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Polygamy, Not Really
S2E29 · Polygamy, Kind of...That's Part of It Part 2
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Standard of Truth · Season 2 · Episode 29 · 57:36

Polygamy, Kind of...That's Part of It Part 2

In 1845, W. W. Phelps himself said the 1831 revelation was about the Lamanites; only in 1861 did he remember it as a command to practice polygamy.

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Can the 1831 revelation W. W. Phelps sent to Brigham Young in 1861 be reliably tied to Joseph Smith, and what was it really about?

Richard

Richard and Gerrit finish their look at the revelation W. W. Phelps sent Brigham Young in 1861. Gerrit sketches Phelps himself, from his betrayal in Missouri and return to the Church to Brigham Young publicly correcting his tall tales about calling the Twelve. He then brings in two other sources: Ezra Booth's angry 1831 letters, which suggest a revelation about Martin Harris marrying among the Native Americans, and 1845 Council of Fifty minutes where Phelps described the revelation without any mention of plural marriage. Gerrit concludes the revelation was most likely about what Booth and the 1845 Phelps said, not the later polygamy version shaped by time and memory.

Who comes upW. W. PhelpsBrigham YoungJoseph SmithEzra BoothMartin HarrisLucy HarrisOliver CowderyAndrew JacksonJames EmmettThomas B. Marsh
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Polygamy, Not Really

Richard recalls his favorite episode title, and Gerrit remembers "Joseph Smith, a Fun Guy."

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Intro Welcome to the Standard of Truth Podcast, hosted by historian Dr. Gerrit Dirkmaat, where we explore the early days of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and gain rare historical insights into how a young farm boy was able to establish a new church and grow it by way of visions, manifestations and miracles.
Richard Miracles.
Gerrit Hi, welcome to another episode of the Standard of Truth podcast. I'm your host, Dr. Gerrit Dirkmaat, and I'm joined by my friend, Professor Richard LeDuc.
Richard Hello, Gerrit. And when last we left you with part one of polygamy Not Really.
Gerrit Richard's the one naming that, by the way.
Richard That's right, that's my favorite name so far. Gerrit's favorite is Joseph Smith, a fun guy, which was, I think, our second episode.
Gerrit Which was a response to someone claiming that Joseph Smith took psychedelic mushrooms in order to receive the visions and translate the Book of Mormon.
Richard So we reviewed a revelation, quote unquote, that was sent to Brigham Young by WW. Phelps in 1861. That WW. Phelps was writing, but that was received in 1831.
Gerrit Was claiming that three decades earlier that Joseph had given it to him. And this is July of 1831, brand new, early in the church, Joseph comes down. In fact, this is Joseph's first time down to Missouri. He's coming down to Missouri because they've been commanded by revelation to go down there. And it's on July 20th, so three days after when Phelps is placing this, that Joseph declares the spot where the temple of God is going to be built, the temple in Zion. Now, they still, of course, believe the city of Zion is gonna be built, and Phelps knows by the time he's writing this that it didn't happen. But it's certainly a very big deal. If you hadn't listened to the first part of this podcast, I urge you to go back and to listen to episode one because otherwise, what we're about to talk about will be somehow more incoherent and nonsensical than what it already is.
Richard Yeah, it's gonna be bad no matter what, but if you don't have the context, it will be.
Gerrit That's what I feel like. I feel like whenever anyone's like, hey, I don't like your podcast, I'm like, you know the context, the context. I just say context and I walk away.
Richard Well, so the kind of the funny thing for me in that part one is that in this revelation, 30 years later that is written and sent to Brigham Young, that polygamy is kind of for the first time kind of called out, but the WW. Phelps takes three or so years to be like, what did you mean by that?
Gerrit What do you, wait a second. So now the reason why Stephen asked the question was this document is used. It's especially used by some, as he said, Mormon fundamentalists. So people who are still advocating that polygamy still be practiced, even though Wilford Woodruff the prophet received a revelation ending its practice. And then that's expanded even further by Joseph S. Smith with the second manifesto. But at any rate, that's something we'll talk about later when we talk about polygamy, but not really. Season 38. Season 38, and we'll call it, that's part of it. But also people trying to find that date. Look, we have other sources that place Joseph Smith's understanding that he is going to have to teach polygamy to this 1831 era after his translation of the Old Testament where polygamy abounds. And then these other sources like Orson Pratt or one of his wives, Miranda Hyde, also places it 10 years earlier from 1841 when she's talking about it, which would be 1831 that Joseph knew.
Gerrit So in that sense, this idea of placing it back much earlier than the Doctrine and Covenants Section 132 revelation that we have in our scriptures. In that sense, the idea that he talked about it earlier, but you're right, it is a very odd thing that Phelps only thought about it for three or four years and thought, wait a minute, I'm married. You gotta only hope that he didn't already marry someone else. So the fact that it is very late, that he's kind of claiming something more than he, than he really can. Like here I've got the verbatim, but don't worry, God just gave it to me. I didn't have pen and paper to write it down, but I got your pen and paper in my mind.
Richard So what's actually the standing of WW. Phelps in the church at this time in 1861?
Gerrit So he's a judge, he's a local judge in Utah. In fact, they'll refer to him as Judge Phelps in a lot of their correspondence. He's a member of the church, and he will occasionally speak at general conferences. And in fact, one of the reasons why, I'm a little hesitant. I brought up last week that Phelps, first of all, most of you know WW. Phelps because you know that he was instrumental in writing the hymns, that he was a printer in Jackson County that was printing the Book of Commandments when those pages were destroyed. But I think probably most people know WW. Phelps because of his apostasy, right? You know him because it is that incredible story that we will someday cover in detail.
Richard Yeah, it's one of my favorites. We probably should do it.
Gerrit We just.
Richard We'll do it next.
Gerrit Season 39.
Richard Yeah, we're not gonna do it.
Gerrit We'll never do it. But we're that incredible story where Phelps is one of the leaders of the church in Missouri. And he, you know, along with the other church leaders in Missouri, chafe against the control that Joseph and the church in Kirtland is exercising. There's, you know, a lot of, a lot of this and a lot of that that's said. And Phelps is eventually excommunicated, but it's not just that he's excommunicated. After his excommunication, he will sign affidavits claiming that Joseph Smith was essentially planning an insurrection in the state in Missouri. On the strength of those, those affidavits, Joseph is going to be held in Richmond and then Liberty Jail for months without trial. And we all know about that situation. And again, we'll talk about it at some future point. If we can ever live down Ari's criticism of our terrible Missouri accents, and we'll come back to that.
Gerrit But that's the reason why what Phelps did was horrific. And it was an outright lie. And he had to have known it was a lie when he said it. But it was used not only as the basis of why Joseph was held in prison, it was used as a major part of the defense of the horrible depredations that the Missourians then undertook among the Latter-day Saints in Missouri. The Latter-day Saints are exterminated from the state. They're driven from the state. And there are several high-profile apostates, none greater than Thomas Marsh, the most senior member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, the would have been president of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. But Phelps, who had long been a close associate with Joseph, his, you know, he is seen as a hiss and a byword.
Gerrit Both Phelps and Marsh are seen as some of the greatest traitors in early church history, because their affidavits allow the Missourians to say, how can you claim we are unjustly exterminating them from the state? Their own leaders. WW. Phelps, supposedly the great friend, the person who wrote the article that got the Saints driven out of Jackson County, because Phelps is the one who wrote the article inviting free black members of the church to move to Missouri, that that Phelps, he is the one who is throwing Joseph under the bus and claiming that Joseph has mal intent. You know, we have proof. We have proof. We don't need anything else but the words of Martian Phelps. Well, so Phelps is really, I mean, he's kind of a hiss and a byword. Like I said, we could spend more time on it, but I think a lot of people know his story from the fact that a year and a half later, missionaries run into him in Ohio, and Phelps begs to be let back into the church, refers to himself as a prodigal son, writes a letter to Joseph begging for forgiveness, and instead of Joseph doing what, I mean, frankly, everyone would have justified Joseph in doing, and that is saying like, tell you what, you come here, let's have a talk about things.
Gerrit After we let everyone in Nauvoo throw rocks at you, then you can come back a year after that, ask again, and the answer will still be no. That's what I wanted Joseph to say, because I clearly am not Joseph Smith. Instead, you of course have this beautiful thing where Joseph doesn't even attempt to verify if Phelps is genuinely repentant. He doesn't even say, I'm so glad to hear this, come meet with me in Nauvoo and we can talk about it. Instead, Joseph picks up his pen and immediately responds and says, you're forgiven, you're back into the church. Right. And of course ends it with that beautiful quote, you know, come on, dear brother. Now, since the war has passed for friends at first, our friends again at last. So, you know, I think a lot of people know Phelps from that regard in the Utah period, obviously Phelps is in some ways he's got to kind of rebuild his reputation, right?
Gerrit Because if you were one of the people that was burned out of Missouri because Phelps wrote lies that the state of Missouri used, it might not, you might not have been as forgiving as Joseph was, right? If it was your house that was burned down, you might want more than just a my bad coming from WW. Phelps. Now, Phelps was very penitent. I don't mean to make light of that. At the same time, there's some evidence that Phelps was given to, well, an exaggeration of his importance in the early church. When he would speak, he often, I used this phrase earlier with Richard talking about this, that he essentially, and I heard this from a good colleague of mine, Brent, he used this way to describe something that in some ways always Phelps kind of forest gumps his way through early church history.
Richard He's with Lyndon Johnson, he's with Kennedy, he's with Elvis.
Gerrit Every major important event, somehow Phelps was there. You know, oh yeah, yeah, I was there for that kind of thing. And in fact, we have an account of a conference meeting in which Brigham Young's kind of had enough of the grandstanding. So Phelps reads a hymn and then tells an anecdote. We don't know what he said, but my guess is that the hymn is one that he either wrote or part of his compilation. So he had some kind of insight into it, and then so he told an anecdote. Now, I'm sorry, this is, you know, kind of choppy because of the shorthand of this, so I won't be able to read this perfectly. But Brigham Young gets up right afterwards and says, whether it is right hard or not, I will give a little exception with regard to him who has dictated or acted and guided and dictated in ordaining the 12 apostles.
Gerrit Brother Phelps generally gives us a treat at conference that he is the first man in the kingdom, the tallest, broadest shoulder, biggest chested and breasted man, and is the foremost of such and all. Full of life and amiability. We generally get a treat of this kind. When the 12 were first called, I think Brother Phelps was present, yet will not be sure when they were called by revelation through Joseph Smith the prophet, Oliver Cowdery, David Whitmer and Martin Harris were the men that ordained the 12. These were the Three Witnesses of the Book of Mormon. Long prophesied to the calling of the 12. Oliver Cowdery requested of Joseph that when the 12 were called, that he might be present, that he might officiate in ordaining them, and it was in the beginning of the year 1835. In 33, the saints were driven from Jackson County. In 34, the camp that is called Zion's Camp went up to Missouri to reinstate the brethren upon their land after the return of Brother Joseph had promised, while on their way to the, that the faithful should receive a blessing, and on their return began to delineate what those blessings were.
Gerrit The Calling of the Twelve Apostles and Seventy, we commenced having our meetings for this purpose. So, apparently, what has happened is that Phelps has somehow said that he was a part of the Calling of the Twelve Apostles, which Brigham Young is trying to correct him in saying, now why is Phelps making this claim? Because, incident to the Calling of these people, it's happening at the same time that Joseph is performing foot washings and ordinances among these various groups. Because Phelps is one of the people who has his feet washed, and at least he's claiming he's one of the people who had his feet washed first. It seems to me, now again, I don't know because I don't have what he actually said, but I do know that Brigham Young isn't happy with what he said. But Brigham, how do you really feel, right?
Gerrit Anyway, he goes on to say, I relate this so the people may have a correct understanding. It is said that while we were gone from Missouri in 34, the brethren proceeded as best as they could with regard to building the temple and continued their labors until the roof was on the lowest story was completed. That Joseph called a solemn assembly where he blessed the elders of Israel, called them together a certain number, been through the mobbing of Missouri First Presidency and the presidency of Jackson County, Independence, et cetera. When then ordained, they went into the temple and anointed one another's feet. Again, this is getting choppy because this is just a shorthand transcript. The washing of the feet, this was done signifying the purification of the elders. They had been faithful and received their blessings. The second evening, the twelve were in. I don't know that the feet of Brother Phelps was washed. He was in the first evening.
Gerrit I think the twelve went in the second evening. I know very well that Brother Joseph washed my feet. But when Brother Phelps gets up here and says that he has made the twelve and the high priest this and that and the other, I want you to understand that you may get a thread of the history that this is the protest of Judge Phelps. He waxes all remarkable and I will leave all men to judge, but he always gets something or other, you know, as he did the first day of conference. And a Greek testament is brought up here to prove that God was not a spirit when he is a spirit most emphatically to all intents and purposes. He is a spiritual man. He is an exalted man. He's an eternal man and he is an everlasting man and he is God. Just so may it be said of those who will be exalted from this earth, who received their celestial kingdom in ordination to other priesthoods. They never lose anything when they are adopted into families. So you can see that he's actually kind of what Phelps had said earlier had irked Brigham Young, but he hadn't corrected him.
Gerrit And the second time that Phelps gets up and then says, let me tell you about how I helped call the corp of the 12th. Brigham's kind of, he's kind of had enough.
Richard Oh, it's so great. I love how he ends kind of with a King Follett light servant.
Gerrit Yeah, yeah. You know, just by the way, let me tell you what happened. Anyway, that the, he's going to, you know, he's going to talk a lot about this, but then he's going to come back to what his, what his original thing is that Phelps was kind of overstating his position. I expect that we should have embraced the faith as we did when we did. I remember brothers and sisters when brother felt, he says, remember, remember brothers and sisters, when brother Phelps gets up here and I'm not sure what it says, says, you know, this or that, you may take it as this or that. But when he gets up here to read, and again, most of this is missing and he pulls out a something story, let it be the something we again, we can't read the writing their story and let it pass off. So clearly Brigham is publicly chastising him because Phelps is very much given to this kind of bravado that it's the reason why when I read the 1861 letter that he writes, I'm not surprised at all that who becomes the focus of this, right?
Gerrit He's with all these other great people. And you know what? We got together to ask God who should give the first sermon ever to the Lamanites. Now, of course, it's not actually the first sermon of the Lamanites. He doesn't seem to know this or at least he isn't saying because it wouldn't involve him. And that is that, you know, Oliver Cowdery and Zybra Peterson and Parley Pratt have already gone preaching to and Peter Whitmer Jr. to the Native Americans in what is today Kansas. And in fact, they're preaching to them for quite some time and having some success before the federal Indian agent comes and threatens to throw them all in jail for preaching to the Native Americans without a license. Then they attempt to get a license and they're told, no, they can't have a license because they're Mormons essentially, right? So it's a very circular thing.
Richard Well, it stands to reason.
Gerrit Yeah, you can't preach to them without a license. Can we get a license? Well, you can't. Can other people get license? Yes. Absolutely. Can Presbyterians have licenses? No, you cannot. In fact, it's this exchange that leads to one of our earliest accounts of Oliver Cowdery testifying of the gold plates because the Indian agent writes to General Clark of Lewis and Clark fame, who is the superintendent of Indian Affairs there in Missouri, and says, I mean, I'm paraphrasing here, hey, Bill, the substance of which, hey, Bill, there's these crazy Mormons. But he says, look, they're out here preaching to the Indians without a permit, and I told them I would take them to the jail in Leavenworth if they didn't stop. One of their number claims that he's seen an angel and he's seen these gold plates.
Gerrit And of course, Oliver Cowdery is one of them. So it's actually one of our earliest accounts of Oliver Cowdery bearing testimony, both the angel and the plates, comes from this Indian agent. It's like, what are these crazy people saying?
Richard Man, you are just throwing, of Lewis and Clark fame, just like, that's just an aside.
Gerrit That's an aside. You know, it is the same, the same Clark. How about that?
Richard By the way, the way that Brigham Young describes WW. Phelps, I think of like a really old...
Gerrit Every person you've ever met in the...
Richard I think of like an old man sitting in a rocking chair by like a bait and tackle shop on some lake.
Gerrit I'll tell you, I remember the first time they caught a bass in this here lake, that kind of thing.
Richard Yeah, right. And the clerk's like, don't listen to him.
Gerrit You know, when the first World War came along, I was one of the first in the trenches. You were two. I know I was one of the ones helping pass out the artillery. I'm pretty sure they use my little hands to wipe the insides of the, I mean, just the there, there's, there's something to that. You know, like I don't, I don't mean to denigrate Phelps in the sense that, look, his conversion story, his, the time he spent in the kingdom was incredible. Yes, he had a bad time. Like most of us have had a bad time, but he becomes a very faithful member. And even his writing of that letter to Brigham Young. I mean, he really thinks this is going to be helpful to the church in defending the practice of plural marriage, which has come under increasing attack and also further demonstrate this prophetic nature of, of, of Joseph Smith. But I am not in any way surprised reading this, that the discussion is who is supposed to give this first sermon ever to the Native Americans, even though it's not the first sermon as we just established.
Gerrit And it just so happens that it's Phelps. Oh, yes. God said it'll be Phelps. Is that possible? Sure. Does it make you pause a little bit because the only person who's even saying that that revelation happened is him? And it just so happens to be that he's also the one who was called? Yeah, it does. Now, maybe he is not remembering it exactly. Maybe he doesn't remember that, you know, there was a deacon who was called up there with L. Tom Perry and that's what the context was. We know for certain that Phelps doesn't understand the context of the revelation. Why? He says it was three or four years late. Three years later that he finally asked Joseph about, wait a minute, if I'm supposed to marry an Indian woman, well, then that means I'd be a polygamist. And then you have these, you have those aspects of it. Now, let me say in defense of the idea that there was some discussion about marrying among the Lamanites or American Indians or Native Americans, depending on which group you are and which you prefer as the designation.
Gerrit There is another source, an early source, that makes a type of suggestion of that. We have in some of our earlier podcasts, although not terribly long ago, right? Was it in our Zion podcast? I don't know when it was, and we want you to search through all of them. That's why we poorly index them. We figure if we can get you to accidentally download each of them, that will drive our numbers up as you're trying to find angrily the things that you're not able to find because we have, well, I would say we've devoted no resources to it, but we don't have any resources. So we've devoted the resources we have to indexing our podcasts. Anyway, we talked about Ezra Booth. And if you remember, Ezra Booth is this Methodist minister who converts to the Gospel and goes, because he's so excited about the idea of Zion, he goes down to Zion, and I have a great deal of initial empathy for Ezra Booth because his reaction to someone saying that Independence, Missouri is where the new Jerusalem of God is going to be built on Earth is my reaction every time I go to Kansas City, Missouri.
Gerrit I was actually just there. We were touring some church history sites, and even though it was, it was, it was, you know, mid-June, the heat index was 108. I, you know, it is amazing how much less, you know, pietistic you can feel as you're standing at David Whitmer's grave. And it's 108 degrees. You know, you're thinking, well, I mean, I guess he is one of the witnesses who didn't come back. So I'm going to go back to the bus, essentially. I mean, so Booth gets to, you know, Jackson County and is just, he, he is, he's bothered by some of the things that happened on the trip because it was a long way down. He's bothered by the fact that this is Zion. You're telling me that this gambling infested, you know, mosquito infested swamp here on the edge of the, of the Missouri River, this is the New Jerusalem.
Richard This is a great time to just interject that you are maybe doing tours out there that you might have interest in leading tours. What a perfect way to attract people to go on a tour.
Gerrit Right. Would you like to see the place that Ezra Booth decided would make him apostatize? If so, join us.
Richard It's 108 degrees.
Gerrit It's not always 108 degrees.
Richard I've spent a lot of time in Kansas City for work.
Gerrit The barbecue is amazing.
Richard The barbecue is amazing. Oklahoma Joe's, I can't say enough about it. It's a gas station or the Chevron.
Gerrit Yeah. I mean, there's nothing like going to buy your barbecue.
Richard I mean, it is amazing.
Gerrit Only in Missouri could you pull up to a gas station to buy the greatest barbecue you've ever tasted. It's amazing. Because, you know, for those of you who buy your sushi at the gas station, you've probably already had a bad experience.
Richard Well, I once had a bad experience with sushi in Las Cruces, New Mexico, usually known world over for their sushi.
Gerrit Well, it's so close to the ocean. The sushi's always fresh in Las Cruces. In fact, I think that's their town motto. Do we have any Las Cruces listeners?
Richard I don't think so. Spring and fall are lovely in Kansas City.
Gerrit Yes, exactly. Now look, so Booth writes back, and he writes a series of letters. That's why we talked about him. He writes a series of letters just attacking Joseph every which way but lose. He is not only going to become just this angry antagonist, he actually is going to fall away from religion entirely, which is actually kind of sad. He doesn't go back to being an ardent Methodist. He kind of just, he kind of just apostatizes and becomes an agnostic, actually. So it's actually, his story is actually very sad. But in one of these letters, as he is just, and look, these are incredibly antagonistic. He is railing on Joseph and the church and all of these different things. But part of what he writes in one of his letters, December 9th of 1831, so again, this would have been just a few months after. Now he's already apostatized. He apostatizes shortly after that, you know, that happened. Now he's not listed by Phelps as being one of the people at that meeting, but it's entirely possible he was because he was one of the people that traveled down there to Zion.
Gerrit From Kirtland, Cowdery and Company, so I'm quoting now, from Kirtland, Cowdery and Company, were directed by the spirit to Sandusky, where they contemplated opening their mission and proselyting to the Indians residing at that place. But neither Cowdery nor the spirit which directed them was able to open the way to or make any impressions upon their minds. Being frustrated in this, his first attempt to convert the natives, he turned his attention and coursed to Missouri. When near the eastern line of that state, he halted for several days for the purpose of obtaining by inquiry information respecting the Indians, still further to the west. It appears that he was fearful that his infallible guide, the spirit, you can tell he's being super sarcastic here. He was fearful that his guide, the spirit, he's putting it in air quotes basically, was incapable to direct him while proceeding further to the west. Consequently, he applied to men more capable of giving instruction than the spirit by which he was influenced. When he arrived at the western line of Missouri, he passed into the Indian territory, where he continued but a short time before he was notified by the US agent that he must either repass the line or be compelled to take his residence in the garrison, meaning go to the jail at the fort, 40 miles up the Arkansas River.
Gerrit As there was no alternative, the former seemed to him to be the most expedient, and he never possessed courage sufficient to pass the line or visit the residence of the Indians since. Now, so again, as angry and full of just total venom and just twisting things as much as he can as Booth is, we do know that at least that part, that he's notified by the Indian agent that they had to get out, we know that's the case because we have that letter. So we know that they were told to get out. Oliver Cowdery talks about the fact that they're told to get out. So there's at least some aspects of truth, though being presented here incredibly negatively. Anyway, Booth continues.
Gerrit Booth continues, So, you know, Booth is just railing on the fact that even though they were called to preach to the Native Americans, that they don't actually do it. And then he's going to go on to talk about how they're going to try to get permission to preach to the Native Americans. And part of what he then says, and this is the reason why I bring this up, it's not just to talk about Ezra Booth and his hatred of mosquitoes in Missouri. He says, another method has been invented in order to remove obstacles which hitherto proved insurmountable. The Lord's storehouse is to be furnished with goods suited to the Indian trade. And persons are to obtain license from the government to dispose of them to the Indians in their own territory. At the same time, they are to disseminate the principles of Mormonism among them. From this smuggling method of preaching to the Indians, they anticipate a favorable result. So he's claiming that, well, now we're going to try to just trade with the Indians and you're like, oh yes, would you like that kettle, by the way, the Book of Mormon's order got?
Gerrit What was that? Anyway, they're trying to find a way to secretly teach the Indians, right? But that's not all. In addition to this, and to cooperate with it, it has been made known by revelation, so again, talking about a revelation, that it would be pleasing to the Lord should they form a matrimonial alliance with the natives. And by this means, the elders who comply with this thing so pleasing to the Lord, and for which the Lord has promised to bless those who do it abundantly, gain a residence in the Indian territory independent of the agent. It has been made known to one who left his wife in the state of New York, that he is entirely free from his wife, and that he is at liberty to take him a wife from among the Lamanites. It was easily perceived that this permission was perfectly suited to his desires. I have frequently heard him state that the Lord has made it known to him that he is as free from his wife as from any other woman, and that the only crime that I ever heard alleged against her is, she is violently opposed to Mormonism.
Gerrit But before this contemplative marriage can be carried into effect, he must return to the state of New York and settle his business, for fear he should return after that affair has taken place, and the civil authority would apprehend him as a criminal. Now, he doesn't mention names here, but already we know the people that are there in Missouri, and there's, you know, if we're thinking of the people who were in New York, who left a wife behind, who are really, really, really angry about the church, Lucy Harris very quickly comes into mind. And so this is actually a good, I mean, it's not a good source. This is an angry, angry source. So that there was some kind of revelation or discussion about Martin Harris marrying, well, Booth is at least providing that. And he's also claiming it was by way of a revelation. You'll notice, though, that the purpose, at least as angry Booth presents it, is not polygamy in any way, right?
Gerrit In fact, it almost sounds as if Harris needs to go back to New York to end his marriage in order to come back to marry, right?
Richard Despite how free he says he is.
Gerrit Yes, oh, I'm free to marry. Now, again, we've talked about this before and we'll talk about it again, but probably not ever again, because it'll be surrounding polygamy. And that is, in the 19th century, it is actually an incredibly common thing for men and women in marriages that they aren't happy with to simply abandon their spouse, move to another state and marry again. And in this sense, they are technically polygamous, I guess. But the reality is divorce is nearly impossible to obtain. It's really, really hard to obtain for women in the country. This is gonna come as a surprise to you, students of American history, but women were not treated very well in the 19th century by the American legal system. In many cases, women would actually have to get the state legislature to sign a bill specifically granting them a divorce in order to get a divorce. Well, how often do you think that's gonna happen?
Gerrit Now, we do have one very high profile case of this happening, and that's with Andrew Jackson. Andrew Jackson, President of the United States. He was married to a woman who was absolutely, legally married to another man. Well, guess, now that man had essentially abandoned her, right? They had been separated for years, but never divorced because no one could get a divorce, and no one ever actually got divorced. When Andrew Jackson is running for president, well, guess who comes out of the woodwork? This same man married to his Jackson's now wife, saying, Andrew Jackson is married to my wife. Look, I've got the marriage certificate right here. He's obviously not qualified for the office of the presidency because he's married to my wife. He's a bigamist. Now, Andrew Jackson, as most historians believe, that in fact, this is one of these common marriages where the people were in a loveless marriage or abusive marriage or a problematic marriage or whatever, and one of the spouses simply moved away somewhere else and married someone else.
Gerrit But Jackson had resources that other people didn't have. So he was able to have his friends at the Tennessee State House manufacture and post-date a bill of divorcement so that they could then come out and say, no, no, look, see, he was divorced before they got married. Much to the surprise of the man who was still like, oh, wow, surprisingly, I'm not aware of the fact that we were divorced. Now, like I said, most historians believe that it's an entirely fraudulent divorce, that it was created out of whole cloth to keep Jackson from being derailed by these accusations. But the reality is it happens all the time. In fact, one of the well-known cases, again, dealing with polygamy, but that we won't talk about, we don't talk about Bruno, and that is that of Parley Pratt, right? Who actually ends up killing Parley Pratt? Well, a woman is married to a husband that she is not happy with, that she's in this abusive relationship, and she leaves and goes to Utah and marries Pratt as a plural wife.
Gerrit Now, she's still technically married to her garbage water husband, right? Well, like I said, it's actually a very common thing. And if you think about it, look, if you are a woman in 19th century America, you have essentially no legal rights. You have even fewer legal rights when you're married, because whatever property that you quote unquote own, the moment you marry your husband, that property legally becomes his. You can't own property independent of your husband. Well, that makes it pretty hard to leave him, even if you had the ability to get a divorce. And so many people, when they're in an abusive marriage, a loveless marriage, well, first of all, most of them just stay in it, because marriage is kind of a horror story in the 19th century. But those who do get out of it, many of them don't actually get divorces because they couldn't get them. They simply move to another state and marry someone else. And it's not like there's some kind of like database of marriages from state to say, wait a minute, let me check the Arkansas registry and see if, no, wait, you're down here is having, that doesn't exist.
Gerrit That doesn't exist. So it's actually very easy to kind of drift away to another place in the West and just remarry and start all over. I mean, technically, I guess you're a polygamist because you're legally married to more than one person. But in the side of kind of common law, you're not anymore. You're not living with them anymore. You're not, yeah, you can't get that divorce decree, but that's not proof that you're no longer married. At any rate, that was probably an aside that you didn't want to hear, but now you know something about Andrew Jackson that you didn't know before. But it is actually one of the things that when we later, at some point, talk about polygamy, which we're not talking about it now, I need you to strike from your memory. I need you to take from your memory, don't write anything down about everything we're talking about now, that Utah's divorce laws are actually so liberal when the territory is created that it actually causes a controversy because Utah establishes laws in which women can get essentially irreconcilable differences as a cause for divorce.
Gerrit And so once they complete the transcontinental railroad, it becomes kind of scandalous because not only are those Mormons out in Utah destroying the family by the fact that some of them practice polygamy, now because of the full faith and credit clause of the Constitution, people in New York could hop on a train, go to Utah territory, get a divorce in Utah territory, go back to New York and say, see, we're divorced. Because women could initiate divorces in Utah without cause. Whereas in many other states, they had to prove that the husband committed adultery or they had, I mean, it was very difficult. And so Utah becomes one of the nation's leaders in divorce, which is probably not what you're often thinking about when you're thinking about Utah and marriages, because women could finally obtain them. And of course, that is a, that is a safeguard against the potential and excesses of plural marriage, right?
Gerrit If a woman enters a marriage and she's not happy in it, plural or monogamous, she had the right and the ability to leave. And they did. They, there were many divorces that happened as a result of people being in unhappy marriages. At any rate, Booth provides us that information. And something that is not in the first documents volume or the second volume, where this revelation would have been, this purported revelation that Phelps records, is information that might have had a mitigating factor on how it was treated. Probably not, because it's still just manufactured language, right? It's him saying, I didn't have a pen at the time, but 30 years later, I got this. That is another source that didn't actually become available until much later in the project. And that is the Council of Fifty Minutes. The Council of Fifty is this organization, again, we've talked about it on previous episodes.
Gerrit We talk about it a little bit with Joseph Smith's presidential campaign, but it's this organization that Joseph creates shortly before the end of his life with two purposes to help on the short term with the presidential campaign, but the long-term goal of seeking out, finding the place where the saints are gonna go to when they leave the United States, and they're building the kingdom of God on earth, the actual, the kingdom, right? They're supposed to, members of that are supposed to write the constitution for the kingdom that they plan to create, that Jesus will take possession of when he comes to return. Well, the February 1845 minutes of the Council of Fifty contain a discussion which is important for our analysis of this document. That discussion is surrounding a man by the name of James Emmett. Now, Emmett is someone who has left Nauvoo.
Gerrit So, look, the church is planning to leave. They don't know yet where they're going. We're going to Texas. They're still negotiating with Texas. Are we going to Mexico? There's a lot of favor that looks like they're gonna go to Mexico. But James Emmett has taken some people from Nauvoo and himself set out with them. And justified himself on the basis of, you know, Joseph told me before, and Emmett was a member of the Council of Fifty, Joseph told me before he died that I could head west with a group of people. And at first there is, you know, a willingness to say, well, you know, we can let him go, but then, you know, there are other people from Nauvoo that kind of start to follow him. And it starts to become a question of, is this kind of, is Emmett leading people into an offshoot away from the church? Is this about to become an apostasy? And so they're trying to figure out how to call him back. Well, you know, people have tried to counsel with him. And Emmett is like, you know, I'm doing what Joseph told me to do, and I'm going to follow whatever, whatever, you know, Joseph has to say.
Gerrit Part of what Emmett is claiming is that because Joseph had said that the gospel needed to be, you know, taken now to the house of Israel, that needed to be taken to the Native Americans, that Emmett's saying, yeah, I came out here, I'm going to establish something that, so I'm among the Indians so that I can preach to them. So Emma Salimon is going to talk about this. So is Samuel Bentz. Samuel Bentz is going to say, you know, he's asking, you know, Emmett, why are you doing this? And Emmett said that this was his mission given to him before Joseph's death, and that the Twelve had nothing to do with it. Now you can kind of see the reason why the Twelve is like, eh, okay, let's dial it back. There are actually several people who make this claim. If Joseph told me to do something before he died, well, the Twelve can't now turn around and say, you know, just kidding, right? You can see why that might be a problem because one of the great apostates of this era is James Strang, and what's he claiming? Oh yeah, Joseph sent me a letter right before he died that said, hey, by the way, if anything happens to me, you're the new prophet, right?
Gerrit So this is a, it might have touched a nerve here, Emmett, where he's like, I don't care what you say, Joseph said that I could. In the end, let me tell you how that story all ends. In the end, they decide to write instead of, they really do, they want Emmett to come back into fellowship. So they decide to craft a very kind letter saying, hey, we understand that you're trying to do what you think Joseph told you to do, but we need you to follow counsel. And it actually works, and Emmett actually returns back to the fold. So if you're wondering, hey, we got something good here, right? But let me go on with the minutes. Amos Lyman says, we had a mission to the Lamanites. Brother Joseph gave us a frank relation of the work and said, don't stop till this is accomplished. Brigham Young went on to say that Joseph wanted that we visit the Lamanites. I commit to Brother Brigham the keys of the kingdom to the Lamanites. This is apparently one of the keys that's given to the Quorum of the Twelve.
Gerrit He committed them to me, Brigham says. We visited and preached to them. They believed. We have heard a many times from them. And then Phelps interjects. And this is why it's so important for our question and our story. Phelps said, six or eight went over the boundaries of the United States to preach. Joseph went to prayer. He then commenced a revelation that Martin Harris was to marry among the Lamanites. And that I was to preach that day, et cetera. It was a long revelation, he says. He goes on to say, we have a living constitution. There is enough for every day. If we die, let us all die together. And there will be a jolly lot of spirits dancing into the next world. It won't be hell for there is no fiddles there. I mean, Phelps has a gift for a panache, you might say, that's very evident.
Gerrit So what do we have here? Now, what does this prove? These are minutes of a meeting in 1845. So one way to dismiss what Phelps claimed in his 1861 letter is to simply say, that's three decades later. And he just so happens to be bringing it up in the midst of A, the church practicing polygamy, and B, the American Civil War. And what just so happens that parts of the revelation are about polygamy and the American Civil War. How surprising it is that he just so happened to remember that. Oh yeah, this is like your friend who, you know, never wants to be wrong about anything. And, you know, there's some underdog that wins like some, you know, basketball event, football event. And they, you know, they have the audacity to say, oh yeah, I always knew that they were, you know, I'd pick them to win actually. Oh, can I see your bracket? No, no, but I'd picked them to win, right? No, you didn't. I know that you might've thought it in your head, but you didn't. But the way you want to think of it is that you did.
Gerrit But there is a little bit of confirmation here. What does Phelps remember about that revelation? That he was the one who was supposed to preach. So now it's not him in 1861 remembering that there was a revelation saying that he was supposed to preach. It's a revelation actually in 1845. Now it's only 13, 14 years later. Still not contemporary, but it suggests that at least Phelps is telling that same story. He's not just inventing it in 1861 to make himself a quote great big elder, as he might have done as Brigham Young talked about him in that 1865 conference. But he's at least telling the same story. I preached to the Lamanites because Joseph prayed and God said that I was supposed to, right? You'll notice that's not the point of the 1861 letter. That's in the letter, but what was the point of the letter? The point of the letter was to show that Joseph was prophesying of the Civil War, even earlier than he was.
Gerrit But the real point, the real point of sending it to Brigham Young is Joseph told them to practice polygamy. You'll notice that what Phelps says in 1845 has nothing to do with polygamy. He doesn't bring it up in the context of, oh yes, yes, Joseph actually commanded us all to practice it. Now, of course, there are men in this meeting practicing polygamy. In fact, William Clayton, who is writing these words down, has himself been practicing polygamy for years. Joseph is one of the people that has to help Clayton hide the fact that his second, poor old wife is pregnant, right? So I mean, his second wife, his poor wife, his second wife is pregnant. But that is not the context that Phelps provides. In fact, what is the context that he provides? It's much closer to what it is that Ezra Booth said in his gigantic rant, right?
Gerrit That there was one person commanded to marry among the Lamanites, and it was Martin Harris, who's the person that's mentioned here by Phelps. He commenced a revelation that Martin Harris was to marry among the Lamanites. It seems like that at least what Phelps is saying and with what Booth is relating from 31 is there was some kind of direction or communication or revelation from God that in some way told Martin Harris to marry a Native American woman. That he didn't, Booth tells us, it's because Harris had to go back to New York and settle his affairs first. But the context that Phelps provides for the exact same thing is very different in 1861, you know, 16 years later. Instead, he's now remembering this revelation. Now, he's always remembering that he himself is supposed to speak.
Gerrit That's important. That's always there. But instead of remembering this as a revelation just to Martin Harris to marry among the Native Americans, he's now claiming that all of them were commanded to marry them. Well, he isn't saying that. Why isn't he saying that in his 1845 account? Because the whole conversation in this account is that Joseph commanded them to go preach to the Native Americans. And in fact, Phelps is adding on, yes, six or eight of us went over the boundary of the US to preach to them. And Martin Harris was commanded to marry. So what seems most likely, I would say, from my, look, this is my humble historical opinion. That is, I think that there was some kind of communication from God that both Ezra Booth and Phelps remember. That it primarily involved Martin Harris marrying among the American Indians.
Gerrit And that Phelps later, in an attempt to justify polygamy and in an attempt to demonstrate just how great Joseph was, argued that in fact, the revelation was much more than that. Now, you know, the $5 million question, did Phelps really have a conversation with Joseph in which Joseph said, oh, well, the reason why you can do that is because, you know, you are all supposed to marry them. And even though you didn't ask me this question for three years, which makes me question you, and your own marital status there, Phelps, is, oh, because you were going to practice polygamy. That's a much harder thing to believe. Now, maybe Phelps did have a conversation at some point. It seems unlikely, or at the very least, maybe the question wasn't about Phelps himself, but about Martin Harris.
Gerrit You know, you commanded Martin Harris to marry. How is it that Martin could marry if he was already married to someone else? Well, Joseph is going to teach in plural marriage that people who were legally married to someone else could be sealed to someone else. That happens several times. I don't know whether that conversation existed. I will say it's a highly problematic document. That there was some kind of information delivered by Joseph, I think you can probably say that. Clearly, Phelps, given our Council of Fifty minutes and given Ezra Booth, is not just manufacturing something out of total whole cloth. But as I said at the outset, and you don't remember because we were talking about our professor for 20 minutes, the fact that Phelps is the only source of the text of the revelation and also the context of why it was given and what it meant is highly problematic.
Gerrit And it's even more problematic because now we have a shifting account of what that revelation meant. It's Phelps who told us that the revelation was just to Martin Harris to marry. And then it's Phelps who tells us 16 years later that actually it was to all of the men that they were all supposed to do it. And then the other thing shooting off of that, oh, that had anything to do with, you know, redeeming the Lamanites and causing them to become pure and delightful. That is all later. It's not in any of the earlier discussions. That Joseph might have said, you know, if we intermarry among the Native Americans, then we are legal residents of the tribal lands and we can preach to them. That's entirely possible. Maybe that's what Martin Harris' job was to do. He would marry, he'd move among the tribal lands. And then that would allow him access to preach the gospel. In any event, they aren't really ever able to carry out any of these things into practice because by mid 1833, the Saints are driven out of Jackson County and those tribes that are just across the river, they're now no longer right next to them.
Gerrit So I think this is a good, it's a good example of how there can be partial truths and sources. Is it possible that the Revelation had something to do with everything Phelps later said that it did? Sure, it's always possible. Is it likely? No. What's most likely is that the Revelation was about what Ezra Booth said it was about and that what Phelps said it was about in 1845, rather than his later clouded by both circumstance of the time and memory, his later reminiscence and his attempt to recreate the words which he himself said are not word for word. So thank you for joining us on this podcast. We'll try to come up with other scintillating topics, so please keep sending your emails in. And we really appreciate all the kind thoughts and words everyone has to say.
Gerrit Thank you very much.
Intro Thank you for listening to the Standard of Truth podcast hosted by historian Dr. Gerrit Dirkmaat. If you know anybody that could benefit from the material in this episode, please share it with them. And for more resources, visit Standard of truth.com. Until next time.

Quote board

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I just say context and I walk away.

GerritBanter

I didn't have pen and paper to write it down, but I got your pen and paper in my mind.

GerritBanter

That's what I wanted Joseph to say, because I clearly am not Joseph Smith.

GerritBanter

Yes, he had a bad time. Like most of us have had a bad time, but he becomes a very faithful member.

GerritInsight

it is amazing how much less, you know, pietistic you can feel as you're standing at David Whitmer's grave. And it's 108 degrees.

GerritBanter

Only in Missouri could you pull up to a gas station to buy the greatest barbecue you've ever tasted.

GerritBanter

Well, I once had a bad experience with sushi in Las Cruces, New Mexico, usually known world over for their sushi.

RichardBanter

So I think this is a good, it's a good example of how there can be partial truths and sources.

GerritInsight

More from this episode

Claim checkThings people say, and what the episode shows.

Claim check

What critics say, and what the episode found
Phelps's 1861 letter proves Joseph commanded the first elders to practice plural marriage in 1831.
Utah's 19th-century marriage laws were harsh on women.
Take it to classReady to use in a lesson or a talk.

Take it to class

Ready to copy into a lesson or a text

When Phelps, who had betrayed him, begged to come back, Joseph answered at once: "Friends at first, are friends again at last."

Phelps told one version in 1845 (Martin Harris was to marry among the Lamanites) and a bigger one in 1861; when a story grows over time, trust the earlier telling.

A source can hold partial truths: there was likely some real direction from Joseph in 1831, even if later memory added to it.

In the 1800s divorce was nearly impossible for most women, which explains many marriages and remarriages that look strange to us today.

Banter binThe funniest moments in this episode.

Banter bin

The running jokes, for people who skip ahead
Polygamy, Not ReallyRichard's favorite episode title, next to Gerrit's "Joseph Smith, a Fun Guy" (0:39, 0:49).
Episodes promised, never madePolygamy in season 38 and Phelps's apostasy in season 39: "We'll never do it" (3:02, 6:07).
Ari and MissouriThe hosts may never live down Ari's criticism of how they pronounce Missouri (6:09).
The bait-and-tackle shopPhelps as the old man telling everyone he caught the first bass in the lake (21:09, 21:23).
Poorly indexed on purposeSo you'll download every episode looking for the one you want (23:53).
Tour pitch: 108 degreesSee the spot that made Ezra Booth apostatize; it's not always 108 degrees (26:29, 26:38).
Gas station barbecue and Las Cruces sushiKansas City's best barbecue is at a gas station; Las Cruces is not known for sushi (26:44, 27:09).
We don't talk about BrunoGerrit's way of not talking about the Parley Pratt story (36:47).
I always picked them to winPhelps remembering the Civil War prophecy is like the friend who "picked" the upset but has no bracket (47:30).
The Phebe Draper Palmer Brown MailbagSend Gerrit and Richard your question.

The Phebe Draper Palmer Brown Mailbag

Your question could be next week’s episode
Questions from Litners drive a lot of episodes. Send yours. If it makes the show, Richard reads it on air.
General ConferenceGeneral Conference talks that cite a scripture read in this episode.

In General Conference

Talks from the latest General Conference that cite a scripture this episode reads or names on air
October 2026 General Conference · cites D&C 132Come to the Lord in His Holy HouseElder Gerrit W. GongElder Gong lays out three doctrinal foundations for temple worship: eternal families, moral agency, and the Holy Spirit of Promise, which makes honored covenants binding.October 2026 General Conference · cites D&C 132Sealed by the Holy Spirit of PromiseElder David A. BednarElder Bednar, using the image of a damaged passport rejected at a border, teaches that ordinances and covenants are our credentials for returning to God, and that their integrity must be maintained through ongoing faithfulness, ratified over time by the Holy Spirit of Promise.

Summaries, themes and lessons for every talk are on What Did They Say?

Go deeperWhere to read more.

Go deeper

Deep dives the episode points toward
Read W. W. Phelps's 1840 letter asking forgiveness and Joseph's reply (9:38).
Read Ezra Booth's 1831 letters and compare them with other records of the Lamanite mission (28:34).
The James Emmett story in the Council of Fifty minutes and the kind letter that brought him back (42:17).
Divorce in 19th-century America and in early Utah Territory (39:01).
SOT Litner · S2E29.