If polygamy is the only thing among the Utah "Mormons" that comes in contact with the law of the land, why was Joseph Smith's father and uncle so hated and persecuted, even from the time that the first revelation was given until they were murdered in Carthage jail? For Joseph Smith's son to say that "the introduction of polygamy was a shameless trick of wicked men who were obliged to find an excuse to cover up their crimes," is throwing an awful stigma on his own name and that of his father; for hundreds of the old Saints in Utah and even some who have since denied the faith know that he both taught and practiced it, and in the face of all the proofs that can be gathered, it is worse than folly for his son to try to palm this, as well as other things, off as a trick of Brigham Young and the Utah "Mormons." Brigham was no more the author of plural marriage than was Mr. Spaulding the author of the Book of Mormon; and Helen Mar Whitney still declares that Joseph Smith's own words condemn him as an uninspired man, and if his father had been like him, he would probably have told the angel "to go to some one else, for he would not preach the doctrines" of the Church.

The first copy of the revelation upon celestial marriage was in Bishop N. K. Whitney's possession, when Emma Smith demanded it; but he was too much of a practical and businesslike man to neglect to retain an exact copy of the original, which she destroyed as soon as it came into her possession. She thought that this act would put an end to the practice, but she was disappointed in her wicked idea.

In the winter of 1847, when settled at Winter Quarters, President Brigham Young, never having had the revelation, asked the Bishop for this copy, which was the only one in existence after he came in possession of it. Previous to letting the President have it, the Bishop got his son, H. K. Whitney—my husband—to copy it for him. The day and circumstance I distinctly remember, for he told me that his father locked him in his store while he wrote it, in order that no one should disturb him.