and that, while his testimony un-corroborated might be questioned, much that he wrote was amply confirmed.

According to Bennett's statements, Mormon society at Nauvoo was organized licentiousness. There were ”Cyprian Saints,” ”Chartered Sisters of Charity,” and ”Cloistered Saints,” or spiritual wives, all designed to pander to the pa.s.sions of church members. Of the system of ”spiritual wives” (which was set forth in the revelation concerning polygamy), Bennett says in his book:

”When an Apostle, High Priest, Elder or Scribe conceives an affection for a female, and he has satisfactorily ascertained that she experiences a mutual claim, he communicates confidentially to the Prophet his affaire du coeur, and requests him to inquire of the Lord whether or not it would be right and proper for him to take unto himself the said woman for his spiritual wife. It is no obstacle whatever to this spiritual marriage if one or both of the parties should happen to have a husband or wife already united to them according to the laws of the land.”

Bennett alleged that Smith forced him, at the point of a pistol, to sign an affidavit stating that Smith had no part in the practice of the spiritual wife doctrine; but Bennett's later disclosures went into minute particulars of alleged attempts of Smith to secure ”spiritual wives,” a charge which the commandments to the prophet's wife in the ”revelation” on polygamy amply sustain. A leading ill.u.s.tration cited concerned the wife of Orson Pratt.* According to the story as told (largely in Mrs. Pratt's words), Pratt was sent to England on a mission to get him out of the way, and then Smith used every means in his power to secure Mrs. Pratt's consent to his plan, but in vain. Nancy Rigdon, the eldest unmarried daughter of Sidney Rigdon, was another alleged intended victim of the prophet, and Bennett said that Smith offered him $500 in cash, or a choice lot, if he would a.s.sist in the plot. One day, when Smith was alone with her, he pressed his request so hard that she threatened to cry for help. The continuation of the story is not by General Bennett, but is taken from a letter to James A. Bennett, he of ”Arlington House,” dated Nauvoo, July 27, 1842, by George W. Robinson, one of Smith's fellow prisoners in Independence jail, and one of the generals of the Nauvoo Legion:--

* Ebenezer Robinson says that when Orson Pratt returned from his mission to England, and learned of the teaching of the spiritual wife doctrine, his mind gave way. One day he disappeared, and a search party found him five miles below Nauvoo, hatless, seated on the bank of the river.--The Return, Vol. II, p. 363.

”She left him with disgust, and came home and told her father of the transaction; upon which Smith was sent for. He came. She told the tale in the presence of all the family, and to Smith's face. I was present.

Smith attempted to deny at first, and face her down with a lie; but she told the facts with so much earnestness, and the fact of a letter being proved which he had caused to be written to her on the same subject, the day after the attempt made on her virtue, breathing the same spirit, and which he had fondly hoped was destroyed, all came with such force that he could not withstand the testimony; and he then and there acknowledged that every word of Miss Rigdon's testimony was true. Now for his excuse.

He wished to ascertain if she was virtuous or not!”

To offset this damaging attack on Smith, a man named Markham was induced to make an affidavit a.s.sailing Miss Rigdon's character, which was published in the Wasp. But Markham's own character was so bad, and the charge caused so much indignation, that the editor was induced to say that the affidavit was not published by the prophet's direction.

Bennett's charges aroused great interest among the non-Mormons in all the counties around Nauvoo, and increased the growing enmity against Smith's flock which was already aroused by their political course and their alleged propensity to steal.

A minor incident among those leading up to Smith's final catastrophe was a quarrel, some time later, between the prophet and Francis M. Higbee.

This resulted in a suit for libel against Smith, tried in May, 1844, in which much testimony disclosing the rotten condition of affairs in Nauvoo was given, and in the arrest of Smith in a suit for $5000 damages. The hearing, on a writ of habeas corpus, in Smith's behalf, is reported in Times and Seasons, Vol. V, No. 10. The court (Smith's Munic.i.p.al Court) ordered Smith discharged, and p.r.o.nounced Higbee's character proved ”infamous.”

CHAPTER X. -- THE INSt.i.tUTION OF POLYGAMY

The student of the history of the Mormon church to this date, who seeks an answer to the question, Who originated the idea of plural marriages among the Mormons? will naturally credit that idea to Joseph Smith, Jr. The Reorganized Church (non-polygamist), whose members.h.i.+p includes Smith's direct descendants, defend the prophet's memory by alleging that ”in the brain of J. C. Bennett was conceived the idea, and in his practice was the principle first introduced into the church.”

In maintaining this ground, however, they contend that ”the official character of President Joseph Smith should be judged by his official ministrations as set forth in the well authenticated accepted official doc.u.ments of the church up to June 27, 1844. His personal, private conduct should not enter into this discussion.”* The secular investigator finds it necessary to disregard this warning, and in studying the question he discovers an incontrovertible ma.s.s of testimony to prove that the ”revelation” concerning polygamy was a production of Smith,** was familiar to the church leaders in Nauvoo, and was lived up to by them before their expulsion from Illinois.

* Pamphlets Nos. 16 and 46 published by the Reorganized Church.

** ”Elder W. W. Phelps said in Salt Lake Tabernacle in 1862 that while Joseph was translating the Book of Abraham in Kirtland, Ohio, in 1835, from the papyrus found with the Egyptian mummies, the Prophet became impressed with the idea that polygamy would yet become an inst.i.tution of the Mormon Church. Brigham Young was present, and was much annoyed at the statement made by Phelps; but it is highly probable that it was the real secret that the latter then divulged.”--”Rocky Mountain Saints,” p. 182.