1844-11-11-New York Herald—Letter of Benjamin Winchester

Letter of Benjamin Winchester

New York Herald, 11 November 1844, vX n312, p. 01

Mr. Editor:— Sir—ln the “Herald” of yesterday morning, I notice an article headed “meeting of the Mormons last evening,” in which your reporter says, “ that on the subject of the ‘spiritual wife system' it was expected that the Elder would have gone into the details, and exposed it fully.” Now from the information I have received from several individuals present, [your] reporter was not there so as to hear more than one half of the lecture, and, therefore, could give but an imperfect account of it. In the forepart of the lecture, all the detail necessary for the occasion was given; for there were but two or three present, except the members of the church, and as the existence of the pernicious system above referred to is a subject that has been much agitated among them of late, and the manner in which it has been propagated understood, there was no necessity for me to particularize upon it.

Now, sir, in justice to myself, allow me to say, that when I embraced what is called the Mormon faith, notwithstanding the distinguished peculiarities of the sect with regard to immediate revelation from heaven, literal fulfilment of prophecy, &c, &c , which a great portion of the Christian community regard as absurdities, I had no idea that any thing contrary to the principles of morality and virtue, wou!d be advocated by any of the leading men of the society; neither do I now believe that any thing of the kind transpired (with the exception of among a few refractory characters,) from the time of the organization of the church up to the year 1841, at which time this flegitious doctrine of polygamy was introduced into the church. It was at first privately inculcated among a few, and in a private capacity I opposed it, and as it became more general, I more publicly avowed my opposition to it; how ever, its most alarming features have never been made known by its advocates to the most orderly portion of the society, only when circumstances were such that they could not successfully keep it from them. I confess that I am extremely mortified at the idea, that it has fallen to my lot to be so unfortunate as to associate with a set of men that have concocted a scheme so horrible in its effects upon society; but, thank heaven, I have had nothing to do with it so far, only to oppose it. The object I have in view in taking the course I do, is to denounce this corruption, and warn the members of the church against it, for I believe there are thousands of honest and virtuous persons in the society, and I do not feel satisfied to sit down and quietly see them led like the unsuspecting lamb to the slaughter, without doing what is in my power to make known to them the danger they are in; and inasmuch as as S. Rigdon advocates the principles of virtue and righteousness, and calls upon the people to separate themselves from corrupt men and measures, I approve of his course. And I now leave the public to judge whether or not my object is a good one.— Some time since I delivered a lecture in Philadelphia to expose the “Spiritual Wife System," during which I had occasion lo refer to the acts and doings of G. J. Adams, (a self styled “big gun of Mormonism,”) in connection with this system; for this reason he has commenced a suit against me for slander— (as mentioned by one of your correspondents some days since)—but mark, he has no Nauvoo charter to fly to as a subterfuge, or to sculk behind; justice will be done to both sides in Philadelphia; therefore, I fear him not. I expect the trial will be one of considerable interest, as it will be the means of legally exposing the evil practices of a certain clique in the society.

B. Winchester.

New York, Nov. 8th, 1844