Mormons: What was the motivation and sentiment for polygamy in the Church?

Question

Brother Cannon remarked that people wondered how many wives and children I had. He may inform them that I shall have wives and children by the million, and glory, and riches, and power, and dominion, and kingdom after kingdom, and reign triumphantly.
Author: Brigham Young
Source: Journal Of Discourses
Volume: 8
Page: 179

Brother George A. Smith has been reading a little out of the revelation concerning celestial marriage, and I want to say to my sisters that if you lift you heels against this revelation, and say that you would obliterate it, and put it out of existence if you had the power to nullify and destroy it, I say that if you imbibe that spirit and feeling, you will go to hell, just as sure as you are living women.
Author: Brigham Young
Source: Journal Of Discourses
Volume: 17
Page: 159

A few years ago one of my wives, when talking about wives leaving their husbands said, "I wish my husband's wives would leave him, every soul of them except myself." That is the way they all feel, more or less, at times, both old and young.
Author: Brigham Young
Source: Journal Of Discourses
Volume: 9
Page: 195

Some try to say how many wives the Governor of Utah has, but if they can tell, they can tell more than I can, for I do not know how many I have; I have not counted them up for many years. I did not know how many I had before I left the United States I had so many. I heard that I had ninety. Why bless your souls, ninety is not a beginning. You might ask me if I have ever seen them all; I answer no; I see a few of them I pick up myself here. I have lots, and scores I never see nor shall not until the morning of the resurrection.
Author: Brigham Young
Source: The Essential Brigham Young
Page: 94

Now if any of you will deny the plurality of wives, and continue to do so, I promise that you will be damned; and I will go still further and say, take this revelation, or any other revelation that the Lord has given, and deny it in your feelings, and I promise that you will be damned.
Author: Brigham Young
Source: Journal Of Discourses
Volume: 3
Page: 266

Now, if you want to get into darkness, brethren and sisters, begin to oppose this revelation. Sisters, you begin to say before your husbands, or husbands you begin to say before your wives, "I do not believe in the principle of polygamy, and I intend to instruct my children against it." Oppose it in this way, and teach your children to do the same, and if you do not become as dark as midnight there is no truth in Mormonism.
Author: Orson Pratt
Source: Journal Of Discourses
Volume: 17
Page: 225

Some people have supposed that the doctrine of plural marriage was a sort of superfluity, or non-essential to the salvation or exaltation of mankind. In other words, some of the Saints have said, and believe, that a man with one wife, sealed to him by the authority of the Priesthood for time and eternity, will receive an exaltation as great and glorious, if he is faithful, as he possibly could with more than one. I want here to enter my solemn protest against this idea, for I know it is false. There is no blesssing [blessing] promised except upon conditions, and no blessing can be obtained by mankind except by faithful compliance with the conditions, or law, upon which the same is promised. The marriage of one woman to a man for time and eternity by the sealing power, according to the law of God, is a fulfillment of the celestial law of marriage in part-and is good so far as it goes-and so far as a man abides these conditions of the law, he will receive his reward therefor [therefore],

and this reward, or blessing, he could not obtain on any other grounds or conditions. But this is only the beginning of the law, not the whole of it. Therefore, whoever has imagined that he could obtain the fullness of the blessings pertaining to this celestial law, by complying with only a portion of its conditions, has deceived himself. He cannot do it.
Author: Joseph Fielding Smith
Source: Journal Of Discourses
Volume: 20
Page: 29

Answer 1

just like all things in the cult:

Joseph Smith did not like other churches so he made up his own to fit what he wanted

Answer 2

That's an interesting question, but what's more interesting is the usual crew of the 'defenders of the faith' appear to be absent in answering a nicely worded question.

Perhaps you confused them with too many words and quotes all at once. That doggone Journal of Discourses is one of the most damning body of works against mormonism today - next to the BoM and BoA, of course.

Answer 3

Joseph Smith claimed an angel came from God with a sword to kill him, if he did not start polygamy. Byt old Jo Smith took it too far, by marrying secretly and marrying a 14 year old girl, besides in the beginning of both the christian and Mormon bible, it plainly says that adam only had one wife in the garden and not many wives to start the world and that it was mens idea to have many wives and not God's idea.
The mormons also used it as an excuse to increase their numbers as they were runned out of one state to another and mormon men died off.

Answer 4

Well, you have quoted a mouthful.
Plural marriage began when Joseph Smith asked God about why the ancient patriarchs had multiple wives. Abraham, Jacob, Moses, David, Solomon and many others had plural wives. Christ informed Joseph that all this was according to His will and in nothing did they offend God except in those things that were not given them from God. Most notably David sinning with Bathsheba and Solomon taking multiple strange women (not of Israel) and allowing them to turn his head to idolatry to satisfy them. He then instructed Joseph to prepare himself because all that have this principle revealed to them must obey the same.
In the Book of Mormon, Jacob chapter 2, it states that the Lord delights in the chastity of women and He says that if "I will raise up seed unto myself, I will command my people, otherwise they will obey this law", namely one man and one wife. So you have the basic motivation to raise up seed unto the Lord. In the case of Joseph, it was needful to increase the Church population quickly with people that had been raised in the knowledge of God, and not just from converts from outside.
There is another social benefit from plural marriage that had a very real purpose, to care for the many righteous and worthy women that did not have husbands to care for them. Many of these were widows and some were abandoned from their families. It was true then and it is still true now that there are more righteous women than there are men. Thus, God being the just being that He is, cannot deny His worthy daughters the blessings of the gospel simply because there are not enough men to go around. Therefore, the worthy men will have to care for more than one wife. Most of Brigham's wives were married to him in name only so that he could take care of them. He did not live with them or have children by them.
As for the acceptance of the doctrine. This bothered me when I was a teen and wondered how I could possibly obey this principle after having read it, thus being "revealed" to me. My Stake President informed me that I must be able to accept it in my heart and mind such that if the President of the Church were to ask me to enter into the principle, I would be able to answer yes. If I can accept it on that level, then I am obeying it to the best of my ability at this time. That made sense to me and I have accepted it as such. My wife says she will worry about it when she gets to the spirit world. She doesn't want to think about it here in mortality.
I hope this helps you with your question.

Answer 5

just sound like the ramblings of a lunatic hell bent on the basic male need to f anything that walks. it seems like u guys are spending an awful lot of time cheking details did it ever occur to you that maby its the general message that counts. and i know it sounds crazy but u think the guy w/the message could have been crazy? you know charisma doesent=truth hitler was tehcnicaly crazy

Answer 6

Land grab, pure and simple.

Each family was entitled under the Homestead Act to 160 acres; each wife was a "family." My great-great-grandfather had seven wives we know about, though we suspect there were more.

I'd probably own a chunk of Salt Lake City if we'd stayed Mormon, lol.