170 years ago today - May 26, 1844

Joseph Smith states in a public address, "What a thing it is for a man to be accused of committing adultery, and having seven wives, when I can find only one." Three days previously his former first counselor William Law had filed a suit against Joseph charging him with living with Maria Lawrence "in an open state of adultery." Joseph took Maria Lawrence as a plural wife on Oct 12, 1843. She was only one of his over two dozen plural wives. Joseph Smith declares publicly: "I have more to boast of than ever any man had. I am the only man that has ever been able to keep a whole church together since the days of Adam. A large majority of the whole have stood by me. Neither Paul, John, Peter, nor Jesus ever did it. I boast that no man ever did such work as I did."