Sunday, August 29, 2021

Orson Hyde (1857) on the Origin of Polygamy

In his Brigham Young's office journal entry for April 12, 1857, we read the following:


Orson Hyde spoke on Polygamy. gave some arguments, rather strange—if true, to the missionaries which they might use in the world. The original order seemed to be one man & one woman,—Adam & Eve, they had corrupted themselves & had not multiplied in purity[,] did not do as God required of them and he had a right to institute another order to hasten his work, that his feast might be full of guests. (George D. Smith, ed., Brigham Young, Colonizer of the American West: Diaries and Office Journals, 1832-1871, 2 vols. [Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 2021], 1:539)