A third tactic Smith used was to allow a very short time, or place a time limit on how long the woman had to respond to his proposal. Brigham Young informed Martha Brotherton the very day he proposed to her that, "Joseph will marry us to-day." She stalled for time and managed to leave the room. The following day Young approached Martha again-pressing her for an answer.[61] After several failures with Lucy Walker, Smith told her: "I will give you untill to-morrow to decide."[62] And after his proposal of marriage to Helen Mar Kimball, she said, "He left me to reflect upon it for the next twenty-four hours."[63]

A fourth method used by Smith was-the angel will slay me with a sword if you don't accept my proposal. Smith sent a message in October 1841 to Zina Huntingon Jacobs, declaring that an angel with a drawn sword had stood over him, telling him that if he did not establish polygamy-he would lose "his position and his life." Faced with such a responsibility, Zina finally acquiesced.[64] Mary Rollins Lightner, also a married woman, said Smith used the same approach on her in February 1842. He informed Mary, "The angel came to me three times between the year of '34 and '42 and said I was to obey that principle or he would [s]lay me."[65] Clearly, Joseph Smith has little regard for the tenth commandment-"Thou shalt not covet they neighbour's wife" (Exodus 20:17).

A fifth approach was to use his office and position as prophet to get the woman to accept his offer. Lucy Walker said, "He asked me if I believed him to be a Prophet," and when Lucy said yes, Smith informed her that God had instructed him to take another wife, "and you are the woman."[66] Mary Rollins Lightner said that, "Joseph said I was his before I came here and he said all the Devils in hell should never get me from him."[67] Smith told Emily Partridge on her nineteenth birthday, "that the Lord had given me to him."[68] He informed Benjamin F. Johnson that God had required him to take more wives, so "he had Come now to ask me for my Sister Almera."[69] Smith, in a revelation for Marinda Nancy Johnson Hyde said, "Hearken to the counsel of my servant Joseph in all things whatsoever he shall teach unto her." They married soon after.[70] He told Zina Huntington shortly after her marriage to Henry Jacobs that, "the Lord had made it known to him she was to be his celestial wife."[71]

Other approaches Smith typically used included telling a woman to pray about his offer, usually in conjunction with several other strategies. He could also be very persistent in his quest-sometimes asking the woman two or three times. He also often used third parties to persuade women to say yes. And from time to time, he used all of his stratagems. For example, he asked Joseph Jackson for help in winning over Jane Law in January of 1844, stating that Smith: "Informed me he had been endeavoring for some two months, to get Mrs. William Law for a spiritual wife. He said that he had used every argument in his power to convince her of the correctness of his doctrine, but could not succeed."[72] William Law was released as a member of the First Presidency on January 8, 1844, largely because of Smith's immoral proposals to Jane and because William rejected his doctrine.

When a woman turned him down and then went public with the details of his proposal, Smith and the church leadership's policy was to slander the reputation of the woman or man who made it public. When Martha Brotherton published her story in the St. Louis Bulletin, on July 15, 1842, the [Nauvoo] Wasp on August 27, 1842 denied such a marriage proposal was made, and branded Martha a "mean harlot."[73] When Nancy Rigdon turned down Smith's offer on April 9, 1842 and publically opposed him, Smith's good friend Stephen Markham swore out a bogus affidavit on August 1842, saying that Nancy was "guilty of unlawful and illicit intercourse." And Orson Hyde in a speech in Nauvoo on April 27, 1845 said that Nancy's conduct was "notorious in this city," little better than "a public pros***ute."[74] The same treatment was given to Sarah Pratt when her rejected proposal of Smith was made public. Sarah said that, "If any woman, like me, opposed his wishes, he used to say: 'Be silent, or I shall ruin your character. My character must be sustained in the interests of the church'.. In his endeavors to ruin my character, Joseph went so far as to publish [an] extra-sheet containing affidavits against my reputation."[75] In a public speech at Nauvoo on July 14, 1842, of which several persons confirmed, Smith attacked the character of Sarah Pratt, by calling her a "***** [*****] from her Mother's breast."[76] And two weeks after Melissa Schindle published her affidavit-as Smith had vowed, the July 27, 1842 extra edition of the Wasp called her, "A harlot."

When Jane Law turned down Smith's proposal, William, her husband and recently released member of the First Presidency of the Church, made it public in early 1844. Surprisingly, when William and Jane Law were excommunicated on April 18, 1844, no accusations of adultery were mentioned. But after William filed a law suit in Carthage, Illinois on May 24, 1844 against Smith for living with Maria Lawrence "in an open state of adultery," Smith, to blunt his influence, immediately said Law was an "Adulterous person."[77] And ten days after the Nauvoo Expositor published Smith's polygamous activities on June 7, 1844, the seven member publishing staff (including William Law) was called by the Nauvoo Neighbor-"covenant breakers. with their wives!!"[78] Clearly, Joseph Smith has little regard for the eighth Commandment-"Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour" (Exodus 20:16).

As early as 1831, Smith linked adultery with denying the faith. LDS D&C 42:23-24 taught that any person who "shall deny the faith" has probably committed adultery. These scriptural p***ages are still being applied today. It is quite common for people accused of intellectual apostasy to be asked if they have committed adultery.[79]

Smith obviously expended a great amount of effort to get these women to say yes. And since he said the main purpose of polygamy in this life is "to multiply and replenish the earth" (LDS D&C 132:63), common sense informs us that sex was part of plural marriage. Strangely, some Mormons resist this notion, believing that Smith married these women only for the next life. Unfortunately, we have scanty information on a number of Smith's plural wives, while others did not wish to talk about their sex life-preferring Victorian reserve. Still, the evidence is clear that he had sex with them. The following women are discussed in no particular order.




Taken from http://mormonthink.com/grant6.htm