Criticism in The Local and Mormon Press
Sarah Pratt was accused of having had an adulterous relationship with Bennett, and numerous affidavits printed in the local and pro-Mormon Nauvoo press (e.g., the Nauvoo Wasp), as well as by Jacob B. Backenstos, a relative of the sheriff of Hancock County, testified to these allegations. Sarah Pratt had stayed with Stephen H. Goddard and his wife, Zeruiah, while Orson Pratt was away on missionary work in England. The Goddards stated under oath that from the first night, Bennett "was there as sure as the night came," and that "he remained later, sometimes till after midnight." During this time Bennett and Pratt "sat close together, he leaning on her lap, whispering continually or talking very low." Zeruiah Goddard reported that on another occasion she "came suddenly into the room where Mrs. Pratt and the Dr. were; she was lying on the bed and the Dr. was taking his hands out of her bosom; he was in the habit of sitting on the bed where Mrs. Pratt was lying, and lying down over her." The Goddards said they visited Pratt in a home furnished to her by Dr. Robert Foster there several times late in the evening and found Bennett and Sarah Pratt together, "as if they were man, and wife." Pratt claimed in 1886, when disaffected from the church, that when the testimonials were published, she went straight to the Goddard's home and Stephen ran out the back door, but that she confronted Zeruiah, who sobbed
| “ | It is not my fault; Hyrum Smith came to our house, with the affidavits all written out, and forced us to sign them. Joseph and the Church must be saved, said he. We saw that resistance was useless, they would have ruined us; so we signed the papers. | ” |
However, Foster made the following allegation against Bennett and Pratt:
| “ | Alas, none but the seduced join the seducer ; those only who have been arraigned before a just tribunal for the same unhallowed conduct can be found to give countenance to any of his black hearted lies, and they, too, detest him for his seduction, these are the ladies to whom he refers his hearers to substantiate his assertions. Mrs. White, Mrs. Pratt, Niemans, Miller, Brotherton, and others. | ” |
Van Wagoner has concluded that the adultery charges against Sarah Pratt are "highly improbable" and that J. B. Backenstos's affidavit stating that Bennett continued the adulterous relationship with Sarah Pratt after Orson returned from England could "be dismissed as slander." In addition to Sarah, Nancy Rigdon and Martha Brotherton "also suffered slanderous attacks because they exposed the Church's private polygamy posture." However, Bennett gave an affidavit clearing Smith of wrongdoing,
| “ | Affidavit of J. C. Bennett as Given May 17, 1842. Personally appeared before me, Daniel H. Wells, an Alderman of said city of Nauvoo, John C. Bennett, who being duly sworn according to law, deposeth and saith: that he never was taught any thing in the least contrary to the strictest principles of the Gospel, or of virtue, or of the laws of God, or man, under any occasion either directly or indirectly, in word or deed, by Joseph Smith; and that he never knew the said Smith to countenance any improper conduct whatever, either in public or private; and that he never did teach me in private that an illegal illicit intercourse with females was, under any circumstances, justifiable, and that I never knew him so to teach others. | ” |
Bennett ultimately became a vehement opponent of Smith and the church, authoring the book The History of the Saints; or An Exposé of Joe Smith and Mormonism, of which Sarah Pratt later stated " know that the principle statements in John C. Bennett's book on Mormonism are true," whereas affidavits and testimonies of church members at the time denounced Bennett. Orson Pratt stated,
| “ | His book I have read with the greatest disgust. No candid honest man can or will believe it. He has disgraced himself in eyes of all civilized society who will despise his very name." | ” |
Read more about this topic: Sarah Marinda Bates Pratt
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