Polygamy was instituted to "multiply and replenish the earth", however, Joseph Smith didn't have sex with his plural wives.
D&C 132, was written (12 July 1843) according to Pro LDS sites.
On Sunday, May 26, 1844 (ONE MONTH BEFORE HE DIED on June 27, 1844) Joseph said this below about practicing polygamy, despite proof of his polygamy.
"I had not been married scarcely five minutes, and made one proclamation of the Gospel, before it was reported that I had seven wives. I mean to live and proclaim the truth as long as I can. This new holy prophet [William Law] has gone to Carthage and swore that I had told him that I was guilty of adultery. This spiritual wifeism! Why, a man does not speak or wink, for fear of being accused of this…I wish the grand jury would tell me who they are - whether it will be a curse or blessing to me. I am quite tired of the fools asking me…What a thing it is for a man to be accused of committing adultery, and having seven wives, when I can only find one. I am the same man, and as innocent as I was fourteen years ago; and I can prove them all perjurers." (Joseph Smith, History of the Church, Vol. 6, pp. 410-411)
**Polygamy Wrong**
Joseph's niece, **Mary Baily, stated in 1908 that Joseph** ... awoke to a realization of the whole miserable affair [and]... tried to withdraw from and put down the Evil into which he had fallen." - Newel and Avery 1984, p. 179
According to Nauvoo Stake President **William Marks**, Joseph said, We are a ruined people. This doctrine of polygamy, or spiritual wife-system, that has been taught and practiced among us, will prove our destruction and overthrow. I have been deceived... it is wrong; it is a curse to mankind, and we shall have to leave the United States soon, unless it can be put down, and its practice stopped in the Church. - Zion's Harbinger and Baneemy's Organ, Vol. 3 (July 1853), pp. 52-53
Fear of death can be a powerful motivator to stop doing something. It was never legal at any time, as polygamy was both illegal in US territories and Mexico. It contradicts the 12th article of faith.
**People who left when Joseph tried to take their wives**
**William Law:** Second Counselor to Joseph. - Horace Cummings, Contributor, Salt Lake City, April 1884, Vol. 5, p. 255; Thomas Ford, History of Illinois, p. 322;
John D. Lee, Mormonism Unveiled, p. 147; Joseph H. Jackson, Narrative of the Adventures and Experiences of Joseph H. Jackson, pp. 21-22).
**Dr Robert D Foster** - Fawn Brodie, No Man Knows My History, p. 371
Austin Cowles - First Counselor to Joseph.
Both published in the only issue of the Nauvoo Expositor.
Hiram Kimball - his wife wrote: Early in 1842 Joseph taught me the principle of marriage for eternity, and the doctrine of plural marriage. I asked him to teach it to someone else. He looked at me reprovingly, [saying] 'I will not cease to pray for you.' - Historical Record, Vol. 6, p. 232
**Todd Compton** writes in, “In Sacred Loneliness" that eleven of Joseph's plural wives were married civilly to other men. Of his first 12, nine were polyandrous. (Orson Hyde, Johnathan Holmes, Windsor Lyon, David Sessions, Henry Jacobs, George W Harris were the husbands, and one even loaned Joseph money after the marriage.)
Fanny Alger, a 17 year old orphan, was the first "wife". It is difficult to determine how many wives Joseph had, but it is between 27 and 60.
**Jedediah Grant** in 1854 gave this sermon, Now suppose Joseph should come and say he wanted your wife, what would you say to that?' 'I would tell him to go to hell.' This was the spirit of many in the early days of this Church...
What would a man of God say, who felt aright, when Joseph asked him for his money? He would say, 'Yes, and I wish I had more to help to build up the kingdom
of God.' Or if he came and said, 'I want your wife?' 'O yes,' he would say, 'here she
is, there are plenty more.'... If such a man of God should come to me and say, 'I want
your gold and silver, or your wives,' I should say, 'Here they are, I wish I had more to give you, take all I have got.' - Journal of Discourses, vol. 2, pp. 13-14
**One of Brigham Young's former wives**, One woman said to me not very long since, while giving me some of her experiences in polygamy: 'The greatest trial I ever endured in my life was living with my husband and deceiving him, by receiving Joseph's attentions whenever he chose to come to me.' This woman, and others, whose experience has been very similar, are among the very best women in the church; they are as pure-minded and virtuous women as any in the world. They were seduced under the guise of religion...
Some of these women have since said they did not know who was the father of their
children; this is not to be wondered at, for after Joseph's declaration annulling all Gentile marriages, the greatest promiscuity was practiced; and, indeed, all sense of morality seemed to have been lost by a portion at least of the church. - Wife No. 19, 1876, pp. 70-71
**Patty Bartlett Sessions** was married to David Sessions when she was sealed to Joseph. She records in her journal, I was sealed to Joseph Smith by Willard Richards Mar 9, 1842, in Newel K. Whitney's chamber, Nauvoo, for time and all eternity... Sylvia my daughter was present when I was sealed to Joseph Smith. - Journal of Patty Sessions, as quoted in Intimate Disciple, Portrait of Willard Richards, 1957, p. 611
**Mary Elizabeth Rollins Lightner** was married to Adam Lightner when sealed to Joseph. She records in her journal, Joseph said I was his before I came here and
he said all the Devils in Hell should never get me from him, I was sealed to him in
the Masonic Hall... by Brigham Young in February 1842 and then again in the Nauvoo
Temple by Heber C. Kimball... - Adavit of Mary Elizabeth Rollins Lightner, as cited in
No Man Knows My History, p. 444
**Joseph even disobeyed the law as given to him in D&C 132**, where the first wife must agree for future spouses. Emma did not agree to the first few wives. D&C 132 also is a mind game, because if the first wife disagrees, she shall be destroyed" (verse 54).
When Joseph was writing down D&C 132, Hyrum very urgently requested Joseph to
write the revelation by means of the Urim and Thummim, but Joseph, in reply, said he
did not need to, for he knew the revelation perfectly from beginning to end. Joseph
and Hyrum then sat down and Joseph commenced to dictate the revelation on celestial marriage, and I wrote it, sentence by sentence, as he dictated. - William Clayton Adavit, 1874, p. 225
Wives of Joseph Smith on FamilySearch.org familysearch.org⁄pal:⁄MM9.2.1⁄SP6X-Q65
