It is a great blessing to the seed of Adam to have the seed of Cain for servants ... The moment we consent to mingle with the seed of Cain the Church must go to destruction ... Therefore I will not consent for one moment to have an African dictate me or any Brethren with regard to Church or State Government. I may vary in my views from others, and they may think I am foolish in the things I have spoken, and think that they know more than I do, but I know I know more than they do. If the Africans cannot bear rule in the Church of God, what business have they to bear rule in the State and Government affairs of this Territory or any others? ... Consequently I will not consent for a moment to have the Children of Cain rule me nor my Brethren. No, it is not right. Brigham Young, address joint session of legislature 23rd January 1852
... it is frequently happening that women say they are unhappy. Men will say, ‘My wife, though a most excellent woman, has not seen a happy day since I took my second wife’. ‘No, not a happy day for a year’, says one; and another has not seen a happy day for five years.
It is said that women are tied down and abused: that they are misused and have not the liberty they ought to have; that many of them are wading through a perfect flood of tears.
... I am going to give you from this time to the 6th day of October next, for reflection, that you may determine whether you wish to stay with your husbands or not, and then I am going to set every woman at liberty and say to them, Now go your way, my women with the rest, go your way.
And my wives have to go and do one of two things; either round up their shoulders to endure the afflictions of this world, and live their religion, or they may leave, for I will not have them about me. I will go into heaven alone, rather than have scratching and fighting around me. I will set all at liberty. ‘What, first wife too?’ Yes, I will liberate all.
... Prepare yourselves for two weeks from to morrow; and I will tell you now, that if you will tarry with your husbands, after I have set you free, you must bow down to it, and submit yourselves to the Celestial Law. You may go where you please, after two weeks from to-morrow; but, remember, that I will not hear any more of this whining. Brigham Young, Deseret News 6:235; viz also Journal of Discourses IV:55
It is true that we do not raise our own tobacco: we might raise it if we would. We do not raise our tea; but we might raise it if we would, for tea-raising, this is as good a country as China; and the coffee bean can be raised a short distance south of us ... We can sustain ourselves; and as for such so-called luxuries as tea, coffee, tobacco and Whiskey, we can produce them or do without them. Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses XI:113-114
I will relate another circumstance – one concerning an Elder who went on a mission from Nauvoo ... Instead of preaching the restoration and first principles of the Gospel, almost the first remark that he made was, ‘You have a pretty meeting-house, and good buildings and farms; but do you know that the ‘Mormons’ are coming here to possess the whole of them?’ Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses IV:305
I will remark with regard to slavery, inasmuch as we believe in the Bible, inasmuch as we believe in the ordinances of God, in the priesthood and order and decrees of God, we must believe in slavery. This colored race have been subjected to severe curses, which they have in their families and their classes and in their various capacities brought upon themselves ...
I am a firm believer in slavery ... Those servants want to come here with their masters ... I know it is right, and there should be a law made to have the slaves serve their master, because they are not capable of ruling themselves ... I am firm in the belief that they ought to dwell in servitude ...
When a master has a Negro, and uses him well, he is much better off than when he is free. Brigham Young, address joint session of legislature 23rd January 1852
I will say further: I have had men come to me and offer their lives to atone for their sins. Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses IV:53-54
Monogamy, or restrictions by law to one wife, is no part of the economy of heaven among men. Such a system was commenced by the founders of the Roman empire ... Rome became the mistress of the world, and introduced this order of monogamy wherever her sway was acknowledged. Thus this monogamic order of marriage, so esteemed by modern Christians as a holy sacrament and divine institution, is nothing but a system established by a set of robbers ... Why do we believe in and practice polygamy? Because the Lord introduced it to his servants in a revelation given to Joseph Smith, and the Lord’s servants have always practised it. And is that religion popular in heaven? It is the only popular religion there. Brigham Young, The Deseret News 6th August 1862
Mormonism embraces all truth that is revealed and that is unrevealed, whether religious, political, scientific, or philosophical. Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses IX:149
No man or woman in this dispensation will ever enter into the celestial kingdom of God without the consent of Joseph Smith ... every man and woman must have the certificate of Joseph Smith, Junior as a passport to their entrance into the mansion where God and Christ are ... [Joseph Smith] reigns there as supreme a being in his sphere, capacity, and calling, as God does in heaven. Many will exclaim – ‘Oh, that is very disagreeable! It is preposterous! We cannot bear the thought!’ But it is true. Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses VII:289
Not more than a week since, I was told the baby resurrection doctrine was spreading among the people. It is something I do not understand. The spirit of Joseph Smith is in the bodies of their children; and some have the spirit of Hyrum; and I do not know but some would go so far as to say that the spirit of old Mother Smith had actually come into the bodies of some child before she was dead. The returning again of the spirits of the dead into the bodies of our babies is the theory of the baby resurrection. Brigham Young
Not one of the children of old Cain, have one particle of right to bear Rule in Government affairs from first to last, they have no business there. This privilege was taken from them by their own transgressions, and I cannot help it. Brigham Young, address joint session of legislature 23rd January 1852
Now hear it, O inhabitants of the earth, Jew and Gentile, Saint and Sinner! When our father Adam came into the garden of Eden, he came into it with a celestial body, and brought Eve, one of his wives, with him. He helped make and organize this world. He is Michael, the Arch-angel, the Ancient of Days! about whom holy men have written and spoken – he is our father and our God. Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses I:50
Now take a person in this congregation who has knowledge with regard to being saved in the kingdom of our God and our Father, and being exalted, one who knows and understands the principles of eternal life, and sees the beauty and excellency of the eternities before him compared with the vain and foolish things of the world, and suppose that he is overtaken in a gross fault, that he has committed a sin that he knows will deprive him of that exaltation which he desires, and that he cannot attain to it without the shedding of his blood, and also knows that by having his blood shed he will atone for that sin, and be saved and exalted with the Gods, is there a man of woman in this house but what would say, ‘Shed my blood that I may be saved and exalted with the Gods’? ...
All mankind love themselves, and let these principles be known by an individual, and he would be glad to have his blood shed. That would be loving themselves, even unto an eternal exaltation. Will you love your brothers or sisters likewise, when they have committed a sin that cannot be atoned for without the shedding of their blood? Will you love that man or woman well enough to shed their blood? ... I could refer you to plenty of instances where men have been righteously slain, in order to atone for their sins. I have seen scores and hundreds of people for whom there would have been a chance (in the last resurrection there will be) if their lives had been taken and their blood spilled on the ground as a smoking incense to the Almighty, but who are now angels to the devil ... I have known a great many men who left this church for whom there is no chance whatever for exaltation, but if their blood had been spilled, it would have been better for them, the wickedness and ignorance of the nations forbids this principle being in full force, but the time will come when the law of God will be in full force ... This is loving our neighbor as ourselves; if he needs help, help him; and if he wants salvation and it is necessary to spill his blood on the earth in order that he may be saved, spill it. Any of you who understand the principles of eternity, if you have sinned a sin requiring the shedding of blood, except the sin unto death, would not be satisfied nor rest until your blood should be spilled, that you might gain that salvation you desire. That is the way to love mankind. Brigham Young sermon Mormon Tabernacle 8th February 1857; viz Deseret News 18th February 1857 & Journal of Discourses IV:219-220
Now then in the kingdom of God on the earth, a man who has the African blood in him cannot hold one jot nor title of priesthood ... Let my seed mingle with the seed of Cain, that brings the curse upon me, and upon my generations – we will reap the same rewards with Cain ... In the priesthood I will tell you what it will do. Were the children of God to mingle there seed with the seed of Cain it would not only bring the curse of being deprived of the power of the priesthood upon themselves but they entail it upon their children after them, and they cannot get rid of it. Brigham Young, address joint session of legislature 23rd January 1852
Now, where a man in this church says, ‘I don’t want but one wife, I will live my religion with one,’ he will perhaps be saved in the Celestial kingdom; but when he gets there he will not find himself in possession of any wife at all. He has had a talent that he has hid up. He will come forward and say, ‘Here is that which thou gavest me, I have not wasted it, and here is the one talent,’ and he will not enjoy it but it will be taken and given to those who have improved the talents they received, and he will find himself without any wife, and he will remain single forever and ever. Brigham Young, Deseret News 17th September 1873
Our doctrine is right. There is no deception in it. It requires no argument, for it is a self-evident fact. Still, when we meddle with that which we know nothing about, we are apt to fall into error and differ; but we have so much which we do know, and think about and talk about, that we have no time to speculate about that which we do not know. We know that God lives. Brigham Young X:327