Although the 1843 revelation on the "new and
everlasting covenant of marriage" indicates that the revelation was in
answer to Joseph Smith's inquiry about biblical polygamy, the lengthy
discussion about marriage and exaltation (D&C 132:19-20) was in a
monogamous context: "if a man marry a wife by my word, which is my law,
and by the new and everlasting covenant. . . ." Despite defensiveness
about the importance of plural marriage, a number of Church leaders gave their
definite (or sometimes grudging) affirmation that a monogamist who was true to
the sealing covenants with his single wife could be exalted if he believed in
the principle of plurality of wives, even though the monogamist's exaltation
would not be as "great," or "numerous," or
"full," or "high" as that of the exalted polygamist: Amasa
M. Lyman in 1863 (JD 10:186), Brigham Young in 1866 (JD 11:268-69), Brigham
Young in 1870 (Minutes of Salt Lake School of the Prophets, 12 Feb., 2 July
1870, LDS Church Archives), Brigham Young in 1871 (Joseph F. Smith, Diary, 15
July 1871, and Wilford Woodruff, Diary, 24 Sept. 1871, LDS Church Archives),
Wilford Woodruff and John Taylor in 1873 (Minutes of Salt Lake School of the
Prophets, 10 Feb. 1873), Orson Pratt in 1873 (JD.16:184), Charles C. Rich in
1878 (JD 19:253), Joseph F. Smith in 1878 (JD 20:28, 30-31), George Q. Cannon
in 1880 (JD 22:124), and George Q. Cannon in 1883 (JD 25:2). Nevertheless,
Church authorities in the nineteenth century could not simply portray plural
marriage as superfluous, in view of the difficulties its practice was causing
for individuals and for the Church itself. Therefore, the same Church
authorities quoted above also stated that practicing plural marriage was
necessary for exaltation: Orson Pratt in 1852 (JD 1:54), Brigham Young in 1866
(JD 11:268-69), 1870 (Joseph F. Smith, Diary, 12 Feb. 1870), and 1873 (JD 16:
166, and Woodruff, Diary, 31 Aug. 1873), and George Q. Cannon in 1883 (JD
24:146). I have not included here any statements where the speaker may have
been referring to sealing for time and eternity generally, rather than to
plural marriage in particular. The ambiguity of the question is perhaps best
indicated by Brigham Young's sermon on 19 August 1866 in which he began by
saying that if monogamist Mormons were "polygamists at least in your
faith" they would be exalted, but concluded by saying, "The only men
who become Gods, even the Sons of God are those who enter into polygamy."
JD 11:268-69. More than a year following the 1890 Manifesto, the First
Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve Apostles stated: "We formerly taught
our people that polygamy, or celestial marriage, as commanded by God through
Joseph Smith, was right; that it was a necessity to man's highest exaltation in
the life to come." Statement on 19 December 1891 in Clark, Messages of
the First Presidency 3:230. (D. Michael Quinn, “LDS
Church Authority and New Plural Marriages, 1890-1904,“
Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought 18, no. 1 [1985]: 24 n. 65)
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