* Millennial Star, Vol. XV, p. 12.
There was a good deal of talk concerning a confession "about a girl," which Oliver Cowdery was reported to have said that Smith made to him. Denials of this for Cowdery appeared in the Elders' Journal of July, 1838, one man's statement ending thus, "Joseph asked if he ever said to him (Oliver) that he (Joseph) confessed to any one that he was guilty of the above crime; and Oliver, after some hesitation, answered no."
The Elders' Journal of August, 1838, contains a retraction by Parley P. Pratt of a letter he had written, in which he censured both Smith and Rigdon, "using great severity and harshness in regard to certain business transactions." In that letter Pratt confessed that "the whole scheme of speculation" in which the Mormon leaders were engaged was of the "devil," and he begged Smith to make restitution for having sold him, for $2000, three lots of land that did not cost Smith over $200.
Not only was the moral character of Smith and other individual members of the church successfully attacked at this time, but the charge was openly made that polygamy was practised and sanctioned. In the "Book of Doctrine and Covenants," published in Kirtland in 1835, Section 101 was devoted to the marriage rite. It contained this declaration: "Inasmuch as this Church of Christ has been reproached with the crime of fornication and polygamy, we declare that we believe that one man should have one wife, and one woman one husband, except in case of death, when either is at liberty to marry again." The value of such a denial is seen in the ease with which this section was blotted out by Smith's later "revelation" establishing polygamy.
An admission that even elders did practise polygamy at that time is found in a minute of a meeting of the Presidents of the Seventies, held on April 29, 1837, which made this declaration: "First, that we will have no fellowship whatever with any elder belonging to the Quorum of the Seventies, who is guilty of polygamy."*
* Messenger and Advocate, p. 511.
Again: The Elders' journal dated Far West, Missouri, 1838, contained a list of answers by Smith to certain questions which, in an earlier number, he had said were daily and hourly asked by all classes of people. Among these was the following: "Q. Do the Mormons believe in having more wives than one? A. No, not at the same time." (He condemns the plan of marrying within a few weeks or months of the death of the first wife.) The statement has been made that polygamy first suggested itself to Smith in Ohio, while he was translating the so-called "Book of Abraham" from the papyri found on the Egyptian mummies. This so-called translation required some study of the Old Testament, and it is not at all improbable that Smith's natural inclination toward such a doctrine as polygamy secured a foundation in his reading of the Old Testament license to have a plurality of wives.
For the business troubles hanging over the community, Smith and Rigdon were held especially accountable. The flock had seen the funds confided by them to the Bishop invested partly in land that was divided among some of the Mormon leaders. Smith and Rigdon were provided with a house near the Temple, and a printing-office was established there, which was under Smith's management. Naturally, when the stock and notes of the bank became valueless, its local victims held its organizers responsible for the disaster. Mother Smith gives us an illustration of the depth of this feeling. One Sunday evening, while her husband was preaching at Kirtland, when Joseph was in Cleveland "on business pertaining to the bank," the elder Smith reflected sharply upon Warren Parish, on whom the Smiths tried to place the responsibility for the bank failure. Parish, who was present, leaped forward and tried to drag the old man out of the pulpit. Smith, Sr., appealed to Oliver Cowdery for help, but Oliver retained his seat. Then the prophet's brother William sprang to his father's assistance, and carried Parish bodily out of the church. Thereupon John Boynton, who was provided with a sword cane, drew his weapon and threatened to run it through the younger Smith. "At this juncture," says Mrs. Smith, "I left the house, not only terrified at the scene, but likewise sick at heart to see the apostasy of which Joseph had prophesied was so near at hand."*
* "Biographical Sketches," p. 221.
Eliza Snow gives a slightly different version of the same outbreak, describing its wind-up as follows:—