Benjamin G. Ferris

Benjamin Gilbert Ferris (1802 – February 21, 1891) was a Secretary to the Territorial Government of Utah, a lawyer, a district attorney and leader in Ithaca (town), New York.

He was District Attorney of Tompkins County, New York from 1840 to 1845. He was President of the Village of Ithaca in 1841 and 1852. He was a member of the New York State Assembly (Tompkins Co., 2nd D.) in 1851. He was Supervisor of the Town of Ithaca in 1855.

Mormon criticism Ferris was appointed by President Millard Fillmore as Secretary of the Territory of Utah in 1852, replacing Broughton Harris. Ferris was a follower of Swedenborgianism and clashed with the Mormons during his six months in Utah. A biographer wrote: "He could not suppress his abhorence [sic] of Mormonism nor tolerate its influences, nor accept its devotees as his neighbors, and resigned his high position, thus sacrificing great possibilities in his very promising public career." and his wife published her letters from this period in the 1856 book The Mormons at Home. These books were influential in building opposition to Mormonism in the American public.

A New Theory of the Origin of Species

Ferris was the author of A New Theory of the Origin of Species (1872 and republished 1883). The book advocated an unorthodox form of creationism. Paleontologist Edward Drinker Cope negatively reviewed the book in The American Naturalist stating that "his theory, that each new specific form is produced from the matrix of a pre-existent species by supernatural power, is only a form of the old belief in distinct creations, and is not a developmental theory in any sense. He produces no evidence in support of it, in fact, he does not appear to know what scientific evidence is."

Published works