It is also necessary that the first wife be consulted. If she refuses her consent, however, the lover husband may take an appeal to the President; and unless the wife can give to the President satisfactory reasons why her consent is withheld, the husband may proceed to introduce another wife into the family, against her will. The plan is, either to divorce the first wife, and damn her eternally, or to torment her daily, until, with a broken heart and a crushed spirit, she goes to the altar, and there gives another to her husband. Thus the semblance of her approbation is obtained.
The exquisite cruelty of this abominable practice will appear most vividly from the marriage ceremony.
"When the day set apart for the solemnization of the marriage ceremony has arrived, the bridegroom and the wife, and also the bride, together with their relations, and such other guests as may be invited, assemble at the place which they have appointed. The scribe then proceeds to take the names, ages, native towns, counties, States, and countries of the parties to be married, which he carefully enters on record. The President, who is the Prophet, Seer, and Revelator over the whole church, throughout the whole world, and who alone holds the keys of authority in this solemn ordinance, calls upon the bridegroom and his wife, and the bride, to arise, which they do, fronting the President. The wife stands on the left hand of her husband, while the bride stands on her left. The President then puts this question to the wife: 'Are you willing to give this woman to your husband, to be his lawful and wedded wife, for time and all eternity? If you are, you will manifest it by placing her right hand within the right hand of your husband.' The right hands of the bridegroom and the bride
being thus joined, the wife takes her husband by the left arm, as if in the attitude of walking. The President then proceeds to ask the following questions of the man: 'Do you, brother, (calling him by name) take sister (calling the bride by name) by the right hand, to receive her unto yourself, to be your lawful and wedded wife, and you to be her lawful and wedded husband, for time and for all eternity, with a covenant and promise on your part, that you fulfil all the laws, rites, and ordinances pertaining to this holy matrimony, in the new and everlasting covenant,—doing this in the presence of God, angels, and these witnesses, of your own free will and choice?' The bridegroom answers, 'Yes.' The President then puts the question to the bride: 'Do you, sister, (calling her by name) take brother (calling him by name) by the right hand, and give yourself to him to be his lawful and wedded wife, for time and for all eternity, with a covenant and promise, on your part, that you will fulfil all the laws, rites, and ordinances pertaining to this holy matrimony, in the new and everlasting covenant,—doing this in the presence of God, angels, and these witnesses, of your own free will and choice?' The bride answers, 'Yes.' The President then says: 'In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and by the authority of the Holy Priesthood, I pronounce you legally and lawfully husband and wife, for time and all eternity; and I seal upon you the blessings of the holy resurrection, with power to come forth in the morning of the first resurrection, clothed with glory, immortality, and eternal lives; and I seal upon you the blessings of thrones, and dominions, and principalities, and powers, and exaltations; together with the blessings of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; and say unto you, be fruitful and multiply, and replenish the earth, that you may have joy and rejoicing in your posterity, in the day of the Lord Jesus. All these blessings, together with all other blessings, pertaining to the new and everlasting covenant, I seal upon your heads, and enjoin your faithfulness unto the end, by the authority of the Holy Priesthood, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.'"
The scribe then enters the marriage on the records, and the parties retire. The wedding is then celebrated with a feast at the husband's house, and a "Mormon dance." The new wife is assigned a room,—if indeed the happy husband's domicil contains two rooms,—and her experience in "plurality" begins.
In well-regulated Mormon families, the first wife stands at the head of domestic concerns. She carries the keys of the storehouse, makes the purchases for the family, and deals them out to the plural wives, in much the same manner as other housekeepers do to their cooks. The husband's will is law, and from it there is no appeal, except in extreme cases, when the Bishop may be consulted.
If a husband has lost his wife by death, before he had the opportunity of attending to this holy ordinance, and securing her as his lawful wife for eternity, then it is the duty of the second wife, first, to be sealed or married to the husband, for and in the name of the deceased wife, for all eternity; and, secondly, to be married for time and eternity herself, to the same man. Thus, by this holy ordinance, both the dead and the living wife will be his in the eternal worlds. But if, previous to marriage for eternity, a woman lose her husband by death, and marry a second, and if her first husband was a good man, then it is the duty of the second husband to be married to her for eternity, not for himself, but in the name of her deceased husband, while he himself can only be married to her for time; and he is obliged to enter into a covenant to deliver her up, and all her children, to her deceased husband, in the morning of the first resurrection.
Thus, by these refinements, a religious veil, captivating to the fancy, is thrown over the institution to hide its deformity. The same distinctions are carried through all the various relations of life; hence in case a widow is married to a widower, three ceremonies are necessary, in order fully to establish the eternal relations of all the parties.
Incest is the practical result of some of the branches of this new-fangled system of sealing and marriage. It has already been shown, by the report of the Committee on Territories in the United States Senate, and the Message of Gov. Harding, that a mother and her daughters (by a former husband) all live together, as wives of the same husband.[173:A]
A still more revolting relation is sometimes maintained. It is called "heirship," and is plainly enough sanctioned by Young, as follows:—