Henry Von Wackerbarth Quotes
A doctrine was revealed that it was impossible for a woman to get to heaven except as the wife of a Mormon elder; that each elder might marry as many women as he could maintain, and that any female might be sealed to eternal life by becoming their concubine. This licentiousness, the origin of polygamy in that church, they endeavored to justify by all appeal to Abraham, Jacob and other favorites of God in former ages of the world.
Von Wackerbarth was one of the many Mormon haters of his day. His quotations have value not for the accuracy of the facts which are scant, but to indicate what much of public opinion regarding Mormons was in that day.
Henry Von Wackerbarth,* Hitorian, The Mormon War, Chicago, 1879
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
Von Wackerbarth was one of the many Mormon haters of his day. His quotations have value not for the accuracy of the facts which are scant, but to indicate what much of public opinion regarding Mormons was in that day.
This editorial was an excellent summary of the issue of Mormon polygamy where both sides are described. The Thugs were a violent religious sect in India where females were forced into marriage.
This was the decision that sanctioned anti-polygamy laws.
At the time polygamy was approved of by the Mormons. However they were pressured to accept monogamy in order to have peace with the rest of the nation. The Mormon church changed its doctrine and Mormons may only have a single wife. However, there are some dissident Mormon groups that still illegally practice polygamy.
He was the only English Pope. This was the authority that enabled English King Henry II to invade Ireland. Many historians consider it the beginning of the problems between the Ireland and England which persists to this day. See {610520}. Some scholars think that this bull was a forgery stating that the writing style was different from other bulls of Adrian IV. Opponents believe that a change in secretaries could easily have accounted for the difference.
He was the only English Pope. The act of invasion had been sanctified earlier in Adrian’s Papal Bull. See {610518}. Henry’s invasion was successful but the occupation and reform was a disaster which has ramifications to this day.
Federal officials and commissioners issued laws, directives and orders that were very unpopular with the Mormons who were in the overwhelming majority of the Utah territory. The Mormon “government” was a type of theocracy but a very popular one. The Mormons tried to test the constitutionality and legality of the Federal laws and orders before they would obey. The government position was that they should obey and then could test the laws in the courts. The Mormons eventually lost in the courts anyway, but the principle of obedience to law until it can be tested and reversed has generally been the rule of U. S. Law. However, civil disobedience in which many religions have engaged in our history argues the obverse. Eventually Taylor had to go “underground” and rule the church from exile in which state he died.
The major issue was whether Congress and the Federal Government could make laws and regulate the communities of people who had settled in the new territories. The argument that Young made was that unless a power was specifically enumerated in the Constitution as being granted to the Federal Government it was not. Most Constitutional scholars believe that there were powers implied by the enumerated powers such as the right for the Federal Government to regulate child labor or the safety of nuclear power plants which of course were never mentioned in the Constitution. At the same time anti Mormon sentiment led many to extend Federal Regulation to Mormons that had not been extended to other people. Plural marriage was one of those major value issues. The Mormons were very innovative in setting up institutions like buying cooperatives and systems for medical care and welfare, and many of these threatened the then established economic principles of many men of power and wealth. See {614881} for Brigham Young’s similar view.
Congress had passed the Edmunds Act prohibiting plural marriage. Taylor, who himself had 7 wives and 35 children, went “underground” and secretly operated the church from exile.
This quotation produces much angst among some fundamentalist Christians, Jews and Muslims for whom any concept of multiple deities is distressing as is the notion that man might aspire to become God. This and polygamy are two of the central reasons that some Christians deny that Mormonism is a Christian religion.
The use of “despotic” did not imply cruelty or even poor management of the society. The term was used to indicate that Brigham Young, the then Mormon Leader, had the powers and authority of a dictator. At the time most Americans in the East knew little about the Mormons. Ludlow was one of the early observers of Mormon society in Utah who wrote about the Mormons in popular—albeit intellectual—magazines. Ludlow regarded Mormonism as it was then practiced as incompatible with, and dangerous for, America, not because of the plural marriage, but the conflicts with the concepts of democracy and self-government. The authority that Brigham Young and the church then exercised over civil life was what distressed him and many other Americans.
This type of religious sexism is not unique to Islam. Fundamentalist Christians place women in a secondary role as do fundamentalist orthodox Jews although both allow a man to take only one wife. The Islamic scripture tells us that the Prophet allowed multiple wives only if the man had the resources to care for the wives and all the children. 4 is the maximum.
A Mormon Periodical
Young said when Utah was admitted as a state, it would then have this right
Describes the contest between President Ulysses S. Grant and the Mormons over the issue of polygamy in the 1860s
We count on Mormon assemblages to
