175 years ago today - Mar 9, 1844

General Relief-Society president Emma Smith preaches to the Relief Society:"it was high time for Mothers to watch over their Daughters & exhort them to keep the path of Virtue" She then asks "by vote, who would be willing to receive the principles of Virtue, keep the commandments of God and uphold the Prestss [Priestess?] in puting <down> iniquity." In a second meeting the same day she asks "all to take heed to their ways; and follow the teachings of Brother Joseph; and when he Preaches against Vice to take heed to it; and said, he meant what he said." Joseph's personal secretary, William Clayton said Joseph "was weeping and seemed very sorrowful."

Within a week the Relief Society meetings are discontinued as it is felt that Emma is preaching coded messages against her husband's secret practice of plural marriage. John Taylor later explained: "the meetings were discontinued" because "Emma Smith the Pres[ident] taught the sisters that the principle of plural marriage . . . was not of God."