Transcription
Members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints should be familiar with this quote in the official church history, which is a strong evidence of Joseph Smith teaching and preaching the doctrine of polygamy. It says that Joseph went down the streets with his scribe, Willard Richards, and gave instructions to try persons who were preaching, teaching, and practicing the doctrine of plurality of wives.
"For according to the law I hold the keys of this power in the last days; for there is never but one on earth at time on whom the power and its keys are conferred, and I have constantly said that no man shall have but one wife at a time, unless the Lord directs otherwise."
However, this was not published until years after Joseph's death and Brigham Young had compiled all of these quotes and put them into the church history. Brigham Young said he commenced revising the history of Joseph Smith with Willard Richards, Hey Kimble, and others in 1845. A historian employed by Willard Richards in 1845 is quoted saying that after Joseph's death, his memoir was doctored to suit the new order of things, and this too by the direct order of Brigham Young.
So, what was revised, or what did Brigham Young order to be doctored? Well, this is a PDF of Joseph's original journal from the Joseph Smith papers, and here we can see it says who gave instructions to try those who were preaching, teaching, or practicing the doctrine of plurality of wives. "On this law Joseph forbids it and the practice thereof. No man shall have but one wife."
However, when Brigham Young and his team of historians compiled these quotes to put them into the church history, they wrote them into a draft book. Here we can see that somebody wrote down Joseph's quote as it was in his journal. Then, in somebody else's handwriting, right here, it says "to be revised." And in all this other handwriting, you can see all the added words about Joseph of having the power and the keys to practice plural marriage in the addition to the last sentence at the end, "unless the Lord directs otherwise." These were not Joseph's words. It's not what he was teaching walking up and down the streets, as he quoted in his journal.
And the claim that these are Joseph's words contradicts the narrative that Joseph never taught polygamy in public. If he never taught it in public, why was he walking up and down the streets telling people that only he has the keys to enforce plural marriage and that nobody should have more than one wife unless the Lord directs otherwise? According to the church narrative, he only taught it in private, and in public, he used carefully worded denials. This is neither of those.
To find out more about Brigham Young changing Joseph Smith's history, see the YouTube links in my Linktree.