Mormon Publications: 19th Century - Speech of Elder Orson Hyde

HYDE, Orson. Speech of Elder Orson Hyde, delivered before the High Priest's [sic] Quorum in Nauvoo, April 27th, 1845, upon the course and conduct of Mr. Sidney Rigdon, and upon the merits of his claims to the presidency of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. City of Joseph [Nauvoo], Ill: Printed by John Taylor, 1845. 36 pp. 18 cm.

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Speech of Elder Orson Hyde marks another chapter in Orson Hyde's ongoing confrontations with those who challenged the Twelve for leadership of the Church after the death of Joseph Smith. Hyde was one of the principle speakers at Sidney Rigdon's trial on September 8, 1844. And after Rigdon's excommunication, Hyde continued to attack him in print. Rigdon, in turn, singled out Hyde for a little abuse from time to time, while he maintained a constant barrage against the Twelve and those who supported them.

Hyde begins his speech with some references to the priesthood and the kingdom of God, and he advances the novel idea that those who persecute the Latter-day Saints can obtain forgiveness only if the Saints specifically grant it to them. He describes in great detail Rigdon's moves to gain control of the Church, and he argues at length in justification of the Twelve sitting in judgment of a member of the First Presidency. He refers to Nancy Rigdon's reputation for profligate behavior and asserts that Joseph Smith's attempts to reform her were taken as an effort to secure her as a plural wife. In passing, he states that blacks were cursed with slavery because of their neutrality during the war in heaven (p. 30)-an idea Brigham Young repudiated in 1869.

The Nauvoo Neighbor of May 7, 1845, indicated that it was then printing Hyde's speech in pamphlet form and would complete it in three or four days. A month before, the general conference had voted to rename Nauvoo the City of Joseph. Speech of Elder Orson Hyde is the only Nauvoo book to bear that imprint.

Excerpted and edited from Peter Crawley, A Descriptive Bibliography of the Mormon Church. Volume One, 1830-1847. (Provo, Utah: Brigham Young University, Religious Studies Center, [1997]). Item 263, p. 302 - 04.

Used by permission of the author and the Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University.