How Did the Brethren Feel Toward Plural Marriage ?

“(Joseph Smith) … knew the commandment of the Almighty to him was to go forward—to set the example, and establish Celestial plural marriage. He knew that he had not only his own prejudices and prepossessions to combat and overcome, but those of the whole Christian world stared him in the face; but God, who is above all, had given the commandment, and he must be obeyed, yet the Prophet hesitated and deferred from time to time, until an angel of God stood by him with a drawn sword, and told him that, unless he moved forward and established plural marriage, his Priesthood would be taken from him and he should be destroyed.” (Eliza R. Snow, Biography and Family Record of Lorenzo Snow, pp. 69-70)

“If any man had asked me what was my choice when Joseph Smith revealed the doctrine, … I would have said, ‘let me have but one wife.’ … It was the first time in my life that I desired the grave, and I could hardly get over it for a long time.” (Brigham Young, Comprehensive History of the Church, ed. by B. H. Roberts, 2:201-203)

“I had always entertained the strict ideas of virtue, and I felt as a married man that this was to me, outside of this principle, an appalling thing to do. The idea of going and asking a young lady to be married to me when I had already a wife! I had always entertained the strictest regard of chastity… . With the feelings I had entertained, nothing but a knowledge of God, and the revelations of God, and the truth of them, could have induced me to embrace such a principle as this.” (John Taylor, The Life of John Taylor, Roberts, p.100)