"Marriage is a civil contract. You might as well make a law to say how many children a man shall have, as to make a law to say how many wives he shall have. It would be as sensible to make a law to say how many horses or oxen he shall possess, or how many cows his wife shall milk. If a woman wants to live with me as a wife, all right; but the law says you must not marry her, and own her as your wife openly. As the law stands, she can come home to me, not as my wife, you know; she can sweep my house, make my bed, help me to make the butter and cheese, and share in all my pleasure and wealth, but the ceremony of marriage must not be performed."

JoD V 11 p 269

For those TBM lurkers out their, how can you read a qoute like this from a supposed profit of God - and not be a tad bit disturbed. Speaking as a man or not, I mean seriously. Qoutes like this show what a male dominated cult this was from the beginning, yet women in TSCC will cry over this man and his cult every FAT meeting. I feel sorry for Mormon women - depressed, deluded, and dumb.

The point he is making makes a little more sense if read in its context:

"Who knows but the time will come when the inquiry will be made in
Washington, by the President, by the Congressmen: "Are things any
worse in Utah than in Washington: than they are in New York? or in any
State of the Union? are they more unvirtuous, are they more disloyal
to the Government? But then there is polygamy." That has nothing in
the least to do with our being loyal or disloyal, one way or the
other. But is not the practice of [p.270] polygamy a transgression of
the law of the United States? How are we transgressing that law? In no
other way than by obeying a revelation which God has given unto us
touching a religious ordinance of his Church. And the anti-polygamy
law has yet to be tested, as to its constitutionality, by the courts
which have jurisdiction. By and by men will appear in the departments
of the Government who will inquire into the validity of some laws and
question their constitutionality. Marriage is a civil contract. You
might as well make a law to say how many children a man shall have, as
to make a law to say how many wives he shall have. It would be as
sensible to make a law to say how many horses or oxen he shall
possess, or how many cows his wife shall milk. If a woman wants to
live with me as a wife, all right; but the law says you must not marry
her, and own her as your wife openly. As the law stands, she can come
home to me, not as my wife, you know; she can sweep my house, make my
bed, help me to make the butter and cheese, and share in all my
pleasure and wealth, but the ceremony of marriage must not be
performed. This is what is practiced in the outside world from the
President in his chair to the lowest dog-whipper on the street that
has means to obtain. They have their mistresses, and thereby violate
every principle of virtue, chastity and righteousness."