170 years ago today - Jul 9, 1843

[Brigham Young] --9-- Left St. Louis at half-past 9 a.m., for Cincinnati, on the steamer Lancet, and had conversation with various gentlemen who were inquiring after "Mormonism," one of whom, a professor in a Southern university, said, "I have heard and read much of your people, and of Joseph Smith, but I have no confidence in newspaper stories, and, if it would be agreeable, I would like to ask a few questions." I told him I would answer any questions he might propose, so far as I was able.

He then asked me if Joseph Smith had more wives than one. I told him I would admit he had. In order to explain the principle, I asked the gentleman if he believed the Bible, and was a believer in the resurrection. He said he was a believer in the Old and New Testament and in the resurrection.

I then asked him if he believed parents and children, husbands and wives would recognize each other in the resurrection. He said he did.

Also, if parents and children would have the same filial feeling towards each other which they have here; and he said he believed they would, and that their affections would be more acute than they were in this life.

I then said, "We see in this life, that amongst Christians, ministers and all classes of men, a man will marry a wife, and have children by her; she dies, and he marries another, and then another, until men have had as many as six wives, and each of them bear children. This is considered all right by the Christian world, inasmuch as a man has but one at a time. Now, in the resurrection this man and all his wives and children are raised from the dead; what will be done with those women and children, and who will they belong to? and if the man is to have but one, which one in the lot shall he have?"

The professor replied, he never thought of the question in this light before, and said he did not believe those women and children would belong to any but those they belonged to in this life.

"Very well," said I, "you consider that to be a pure, holy place in the presence of God, angels, and celestial beings; would the Lord permit a thing to exist in his presence in heaven which is evil? And if it is right for a man to have several wives and children in heaven at the same time, is it not an inconsistent doctrine that a man should have several wives, and children by those wives at the same time, here in this life, as was the case with Abraham and many of the old Prophets? Or is it any more sinful to have several wives at a time than at different times ?"

He answered, "I cannot see that it would be any more inconsistent to have more wives in this life than in the next, or to have five wives at one time than at five different times. I feel to acknowledge it is a correct principle and a Bible doctrine, and I cannot see anything inconsistent in it."

After conversing with him upon the organization of the Church, the gospel, and order of the priesthood, he remarked that such an organization possessed within itself all the elements of permanent success and prosperity, and the system of such a government could not be overthrown.

[Source: Manuscript History of Brigham Young, 1801-1844, ed. Elden Jay Watson (Salt Lake City: Smith Secretarial Service, 1968).]