175 years ago today - Jan 8, 1848

If I [i.e., Heber C. Kimball] want a wife & Bro[ther] Pulsipher or I has a daughter, you cannot go & make overtures to her. must first ask the one who holds the keys if I have a right to get wife & if he can get a wife, then he has no right still to go to the daughter, but to her father, & if he permits then he can ask ... this is calculated to console the feelings of women, they have lost confidence in their husbands, & men have lost confidence in the 12 because of wickedness of man. telling you how to save yourselves by not touching that that ain't your own ['] any man that comes to my house & wants my wife or my daughter[,] let him come and ask me or, I will kick his d''d [damned] ass out of the doors & then knock his teeth down his throat & God justify me in it, knew a man in Nauvoo [Illinois] whose wife was solicitd from him to forsak[e] him & they were both High Priests. its degrading to a man to think of it. Men lost confidence in the 12. ... supposing Jos[eph]. Young & his Councillors ['I] have perfect confidence in Bro[ther] Joseph & council & could trust all my wifes & family in his care. well if I go away & he try to get one of my wifes from me while I live on the earth & in the flesh in the Resurrection it will be clearer on my mind that ever. Great many men & women on this side & on the other side of the river living in adultery & many go to hell unless atonement made. no woman can covenant with a man & on that covenant live with them as man & wife this always true, & I heard it from Joseph himself & my senses teach me so. I would rather that the Bre[thren] would take knifes sharp or blunt, & skin me from head to foot than be separated from the woman who has raised a large family by me, how will it look in eternity [to] see the wife one place & the children & the husband in other places. it will be a disgrace through all eternity. ... H[eber]. C. K[imball]. one thing felt. I should be plaguily ill off to take any woman that had a husband, expect she would find out when not so well attended so that she would leave me, & if a woman leaves a good husband she will betray you.

[Minutes, as quoted in Minutes of the Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1835-1951, Electronic Edition, 2015]

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