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DOI: 10.7330/9780874219173.c03 3 Scandal and Resistance, 1842 Though the innovations of 1842 eventually helped implement polygamy into the belief system of Mormonism, this was not necessarily obvious to most people. The innovations could have also been part of the narrative in a monogamous community. In truth, making theological and theoretical changes was a far less onerous undertaking than effecting a monumental social change in what the population at large regarded as the institution of marriage. Since the very mention of polygamy raised a public outcry, Joseph Smith was faced with the problem of convincing people that polygamy was right without admitting publicly that he supported it.1 He could not hope to persuade all of his thousands of followers one at a time, especially since powerful people in the community were strongly opposed to polygamy, particularly his wife, Emma Smith.2 In essence, what unfolded after the heady innovations in spring 1842 was a strange debate over whether the Mormon theological narrative would be monogamous or polygamous. One side had moral clarity but did not understand the parameters of the debate, and the other side was obliged to publicly claim to endorse that moral clarity while secretly lobbying for an opposite position.3 Both sides, however, condemned seduction outside of marriage, even 1 Van Wagoner, Mormon Polygamy, 50–51. Van Wagoner argues that the John C. Bennett scandal in 1842 prevented Joseph Smith from introducing polygamy openly, as the public reaction to a pamphlet, The Peace Maker, printed in Nauvoo in 1842, showed. Certainly the Bennett accusations made public introduction more difficult, since, once accusations had been made, public preaching in favor of polygamy would look like an effort to justify bad behavior. Nevertheless, even without Bennett’s disclosures, I would argue that the Nauvoo population was not prepared to accept polygamy in 1842 because it had not yet worked its way into the theological narrative, and the idea was too new and shocking. 2 Ibid., 64. 3 Emma Smith did not learn about polygamy with any certainly until February 1843, and many of the highest-level leaders of the church did not become aware of polygamy until even later than this. Many defended Joseph Smith vehemently against accusations of polygamy, because of the very moral clarity that caused them to reject polygamy once they Scandal and Resistance, 1842 103 while some in the community were using secret polygamy as an excuse for seduction, which further muddied the waters.4 In 1842, the outcome of the debate was far from certain. In spring and summer 1842, it is likely that Joseph Smith hoped to do three things to integrate polygamous theology and practice: to introduce polygamy openly, to initiate the endowment among a select group of men and women, and to bring other men into polygamy. Had this agenda succeeded, it would have gone far in making polygamy the favored form of marriage in Mormon life. He partially realized his hopes, but some obstacles seriously hampered his efforts. First, attempts to introduce polygamy heightened community suspicion and opposition. Second, Relief Society meetings became a place where Emma Smith heartily encouraged (although with minimal success) openness about clandestine Nauvoo marital and sexual activities. Though Emma presumably did not know about her husband’s advocacy of and involvement with polygamy, she knew something strange was going on in Nauvoo and did her best to combat it. Emma could learn nothing for certain, and her ignorance hampered her efforts to combat polygamy per se, but nevertheless her calls for openness in the Relief Society led to confessions and accusations of other sexual misdeeds that deeply polarized the city. John C. Bennett was at the center of many of the accusations, which precipitated a crisis in April that very likely prompted Smith to scale back his plans for introducing the endowment, but which also diverted public attention from polygamy by focusing on seductions of women outside of any form of marriage.5 Joseph Smith faced another problem that fall that was unrelated to polygamy , but nevertheless affected its implementation. In May 1842, Orrin Porter Rockwell, Joseph Smith’s sometime bodyguard, returned to Nauvoo after an absence of several months to inform the city that Governor Boggs of Missouri had been shot.6 At first word came that Boggs had died, but then news arrived that he had survived the attempt. Suspicions that Joseph Smith had played a learned the truth. Before the truth was revealed, however, a lack of certainty about...

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