Orson Pratt

“ But we ask what morals of society does it corrupt? Morality is only another name for virtue, goodness, righteousness. Immorality is its opposite—that is, viciousness, evil, unrighteousness. To be moral is to be innocent of crime; to be immoral is to be guilty of crime. It can neither be shown from reason nor the word of God, that plurality is criminal, and hence it cannot be immoral, and therefore the morals of society are not in the least endangered by its practice. On the contrary, plurality is a great and powerful antidote against immorality. ”

“ Had they the liberty which four-fifths of the other nations have, and which the Bible and our National Constitution guarantee, they could marry a plurality of wives, and be compelled to support them and their children, instead of having their secret mistresses, and turning them away when they get tired of them. Which, think you, a woman would prefer? Would she rather live in adultery with a man, subject, at any moment, to be turned away, penniless and unprotected, or to be lawfully united with him in honourable wedlock? ”

“ Confidence being retained, the elements of happiness are retained. Jealousies, arising from unvirtuous conduct, are mingled with a consciousness of the guilt of the individual; while those arising from the other cause have no such distressing reflections; the first is cruel as the grave, gnawing, like the worm that never dies, at the very heartstrings of enjoyment and peace, while the latter is only a partial, transitory evil which is speedily dissipated by the kindness and attention of the husband. ”

“ How many hundreds of thousands of women there are who in consequence of having no opportunities of marriage, yield themselves up to a life of profligacy, and become notoriously immoral and unvirtuous. If these same females had not been deprived of the rights which all should enjoy under our glorious Constitution they might have united themselves to some virtuous, good men, and been happy as their second or third wives, and thus been saved from the temptations and evils into which they have fallen. ”

“ They must follow the customs of their fathers in some respect, however inconsistent they may be. How true is the sentiment that a people who have been long in bondage, or under the influence of erroneous traditions, can only free themselves by degrees. We see this verified in the American nation: they have broken the yoke of tyranny and oppression, and have planted the germs of liberty upon their soil; they call themselves free, but they are only free in part. ”

“ Let our State laws permit plurality, and it will seldom be the case that a female will yield to prostitution, preferring lawful marriage to a life of degradation and suffering. The army of degraded females, receiving little or no accession to their numbers, would soon be diminished and eventually destroyed by their own folly and wickedness, and thus, the causes of temptation having, in a great degree, ceased, young men would walk in a more healthy atmosphere, and not be constantly allured, as they are now, from the paths of virtue. ”

“ Yes, free from religious intolerance! free from all nations under heaven! free to enjoy all blessings, unmolested, which God has ordained for man, unless you, yourselves, prefer laws tending to bondage, rather than liberty! ”

“ If no public female prostitutes existed, or if they rarely could be found, the natural consequences would be, that young men, instead of abandoning themselves to prostitution, would seek to unite themselves in honorable marriage with the partners of their choice. Plurality, therefore, not only would be a preventative against female prostitution, but would diminish the causes or means of prostitution on the part of the males. Young men abandon themselves to vice and immorality in proportion to the amount of temptation and evil influences with which they are surrounded. ”

“ A woman, under these circumstances is divested of no rights only what she has voluntarily surrendered. She prefers rather to be united with such a man, though she may share but a measure of his attention, than to live a life of celibacy, or be obliged to marry one whom she loves less. Therefore the objection against plurality upon this ground is wholly without foundation.
Another objection is urged against plurality by pretending that it corrupts the morals of society, and, therefore, it is argued that it should be considered a crime, and be prohibited by law. ”

“ It is said that plurality destroys the rights of the first wife, and, therefore, should not be tolerate by law. This depends upon circumstances. If a man has been foolish enough to make a contract with a woman previous to their marriage, that he will never marry another while she lives, then it would be taking away her rights to violate that contract without her consent. Such a man, under such a contract, should not be permitted by the laws of the States to break his agreement, for in so doing, he would take away the rights which he has guaranteed to her. ”

“ We have in these arguments set forth what should be tolerated in regard to plurality, so far as the genius of our government and our legislative enactments are concerned. But when we consider marriage in relation to the divine government of Heaven, we say, as we have already expressed ourselves, that no man in this nation, nor any other, has a divine right to marry even one wife, much less a plurality, until he becomes righteous enough to bring up his children according to the law of Heaven ”

“ If a husband violate the laws of virtue, by unlawful connexions, the wife loses confidence in him; and when confidence is gone, peace and quietness are gone, and the foundation of happiness is destroyed in the family. ”

“ And again; a man may bring poverty and distress upon himself and family by unwisely employing mechanics, clerks, day labourers, &c. Would any of the States or Territories consider this criminal? Would they enact laws to prohibit the hiring of mechanics and labourers, because, in some instances, it reduces to poverty? Another instance; many persons by marrying one wife reduce themselves from a state of wealth to abject poverty, yet no State would, for such a reason, denounce the marriage of one wife as criminal, and prohibit it by law. ”

“ If the sons of American freedom are to be prohibited from certain practices which they may consider perfectly innocent, they wish to be informed wherein those practices are criminal: they do not wish to be brought into bondage blind-folded. Neither do they wish to elect legislators to palm upon them the impositions of Popery, because they are customary among other nations. We wish some of our wise statesmen, or some other competent persons, would take up the subject of plurality and show wherein it is immoral, or unscriptural, or criminal. ”

“ We might multiply any amount of instances where poverty and distress are brought upon families by the practice of things which are perfectly justifiable by the law. Because a plurality of wives may, in some instances, reduce a family to poverty, is no reason, therefore, why it should be prohibited by law, any more than thousands of other practices which may produce the same results. But in the most of cases, the plurality system would have a contrary tendency ”

“ What an immense amount of immorality and consequent suffering would have been prevented, had the State governments not been influenced by the corrupt traditions of Apostate Christianity in prohibiting plurality, and denouncing it criminal! But this order of things would not only prevent females from becoming public prostitutes, but would promote virtue among the males. Because of the vast numbers of unvirtuous females with which the nations are cursed, many young men neglect marriage, and seek to gratify their sexual propensities by unlawful and sinful connections. ”

“ Upon this subject, the people want arguments, not denunciations; reason, not sophistry; evidence, not popular traditions or customs; they want a clear, lucid demonstration that the practice is evil. If there are no persons competent to the task, they will signify it, by continuing to follow the old custom of denunciation, or at least, by their silence.
The States should not only permit plurality, but enact wise and judicious laws regulating the same. The husband should be compelled by law to provide for his different wives and children, the same as if he had but one. ”

“ This kind of jealousies works far greater evils in society, than what the other kind can possibly do. If the great object be to put a stop by law to the evils arising from jealousies, let laws be enacted, requiring man to have a plurality of wives, or else none at all; prohibit the one wife practice, and you will accomplish much more than you do by prohibiting plurality. ”

“ But we say, let no prohibitory laws be passed in regard to how many wives a man may or may not have; leave every man free in this respect, and, in a very few years, you would see a great reformation in the morals of the country; you would see not one tenth part of the prostitution that is seen now; you would see females fulfilling the noble purpose of their creation, instead of being abandoned prostitutes, houseless, homeless, and childless, going down to the graves in wretchedness and misery, uncared for and unlamented. ”

“ Each wife knows that the other wives are as much entitled to the attention of the husband as she herself; she knows that such attentions are not criminal, therefore, she does not lose confidence in him ”

“ If, instead of abolishing plurality, the States would regulate the same under good and wholesome laws, they would make it far better for the female portion of the community; and thus in time would redeem the nation from the terrible evils of prostitution with which it is now cursed. ”

“ But if a man marry a woman without binding himself by such a contract, or if he marry her with an understanding that he can marry others when he things proper so to do, then there are no rights of the first wife taken away, nor no contracts broken. ”

“ A union of interest and action is admitted by all to be more powerful in its results, than disunion. A numerous family of children are calculated to accumulate wealth, or to accomplish any other object, by their united energy, more than a small family. ”

“ Where pure affection exists, there let them consummate that affection by freely uniting themselves in the sacred bonds of matrimony with the man whom they love, and who loves them sufficiently to make them the partners of his bosom for life. ”

“ The law should consider him bound for life to each of his wives, the same as if he had married but one; he should not be considered divorced from either, only through due course of law; and adultery should be the only crime, as our Saviour has said, for which a man should be justified in putting away either of his wives. ”

“ Plurality would also diminish greatly the temp- tations which beset the paths of married men, as well as those who are young; they would no longer be under the temptation to keep a mistress secretly, and to break the marriage covenant, and thus sin against their wives and against God. ”

“ This kind of jealousy is not the result of plurality, but a result of partiality, or supposed partiality if plurality should be prohibited on account jealousies which may arise, monogamy or the one wife system should be prohibited on account of the still greater jealousies which may arise for fear the husband may keep his secret mistresses, as many thousands do. ”

“ Because the European nations, from whom they originate, have been bound down under these illiberal institutions, and have had a yoke placed upon their necks by priestcraft, and by a union of the ecclesiastical with the civil powers, our fathers could not all at once free themselves from these traditionary superstitions. ”

“ A large number, bound together by the strong ties of family affection, and taking hold of business in a united capacity, will be able, most frequently, to accomplish more than the same number of individuals acting separately, and governed only by individual interest. ”

“ If they constitute the majority of the population, they can elect such individuals as they see proper to the legislative departments: this is not oppression, but is precisely according to the practice of all the other Territorial and State governments. ”

“ Each receives all the attention which she expected to receive, when she entered into the matrimonial contract. If jealousies should arise, they would be of an entirely different nature from those occasioned by unlawful steps taken by a husband. ”