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The Story of the Mormons:
From the Date of their Origin to the Year 1901

by William Alexander Linn

December, 2000  [Etext #2443]


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THE STORY OF THE MORMONS: FROM THE DATE OF THEIR ORIGIN TO THE
YEAR 1901

by WILLIAM ALEXANDER LINN




PREFACE

No chapter of American history has remained so long unwritten as
that which tells the story of the Mormons. There are many books
on the subject, histories written under the auspices of the
Mormon church, which are hopelessly biased as well as incomplete;
more trustworthy works which cover only certain periods; and
books in the nature of "exposures by former members of the
church, which the Mormons attack as untruthful, and which rest,
in the minds of the general reader, under a suspicion of personal
bias. Mormonism, therefore, to-day suggests to most persons only
one doctrine--polygamy--and only one leader--Brigham Young, who
made his name familiar to the present generations. Joseph Smith,
Jr., is known, where known at all, only in the most general way
as the founder of the sect, while the real originator of the
whole scheme for a new church and of its doctrines and
government, Sidney Rigdon, is known to few persons even by name.

The object of the present work is to present a consecutive
history of the Mormons, from the day of their origin to the
present writing, and as a secular, not as a religious, narrative.
The search has been for facts, not for moral deductions, except
as these present themselves in the course of the story. Since the
usual weapon which the heads of the Mormon church use to meet
anything unfavorable regarding their organization or leaders is a
general denial, this narrative has been made to rest largely on
Mormon sources of information. It has been possible to follow
this plan a long way because many of the original Mormons left
sketches that have been preserved. Thus we have Mother Smith's
picture of her family and of the early days of the church; the
Prophet's own account of the revelation to him of the golden
plates, of his followers' early experiences, and of his own
doings, almost day by day, to the date of his death, written with
an egotist's appreciation of his own part in the play; other
autobiographies, like Parley P. Pratt's and Lorenzo Snow's; and,
finally, the periodicals which the church issued in Ohio, in
Missouri, in Illinois, and in England, and the official reports
of the discourses preached in Utah,--all showing up, as in a
mirror, the character of the persons who gave this Church of
Latter Day Saints its being and its growth.

In regard to no period of Mormon history is there such a lack of
accurate information as concerning that which covers their moves
to Ohio, thence to Missouri, thence to Illinois, and thence to
Utah. Their own excuse for all these moves is covered by the one
word "persecution" (meaning persecution on account of their
religious belief), and so little has the non-Mormon world known
about the subject that this explanation has scarcely been
challenged. Much space is given to these early migrations, as in
this way alone can a knowledge be acquired of the real character
of the constituency built up by Smith in Ohio, and led by him
from place to place until his death, and then to Utah by Brigham
Young.

Any study of the aims and objects of the Mormon leaders must rest
on the Mormon Bible ("Book of Mormon") and on the "Doctrine and
Covenants," the latter consisting principally of the
"revelations" which directed the organization of the church and
its secular movements. In these alone are spread out the original
purpose of the migration to Missouri and the instructions of
Smith to his followers regarding their assumed rights to the
territory they were to occupy; and without a knowledge of these
"revelations" no fair judgment can be formed of the justness of
the objections of the people of Missouri and Illinois to their
new neighbors. If the fraudulent character of the alleged
revelation to Smith of golden plates can be established, the
foundation of the whole church scheme crumbles. If Rigdon's
connection with Smith in the preparation of the Bible by the use
of the "Spaulding manuscript" can be proved, the fraud itself is
established. Considerable of the evidence on this point herein
brought together is presented at least in new shape, and an
adequate sketch of Sidney Rigdon is given for the first time. The
probable service of Joachim's "Everlasting Gospel," as suggesting
the story of the revelation of the plates, has been hitherto
overlooked.

A few words with regard to some of the sources of information
quoted:

"Biographical Sketches of Joseph Smith and his Progenitors for
Many Generations" ("Mother Smith's History," as this book has
been generally called) was first published in 1853 by the Mormon
press in Liverpool, with a preface by Orson Pratt recommending
it; and the Millennial Star (Vol. XV, p. 682) said of it: "Being
written by Lucy Smith, the mother of the Prophet, and mostly
under his inspiration, will be ample guarantee for the
authenticity of the narrative.... Altogether the work is one of
the most interesting that has appeared in this latter
dispensation." Brigham Young, however, saw how many of its
statements told against the church, and in a letter to the
Millennial Star (Vol. XVII, p. 298), dated January 31, 1858, he
declared that it contained "many mistakes," and said that "should
it ever be deemed best to publish these sketches, it will not be
done until after they are carefully corrected." The preface to
the edition of 1890, published by the Reorganized Church at
Plano, Illinois, says that Young ordered the suppression of the
first edition, and that "under this order large numbers were
destroyed, few being preserved, some of which fell into the hands
of those now with the Reorganized Church. For this destruction we
see no adequate reason. "James J. Strang, in a note to his
pamphlet, "Prophetic Controversy," says that Mrs. Corey (to whom
the pamphlet is addressed) "wrote the history of the Smiths
called 'Mother Smith's History.'" Mrs. Smith was herself quite
incapable of putting her recollections into literary shape.

The autobiography of Joseph Smith, Jr., under the title "History
of Joseph Smith," began as a supplement to Volume XIV of the
Millennial Star, and ran through successive volumes to Volume
XXIV. The matter in the supplement and in the earlier numbers was
revised and largely written by Rigdon. The preparation of the
work began after he and Smith settled in Nauvoo, Illinois. In his
last years Smith rid himself almost entirely of Rigdon's counsel,
and the part of the autobiography then written takes the form of
a diary which unmasks Smith's character as no one else could do.
Most of the correspondence and official documents relating to the
troubles in Missouri and Illinois are incorporated in this
work.

Of the greatest value to the historian are the volumes of the
Mormon publications issued at Kirtland, Ohio; Independence,
Missouri; Nauvoo, Illinois; and Liverpool, England. The first of
these, Evening and Morning Star (a monthly, twenty-four numbers),
started at Independence and transferred to Kirtland, covers the
period from June, 1832, to September, 1834; its successor, the
Latter Day Saints' Messenger and Advocate, was issued at Kirtland
from 1834 to 1837. This was followed by the Elders' journal,
which was transferred from Kirtland to Far West, Missouri, and
was discontinued when the Saints were compelled to leave that
state. Times and Seasons was published at Nauvoo from 1839 to
1845. Files of these publications are very scarce, the volumes of
the Times and Seasons having been suppressed, so far as possible,
by Brigham Young's order. The publication of the Millennial Star
was begun in Liverpool in May, 1840, and is still continued. The
early volumes contain the official epistles of the heads of the
church to their followers, Smith's autobiography, correspondence
describing the early migrations and the experiences in Utah, and
much other valuable material, the authenticity of which cannot be
disputed by the Mormons. In the Journal of Discourses (issued
primarily for circulation in Europe) are found official reports
of the principal discourses (or sermons) delivered in Salt Lake
City during Young's regime. Without this official sponsor for the
correctness of these reports, many of them would doubtless be
disputed by the Mormons of to-day.

The earliest non-Mormon source of original information quoted is
"Mormonism Unveiled," by E. D. Howe (Painesville, Ohio, 1834).
Mr. Howe, after a newspaper experience in New York State, founded
the Cleveland (Ohio) Herald in 1819, and later the Painesville
(Ohio) Telegraph. Living near the scene of the Mormon activity in
Ohio when they moved to that state, and desiring to ascertain the
character of the men who were proclaiming a new Bible and a new
church, he sent agents to secure such information among the
Smiths' old acquaintances in New York and Pennsylvania, and made
inquiries on kindred subjects, like the "Spaulding manuscript."
His book was the first serious blow that Smith and his associates
encountered, and their wrath against it and its author was
fierce.

Pomeroy Tucker, the author of "Origin and Progress of the
Mormons" (New York, 1867), was personally acquainted with the
Smiths and with Harris and Cowdery before and after the
appearance of the Mormon Bible. He read a good deal of the proof
of the original edition of that book as it was going through the
press, and was present during many of the negotiations with
Grandin about its publication. His testimony in regard to early
matters connected with the church is important.

Two non-Mormons who had an early view of the church in Utah and
who put their observations in book form were B. G. Ferris ("Utah
and the Mormons," New York, 1854 and 1856) and Lieutenant J. W.
Gunnison of the United States Topographical Engineers ("The
Mormons," Philadelphia, 1856). Both of these works contain
interesting pictures of life in Utah in those early days.

There are three comprehensive histories of Utah,--H. H.
Bancroft's "History of Utah" (p. 889), Tullidge's "History of
Salt Lake City" (p. 886), and Orson F. Whitney's "History of
Utah," in four volumes, three of which, dated respectively March,
1892, April, 1893, and January, 1898, have been issued. The
Reorganized Church has also published a "History of the Church of
Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints" in three volumes. While
Bancroft's work professes to be written from a secular
standpoint, it is really a church production, the preparation of
the text having been confided to Mormon hands. "We furnished Mr.
Bancroft with his material," said a prominent Mormon church
officer to me. Its plan is to give the Mormon view in the text,
and to refer the reader for the other side to a mass of
undigested notes, and its principal value to the student consists
in its references to other authorities. Its general tone may be
seen in its declaration that those who have joined the church to
expose its secrets are "the most contemptible of all"; that those
who have joined it honestly and, discovering what company they
have got into, have given the information to the world, would far
better have gone their way and said nothing about it; and, as to
polygamy, that "those who waxed the hottest against" the practice
"are not as a rule the purest of our people" (p. 361); and that
the Edmunds Law of 1882 "capped the climax of absurdity" (p.
683).

Tullidge wrote his history after he had taken part in the "New
Movement." In it he brought together a great deal of information,
including the text of important papers, which is necessary to an
understanding of the growth and struggles of the church. The work
was censored by a committee appointed by the Mormon
authorities.

Bishop Whitney's history presents the pro-Mormon view of the
church throughout. It is therefore wholly untrustworthy as a
guide to opinion on the subjects treated, but, like Tullidge's,
it supplies a good deal of material which is useful to the
student who is prepared to estimate its statements at their true
value.

The acquisition by the New York Public Library of the Berrian
collection of books, early newspapers, and pamphlets on
Mormonism, with the additions constantly made to this collection,
places within the reach of the student all the material that is
necessary for the formation of the fairest judgment on the
subject.

W. A. L. HACKENSACK, N. J., 1901.


CONTENTS

BOOK I. THE MORMON ORIGIN

CHAPTER I. FACILITY OF HUMAN BELIEF: The Real Miracle of Mormon
Success--Effrontery of the Leaders' Professions--Attractiveness
of Religious Beliefs to Man--Wherein the World does not make
Progress--The Anglo-Saxon Appetite for Religious Novelties

CHAPTER II. THE SMITH FAMILY: Solomon Mack and his Autobiography
--Religious Characteristics of the Prophet's Mother--The Family
Life in Vermont--Early Occupations in New York State--Pictures of
the Prophet as a Youth--Recollections of the Smiths by their New
York Neighbors

CHAPTER III. HOW JOSEPH SMITH BECAME A MONEY-DIGGER: His Use of a
Divining Rod--His First Introduction to Crystal-gazing--Peeping
after Hidden Treasure--How Joseph obtained his own "Peek-stone"--
Methods of Midnight Money-digging

CHAPTER IV. FIRST ANNOUNCEMENT OF THE GOLDEN BIBLE: Variations in
the Early Descriptions--Joseph's Acquaintance with the Hales--His
Elopement and Marriage--What he told a Neighbor about the Origin
of his Bible Discovery--Early Anecdotes about the Book

CHAPTER V. THE DIFFERENT ACCOUNTS OF THE REVELATION OF THE BIBLE:
The Versions about the Spanish Guardian--Important Statement by
the Prophet's Father--The Later Account in the Prophet's
Autobiography--The Angel Visitor and the Acquisition of the
Plates--Mother Smith's Version

CHAPTER VI. TRANSLATION AND PUBLICATION OF THE BIBLE: Martin
Harris's Connection with the Work--Smith's Removal to
Pennsylvania --How the Translation was carried on--Harris's Visit
to Professor Anthon--The Professor's Account of his Visit--The
Lost Pages--The Prophet's Predicament and his Method of
Escape--Oliver Cowdery as an Assistant Translator--Introduction
of the Whitmers--The Printing and Proof--reading of the New
Bible--Recollections of Survivors

CHAPTER VII. THE SPAULDING MANUSCRIPT: Solomon Spaulding's
Career--History of "The Manuscript Found"--Statements by Members
of the Author's Family--Testimony of Spaulding's Ohio Neighbors
about the Resemblance of his Story to the Book of Mormon--The
Manuscript found in the Sandwich Islands

CHAPTER VIII. SIDNEY RIGDON: His Biography--Connection with the
Campbells--Efficient Church Work in Ohio--His Jealousy of his
Church Leaders--Disciples' Beliefs and Mormon Doctrines--
Intimations about a New Bible--Rigdon's First Connection with
Smith--The Rigdon-Smith Translation of the Scriptures--Rigdon's
Conversion to Mormonism

CHAPTER IX. "THE EVERLASTING GOSPEL": Probable Origin of the Idea
of a Bible on Plates--Cyril's Gift from an Angel and Joachim's
Use of it--Where Rigdon could have obtained the Idea Prominence
of the "Everlasting Gospel" in Mormon Writings

CHAPTER X. THE WITNESSES TO THE PLATES: Text of the Two
"Testimonies"--The Prophet's Explanation of the First--Early
Reputation and Subsequent History of the Signers--The Truth about
the Kinderhook Plates and Rafinesque's Glyphs

CHAPTER XI. THE MORMON BIBLE: Some of its Errors and
Absurdities--Facsimile of the First Edition Title-page--The
Historical Narrative of the Book--Its Lack of Literary
Style--Appropriated Chapters of the Scriptures--Specimen
Anachronisms

CHAPTER XII. ORGANIZATION OF THE CHURCH: Smith's Ordination by
John the Baptist--The First Baptisms--Early Branches of the
Church--The Revelation about Church Officers--Cowdery's Ambition
and How it was Repressed--Smith's Title as Seer, Translator, and
Prophet--His Arrest and Release--Arrival of Parley P. Platt and
Rigdon in Palmyra--The Command to remove to Ohio

CHAPTER XIII. THE MORMONS' BELIEFS AND DOCTRINES--CHURCH
GOVERNMENT: Long Years of Apostasy--Origin of the Name "Mormon"
--Original Titles of the Church--Belief in a Speedy Millennium--
The Future Possession of the Earth--Smith's Revelations and how
they were obtained--The First Published Editions--Counterfeit
Revealers--What is Taught of God--Brigham Young's Adam Sermon--
Baptism for the Dead--The Church Officers

BOOK II. IN OHIO

CHAPTER I. THE FIRST CONVERTS AT KIRTLAND: Original Missionaries
sent out to the Lamanites--Organization of a Church in Ohio--
Effect of Rigdon's Conversion--General Interest in the New Bible
and Prophet--How Men of Education came to believe in Mormonism--
Result of the Upturning of Religious Belief

CHAPTER II. WILD VAGARIES OF THE CONVERTS: Convulsions and
Commissions--Common Religious Excitements of those Days--
Description of the "Jerks"--Smith's Repressing Influence

CHAPTER III. GROWTH OF THE CHURCH: The Appointment of Elders--
Beginning of the Proselyting System--Smith's Power Entrenched--
His Temporal Provision--Repression of Rigdon--The Tarring and
Feathering of Smith and Rigdon--Treatment of the Mormons and of
Other New Denominations compared--Rigdon's Punishment

CHAPTER IV. GIFTS OF TONGUES AND MIRACLES: How Persons "Spoke in
Tongues"--Seeing the Lord Face to Face--Early Use of Miracles--
The Story of the "Book of Abraham"--The Prophet as a Translator
of Greek and Egyptian.

CHAPTER V. SMITH'S OHIO BUSINESS ENTERPRISES: Young's Picture of
the Prophet's Experience as a Retail Merchant--The Land
Speculation--Laying out of the City--Building of the Temple--
Consecration of Property--How the Leaders looked out for
themselves--Amusing Explanation of Section III of the "Doctrine
and Covenants"--The Story of the Kirtland Bank--The Church View
of its Responsibility for the Currency--The Business Crash and
Smith's Flight to Missouri

CHAPTER VI. LAST DAYS AT KIRTLAND: Pictures of the Prophet--
Accusations against Church Leaders in Missouri--Serious Charge
against the Prophet--W. W, Phelps's Rebellion--Smith's
Description of Leading Lights of the Church--Charges concerning
Smith's Morality--The Church accused of practising Polygamy--A
Lively Fight at a Church Service--Smith's and Rigdon's Defence of
their Conduct--The Later History of Kirtland

BOOK III. IN MISSOURI

CHAPTER I. THE DIRECTIONS TO THE SAINTS ABOUT THEIR ZION: Western
Missouri in the Early Days--Pioneer Farming and Home-making--The
Trip of the Four Mormon Missionaries--Direction about the
Gathering of the Elect--How they were to possess the Land of
Promise--Their Appropriation of the Good Things purchased of
their Enemies

CHAPTER II. SMITH'S FIRST VISITS TO MISSOURI: Founding the City
of Zion and the Temple--Marvellous Stories that were told--
Dissatisfaction of Some of the Prophet's Companions

CHAPTER III.THE EXPULSION FROM JACKSON COUNTY: Rapid Influx of
Mormons--Result of the Publication of the Revelations--First
Friction with their Non-Mormon Neighbors--Manifesto of the
Mormons' Opponents--Their Big Mass Meeting--Demands on the
Mormons--Destruction of the Star Printing-office--The Mormons'
Agreement to leave--Smith's Advice to his Flock--Repudiation of
the Mormon Agreement and Renewal of Hostilities--The Battle at
Big Blue--Evacuation of the County--March of the Army of Zion--An
Inglorious Finale

CHAPTER IV. FRUITLESS NEGOTIATIONS WITH THE JACKSON COUNTY
PEOPLE: A Fair Offer Rejected--The Mormon Counter Propositions--
Governor Dunklin on the Situation

CHAPTER V. IN CLAY, CALDWELL, AND DAVIESS COUNTIES: Welcome of
the Mormons by New Neighbors--Effect of their Claims about
Possessing the Land--Ordered out of Clay County--Founding of Far
West--A Welcome to Smith and Rigdon

CHAPTER VI. RADICAL DISSENSIONS IN THE CHURCH: Trial of Phelps
and Whitmer--Conviction of Oliver Cowdery on Serious Charges--
Expulsion of Leading Members--Origin of the Danites--Suggested by
the Prophet at Kirtland--The Danite Constitution and Oath--Origin
of the Tithing System

CHAPTER VII. BEGINNING OF ACTIVE HOSTILITIES: Result of Smith's
Domineering Course--Jealousy caused by the Scattering of the
Saints--Founding of Adam-ondi-Ahman--Rigdon's Famous Salt
Sermon--Open Defiance of the Non-Mormons--The Mormons in
Politics--An Election Day Row--Arrests and Threats

CHAPTER VIII. A STATE OF CIVIL WAR: Calling out of the Militia--
Proposed Expulsion of the Mormons from Carroll County--The Siege
of De Witt--The Prophet's Defiance--Work of his "Fur Company"--
Gentile Retaliation--The Battle of Crooked River--The Massacre at
Hawn's Mills--Governor Boggs's "Order of Extermination"

CHAPTER IX. THE FINAL EXPULSION FROM THE STATE: General Lucas's
Terms to the Mormons--Surrender of Far West and Arrest of Mormon
Leaders--General Clark's Address to the Mormons--His Report to
the Governor--General Wilson's Picture of Adam-ondi-Ahman--Fate
of the Mormon Prisoners--Testimony at their Trial--Smith's
Escape--Migration to Illinois

BOOK IV. IN ILLINOIS

CHAPTER I. THE RECEPTION OF THE MORMONS: Incidents in the Early
History of the State--Defiant Lawlessness--Politicians the First
to Welcome the Newcomers--Landowners Among their First Friends

CHAPTER II. THE SETTLEMENT OF NAUVOO: Smith's Leadership
Illustrated--The Land Purchases--A Reconciliation of Conflicting
Revelations--Smith's Financiering--Shameful Misrepresentation to
Immigrants

CHAPTER III. THE BUILDING UP OF THE CITY: Unhealthfulness of its
Site--Rapid Growth of the Place--Early Pictures of it--Foreign
Proselyting--Why England was a Good Field--Method of Work there--
The Employment of Miracles--How the Converts were Sent Over

CHAPTER IV. THE NAUVOO CITY GOVERNMENT: Dr. Galland's
Suggestions--An Important Revelation--Church Buildings Ordered--
Subserviency of the Legislature--Dr. John C. Bennett's Efficient
Aid--Authority granted to the City Government--The Nauvoo Legion
--Bennett's Welcome--The Temple and How it was Constructed

CHAPTER V. THE MORMONS IN POLITICS: Smith's Decree against Van
Buren--How the Prophet swung the Mormon Vote back to the
Democrats--The Attempted Assassination of Governor Boggs--Smith's
Arrest and What Resulted from it--Defeat of a Whig Candidate by a
Revelation

CHAPTER VI. SMITH A CANDIDATE FOR PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES:
His Letter to Clay and Calhoun--Their Replies and Smith's Abusive
Wrath--The Prophet's Views on National Politics--Reform Measures
that He Proposed--His Nomination by the Church Paper--Experiences
of Missionaries sent out to Work Up his Campaign

CHAPTER VII. SOCIAL CONDITIONS IN NAUVOO: Character of its
Population--Treatment of Immigrant Converts--Some Disreputable
Gentile Neighbors--The Complaints of Mormon Stealings--
Significant Admissions--Mormon Protection against Outsiders--The
Whittlers

CHAPTER VIII. SMITH'S PICTURE OF HIMSELF AS AUTOCRAT: Glances at
his Autobiography--Difficulties Connected with the Building
Enterprises--A Plain Warning to Discontented Workmen--Trouble
with Rigdon--Pressed by his Creditors--Transaction with Remick--
Currency Law passed by his City Council--How Smith regarded
himself as a Prophet--His Latest Prophecies

CHAPTER IX. SMITH'S FALLING OUT WITH BENNETT AND HIGBEE:
Bennett's Expulsion and the Explanations concerning it--His
Attacks on his Late Companions--Charges against Nauvoo Morality--
The Case of Nancy Rigdon--The Higbee Incident

CHAPTER X. THE INSTITUTION OF POLYGAMY: An Examination of its
Origin--Its Conflict with the Teachings of the Mormon Bible and
Revelations--Early Loosening of the Marriage View under Smith--
Proof of the Practice of Polygamy in Nauvoo--Testimony of Eliza
R. Snow--How her Brother Lorenzo shook off his Bachelorhood--John
B. Lee as a Polygamist--Ebenezer Robinson's Statement--Objects of
"The Holy Order"--The Writing of the Revelation about Polygamy--
Its First Public Announcement--Sidney Rigdon's Innocence in the
Matter

CHAPTER XI. PUBLIC ANNOUNCEMENT OF THE DOCTRINE OF POLYGAMY: Text
of the Revelation--Orson Pratt's Presentation of it--The Doctrine
of Sealing--Necessity of Sealing as a Means of Salvation--Attempt
to show that Christ was a Polygamist

CHAPTER XII. THE SUPPRESSION OF THE EXPOSITOR: Dr. Foster and the
Laws--Rebellion against Smith's Teachings--Leading Features of
the Expositor--Trial of the Paper and its Editors before the City
Council--Destruction of the Press and Type--Smith's Proclamation

CHAPTER XIII. UPRISING OF THE NON-MORMONS: Resolutions Adopted at
Warsaw--Organizing and Arming of the People--Action of Governor
Ford--Smith's Arrest--Departure of the Prisoners for Carthage

CHAPTER XIV. THE MURDER OF THE PROPHET: Legal Proceedings after
his Arrival in Carthage--The Governor and the Militia--The
Carthage Jail and its Guards--Action of the Warsaw Regiment--The
Attack on the Jail and the Killing of the Prophet and his
Brother--Funeral Services in Nauvoo--Final Resting-place of the
Bodies--Result of Indictments of the Alleged Murderers--Review of
the Prophet's Character

CHAPTER XV. AFTER SMITH'S DEATH: The People in a Panic--The
Mormon Leaders for Peace--The Future Government of the Church--
Brigham Young's Victory--Rigdon's Trial before the High Council--
Verdict Against Him--His Church in Pennsylvania--His Ambition to
be the Head of a Distinct Church--A Visit from Heavenly
Messengers--His Last Days

CHAPTER XVI. RIVALRIES OVER THE SUCCESSION: The Claim of the
Prophet's Eldest Son--Trouble caused by the Prophet's Widow--The
Reorganized Church--Strang's Church in Wisconsin--Lyman Wight's
Colony in Texas

CHAPTER XVII. BRIGHAM YOUNG: His Early Years--His Initiation into
the Mormon Church--Fidelity to the Prophet--Embarrassments of his
Position as Head of the Church--His View about Revelations--Plan
for Home Mission Work--His Election as President

CHAPTER XVIII. RENEWED TROUBLE FOR THE MORMONS: More Charges of
Stealing--Significant Admission by Young--Business Plight of
Nauvoo--More Politics--Defiant Attitude of Mormon Leaders--An
Editor's View of Legal Rights--Stories about the Danites--Brother
William on Brigham Young--The "Burnings"--Sheriff Backenstos's
Proclamations--Lieutenant Worrell's Murder--Mormon Retaliation--
Appointment of the Douglas-Hardin Commission

CHAPTER XIX. THE EXPULSION OF THE MORMONS: General Hardin's
Proclamation--County Meetings of Non-Mormons--Their Ultimatum--
The Commission's Negotiations--Non-Mormon Convention at
Carthage--The Agreement for the Mormon Evacuation

CHAPTER XX. THE EVACUATION OF NAUVOO: Major Warren as a Peace
Preserver--The Mormons' Disposition of their Property--Departure
of the Leaders hastened by Indictments--Arrival of New Citizens--
Continued Hostility of the Non-Mormons--"The Last Mormon War"--
Panic in Nauvoo--Plan for a March on the Mormon City--Fruitless
Negotiations for a Compromise--The Advance against the City--The
Battle and its Results--Terms of Peace--The Final Evacuation
CHAPTER XXI. NAUVOO AFTER THE EXODUS: Arrival of Governor Ford--
The Final Work on the Temple--The "Endowment" Ceremony and Oath--
Futile Efforts to sell the Temple--Its Destruction by Fire and
Wind--The Nauvoo of To-day

BOOK V. THE MIGRATION TO UTAH

CHAPTER I. PREPARATIONS FOR THE LONG MARCH: Uncertainty of their
Destination--Explanations to the People--Disposition of Real and
Personal Property--Collection of Draft Animals--Activity in Wagon
and Tent Making--The Old Charge of Counterfeiting--Pecuniary
Sacrifices of the Mormons in Illinois

CHAPTER II. FROM THE MISSISSIPPI TO THE MISSOURI: The First
Crossings of the River--Camp Arrangements--Sufferings from the
Cold--The Story of the Westward March--Motley Make-up of the
Procession--Expedients for obtaining Supplies--Terrible
Sufferings of the Expelled Remnant--Privations at Mt. Pisgah

CHAPTER III. THE MORMON BATTALION: Extravagant Claims Regarding
it Disproved--General Kearney's Invitation--Source of the Initial
Suggestion--How the Mormons profited by the Organization--The
March to California--Colonel Thomas L. Kane's Visit to the
Missouri--His Intimate Relations with the Mormon Church

CHAPTER IV. THE CAMPS ON THE MISSOURI: Friendly Welcome of the
Mormons by the Indians--The Site of Winter Quarters--Busy Scenes
on the River Bank--Sickness and Death--The Building of a
Temporary City

CHAPTER V. THE PIONEER TRIP ACROSS THE PLAINS: Early Views of the
Unexplored West--The First White Visitors to that Country--
Organization of the Pioneer Mormon Band--Rules observed on the
March--Successful Buffalo Hunting--An Indian Alarm--Dearth of
Forage--Post-offices of the Plains--A Profitable Ferry

CHAPTER VI. FROM THE ROCKIES TO SALT LAKE VALLEY: No Definite
Stopping-place in View--Advice received on the Way--The Mormon
Expedition to California by Way of Cape Horn--Brannan's Fall from
Grace--Westward from Green River--Advance Explorers through a
Canon--First View of Great Salt Lake Valley--Irrigation and Crop
Planting begun

CHAPTER VII. THE FOLLOWING COMPANIES: Their Leaders and Make-up
--Young's Return Trip--Last Days on the Missouri--Scheme for a
Permanent Settlement in Iowa--Westward March of Large Companies

BOOK VI. IN UTAH

CHAPTER I. THE FOUNDING OF SALT LAKE CITY: Utah's First White
Explorers--First Mormon Services in the Valley--Young's View of
the Right to the Land--The First Buildings--Laying out the
City--Early Crop Disappointment--Discomforts of the First
Winter-- Primitive Dwelling-places--The Visitation of
Crickets--Glowing Accounts sent to England

CHAPTER II. PROGRESS OF THE SETTLEMENT: Schools and Manufactures
--How the City appeared in 1849--Sufferings during the Winter of
1908--Immigration checked by the Lack of Food--Aid supplied by
the California Goldseekers--Danger of a Mormon Exodus--Young's
Rebuke to his Gold-seeking Followers--The Crop Failure of 1855
and the Famine of the Following Winter--The Tabernacle and Temple

CHAPTER III. THE FOREIGN IMMIGRATION TO UTAH: The Commercial
joint Stock Company Scandal--Deceptive Statements made to Foreign
Converts--John Taylor's Address to the Saints in Great Britain--
Petition to Queen Victoria--Mormon Duplicity illustrated--Young's
Advice to Emigrants--Glowing Pictures of Salt Lake Valley--The
Perpetual Emigrating Fund--Details of the Emigration System

CHAPTER IV. THE HAND-CART TRAGEDY: Young's Scheme for Economy--
His Responsibility for the Hand-cart Experiment--Details of the
Arrangement--Delays at Iowa City--Unheeded Warnings--Privations
by the Way--Early Lack of Provisions--Suffering caused by
Insufficient Clothing--Deaths of the Old and Infirm--Horrors of
the Camps in the Mountains--Frozen Corpses found at Daybreak--
Sufferings of a Party at Devil's Gate--Young's Attempt to shift
the Responsibility

CHAPTER V. EARLY POLITICAL HISTORY: The Aim at Independence--
First Local Government--Adoption of a Constitution for the State
of Deseret--Babbitt's Application for Admission as a Delegate--
Memorial opposing his Claim--His Rejection--The Territorial
Government

CHAPTER VI. BRIGHAM YOUNG'S DESPOTISM: Causes that contributed to
its Success--Helplessness of the New-comers from Europe--
Influence of Superstition--Young's Treatment of the Gladdenites--
His Appropriation of Property Laws passed by the Mormon
Legislature--Bishops as Ward Magistrates--A Mormon Currency and
Alphabet--What Emigrants to California learned about Mormon
Justice

CHAPTER VII. THE "REFORMATION": Young's Disclosures about the
Character of his Flock--The Stealing from One Another--The Threat
about "Laying Judgment to the Line"--Plain Declarations about the
taking of Human Lives--First Steps of the "Reformation"--An
Inquisition and Catechism--An Embarrassing Confession--Warning to
those who would leave the Valley

CHAPTER VIII. SOME CHURCH-INSPIRED MURDERS: The Story of the
Parrishes--Carrying out of a Cold-blooded Plot--Judge
Cradlebaugh's Effort to convict the Murderers--The Tragedy of the
Aikin Party--The Story of Frederick Loba's Escape

CHAPTER IX. BLOOD ATONEMENT: Early Intimations concerning it--
Jedediah M. Grant's Explanation of Human Sacrifices--Brigham
Young's Definition of "Laying Judgment to the Line"--Two of the
Sacrifices described--"The Affair at San Pete"

CHAPTER X. TERRITORIAL GOVERNMENT: Brigham Young the First
Governor--Colonel Kane's Part in his Appointment--Kane's False
Statements to President Fillmore--Welcome to the Non-Mormon
Officers--Their Early Information about Young's
Influence--Pioneer Anniversary Speeches--Judge Brocchus's Offence
to the Mormons-- Young's Threatening and Abusive Reply--The
Judge's Alarm about his Personal Safety--Return of the Non-Mormon
Federal Officers to Washington--Young's Defence

CHAPTER XI. MORMON TREATMENT OF FEDERAL OFFICERS: A Territorial
Election Law--Why Colonel Steptoe declined the Governorship--
Young's Assertion of his Authority--His Reappointment--Two Bad
Judicial Appointments--Judge Stiles's Trouble about the
Marshals-- Burning of his Books and Papers--How Judge Drummond's
Attempt at Independence was foiled--The Mormon View of Land
Titles--Hostile Attitude toward the Government Surveyors--Reports
of the Indian Agents

CHAPTER XII. THE MORMON "WAR": What the Federal Authorities had
learned about Mormonism--Declaration of the Republican National
Convention of 1856--Striking Speech by Stephen A. Douglas--
Alfred Cumming appointed Governor with a New Set of Judges--
Statement in the President's Message--Employment of a Military
Force--The Kimball Mail Contract--Organization of the Troops--
General Harney's Letter of Instruction--Threats against the
Advancing Foe--Mobilization of the Nauvoo Legion--Captain Van
Vliet's Mission to Salt Lake City--Young's Defiance of the
Government--His Proclamation to the Citizens of Utah--"General"
Wells's Order to his Officers--Capture and Burning of a
Government Train--Colonel Alexander's Futile March--Colonel
Johnston's Advance from Fort Laramie--Harrowing Experience of
Lieutenant Colonel Cooke's Command

CHAPTER XIII. THE MORMON PURPOSE: Correspondence between Colonel
Alexander and Brigham Young--Illustration of Young's Vituperative
Powers--John Taylor's Threat--Incendiary Teachings in Salt Lake
City--A Warning to Saints who would Desert--The Army's Winter
Camp --Proclamation by Governor Cumming--Judge Eckles's
Court--Futile Preparations at Washington

CHAPTER XIV. COLONEL KANE'S MISSION: His Wily Proposition to
President Buchanan--His Credentials from the President--Arrival
in California under an Assumed Name--Visit to Camp Scott--General
Johnston ignored--Reasons why both the Government and the Mormons
desired Peace--Kane's Success with Governor Cumming--The
Governor's Departure for Salt Lake City--Deceptions practiced on
him in Echo Canon--His Reception in the City--Playing into Mormon
Hands--The Governor's Introduction to the People--Exodus of
Mormons begun

CHAPTER XV. THE PEACE COMMISSION: President Buchanan's
Volte-face--A Proclamation of Pardon--Instructions to Two Peace
Commissioners--Chagrin of the Military--Governor Cumming's
Misrepresentations--Conferences between the Commissioners and
Young--Brother Dunbar's Singing of "Zion"--Young's Method of
Surrender--Judge Eckles on Plural Marriages--The Terms made with
the Mormons--March of the Federal Troops to the Deserted City--
Return of the Mormons to their Homes

CHAPTER XVI. THE MOUNTAIN MEADOWS MASSACRE: Circumstances
Indicative of Mormon Official Responsibility--The Make-up of the
Arkansas Party--Motives for Mormon Hostility to them--Parley P.
Pratt's Shooting in Arkansas--Refusal of Food Supplies to the
Party after leaving Salt Lake City--Their Plight before they were
attacked--Successful Measures for Defence--Disarrangement of the
Mormon Plans--John D. Lee's Treacherous Mission--Pitiless
Slaughter of Men, Women, and Children--Testimony given at Lee's
Trial--The Plundering of the Dead--Lee's Account of the Planning
of the Massacre--Responsibility of High Church Officers--Lee's
Report to Brigham Young and Brigham's Instructions to him--The
Disclosures by "Argus"--Lee's Execution and Last Words

CHAPTER XVII. AFTER THE "WAR": Judge Cradlebaugh's Attempts to
enforce the Law--Investigation of the Mountain Meadows Massacre--
Governor Cumming's Objections to the Use of Troops to assist the
Court--A Washington Decision in Favor of Young's Authority--The
Story of a Counterfeit Plate--Five Thousand Men under Arms to
protect Young from Arrest--Sudden Departure of Cumming--Governor
Dawson's Brief Term--His Shocking Treatment at Mormon Hands--
Governor Harding's Administration--The Morrisite Tragedy

CHAPTER XVIII. ATTITUDE OF THE MORMONS DURING THE SOUTHERN
REBELLION: Press and Pulpit Utterances--Arrival of Colonel
Connor's Force--His March through Salt Lake City to Camp Douglas
--Governor Harding's Plain Message to the Legislature--Mormon
Retaliation--The Governor and Two Judges requested to leave the
Territory--Their Spirited Replies--How Young escaped Arrest by
Colonel Connor's Force--Another Yielding to Mormon Power at
Washington

CHAPTER XIX. EASTERN VISITORS To SALT LAKE CITY: Schuyler
Colfax's Interviews with Young--Samuel Bowles's Praise of the
Mormons and his Speedy Correction of his Views--Repudiation of
Colfax's Plan to drop Polygamy--Two more Utah Murders--Colfax's
Second Visit

CHAPTER XX. GENTILE IRRUPTION AND MORMON SCHISM: Young's Jealousy
of Gentile Merchants--Organization of the Zion Cooperative
Mercantile Institution--Inception of the "New Movement"--Its
Leaders and Objects--The Peep o' Day and the Utah Magazine--
Articles that aroused Young's Hostility--Visit of the Prophet's
Sons to Salt Lake City--Trial and Excommunication of Godbe and
Harrison--Results of the "New Movement".

CHAPTER XXI. THE LAST YEARS OF BRIGHAM YOUNG: New Governors--
Shaffer's Rebuke to the Nauvoo Legion--Conflict with the New
Judges--Brigham Young and Others indicted--Young's Temporary
Imprisonment--A Supreme Court Decision in Favor of the Mormon
Marshal and Attorney--Outside Influences affecting Utah Affairs--
Grant's Special Message to Congress--Failure of the Frelinghuysen
Bill in the House--Signing of the Poland Bill--Ann Eliza Young's
Suit for Divorce--The Later Governors

CHAPTER XXII. BRIGHAM YOUNG'S DEATH: His Character--Explanation
of his Dictatorial Power--Exaggerated Views of his Executive
Ability--Overestimations by Contemporaries--Young's Wealth and
how he acquired it--His Revenue from Divorces--Unrestrained
Control of the Church Property--His Will--Suit against his
Executors--List of his Wives--His Houses in Salt Lake City

CHAPTER XXIII. SOCIAL ASPECTS OF POLYGAMY: Varied Provisions for
Plural Wives--Home Accommodations of the Leaders--Horace
Greeley's Observation about Woman's Place in Utah--Meaus of
overcoming Female Jealousy--Young and Grant on the Unhappiness of
Mormon Wives--Acceptance of Fanatical Teachings by Women--Kimball
on a Fair Division of the Converts--Church Influence in Behalf of
Plural Marriages--A Prussian Convert's Dilemma--President
Cleveland on the Evils of Polygamy

CHAPTER XXIV. THE FIGHT AGAINST POLYGAMY: First Measures
introduced in Congress--The Act of 1862--The Cullom Bill of 1869
--Its Failure in the Senate--The United States Supreme Court
Decision regarding Polygamy--Conviction of John Miles--Appeal of
Women of Salt Lake City to Mrs. Hayes and the Women of the United
States--President Hayes's Drastic Recommendation to Congress--
Recommendations of Presidents Garfield and Arthur--Passage of the
Edmunds Bill--Its Provisions--The Edmunds-Tucker Amendment--
Appointment of the Utah Commission--Determined Opposition of the
Mormon Church--Placing their Flags at Half Mast--Convictions
under the New Law--Leaders in Hiding or in Exile--Mormon Honors
for those who took their Punishment--Congress asked to
disfranchise All Polygamists--The Mormon Church brought to Bay--
Woodruff's Famous Proclamation--How it was explained to the
Church--The Roberts Case and the Vetoed Act of 1901--How
Statehood came

CHAPTER XXV. THE MORMONISM OF TO-DAY: Future Place of the Church
in American History--Main Points of the Mormon Political Policy--
Unbroken Power of the Priesthood--Fidelity of the Younger
Members--Extension of the Membership over Adjoining
States--Mission Work at Home and Abroad--Decreased Foreign
Membership--Effect of False Promises to Converts--The Settlements
in Canada and Mexico --Polygamy still a Living Doctrine--Reasons
for its Hold on the Church--Its Appeal to the Female
Members--Importance of a Federal Constitutional Amendment
forbidding Polygamous Marriages--Scope of the Mormon Political
Ambition



THE STORY OF THE MORMONS

BOOK I. THE MORMON ORIGIN

CHAPTER I. FACILITY OF HUMAN BELIEF

Summing up his observations of the Mormons as he found them in
Utah while secretary of the territory, five years after their
removal to the Great Salt Lake valley, B. G. Ferris wrote, "The
real miracle [of their success] consists in so large a body of
men and women, in a civilized land, and in the nineteenth
century, being brought under, governed, and controlled by such
gross religious imposture. "This statement presents, in concise
form, the general view of the surprising features of the success
of the Mormon leaders, in forming, augmenting, and keeping
together their flock; but it is a mistaken view. To accept it
would be to concede that, in a highly civilized nation like ours,
and in so late a century, the acceptance of religious beliefs
which, to the nonbelievers, seem gross superstitions, is so
unusual that it may be classed with the miraculous. Investigation
easily disproves this.

It is true that the effrontery which has characterized Mormonism
from the start has been most daring. Its founder, a lad of low
birth, very limited education, and uncertain morals; its
beginnings so near burlesque that they drew down upon its
originators the scoff of their neighbors,--the organization
increased its membership as it was driven from one state to
another, building up at last in an untried wilderness a
population that has steadily augmented its wealth and numbers;
doggedly defending its right to practise its peculiar beliefs and
obey only the officers of the church, even when its course in
this respect has brought it in conflict with the government of
the United States. Professing only a desire to be let alone, it
promulgated in polygamy a doctrine that was in conflict with the
moral sentiment of the Christian world, making its practice not
only a privilege, but a part of the religious duty of its
members. When, in recent years, Congress legislated against this
practice, the church fought for its peculiar institution to the
last, its leading members accepting exile and imprisonment; and
only the certainty of continued exclusion from the rights of
citizenship, and the hopelessness of securing the long-desired
prize of statehood for Utah, finally induced the church to bow to
the inevitable, and to announce a form of release for its members
from the duty of marrying more wives than one. Aside from this
concession, the Mormon church is to-day as autocratic in its hold
on its members, as aggressive in its proselyting, and as earnest
in maintaining its individual religious and political power, as
it has been in any previous time in its history.

In its material aspects we must concede to the Mormon church
organization a remarkable success; to Joseph Smith, Jr., a
leadership which would brook no rival; to Brigham Young the
maintenance of an autocratic authority which enabled him to hold
together and enlarge his church far beyond the limits that would
have been deemed possible when they set out across the plains
with all their possessions in their wagons. But it is no more
surprising that the Mormons succeeded in establishing their
church in the United States than it would have been if they had
been equally successful in South America; no more surprising that
this success should have been won in the nineteenth century than
it would have been to record it in the twelfth.

In studying questions of this kind, we are, in the first place,
entirely too apt to ignore the fact that man, while comparatively
a "superior being," is in simple fact one species of the animals
that are found upon the earth; and that, as a species, he has
traits which distinguish him characteristically just as certain
well-known traits characterize those animals that we designate as
"lower." If a traveller from the Sun should print his
observations of the inhabitants of the different planets, he
would have to say of those of the Earth something like this: "One
of Man's leading traits is what is known as belief. He is a
credulous creature, and is especially susceptible to appeals to
his credulity in regard to matters affecting his existence after
death." Whatever explanation we may accept of the origin of the
conception by this animal of his soul-existence, and of the
evolution of shadowy beliefs into religious systems, we must
concede that Man is possessed of a tendency to worship something,
--a recognition, at least, of a higher power with which it
behooves him to be on friendly terms,--and so long as the
absolute correctness of any one belief or doctrine cannot be
actually proved to him, he is constantly ready to inquire into,
and perhaps give credence to, new doctrines that are presented
for his consideration. The acceptance by Man of novelties in the
way of religions is a characteristic that has marked his species
ever since its record has been preserved. According to Max
Matter, "every religion began simply as a matter of reason, and
from this drifted into a superstition"; that is, into what
non-believers in the new doctrine characterize as a superstition.
Whenever one of these driftings has found a lodgement, there has
been planted a new sect. There has never been a year in the
Christian era when there have not been believers ready to accept
any doctrine offered to them in the name of religion. As
Shakespeare expresses it, in the words of Bassanio:--

"In religion, What damned error but some sober brow Will bless
it, and approve it with a text, Hiding the grossness with fair
ornament?"

In glancing at the cause of this unchanged susceptibility to
religious credulity--unchanged while the world has been making
such strides in the acquisition of exact information--we may find
a summing up of the situation in Macaulay's blunt declaration
that "natural theology is not a progressive science; a Christian
of the fifth century with a Bible is on a par with a Christian of
the nineteenth century with a Bible. The "orthodox" believer in
that Bible can only seek a better understanding of it by studying
it himself and accepting the deductions of other students.
Nothing, as the centuries have passed, has been added to his
definite knowledge of his God or his own future existence. When,
therefore, some one, like a Swedenborg or a Joseph Smith, appears
with an announcement of an addition to the information on this
subject, obtained by direct revelation from on high, he supplies
one of the greatest desiderata that man is conscious of, and we
ought, perhaps, to wonder that his followers are not so numerous,
but so few. Progress in medical science would no longer permit
any body like the College of the Physicians of London to
recognize curative value in the skull of a person who had met
with a violent death, as it did in the seventeenth century; but
the physician of the seventeenth century with a pharmacopoeia was
not "on a par with" a physician of the nineteenth century with a
pharmacopoeia.

Nor has man changed in his mental susceptibilities as the
centuries have advanced. It is a failure to recognize this fact
which leads observers like Ferris to find it so marvellous that a
belief like Mormonism should succeed in the nineteenth century.
Draper's studies of man's intellectual development led him to
declare that "man has ever been the same in his modes of thought
and motives of action, "and to assert his purpose to" judge past
occurrences in the same way as those of our own time."* So
Macaulay refused to accept the doctrine that "the world is
constantly becoming more and more enlightened, "asserting that
"the human mind, instead of marching, merely marks time. "Nothing
offers stronger confirmation of the correctness of these views
than the history of religious beliefs, and the teachings
connected therewith since the death of Christ.

* "Intellectual Development of Europe," Vol. II, Chap. 3.


The chain of these beliefs and teachings--including in the list
only those which offer the boldest challenge to a sane man's
credulity--is uninterrupted down to our own day. A few of them
may be mentioned by way of illustration. In one century we find
Spanish priests demanding the suppression of the opera on the
ground that this form of entertainment caused a drought, and a
Pope issuing a bull against men and women having sexual
intercourse with fiends. In another, we find an English tailor,
unsuccessfully, allotting endless torments to all who would not
accept his declaration that God was only six feet in height, at
the same time that George Fox, who was successful in establishing
the Quaker sect, denounced as unchristian adoration of Janus and
Woden, any mention of a month as January or a day as Wednesday.
Luther, the Protestant pioneer, believed that he had personal
conferences with the devil; Wesley, the founder of Methodism,
declared that "the giving up of (belief) in witchcraft is, in
effect, giving up the Bible. "Education and mental training have
had no influence in shaping the declarations of the leaders of
new religious sects.* The learned scientist, Swedenborg, told of
seeing the Virgin Mary dressed in blue satin, and of spirits
wearing hats, just as confidently as the ignorant Joseph Smith,
Jr., described his angel as "a tall, slim, well-built, handsome
man, with a bright pillar upon his head."

* "The splendid gifts which make a seer are usually found among
those whom society calls 'common or unclean.' These brutish
beings are the chosen vessels in whom God has poured the elixirs
which amaze humanity. Such beings have furnished the prophets,
the St. Peters, the hermits of history." BALZAC, in "Cousin
Pons."


The readiness with which even believers so strictly taught as are
the Jews can be led astray by the announcement of a new teacher
divinely inspired, is illustrated in the stories of their many
false Messiahs. One illustration of this--from the pen of
Zangwill --may be given:--

"From all the lands of the Exile, crowds of the devout came to do
him homage and tender allegiance--Turkish Jews with red fez or
saffron-yellow turban; Jerusalem Jews in striped cotton gowns and
soft felt hats; Polish Jews with foxskin caps and long caftans;
sallow German Jews, gigantic Russian Jews, highbred Spanish Jews;
and with them often their wives and daughters-- Jerusalem
Jewesses with blue shirts and head-veils, Egyptian Jewesses with
sweeping robes and black head-shawls, Jewesses from Ashdod and
Gaza, with white visors fringed with gold coins; Polish Jewesses
with glossy wigs; Syrian Jewesses with eyelashes black as though
lined with kohl; fat Jewesses from Tunis, with clinging breeches
interwoven with gold and silver."

This homage to a man who turned Turk, and became a doorkeeper of
the Sultan, to save himself from torture and death!

Savagery and civilization meet on this plane of religious
credulity. The Indians of Canada believed not more implicitly in
the demons who howled all over the Isles of Demons, than did the
early French sailors and the priests whose protection the latter
asked. The Jesuit priests of the seventeenth century accepted,
and impressed upon their white followers in New France, belief in
miracles which made a greater demand on credulity than did any of
the exactions of the Indian medicine man. That the head of a
white man, which the Iroquois carried to their village, spoke to
them and scolded them for their perfidy, "found believers among
the most intelligent men of the colony, "just as did the story of
the conversion of a sick Huguenot immigrant, with whose gruel a
Mother secretly mixed a little of the powdered bone of a Jesuit
martyr.* And French Canada is to-day as "orthodox" in its belief
in miracles as was the Canada of the seventeenth century. The
church of St. Anne de Beaupre, below Quebec, attracts thousands
annually, and is piled with the crutches which the miraculously
cured have cast aside. Masses were said in 1899 in the church of
Notre Dame de Bonsecours at Montreal, at the expense of a pilots'
association, to ward off wrecks in the treacherous St. Lawrence;
and in the near-by provinces there were religious processions to
check the attacks of caterpillars in the orchards.

* Parkman's "Old Regime in Canada."


Nor need we go to Catholic Quebec for modern illustrations of
this kind of faith. "Bareheaded people stood out upon the corner
in East 113th Street yesterday afternoon, "said a New York City
newspaper of December 18, 1898, "because they were unable to get
into the church of Our Lady Queen of Angels, where a relic of St.
Anthony of Padua was exposed for veneration. "Describing a
service in the church of St. Jean Baptiste in East 77th Street,
New York, where a relic alleged to be a piece of a bone of the
mother of the Virgin was exposed, a newspaper of that city, on
July 24th, 1901, said: "There were five hundred persons, by
actual count, in and around the crypt chapel of St. Anne when
afternoon service stopped the rush of the sick and crippled at
4.30 o'clock yesterday. There were many more at the 8 o'clock
evening Mass. What did these people seek at the shrine? Only the
favor of St. Anne and a kiss and touch of the casket that, by
church authority, contains bone of her body. "France has to-day
its Grotto of Lourdes, Wales its St. Winefride's Well, Mexico its
"wonder-working doll" that makes the sick well and the childless
mothers, and Moscow its "wonder-working picture of the Mother of
God," before which the Czar prostrates himself.

Not in recent years has the appetite for some novelty on which to
fasten belief been more manifest in the United States than it was
at the close of the nineteenth century. Old beliefs found new
teachers, and promulgators of new ideas found followers.
Instructors in Brahminism attracted considerable attention. A
"Chapter of the College of Divine Sciences and Realization"
instituted a revival of Druid sun-adoration on the shores of Lake
Michigan. An organization has been formed of believers in the
One-Over-At-Acre, a Persian who claimed to be the forerunner of
the Millennium, and in whom, as Christ, it is said that more than
three thousand persons in this country believe. We have among us
also Jaorelites, who believe in the near date of the end of the
world, and that they must make their ascent to heaven from a
mountain in Scotland. The hold which the form of belief called
Christian Science has obtained upon people of education and
culture needs only be referred to. Along with this have come the
"divine healers," gaining patients in circles where it would be
thought impossible for them to obtain even consideration, and one
of them securing a clientage in a Western city which has enabled
him to establish there a church of his own.

In fact, instead of finding in enlightened countries like the
United States and England a poor field for the dissemination of
new beliefs, the whole school of revealers find there their best
opportunities. Discussing this susceptibility, Aliene Gorren, in
her "Anglo-Saxons and Others," reaches this conclusion: "Nowhere
are so many persons of sound intelligence in all practical
affairs so easily led to follow after crazy seers and seeresses
as in England and the United States. The truth is that the mind
of man refuses to be shut out absolutely from the world of the
higher abstractions, and that, if it may not make its way thither
under proper guidance, it will set off even at the tail of the
first ragged street procession that passes."

The "real miracle" in Mormonism, then,--the wonderful feature of
its success,--is to be sought, not in the fact that it has been
able to attract believers in a new prophet, and to find them at
this date and in this country, but in its success in establishing
and keeping together in a republic like ours a membership who
acknowledge its supreme authority in politics as well as in
religion, and who form a distinct organization which does not
conceal its purpose to rule over the whole nation. Had Mormonism
confined itself to its religious teachings, and been preached
only to those who sought its instruction, instead of beating up
the world for recruits and conveying them to its home, the Mormon
church would probably to-day be attracting as little attention as
do the Harmonists of Pennsylvania.



CHAPTER II. THE SMITH FAMILY

Among the families who settled in Ontario County, New York, in
1816, was that of one Joseph Smith. It consisted of himself, his
wife, and nine children. The fourth of these children, Joseph
Smith, Jr., became the Mormon prophet.

The Smiths are said to have been of Scotch ancestry. It was the
mother, however, who exercised the larger influence on her son's
life, and she has left very minute details of her own and her
father's family.* Her father, Solomon Mack, was a native of Lyme,
Connecticut. The daughter Lucy, who became Mrs. Joseph Smith,
Sr., was born in Gilsum, Cheshire County, New Hampshire, on July
8, 1776. Mr. Mack was remembered as a feeble old man, who rode
around the country on horseback, using a woman's saddle, and
selling his own autobiography. The "tramp" of those early days
often offered an autobiography, or what passed for one, and, as
books were then rare, if he could say that it contained an
account of actual adventures in the recent wars, he was certain
to find purchasers.

* "Biographical Sketches of Joseph Smith and his Progenitors for
Many Generations," Lucy Smith.


One of the few copies of this book in existence lies before me.
It was printed at the author's expense about the year 1810. It is
wholly without interest as a narrative, telling of the poverty of
his parents, how he was bound, when four years old, to a farmer
who gave him no education and worked him like a slave; gives some
of his experiences in the campaigns against the French and
Indians in northern New York and in the war of the Revolution,
when he was in turn teamster, sutler, and privateer; describes
with minute detail many ordinary illnesses and accidents that
befell him; and closes with a recital of his religious awakening,
which was deferred until his seventy-sixth year, while he was
suffering with rheumatism. At that time it seemed to him that he
several times "saw a bright light in a dark night," and thought
he heard a voice calling to him. Twenty-two of the forty-eight
duodecimo pages that the book contains are devoted to hymns
"composed," the title-page says, "on the death of several of his
relatives," not all by himself. One of these may be quoted
entire:--

"My friends, I am on the ocean, So sweetly do I sail; Jesus is my
portion, He's given me a pleasant gale.

"The bruises sore, In harbor soon I'll be, And see my redeemer
there That died for you and me."

Mrs. Smith's family seem to have had a natural tendency to belief
in revelations. Her eldest brother, Jason, became a "Seeker"; the
"Seekers" of that day believed that the devout of their times
could, through prayer and faith, secure the "gifts" of the Gospel
which were granted to the ancient apostles.* He was one of the
early believers in faith-cure, and was, we are told, himself
cured by that means in 1835. One of Lucy's sisters had a
miraculous recovery from illness. After being an invalid for two
years she was "borne away to the world of spirits, "where she saw
the Saviour and received a message from Him for her earthly
friends.

* A sect called "Seekers," who arose in 1645, taught, like the
Mormons, that the Scriptures are defective, the true church lost,
and miracles necessary to faith.


Lucy herself came very exactly under the description given by
Ruth McEnery Stuart of one of her negro characters: "Duke's
mother was of the slighter intelligences, and hence much given to
convictions. Knowing few things, she 'believed in' a great many."
Lucy Smith had neither education nor natural intelligence that
would interfere with such "beliefs" as came to her from family
tradition, from her own literal interpretations of the Bible, or
from the workings of her imagination. She tells us that after her
marriage, when very ill, she made a covenant with God that she
would serve him if her recovery was granted; thereupon she heard
a voice giving her assurance that her prayer would be answered,
and she was better the next morning. Later, when anxious for the
safety of her husband's soul, she prayed in a grove (most of the
early Mormons' prayers were made in the woods), and saw a vision
indicating his coming conversion; later still, in Vermont, a
daughter was restored to health by her parent's prayers.

According to Mrs. Smith's account of their life in Vermont, they
were married on January 24, 1796, at Tunbridge, but soon moved to
Randolph, where Smith was engaged in "merchandise, "keeping a
store. Learning of the demand for crystallized ginseng in China,
he invested money in that product and made a shipment, but it
proved unprofitable, and, having in this way lost most of his
money, they moved back to a farm at Tunbridge. Thence they moved
to Royalton, and in a few months to Sharon, where, on December
23, 1805, Joseph Smith, Jr., their fourth child, was born.* Again
they moved to Tunbridge, and then back to Royalton (all these
places in Vermont). From there they went to Lebanon, New
Hampshire, thence to Norwich, Vermont, still "farming" without
success, until, after three years of crop failure, they decided
to move to New York State, arriving there in the summer of 1816.

* There is equally good authority for placing the house in which
Smith was born across the line in Royalton.


Less prejudiced testimony gives an even less favorable view than
this of the elder Smith's business career in Vermont. Judge
Daniel Woodward, of the county court of Windsor, Vermont, near
whose father's farm the Smiths lived, says that the elder Smith
while living there was a hunter for Captain Kidd's treasure, and
that" he also became implicated with one Jack Downing in
counterfeiting money, but turned state's evidence and escaped the
penalty."* He had in earlier life been a Universalist, but
afterward became a Methodist. His spiritual welfare gave his wife
much concern, but although he had "two visions "while living in
Vermont, she did not accept his change of heart. She admits,
however, that after their removal to New York her husband obeyed
the scriptural injunction, "your old men shall dream dreams," and
she mentions several of these dreams, the latest in 1819, giving
the particulars of some of them. One sample of these will
suffice. The dreamer found himself in a beautiful garden, with
wide walks and a main walk running through the centre." On each
side of this was a richly carved seat, and on each seat were
placed six wooden images, each of which was the size of a very
large man. When I came to the first image on the right side it
arose, bowed to me with much deference. I then turned to the one
which sat opposite to me, on the left side, and it arose and
bowed to me in the same manner as the first. I continued turning
first to the right and then to the left until the whole twelve
had made the obeisance, after which I was entirely healed (of a
lameness from which he then was suffering). I then asked my guide
the meaning of all this, but I awoke before I received an
answer."

* Historical Magazine, 1870.


A similar wakefulness always manifested itself at the critical
moment in these dreams. What the world lost by this insomnia of
the dreamer the world will never know.

The Smiths' first residence in New York State was in the village
of Palmyra. There the father displayed a sign, "Cake and Beer
Shop, "selling" gingerbread, pies, boiled eggs, root beer, and
other like notions, "and he and his sons did odd jobs, gardening,
harvesting, and well-digging, when they could get them.*

* Tucker's "Origin, Rise, and Progress of Mormonism," p. 12.


They were very poor, and Mrs. Smith added to their income by
painting oilcloth table covers. After a residence of three years
and a half in Palmyra, the family took possession of a piece of
land two miles south of that place, on the border of Manchester.
They had no title to it, but as the owners were nonresident
minors they were not disturbed. There they put up a little log
house, with two rooms on the ground floor and two in the attic,
which sheltered them all. Later, the elder Smith contracted to
buy the property and erected a farmhouse on it; but he never
completed his title to it.

While classing themselves as farmers, the Smiths were regarded by
their neighbors as shiftless and untrustworthy. They sold
cordwood, vegetables, brooms of their own manufacture, and maple
sugar, continuing to vend cakes in the village when any special
occasion attracted a crowd. It may be remarked here that, while
Ontario County, New York, was regarded as "out West" by seaboard
and New England people in 1830, its population was then almost as
large as it is to-day (having 40,288 inhabitants according to the
census of 1830 and 48,453 according to the census of 1890). The
father and several of the boys could not read, and a good deal of
the time of the younger sons was spent in hunting, fishing, and
lounging around the village.

The son Joseph did not rise above the social standing of his
brothers. The best that a Mormon biographer, Orson Pratt, could
say of him as a youth was that "He could read without much
difficulty, and write a very imperfect hand, and had a very
limited understanding of the elementary rules of arithmetic.
These were his highest and only attainments, while the rest of
those branches so universally taught in the common schools
throughout the United States were entirely unknown to him."* He
was "Joe Smith" to every one. Among the younger people he served
as a butt for jokes, and we are told that the boys who bought the
cakes that he peddled used to pay him in pewter twoshilling
pieces, and that when he called at the Palmyra Register office
for his father's weekly paper, the youngsters in the press room
thought it fun to blacken his face with the ink balls.

* "Origin, Rise, and Progress of Mormonism," p. 16.


Here are two pictures of the young man drawn by persons who saw
him constantly in the days of his vagabondage. The first is from
Mr. Tucker's book:--

"At this period in the life and career of Joseph Smith, Jr., or
'Joe Smith,' as he was universally named, and the Smith family,
they were popularly regarded as an illiterate, whiskey-drinking,
shiftless, irreligious race of people--the first named, the chief
subject of this biography, being unanimously voted the laziest
and most worthless of the generation. From the age of twelve to
twenty years he is distinctly remembered as a dull-eyed,
flaxenhaired, prevaricating boy noted only for his indolent and
vagabondish character, and his habits of exaggeration and
untruthfulness. Taciturnity was among his characteristic
idiosyncrasies, and he seldom spoke to any one outside of his
intimate associates, except when first addressed by another; and
then, by reason of his extravagancies of statement, his word was
received with the least confidence by those who knew him best. He
could utter the most palpable exaggeration or marvellous
absurdity with the utmost apparent gravity. He nevertheless
evidenced the rapid development of a thinking, plodding,
evilbrewing mental composition--largely given to inventions of
low cunning, schemes of mischief and deception, and false and
mysterious pretensions. In his moral phrenology the professor
might have marked the organ of secretiveness as very large, and
that of conscientiousness omitted. He was, however, proverbially
good natured, very rarely, if ever, indulging in any combative
spirit toward any one, whatever might be the provocation, and yet
was never known to laugh. Albeit, he seemed to be the pride of
his indulgent father, who has been heard to boast of him as the
'genus of the family,' quoting his own expression."*

* "Remarkable Visions."


The second (drawn a little later) is by Daniel Hendrix, a
resident of Palmyra, New York, at the time of which he speaks,
and an assistant in setting the type and reading the proof of the
Mormon Bible:--

"Every one knew him as Joe Smith. He had lived in Palmyra a few
years previous to my going there from Rochester. Joe was the most
ragged, lazy fellow in the place, and that is saying a good deal.
He was about twenty-five years old. I can see him now in my
mind's eye, with his torn and patched trousers held to his form
by a pair of suspenders made out of sheeting, with his calico
shirt as dirty and black as the earth, and his uncombed hair
sticking through the holes in his old battered hat. In winter I
used to pity him, for his shoes were so old and worn out that he
must have suffered in the snow and slush; yet Joe had a jovial,
easy, don't-care way about him that made him a lot of warm
friends. He was a good talker, and would have made a fine stump
speaker if he had had the training. He was known among the young
men I associated with as a romancer of the first water. I never
knew so ignorant a man as Joe was to have such a fertile
imagination. He never could tell a common occurrence in his daily
life without embellishing the story with his imagination; yet I
remember that he was grieved one day when old Parson Reed told
Joe that he was going to hell for his lying habits."*

* San Jacinto, California, letter of February 2, 1897, to the St.
Louis Globe-Democrat.


To this testimony may be added the following declarations,
published in 1833, the year in which a mob drove the Mormons out
of Jackson County, Missouri. The first was signed by eleven of
the most prominent citizens of Manchester, New York, and the
second by sixty-two residents of Palmyra:--

"We, the undersigned, being personally acquainted with the family
of Joseph Smith, Sr., with whom the Gold Bible, so called,
originated, state: That they were not only a lazy, indolent set
of men, but also intemperate, and their word was not to be
depended upon; and that we are truly glad to dispense with their
society."

"We, the undersigned, have been acquainted with the Smith family
for a number of years, while they resided near this place, and we
have no hesitation in saying that we consider them destitute of
that moral character which ought to entitle them to the
confidence of any community. They were particularly famous for
visionary projects; spent much of their time in digging for money
which they pretended was hid in the earth, and to this day large
excavations may be seen in the earth, not far from their
residence, where they used to spend their time in digging for
hidden treasures. Joseph Smith, Sr., and his son Joseph were, in
particular, considered entirely destitute of moral character, and
addicted to vicious habits."*

* Howe's "Mormonism Unveiled," p. 261.


Finally may be quoted the following affidavit of Parley Chase:--

"Manchester, New York, December 2, 1833. I was acquainted with
the family of Joseph Smith, Sr., both before and since they
became Mormons, and feel free to state that not one of the male
members of the Smith family were entitled to any credit
whatsoever. They were lazy, intemperate, and worthless men, very
much addicted to lying. In this they frequently boasted their
skill. Digging for money was their principal employment. In
regard to their Gold Bible speculation, they scarcely ever told
two stories alike. The Mormon Bible is said to be a revelation
from God, through Joseph Smith, Jr., his Prophet, and this same
Joseph Smith, Jr., to my knowledge, bore the reputation among his
neighbors of being a liar."*

* Howe's "Mormonism Unveiled," p. 248.


The preposterousness of the claims of such a fellow as Smith to
prophetic powers and divinely revealed information were so
apparent to his local acquaintances that they gave them little
attention. One of these has remarked to me in recent years that
if they had had any idea of the acceptance of Joe's professions
by a permanent church, they would have put on record a much
fuller description of him and his family.



CHAPTER III. HOW JOSEPH SMITH BECAME A MONEY-DIGGER

The elder Smith, as we have seen, was known as a money-digger
while a resident of Vermont. Of course that subject as a matter
of conversation in his family, and his sons were a character to
share in his belief in the existence of hidden treasure. The
territory around Palmyra was as good ground for their
explorations as any in Vermont, and they soon let their neighbors
know of a possibility of riches that lay within their reach.

The father, while a resident of Vermont, also claimed ability to
locate an underground stream of water over which would be a good
site for a well, by means of a forked hazel switch,* and in this
way doubtless increased the demand for his services as a
well-digger, but we have no testimonials to his success. The son
Joseph, while still a young lad, professed to have his father's
gift in this respect, and he soon added to his accomplishments
the power to locate hidden riches, and in this way began his
career as a money-digger, which was so intimately connected with
his professions as a prophet.

* The so-called "divining rod" has received a good deal of
attention from persons engaged in psychical research. Vol. XIII,
Part II, of the "Proceedings of the Society Of Psychical
Research" is devoted to a discussion of the subject by Professor
W. F. Barrett of the Royal College of Science for Ireland, in
Dublin, and in March, 1890, a commission was appointed in France
to study the matter.


Writers on the origin of the Mormon Bible, and the gradual
development of Smith the Prophet from Smith the village loafer
and money-seeker, have left their readers unsatisfied on many
points. Many of these obscurities will be removed by a very
careful examination of Joseph's occupations and declarations
during the years immediately preceding the announcement of the
revelation and delivery to him of the golden plates.

The deciding event in Joe's career was a trip to Susquehanna
County, Pennsylvania, when he was a lad. It can be shown that it
was there that he obtained an idea of vision-seeing nearly ten
years before the date he gives in his autobiography as that of
the delivery to him of the golden plates containing the Book of
Mormon, and it was there probably that, in some way, he later
formed the acquaintance of Sidney Rigdon. It can also be shown
that the original version of his vision differed radically from
the one presented, after the lapse of another ten years spent
under Rigdon's tutelage, in his autobiography. Each of these
points is of great incidental value in establishing Rigdon's
connection with the conception of a new Bible, and the manner of
its presentation to the public. Later Mormon authorities have
shown a dislike to concede that Joe was a money-digger, but the
fact is admitted both in his mother's history of him and by
himself. His own statement about it is as follows:--

"In the month of October, 1825, I hired with an old gentleman by
the name of Josiah Stoal, who lived in Chenango County, State of
New York. He had heard something of a silver mine having been
opened by the Spaniards in Harmony, Susquehanna County, State of
Pennsylvania, and had, previous to my hiring with him, been
digging in order, if possible, to discover the mine. After I went
to live with him he took me, among the rest of his hands, to dig
for the silver mine, at which I continued to work for nearly a
month, without success in our undertaking, and finally I
prevailed with the old gentleman to cease digging for it. Hence
arose the very prevalent story of my having been a moneydigger."*

* Millennial Star, Vol. XIV, Supt., p. 6.


Mother Smith's account says, however, that Stoal "came for Joseph
on account of having heard that he possessed certain keys by
which he could discern things invisible to the natural eye"; thus
showing that he had a reputation as a "gazer" before that date.
It was such discrepancies as these which led Brigham Young to
endeavor to suppress the mother's narrative.

The "gazing" which Joe took up is one of the oldest--perhaps the
oldest--form of alleged human divination, and has been called
"mirror-gazing," "crystal-gazing," "crystal vision," and the
like. Its practice dates back certainly three thousand years,
having been noted in all ages, and among nations uncivilized as
well as civilized. Some students of the subject connect with such
divination Joseph's silver cup "whereby indeed he divineth"
(Genesis xliv. 5). Others, long before the days of Smith and
Rigdon, advanced the theory that the Urim and Thummim were clear
crystals intended for "gazing" purposes. One writer remarks of
the practice, "Aeschylus refers it to Prometheus, Cicero to the
Assyrians and Etruscans, Zoroaster to Ahriman, Varro to the
Persian Magi, and a very large class of authors, from the
Christian Fathers and Schoolmen downward, to the devil."* An act
of James I (1736), against witchcraft in England, made it a crime
to pretend to discover property "by any occult or crafty science.
"As indicating the universal knowledge of "gazing," it may be
further noted that Varro mentions its practice among the Romans
and Pausanias among the Greeks. It was known to the ancient
Peruvians. It is practised to-day by East Indians, Africans
(including Egyptians), Maoris, Siberians, by Australian,
Polynesian, and Zulu savages, by many of the tribes of American
Indians, and by persons of the highest culture in Europe and
America.** Andrew Lang's collection of testimony about visions
seen in crystals by English women in 1897 might seem convincing
to any one who has not had experience in weighing testimony in
regard to spiritualistic manifestations, or brought this
testimony alongside of that in behalf of the "occult phenomena"
of Adept Brothers presented by Sinnett.***

* Recent Experiments in Crystal Vision," Vol. V, "Proceedings of
the Society for Psychical Research."

** Lang's "The Making of Religion," Chap. V.

*** "The Occult World."


"Gazers" use different methods. Some look into water contained in
a vessel, some into a drop of blood, some into ink, some into a
round opaque stone, some into mirrors, and many into some form of
crystal or a glass ball. Indeed, the "gazer" seems to be quite
independent as to the medium of his sight-seeing, so long as he
has the "power." This "power" is put also to a great variety of
uses. Australian savages depend on it to foretell the outcome of
an attack on their enemies; Apaches resort to it to discover the
whereabouts of things lost or stolen; and Malagasies, Zulus, and
Siberians" to see what will happen. "Perhaps its most general use
has been to discover lost objects, and in this practice the seers
"have very often been children, as we shall see was the case in
the exhibition which gave Joe Smith his first idea on the
subject. In the experiments cited by Lang, the seers usually saw
distant persons or scenes, and he records his belief that
"experiments have proved beyond doubt that a fair percentage of
people, sane and healthy, can see vivid landscapes, and figures
of persons in motion, in glass balls and other vehicles."

It can easily be imagined how interested any member of the Smith
family would have been in an exhibition like that of a
"crystal-gazer," and we are able to trace very consecutively
Joe's first introduction to the practice, and the use he made of
the hint thus given.

Emily C. Blackman, in the appendix to her "History of Susquehanna
County, Pennsylvania" (1873), supplies the needed important
information about Joe's visits to Pennsylvania in the years
preceding the announcement of his Bible. She says that it is
uncertain when he arrived at Harmony (now Oakland), "but it is
certain he was here in 1825 and later. "A very circumstantial
account of Joe's first introduction to a "peep-stone" is given in
a statement by J. B. Buck in this appendix. He says:--

"Joe Smith was here lumbering soon after my marriage, which was
in 1818, some years before he took to 'peeping', and before
diggings were commenced under his direction. These were ideas he
gained later. The stone which he afterward used was in the
possession of Jack Belcher of Gibson, who obtained it while at
Salina, N. Y., engaged in drawing salt. Belcher bought it because
it was said to be a 'seeing-stone.' I have often seen it. It was
a green stone, with brown irregular spots on it. It was a little
longer than a goose's egg, and about the same thickness. When he
brought it home and covered it with a hat, Belcher's little boy
was one of the first to look into the hat, and as he did so, he
said he saw a candle. The second time he looked in he exclaimed,
'I've found my hatchet' (it had been lost two years), and
immediately ran for it to the spot shown him through the stone,
and it was there. The boy was soon beset by neighbors far and
near to reveal to them hidden things, and he succeeded
marvellously. Joe Smith, conceiving the idea of making a fortune
through a similar process of 'seeing,' bought the stone of
Belcher, and then began his operations in directing where hidden
treasures could be found. His first diggings were near Capt.
Buck's sawmill, at Red Rock; but because the followers broke the
rule of silence, 'the enchantment removed the deposit.'"

One of many stories of Joe's treasure-digging, current in that
neighborhood, Miss Blackman narrates. Learning from a strolling
Indian of a place where treasure was said to be buried, Joe
induced a farmer named Harper to join him in digging for it and
to spend a considerable sum of money in the enterprise. "After
digging a great hole, that is still to be seen, "the story
continues, "Harper got discouraged, and was about abandoning the
enterprise. Joe now declared to Harper that there was an
'enchantment' about the place that was removing the treasure
farther off; that Harper must get a perfectly white dog (some
said a black one), and sprinkle his blood over the ground, and
that would prevent the 'enchantment' from removing the treasure.
Search was made all over the country, but no perfectly white dog
could be found. "Then Joe said a white sheep would do as well;
but when this was sacrificed and failed, he said "The Almighty
was displeased with him for attempting to palm off on Him a white
sheep for a white dog. This informant describes Joe at that time
as "an imaginative enthusiast, constitutionally opposed to work,
and a general favorite with the ladies."

In confirmation of this, R. C. Doud asserted that "in 1822 he was
employed, with thirteen others, by Oliver Harper to dig for gold
under Joe's direction on Joseph McKune's land, and that Joe had
begun operations the year previous."

F. G. Mather obtained substantially the same particulars of Joe's
digging in connection with Harper from the widow of Joseph McKune
about the year 1879, and he said that the owner of the farm at
that time "for a number of years had been engaged in filling the
holes with stone to protect his cattle, but the boys still use
the northeast hole as a swimming pond in the summer."*

* Lippincott's Magazine, August, 1880.


Confirmation of the important parts of these statements has been
furnished by Joseph's father. When the reports of the discovery
of a new Bible first gained local currency (in 1830), Fayette
Lapham decided to visit the Smith family, and learn what he could
on the subject. He found the elder Smith very communicative, and
he wrote out a report of his conversation with him, "as near as I
can repeat his words, "he says, and it was printed in the
Historical Magazine for May, 1870. Father Smith made no
concealment of his belief in witchcraft and other things
supernatural, as well as in the existence of a vast amount of
buried treasure. What he said of Joe's initiation into
"crystal-gazing" Mr. Lapham thus records:--

"His son Joseph, whom he called the illiterate,* when he was
about fourteen years of age, happened to be where a man was
looking into a dark stone, and telling people therefrom where to
dig for money and other things. Joseph requested the privilege of
looking into the stone, which he did by putting his face into the
hat where the stone was. It proved to be not the right stone for
him; but he could see some things, and among them he saw the
stone, and where it was, in which he could see whatever he wished
to see.... The place where he saw the stone was not far from
their house, and under pretence of digging a well, they found
water and the stone at a depth of twenty or twenty-two feet.
After this, Joseph spent about two years looking into this stone,
telling fortunes, where to find lost things, and where to dig for
money and other hidden treasures."

* Joe's mother, describing Joe's descriptions to the family, at
their evening fireside, of the angel's revelations concerning the
golden plates, says (p. 84): "All giving the most profound
attention to a boy eighteen years of age, who had never read the
Bible through in his life; he seemed much less inclined to the
perusal of books than any of the rest of our children."

If further confirmation of Joe's early knowledge on this subject
is required, we may cite the Rev. John A. Clark, D.D., who,
writing in 1840 after careful local research, said: "Long before
the idea of a golden Bible entered their [the Smiths'] minds, in
their excursions for money-digging.... Joe used to be usually
their guide, putting into a hat a peculiar stone he had, through
which he looked to decide where they should begin to dig."*

* "Gleanings by the Way" (1842), p. 225.


We come now to the history of Joe's own "peek-stone" (as the
family generally called it), that which his father says he
discovered by using the one that he first saw. Willard Chase, of
Manchester, New York, near Palmyra, employed Joe and his brother
Alvin some time in the year 1822 (as he fixed the date in his
affidavit)* to assist him in digging a well. "After digging about
twenty feet below the surface of the earth, "he says, "we
discovered a singularly appearing stone which excited my
curiosity. I brought it to the top of the well, and as we were
examining it, Joseph put it into his hat and then his face into
the top of the hat. It has been said by Smith that he brought the
stone from the well, but this is false. There was no one in the
well but myself. The next morning he came to me and wished to
obtain the stone, alleging that he could see in it; but I told
him I did not wish to part with it on account of its being a
curiosity, but would lend it. After obtaining the stone, he began
to publish abroad what wonders he could discover by looking in
it, and made so much disturbance among the credulous part of the
community that I ordered the stone to be returned to me again. He
had it in his possession about two years. "Joseph's brother Hyrum
borrowed the stone some time in 1825, and Mr. Chase was unable to
recover it afterward. Tucker describes it as resembling a child's
foot in shape, and "of a whitish, glassy appearance, though
opaque."**

* Howe's "Mormonism Unveiled," p. 240.

** Tucker closes his chapter about this stone with the
declaration "that the origin [of Mormonism] is traceable to the
insignificant little stone found in the digging of Mr. Chase's
well in 1822." Tucker was evidently ignorant both of Joe's
previous experience with "crystal-gazing" in Pennsylvania and of
"crystal-gazing" itself.


The Smiths at once began turning Chase's stone to their own
financial account, but no one at the time heard that it was
giving them any information about revealed religion. For pay they
offered to disclose by means of it the location of stolen
property and of buried money. There seemed to be no limit to the
exaggeration of their professions. They would point out the
precise spot beneath which lay kegs, barrels, and even hogsheads
of gold and silver in the shape of coin, bars, images,
candlesticks, etc., and they even asserted that all the hills
thereabout were the work of human bands, and that Joe, by using
his "peek-stone," could see the caverns beneath them.* Persons
can always be found to give at least enough credence to such
professions to desire to test them. It was so in this case. Joe
not only secured small sums on the promise of discovering lost
articles, but he raised money to enable him to dig for larger
treasure which he was to locate by means of the stone. A Palmyra
man, for instance, paid seventy-five cents to be sent by him on a
fool's errand to look for some stolen cloth.

* William Stafford's affidavit, Howe's "Mormonism Unveiled," p.
237.


Certain ceremonies were always connected with these money-digging
operations. Midnight was the favorite hour, a full moon was
helpful, and Good Friday was the best date. Joe would sometimes
stand by, directing the digging with a wand. The utmost silence
was necessary to success. More than once, when the digging proved
a failure, Joe explained to his associates that, just as the
deposit was about to be reached, some one, tempted by the devil,
spoke, causing the wished-for riches to disappear. Such an
explanation of his failures was by no means original with Smith,
the serious results of an untimely spoken word having been long
associated with divers magic performances. Joe even tried on his
New York victims the Pennsylvania device of requiring the
sacrifice of a black sheep to overcome the evil spirit that
guarded the treasure. William Stafford opportunely owned such an
animal, and, as he puts it, "to gratify my curiosity, "he let the
Smiths have it. But some new "mistake in the process" again
resulted in disappointment. "This, I believe," remarks the
contributor of the sheep, "is the only time they ever made
money-digging a profitable business. "The Smiths ate the sheep.

These money-seeking enterprises were continued from 1820 to 1827
(the year of the delivery to Smith of the golden plates). This
period covers the years in which Joe, in his autobiography,
confesses that he "displayed the corruption of human nature. "He
explains that his father's family were poor, and that they worked
where they could find employment to their taste; "sometimes we
were at home and sometimes abroad. "Some of these trips took them
to Pennsylvania, and the stories of Joe's "gazing" accomplishment
may have reached Sidney Rigdon, and brought about their first
interview. Susquehanna County was more thinly settled than the
region around Palmyra, and Joe found persons who were ready to
credit him with various "gifts"; and stories are still current
there of his professed ability to perform miracles, to pray the
frost away from a cornfield, and the like.*

* Lippincott's Magazine, August, 1880.



CHAPTER IV. FIRST ANNOUNCEMENT OF THE GOLDEN BIBLE

Just when Smith's attention was originally diverted from the
discovery of buried money to the discovery of a buried Bible
engraved on gold plates remains one of the unexplained points in
his history. He was so much of a romancer that his own statements
at the time, which were carefully collected by Howe, are
contradictory. The description given of the buried volume itself
changed from time to time, giving strength in this way to the
theory that Rigdon was attracted to Smith by the rumor of his
discovery, and afterward gave it shape. First the book was
announced to be a secular history, says Dr. Clark; then a gold
Bible; then golden plates engraved; and later metallic plates,
stereotyped or embossed with golden letters.* Daniel Hendrix's
recollection was that for the first few months Joe did not claim
the plates any new revelation or religious significance, but
simply that they were a historical record of an ancient people.
This would indicate that he had possession of the "Spaulding
Manuscript" before it received any theological additions.

* "Gleanings by the Way," p. 229.


The account of the revelation of the book by an angel, which is
accepted by the Mormons, is the one elaborated in Smith's
autobiography, and was not written until 1838, when it was
prepared under the direction of Rigdon (or by him). Before
examining this later version of the story, we may follow a little
farther Joe's local history at the time.

While the Smiths were conducting their operations in
Pennsylvania, and Joseph was "displaying the corruption of human
nature, "they boarded for a time in the family of Isaac Hale, who
is described as a "distinguished hunter, a zealous member of the
Methodist church, "and (as later testified to by two judges of
the Court of Common Pleas of Susquehanna County)" a man of
excellent moral character and of undoubted veracity."* Mr. Hale
had three daughters, and Joe received enough encouragement to his
addresses to Emma to induce him to ask her father's consent to
their marriage. This consent was flatly refused. Mr. Hale made a
statement in 1834, covering his knowledge of Smith and the origin
of the Mormon Bible.** When he became acquainted with the future
prophet, in 1825, Joe was employed by the so-called "money-
diggers," using his "peek-stone." Among the reasons which Mr.
Hale gave for refusing consent to the marriage was that Smith was
a stranger and followed a business which he could not approve.

* Howe's "Mormonism Unveiled," p. 266.

** Ibid., p. 262.


Joe thereupon induced Emma to consent to an elopement, and they
were married on January 18, 1827, by a justice of the peace, just
across the line in New York State. Not daring to return to the
house of his father-in-law, Joe took his wife to his own home,
near Palmyra, New York, where for some months he worked again
with his father.

In the following August Joe hired a neighbor named Peter Ingersol
to go with him to Pennsylvania to bring from there some household
effects belonging to Emma. Of this trip Ingersol said, in an
affidavit made in 1833:--

"When we arrived at Mr. Hale's in Harmony, Pa., from which place
he had taken his wife, a scene presented itself truly affecting.
His father-in-law addressed Joseph in a flood of tears: 'You have
stolen my daughter and married her. I had much rather have
followed her to her grave. You spend your time in digging for
money--pretend to see in a stone, and thus try to deceive
people.' Joseph wept and acknowledged that he could not see in a
stone now nor never could, and that his former pretensions in
that respect were false. He then promised to give up his old
habits of digging for money and looking into stones. Mr. Hale
told Joseph, if he would move to Pennsylvania and work for a
living, he would assist him in getting into business. Joseph
acceded to this proposition, then returned with Joseph and his
wife to Manchester....

"Joseph told me on his return that he intended to keep the
promise which he had made to his father-in-law; 'but,' said he,
it will he hard for me, for they [his family] will all oppose, as
they want me to look in the stone for them to dig money'; and in
fact it was as he predicted. They urged him day after day to
resume his old practice of looking in the stone. He seemed much
perplexed as to the course he should pursue. In this dilemma he
made me his confidant, and told me what daily transpired in the
family of Smiths.

"One day he came and greeted me with joyful countenance. Upon
asking the cause of his unusual happiness, he replied in the
following language: 'As I was passing yesterday across the woods,
after a heavy shower of rain, I found in a hollow some beautiful
white sand that had been washed up by the water. I took off my
frock and tied up several quarts of it, and then went home. On
entering the house I found the family at the table eating dinner.
They were all anxious to know the contents of my frock. At that
moment I happened to think about a history found in Canada,
called a Golden Bible;* so I very gravely told them it was the
Golden Bible. To my surprise they were credulous enough to
believe what I said. Accordingly I told them I had received a
commandment to let no one see it, for, says I, no man can see it
with the natural eye and live. However, I offered to take out the
book and show it to them, but they refused to see it and left the
room. 'Now,' said Joe, 'I have got the d--d fools fixed and will
carry out the fun.' Notwithstanding he told me he had no such
book and believed there never was such book, he told me he
actually went to Willard Chase, to get him to make a chest in
which he might deposit the Golden Bible. But as Chase would not
do it, he made the box himself of clapboards, and put it into a
pillow-case, and allowed people only to lift it and feel of it
through the case."**

* The most careful inquiries bring no information that any such
story was ever current in Canada.

** Howe's "Mormonism Unveiled," p. 234.


In line with this statement of Joe to Ingersol is a statement
which somewhat later he made to his brother-in-law, Alva Hale,
that "this 'peeking' was all d--d nonsense; that he intended to
quit the business and labor for a livelihood."*

* Ibid., p. 268.


Joe's family were quite ready to accept his statement of his
discovery of golden plates for more reasons than one. They saw in
it, in the first place, a means of pecuniary gain. Abigail Harris
in a statement (dated "11th mo., 28th, 1833") of a talk she had
with Joe's father and mother at Martin Harris's house, said:--

"They [the Smiths] said the plates Joe then had in possession
were but an introduction to the Gold Bible; that all of them upon
which the Bible was written were so heavy that it would take four
stout men to load them into a cart; that Joseph had also
discerned by looking through his stone the vessel in which the
gold was melted from which the plates were made, and also the
machine with which they were rolled; he also discovered in the
bottom of the vessel three balls of gold, each as large as his
fist. The old lady said also that after the book was translated,
the plates were to be publicly exhibited, admission 25 cts."*

* Ibid, p. 253.


But aside from this pecuniary view, the idea of a new Bible would
have been eagerly accepted by a woman like Mrs. Smith, and a mere
intimation by Joe of such a discovery would have given him, in
her, an instigator to the carrying out of the plot. It is said
that she had predicted that she was to be the mother of a
prophet. She tells us that although, in Vermont, she was a
diligent church attendant, she found all preachers
unsatisfactory, and that she reached the conclusion that "there
was not on earth the religion she sought. "Joe, in his
description of his state of mind just before the first visit of
the angel who told him about the plates, describes himself as
distracted by the "war and tumult of opinions. "He doubtless
heard this subject talked of by his mother in the home circle,
but none of his acquaintances at the time had any reason to think
that he was laboring under such mental distress.

The second person in the neighborhood whom Joe approached about
his discovery was Willard Chase, in whose well the "peek-stone"
was found. Mr. Chase in his statement (given at length by Howe)
says that Joe applied to him, soon after the above quoted
conversation with Ingersol, to make a chest in which to lock up
his Gold Book, offering Chase an interest in it as compensation.
He told Chase that the discovery of the book was due to the
"peek-stone," making no allusion whatever to an angel's visit. He
and Chase could not come to terms, and Joe accordingly made a box
in which what he asserted were the plates were placed.

Reports of Joe's discovery soon gained currency in the
neighborhood through the family's account of it, and neighbors
who had accompanied them on the money-seeking expeditions came to
hear about the new Bible, and to request permission to see it.
Joe warded off these requests by reiterating that no man but him
could look upon it and live. "Conflicting stories were afterward
told," says Tucker, "in regard to the manner of keeping the book
in concealment and safety, which are not worth repeating, further
than to mention that the first place of secretion was said to be
under a heavy hearthstone in the Smith family mansion."

Joe's mother and Parley P. Pratt tell of determined efforts of
mobs and individuals to secure possession of the plates; but
their statements cannot be taken seriously, and are contradicted
by Tucker from personal knowledge. Tucker relates that two local
wags, William T. Hussey and Azel Vandruver, intimate
acquaintances of Smith, on asking for a sight of the book and
hearing Joe's usual excuse, declared their readiness to risk
their lives if that were the price of the privilege. Smith was
not to be persuaded, but, the story continues, "they were
permitted to go to the chest with its owner, and see WHERE the
thing was, and observe its shape and size, concealed under a
piece of thick canvas. Smith, with his accustomed solemnity of
demeanor, positively persisting in his refusal to uncover it,
Hussey became impetuous, and (suiting his action to his word)
ejaculated, 'Egad, I'll see the critter, live or die,' and
stripping off the canvas, a large tile brick was exhibited. But
Smith's fertile imagination was equal to the emergency. He
claimed that his friends had been sold by a trick of his."*

* "Origin, Rise, and Progress of Mormonism," p. 31.


Mother Smith, in her book, gives an account of proceedings in
court brought by the wife of Martin Harris to protect her
husband's property from Smith, on the plea that Smith was
deceiving him in alleging the existence of golden plates; and she
relates how one witness testified that Joe told him that "the box
which he had contained nothing but sand, "that a second witness
swore that Joe told him, "it was nothing but a box of lead, "and
that a third witness declared that Joe had told him "there was
nothing at all in the box. "When Joe had once started the story
of his discovery, he elaborated it in his usual way. "I
distinctly remember, "says Daniel Hendrix," his sitting on some
boxes in the store and telling a knot of men, who did not believe
a word they heard, all about his vision and his find. But Joe
went into such minute and careful details about the size, weight,
and beauty of the carvings on the golden tablets, and strange
characters and the ancient adornments, that I confess he made
some of the smartest men in Palmyra rub their eyes in wonder."



CHAPTER V. THE DIFFERENT ACCOUNTS OF THE REVELATION OF THE BIBLE

The precise date when Joe's attention was first called to the
possibility of changing the story about his alleged golden plates
so that they would serve as the basis for a new Bible such as was
finally produced, and as a means of making him a prophet, cannot
be ascertained. That some directing mind gave the final shape to
the scheme is shown by the difference between the first accounts
of his discovery by means of the stone, and the one provided in
his autobiography. We have also evidence that the story of a
direct revelation by an angel came some time later than the
version which Joe gave first to his acquaintances in
Pennsylvania.

James T. Cobb of Salt Lake City, who has given much time to
investigating matters connected with early Mormon history,
received a letter under date of April 23, 1879, from Hiel and
Joseph Lewis, sons of the Rev. Nathaniel Lewis, of Harmony,
Pennsylvania, and relatives of Joseph's father-in-law, in which
they gave the story of the finding of the plates as told in their
hearing by Joe to their father, when he was translating them.
This statement, in effect, was that he dreamed of an iron box
containing gold plates curiously engraved, which he must
translate into a book; that twice when he attempted to secure the
plates he was knocked down, and when he asked why he could not
have them, "he saw a man standing over the spot who, to him,
appeared like a Spaniard, having a long beard down over his
breast, with his throat cut from ear to ear and the blood
streaming down, who told him that he could not get it alone." (He
then narrated how he got the box in company with Emma.) In all
this narrative there was not one word about visions of God, or of
angels, or heavenly revelations; all his information was by that
dream and that bleeding ghost. The heavenly visions and messages
of angels, etc., contained in the Mormon books were
afterthoughts, revised to order."

In direct confirmation of this we have the following account of
the disclosure of the buried articles as given by Joe's father to
Fayette Lapham when the Bible was first published:--

"Soon after joining the church he [Joseph] had a very singular
dream.... A very large, tall man appeared to him dressed in an
ancient suit of clothes, and the clothes were bloody. This man
told him of a buried treasure, and gave him directions by means
of which he could find the place. In the course of a year Smith
did find it, and, visiting it by night, "I by some supernatural
power" was enabled to overturn a huge boulder under which was a
square block of masonry, in the centre of which were the articles
as described. Taking up the first article, he saw others below;
laying down the first, he endeavored to secure the others; but,
before he could get hold of them, the one he had taken up slid
back to the place he had taken it from, and, to his great
surprise and terror, the rock immediately fell back to its former
place, nearly crushing him [Joseph] in its descent. (While trying
in vain to raise the rock again with levers, Joseph felt
something strike him on the breast, a third blow knocking him
down; and as he lay on the ground he saw the tall man, who told
him that the delivery of the articles would be deferred a year
because Joseph had not strictly followed the directions given to
him. The heedless Joseph allowed himself to forget the date fixed
for his next visit, and when he went to the place again, the tall
man appeared and told him that, because of his lack of
punctuality, he would have to wait still another year before the
hidden articles would be confided to him. "Come in one year from
this time, and bring your oldest brother with you," said the
guardian of the treasures, "then you may have them. "Before the
date named arrived, the elder brother had died, and Joseph
decided that his wife was the proper person to accompany him. Mr.
Lapham's report proceeds as follows:--

"At the expiration of the year he [Joseph] procured a horse and
light wagon, with a chest and pillowcase, and proceeded
punctually with his wife to find the hidden treasure. When they
had gone as far as they could with the wagon, Joseph took the
pillow-case and started for the rock. Upon passing a fence a host
of devils began to screech and to scream, and make all sorts of
hideous yells, for the purpose of terrifying him and preventing
the attainment of his object; but Joseph was courageous and
pursued his way in spite of them. Arriving at the stone, he again
lifted it with the aid of superhuman power, as at first, and
secured the first or uppermost article, this time putting it
carefully into the pillow-case before laying it down. He now
attempted to secure the remainder; but just then the same old man
appeared, and said to him that the time had not yet arrived for
their exhibition to the world, but that when the proper time came
he should have them and exhibit them, with the one he had now
secured; until that time arrived, no one must be allowed to touch
the one he had in his possession; for if they did, they would be
knocked down by some superhuman power. Joseph ascertained that
the remaining articles were a gold hilt and chain, and a gold
ball with two pointers. The hilt and chain had once been part of
a sword of unusual size; but the blade had rusted away and become
useless. Joseph then turned the rock back, took the article in
the pillow-case, and returned to the wagon. The devils, with more
hideous yells than before, followed him to the fence; as he was
getting over the fence, one of the devils struck him a blow on
the side, where a black and blue spot remained three or four
days; but Joseph persevered and brought the article safely home.
"I weighed it," said Mr. Smith, Sr., "and it weighed 30 pounds.
In answer to our question as to what it was that Joseph had thus
obtained, he said it consisted of a set of gold plates, about six
inches wide and nine or ten inches long. They were in the form of
a book."*

* Historical Magazine, May, 1870.


We may now contrast these early accounts of the disclosure with
the version given in the Prophet's autobiography (written, be it
remembered, in Nauvoo in 1838), the one accepted by all orthodox
Mormons. One of its striking features will be found to be the
transformation of the Spaniard-with-his-throat-cut into a
messenger from Heaven.*

* Millennial Star, Vol. XIV, Supt.


It was, according to this later account, when he was in his
fifteenth year, and when his father's family were "proselyted to
the Presbyterian church," that he became puzzled by the divergent
opinions he heard from different pulpits. One day, while reading
the epistle of James (not a common habit of his, as his mother
would testify), Joseph was struck by the words, "If any of you
lack wisdom, let him ask of God. "Reflecting on this injunction,
he retired to the woods" on the morning of a beautiful clear day
early in the spring of 1820, and there he for the first time
uttered a spoken prayer. "As soon as he began praying he was
overcome by some power, and "thick darkness" gathered around him.
Just when he was ready to give himself up as lost, he managed to
call on God for deliverance, whereupon he saw a pillar of light
descending upon him, and two personages of indescribable glory
standing in the air above him, one of whom, calling him by name,
said to the other, "This is my beloved Son, hear him."
Straightway Joseph, not forgetting the main object of his going
to the woods, asked the two personages: "which of all the sects
was right. "He was told that all were wrong, and that he must
join none of them; that all creeds were an abomination, and that
all professors were corrupt. He came to himself lying on his
back.

The effect on the boy of this startling manifestation was not
radically beneficial, as he himself concedes. "Forbidden to join
any other religious sects of the day, of tender years, "and badly
treated by persons who should have been his friends, he admits
that in the next three years he "frequently fell into many
foolish errors, and displayed the weakness of youth and the
corruption of human nature, which, I am sorry to say, led me into
diverse temptations, to the gratification of many appetites
offensive in the sight of God. "It was during this period that he
was most active in the use of his "peek-stone."

On the night of September 21, 1823, to proceed with his own
account, when again praying to God for the forgiveness of his
sins, the room became light, and a person clothed in a robe of
exquisite whiteness, and having "a countenance truly like
lightning, "called him by name, and said that his visitor was a
messenger sent from God, and that his name was Nephi. This was a
mistake on the part of somebody, because the visitor's real name
was Moroni, who hid the plates where they were deposited. Smith
continues:--

"He said there was a book deposited, written upon golden plates,
giving an account of the former inhabitants of this continent and
the source from whence they sprang. He also said that the fulness
of the Everlasting Gospel was contained in it, as delivered by
the Saviour to the ancient inhabitants. Also, there were two
stones in silver bows (and these stones, fastened to a
breastplate, constituted what is called the Urim and Thummim)
deposited with the plates; and the possession and use of these
stones was what constituted seers in ancient or former times, and
that God had prepared them for the purpose of translating the
book."

The messenger then made some liberal quotations from the
prophecies of the Old Testament (changing them to suit his
purpose), and ended by commanding Smith, when he got the plates,
at a future date, to show them only to those as commanded, lest
he be destroyed. Then he ascended into heaven. The next day the
messenger appeared again, and directed Joseph to tell his father
of the commandment which he had received. When he had done so,
his father told him to go as directed. He knew the place (ever
since known locally as "Mormon Hill") as soon as he arrived
there, and his narrative proceeds as follows:--

"Convenient to the village of Manchester, Ontario Co., N. Y.,
stands a hill of considerable size, and the most elevated of any
in the neighborhood. On the west side of this hill, not far from
the top, under a stone of considerable size, lay the plates,
deposited in a stone box; this stone was thick and rounded in the
middle on the upper side, and thinner toward the edges, so that
the middle part of it was visible above the ground, but the edge
all round was covered with earth. Having removed the earth and
obtained a lever, which I got fixed under the edge of the stone,
and with a little exertion raised it up, I looked in, and there,
indeed, did I behold the plates, the Urim and Thummim and
breastplate, as stated by the messenger. The box in which they
lay was formed by laying stones together in a kind of cement. In
the bottom of the box were laid two stones crosswise of the box,
and on these stones lay the plates and the other things with
them. I made an attempt to take them out, but was forbidden by
the messenger. I was again informed that the time for bringing
them out had not yet arrived, neither would till four years from
that time; but he told me that I should come to that place
precisely one year from that time, and that he would there meet
with me, and that I should continue to do so until the time
should come for obtaining the plates".

Mother Smith gives an explanation of Joe's failure to secure the
plates on this occasion, which he omits: "As he was taking them,
the unhappy thought darted through his mind that probably there
was something else in the box besides the plates, which would be
of pecuniary advantage to him.... Joseph was overcome by the
power of darkness, and forgot the injunction that was laid upon
him. "The mistakes which the Deity made in Joe's character
constantly suggest to the lay reader the query why the Urim and
Thummim were not turned on Joe.

On September 22, 1827, when Joe visited the hill (following his
own story again), the same messenger delivered to him the plates,
the Urim and Thummim and the breastplate, with the warning that
if he "let them go carelessly" he would be "cut off", and a
charge to keep them until the messenger called for them.

Mother Smith's story of the securing of the plates is to the
effect that about midnight of September 21 Joseph and his wife
drove away from his father's house with a horse and wagon
belonging to a Mr. Knight. He returned after breakfast the next
morning, bringing with him the Urim and Thummim, which he showed
to her, and which she describes as "two smooth, three-cornered
diamonds set in glass, and the glasses were set in silver bows
that were connected with each other in much the same way as
old-fashioned spectacles. "She says that she also saw the
breastplate through a handkerchief, and that it "was concave on
one side and convex on the other, and extended from the neck
downward as far as the stomach of a man of extraordinary size. It
had four straps of the same material for the purpose of fastening
it to the breast.... The whole plate was worth at least $500."
The spectacles and breastplate seem to have been more familiar to
Mother Smith than to any other of Joseph's contemporaries and
witnesses.

The substitution of the spectacles called Urim and Thummim for
the "peek-stone" was doubtless an idea of the associate in the
plot, who supplied the theological material found in the Golden
Bible. Tucker considers the "spectacle pretension" an
afterthought of some one when the scheme of translating the
plates into a Bible was evolved, as "it was not heard of outside
of the Smith family for a considerable period subsequent to the
first story."* This is confirmed by the elder Smith's early
account of the discovery. It would be very natural that Rigdon,
with his Bible knowledge, should substitute the more respectable
Urim and Thummim for the "peek-stone" of ill-repute, as the
medium of translation.

* "Origin, Rise, and Progress of Mormonism," p. 33.


The Urim and Thummim were the articles named by the Lord to Moses
in His description of the priestly garments of Aaron. The Bible
leaves them without description;* and the following verses
contain all that is said of them: Exodus xxviii. 30; Leviticus
viii. 8; Numbers xxvii. 21; Deuteronomy xxxiii. 8; Samuel xxviii.
6; Ezra ii. 63; Nehemiah vii. 65. Only a pretence of using
spectacles in the work of translating was kept up, later
descriptions of the process by Joe's associates referring
constantly to the employment of the stone.

* "The Hebrew words are generally considered to be plurales
excellentoe, denoting light (that is, revelation) and truth....
There are two principal opinions respecting the Urim and Thummim.
One is that these words simply denote the four rows of precious
stones in the breastplate of the high priest, and are so called
from their brilliancy and perfection; which stones, in answer to
an appeal to God in difficult cases, indicated His mind and will
by some supernatural appearance.... The other principal opinion
is that the Urim and Thummim were two small oracular images
similar to the Teraphim, personifying revelation and truth, which
were placed in the cavity or pouch formed by the folds of the
breastplate, and which uttered oracles by a voice.... We incline
to Mr. Mede's opinion that the Urim and Thummim were 'things well
known to the patriarchs' as divinely appointed means of inquiries
of the Lord, suited to an infantile state of religion.
"Cyclopedia of Biblical Literature," Kitto and Alexander,
editors.


Joe says that while the plates were in his possession
"multitudes" tried to get them away from him, but that he
succeeded in keeping them until they were translated, and then
delivered them again to the messenger, who still retains them.
Mother Smith tells a graphic story of attempts to get the plates
away from her son, and says that when he first received them he
hid them until the next day in a rotten birch log, bringing them
home wrapped in his linen frock under his arm.* Later, she says,
he hid them in a hole dug in the hearth of their house, and again
in a pile of flax in a cooper shop; Willard Chase's daughter
almost found them once by means of a peek-stone of her own.

* Elder Hyde in his "Mormonism" estimates that "from the
description given of them the plates must have weighed nearly two
hundred pounds."


Mother Smith says that Joseph told all the family of his vision
the evening of the day he told his father, charging them to keep
it secret, and she adds:--

"From that time forth Joseph continued to receive instructions
from the Lord, and we continued to get the children together
every evening for the purpose of listening while he gave us a
relation of the same. I presume our family presented an aspect as
singular as any that ever lived upon the face of the earth--all
seated in a circle, father, mother, sons, and daughters, and
giving the most profound attention to a boy eighteen years old,
who had never read the Bible through in his life.... We were now
confirmed in the opinion that God was about to bring to light
something upon which we could stay our mind, or that would give
us a more perfect knowledge of the plan of salvation and the
redemption of the human family."



CHAPTER VI. TRANSLATION AND PUBLICATION OF THE BIBLE

The only one of his New York neighbors who seems to have taken a
practical interest in Joe's alleged discovery was a farmer named
Martin Harris, who lived a little north of Palmyra. Harris was a
religious enthusiast, who had been a Quaker (as his wife was
still), a Universalist, a Baptist, and a Presbyterian, and whose
sanity it would have been difficult to establish in a surrogate's
court. The Rev. Dr. Clark, who knew him intimately, says, "He had
always been a firm believer in dreams, visions, and ghosts."

*Howe describes him as often declaring that he had talked with
Jesus Christ, angels, and the devil, and saying that "Christ was
the handsomest man he ever saw, and the devil looked like a
jackass, with very short, smooth hair similar to that of a mouse.
"Daniel Hendrix relates that as he and Harris were riding to the
village one evening, and he remarked on the beauty of the moon,
Harris replied that if his companion could only see it as he had,
he might well call it beautiful, explaining that he had actually
visited the moon, and adding that it "was only the faithful who
were permitted to visit the celestial regions." Jesse Townsend, a
resident of Palmyra, in a letter written in 1833, describes him
as a visionary fanatic, unhappily married, who "is considered
here to this day a brute in his domestic relations, a fool and a
dupe to Smith in religion, and an unlearned, conceited hypocrite
generally. "His wife, in an affidavit printed in Howe's book (p.
255), says: "He has whipped, kicked, and turned me out of the
house." Harris, like Joe's mother, was a constant reader of and a
literal believer in the Bible. Tucker says that he "could
probably repeat from memory every text from the Bible, giving the
chapter and verse in each case. "This seems to be an
exaggeration.

* "Gleanings by the Way."


Mother Smith's account of Harris's early connection with the
Bible enterprise says that her husband told Harris of the
existence of the plates two or three years before Joe got
possession of them; that when Joe secured them he asked her to go
and tell Harris that he wanted to see him on the subject, an
errand not to her liking, because "Mr. Harris's wife was a very
peculiar woman, "that is, she did not share in her husband's
superstition. Mrs. Smith did not succeed in seeing Harris, but he
soon afterward voluntarily offered Joe fifty dollars "for the
purpose of helping Mr. Smith do the Lord's work. "As Harris was
very "close" in money matters, it is probable that Joe offered
him a partnership in the scheme at the start. Harris seems to
have placed much faith in the selling quality of the new Bible.
He is said to have replied to his wife's early declaration of
disbelief in it: "What if it is a lie. If you will let me alone I
will make money out of it."* The Rev. Ezra Booth said: "Harris
informed me [after his removal to Ohio] that he went to the place
where Joseph resided [in Pennsylvania], and Joseph had given it
[the translation] up on account of the opposition of his wife and
others; and he told Joseph, 'I have not come down here for
nothing, and we will go on with it.'"**

* Howe's "Mormonism Unveiled," p. 254.

** Ibid., p. 182.


Just at this time Joe was preparing to move to the neighborhood
of Harmony, Pennsylvania, having made a trip there after his
marriage, during which, Mr. Hale's affidavit says, "Smith stated
to me that he had given up what he called 'glass-looking,' and
that he expected to work hard for a living and was willing to do
so. "Smith's brother-in-law Alva, in accordance with arrangements
then made, went to Palmyra and helped move his effects to a house
near Mr. Hale's. Joe acknowledges that Harris's gift or loan of
fifty dollars enabled him to meet the expenses of moving.

Parley P. Pratt, in a statement published by him in London in
1854, set forth that Smith was driven to Pennsylvania from
Palmyra through fear of his life, and that he took the plates
with him concealed in a barrel of beans, thus eluding the efforts
of persons who tried to secure them by means of a search warrant.
Tucker says that this story rests only on the sending of a
constable after Smith by a man to whom he owed a small debt. The
great interest manifested in the plates in the neighborhood of
Palmyra existed only in Mormon imagination developed in later
years.

According to some accounts, all the work of what was called
"translating" the writing on the plates into what became the
"Book of Mormon" was done at Joe's home in New York State, and
most of it in a cave, but this was not the case. Smith himself
says: "Immediately after my arrival [in Pennsylvania] I commenced
copying the characters off the plates. I copied a considerable
number of them, and by means of the Urim and Thummim I translated
some of them, which I did between the time I arrived, at the
house of my wife's father in the month of December (1827) and the
February following.

A clear description of the work of translating as carried on in
Pennsylvania is given in the affidavit made by Smith's
father-in-law, Isaac Hale, in 1834.* He says that soon after
Joe's removal to his neighborhood with his wife, he (Hale) was
shown a box such as is used for the shipment of window glass, and
was told that it contained the "book of plates"; he was allowed
to lift it, but not to look into it. Joe told him that the first
person who would be allowed to see the plates would be a young
child .** The affidavit continues:--

* Howe's "Mormonism Unveiled," p. 264.

** Joe's early announcement was that his first-born child was to
have this power, but the child was born dead. This was one of the
earliest of Joe's mistakes in prophesying.


"About this time Martin Harris made his appearance upon the
stage, and Smith began to interpret the characters, or
hieroglyphics, which he said were engraven upon the plates, while
Harris wrote down the interpretation. It was said that Harris
wrote down 116 pages and lost them. Soon after this happened,
Martin Harris informed me that he must have a GREATER WITNESS,
and said that he had talked with Joseph about it. Joseph informed
him that be could not, or durst not, show him the plates, but
that he [Joseph] would go into the woods where the book of plates
was, and that after he came back Harris should follow his track
in the snow, and find the book and examine it for himself. Harris
informed me that he followed Smith's directions, and could not
find the plates and was still dissatisfied.

"The next day after this happened I went to the house where
Joseph Smith, Jr., lived, and where he and Harris were engaged in
their translation of the book. Each of them had a written piece
of paper which they were comparing, and some of the words were, I
my servant seeketh a greater witness, but no greater witness can
be given him.... I inquired whose words they were, and was
informed by Joseph or Emma (I rather think it was the former),
that they were the words of Jesus Christ. I told them that I
considered the whole of it a delusion, and advised them to
abandon it. The manner in which he pretended to read and
interpret was the same as when he looked for the moneydiggers,
with the stone in his hat and his hat over his face, while the
book of plates was at the same time hid in the woods.

"After this, Martin Harris went away, and Oliver Cowdery came and
wrote for Smith, while he interpreted as above described.

"Joseph Smith, Jr., resided near me for some time after this, and
I had a good opportunity of becoming acquainted with him, and
somewhat acquainted with his associates; and I conscientiously
believe, from the facts I have detailed, and from many other
circumstances which I do not deem it necessary to relate, that
the whole Book of Mormon (so-called) is a silly fabrication of
falsehood and wickedness, got up for speculation, and with a
design to dupe the credulous and unwary."

Harris's natural shrewdness in a measure overcame his fanaticism,
and he continued to press Smith for a sight of the plates. Smith
thereupon made one of the first uses of those "revelations" which
played so important a part in his future career, and he announced
one (Section 5, "Doctrine and Covenants"*), in which "I, the
Lord" declared to Smith that the latter had entered into a
covenant with Him not to show the plates to any one except as the
Lord commanded him. Harris finally demanded of Smith at least a
specimen of the writing on the plates for submission to experts
in such subjects. As Harris was the only man of means interested
in this scheme of publication, Joe supplied him with a paper
containing some characters which he said were copied from one of
the plates. This paper increased Harris's belief in the reality
of Joe's discovery, but he sought further advice before opening
his purse. Dr. Clark describes a call Harris made on him early
one morning, greatly excited, requesting a private interview. On
hearing his story, Dr. Clark advised him that the scheme was a
hoax, devised to extort money from him, but Harris showed the
slip of paper containing the mysterious characters, and was not
to be persuaded.

* All references to the "Book of Doctrine and Covenants" refer to
the sections and verses of the Salt Lake city edition of 1890.


Seeking confirmation, however, Harris made a trip to New York
City in order to submit the characters to experts there. Among
others, he called on Professor Charles Anthon. His interview with
Professor Anthon has been a cause of many and conflicting
statements, some Mormons misrepresenting it for their own
purposes and others explaining away the professor's accounts of
it. The following statement was written by Professor Anthon in
reply to an inquiry by E. D. Howe:--

"NEW YORK, February 17, 1834.

"DEAR SIR: I received your favor of the 9th, and lose no time in
making a reply. The whole story about my pronouncing the Mormon
inscription to be 'reformed Egyptian hieroglyphics' is perfectly
false. Some years ago a plain, apparently simple-hearted farmer
called on me with a note from Dr. Mitchell, of our city, now
dead, requesting me to decypher, if possible, the paper which the
farmer would hand me, and which Dr. M. confessed he had been
unable to understand. Upon examining the paper in question, I
soon came to the conclusion that it was all a trick--perhaps a
hoax. When I asked the person who brought it how he obtained the
writing, he gave me, as far as I can recollect, the following
account: A 'gold book' consisting of a number of plates fastened
together in the shape of a book by wires of the same metal, had
been dug up in the northern part of the state of New York, and
along with the book an enormous pair of 'spectacles'! These
spectacles were so large that, if a person attempted to look
through them, his two eyes would have to be turned toward one of
the glasses merely, the spectacles in question being altogether
too large for the breadth of the human face. Whoever examined the
plates through the spectacles, was enabled, not only to read
them, but fully to understand their meaning. All this knowledge,
however, was confined to a young man who had the trunk containing
the book and spectacles in his sole possession. This young man
was placed behind a curtain in the garret of a farmhouse, and
being thus concealed from view, put on the spectacles
occasionally, or rather, looked through one of the glasses,
decyphered the characters in the book, and, having committed some
of them to paper, handed copies from behind the curtain to those
who stood on the outside. Not a word, however, was said about the
plates being decyphered 'by the gift of God.' Everything in this
way was effected by the large pair of spectacles. The farmer
added that he had been requested to contribute a sum of money
toward the publication of the 'golden book,' the contents of
which would, as he had been assured, produce an entire change in
the world, and save it from ruin. So urgent had been these
solicitations, that he intended selling his farm, and handing
over the amount received to those who wished to publish the
plates. As a last precautionary step, however, he had resolved to
come to New York, and obtain the opinion of the learned about the
meaning of the paper which he had brought with him, and which had
been given him as part of the contents of the book, although no
translation had been furnished at the time by the young man with
the spectacles. On hearing this odd story, I changed my opinion
about the paper, and, instead of viewing it any longer as a hoax
upon the learned, I began to regard it as a part of a scheme to
cheat the farmer of his money, and I communicated my suspicions
to him, warning him to beware of rogues. He requested an opinion
from me in writing, which, of course, I declined giving, and he
then took his leave, carrying his paper with him.

"This paper was in fact a singular scrawl. It consisted of all
kinds of crooked characters, disposed in columns, and had
evidently been prepared by some person who had before him at the
time a book containing various alphabets. Greek and Hebrew
letters, crosses and flourishes, Roman letters inverted, or
placed sideways, were arranged and placed in perpendicular
columns; and the whole ended in a rude delineation of a circle,
divided into various compartments, decked with various strange
marks, and evidently copied after the Mexican Calendar, given by
Humbolt, but copied in such a way as not to betray the source
whence it was, derived. I am thus particular as to the contents
of the paper, inasmuch as I have frequently conversed with my
friends on the subject since the Mormonite excitement began, and
well remember that the paper contained anything else but
'Egyptian Hieroglyphics.'

"Some time after, the farmer paid me a second visit. He brought
with him the golden book in print, and offered it to me for sale.
I declined purchasing. He then asked permission to leave the book
with me for examination. I declined receiving it, although his
manner was strangely urgent. I adverted once more to the roguery
which had been, in my opinion, practised upon him, and asked him
what had become of the gold plates. He informed me that they were
in a trunk with the large pair of spectacles. I advised him to go
to a magistrate, and have the trunk examined. He said 'the curse
of God' would come upon him should he do this. On my pressing
him, however, to pursue the course which I had recommended, he
told me he would open the trunk if I would take 'the curse of
God' upon myself. I replied I would do so with the greatest
willingness, and would incur every risk of that nature provided I
could only extricate him from the grasp of the rogues. He then
left me.

"I have thus given you a full statement of all that I know
respecting the origin of Mormonism, and must beg you, as a
personal favor, to publish this letter immediately, should you
find my name mentioned again by these wretched fanatics. Yours
respectfully,

"CHARLES ANTHON."*

* "Mormonism Unveiled," pp. 270-272. A letter from Professor
Anthon to the Rev. Dr. Coit, rector of Trinity Church, New
Rochelle, New York, dated April 3, 1841, containing practically
the same statement, will be found in Clark's" "Gleanings by the
Way," pp. 233-238.


While Mormon speakers quoted Anthon as vouching for the
mysterious writing, their writers were more cautious. P. P.
Pratt, in his "Voice of Warning" (1837), said that Professor
Anthon was unable to decipher the characters, "but he presumed
that if the original records could be brought, he could assist in
translating them. Orson Pratt, in his "Remarkable Visions"
(1848), saw in the Professor's failure only a verification of
Isaiah xxix. 11 and 12:--

"And the vision of all is become unto you as the words of a book
that is sealed, which men deliver to one that is learned, saying,
Read this, I pray thee: and he saith, I cannot, for it is sealed:
and the book is delivered to him that is not learned, saying,
Read this, I pray thee: and he saith, I am not learned."

John D. Lee, in his "Mormonism Unveiled," mentions the generally
used excuse of the Mormons for the professor's failure to
translate the writing, namely, that Anthon told Harris that "they
were written in a sealed language, unknown to the present age.
"Smith, in his autobiography, quotes Harris's account of his
interview as follows:--

"I went to New York City and presented the characters which had
been translated, with the translation thereof, to Prof. Anthon, a
man quite celebrated for his literary attainments. Prof. Anthon
stated that the translation was correct, more so than any he had
before seen translated from the Egyptian. I then showed him those
which were not yet translated, and he said they were Egyptian,
Chaldaic, Assyriac, and Arabic, and he said they were the true
characters."

Harris declared that the professor gave him a certificate to this
effect, but took it back and tore it up when told that an angel
of God had revealed the plates to Joe, saying that "there were no
such things as ministering angels. "This account by Harris of his
interview with Professor Anthon will assist the reader in
estimating the value of Harris's future testimony as to the
existence of the plates.

Harris's trip to New York City was not entirely satisfactory to
him, and, as Smith himself relates, "He began to tease me to give
him liberty to carry the writings home and show them, and desired
of me that I would enquire of the Lord through the Urim and
Thummim if he might not do so. "Smith complied with this request,
but the permission was twice refused; the third time it was
granted, but on condition that Harris would show the manuscript
translation to only five persons, who were named, one of them
being his wife.

In including Mrs. Harris in this list, the Lord made one of the
greatest mistakes into which he ever fell in using Joe as a
mouthpiece. Mrs. Harris's Quaker belief had led her from the
start to protest against the Bible scheme, and to warn her
husband against the Smith family, and she vigorously opposed his
investment of any money in the publication of the book. On the
occasion of his first visit to Joe in Pennsylvania, according to
Mother Smith, Mrs. Harris was determined to accompany him, and he
had to depart without her knowledge; and when he went the second
time, she did accompany him, and she ransacked the house to find
the "record" (as the plates are often called in the Smiths'
writings).

When Harris returned home with the translated pages which Joe
intrusted to him (in July, 1828), he showed them to his family
and to others, who tried in vain to convince him that he was a
dupe. Mrs. Harris decided on a more practical course. Getting
possession of the papers, where Harris had deposited them for
safe keeping, she refused to restore them to him. What eventually
became of them is uncertain, one report being that she afterward
burned them.

This should have caused nothing more serious in the way of delay
than the time required to retranslate these pages; for certainly
a well-equipped Divinity, who was revealing a new Bible to
mankind, and supplying so powerful a means of translation as the
Urim and Thummim, could empower the translator to repeat the
words first written. Indeed, the descriptions of the method of
translation given afterward by Smith's confederates would seem to
prove that there could have been but one version of any
translation of the plates, no matter how many times repeated.
Thus, Harris described the translating as follows:--

"By aid of the seer stone [no mention of the magic spectacles]
sentences would appear and were read by the prophet and written
by Martin, and, when finished, he would say 'written'; and if
correctly written, that sentence would disappear, and another
appear in its place; but if not written correctly, it remained
until corrected, so that the translation was just as it was
engraven on the plates, precisely in the language then used."*

* Elder Edward Stevenson in the Deseret News (quoted in Reynold's
"Mystery of the Manuscript Fund," p. 91).

David Whitmer, in an account of this process written in his later
years, said:--

"Joseph would put the seer stone into a hat [more testimony
against the use of the spectacles] and put his face in the hat,
drawing it closely around his face to exclude the light; and in
the darkness the spiritual light would shine. A piece of
something resembling parchment would appear, and on that appeared
the writing. One character at a time would appear, and under it
was the translation in English. Brother Joseph would read off the
English to O. Cowdery, who was his principal scribe, and when it
was written down and repeated to brother Joseph to see if it were
correct, then it would disappear and another character with the
interpretation would appear."*

* "Address to Believers in the Book of Mormon."


But to Joseph the matter of reproducing the lost pages of the
translation did not seem simple. When Harris's return to
Pennsylvania was delayed, Joe became anxious and went to Palmyra
to learn what delayed him, and there he heard of Mrs. Harris's
theft of the pages. His mother reports him as saying in
announcing it, "my God, all is lost! all is lost!" Why the
situation was as serious to a sham translator as it would have
been simple to an honest one is easily understood. Whenever Smith
offered a second translation of the missing pages which differed
from the first, a comparison of them with the latter would
furnish proof positive of the fraudulent character of his
pretensions.

All the partners in the business had to share in the punishment
for what had occurred. The Smiths lost all faith in Harris. Joe
says that Harris broke his pledge about showing the translation
only to five persons, and Mother Smith says that because of this
offence "a dense fog spread itself over his fields and blighted
his wheat. "When Joe returned to Pennsylvania an angel appeared
to him, his mother says, and ordered him to give up the Urim and
Thummim, promising, however, to restore them if he was humble and
penitent, and "if so, it will be on the 22d of September."* Here
may be noted one of those failures of mother and son to agree in
their narratives which was excuse enough for Brigham Young to try
to suppress the mother's book. Joe mentions a "revelation" dated
July, 1828 (Sec. 3, "Doctrine and Covenants"), in which Harris
was called "a wicked man, "and which told Smith that he had lost
his privileges for a season, and he adds, "After I had obtained
the above revelation, both the plates and the Urim and Thummim
were taken from me again, BUT IN A FEW DAYS they were returned to
me."**

* "Biographical Sketches," by Lucy Smith, p. 125.

** Millennial Star, Vol. XIV, p. 8.


For some ten months after this the work of translation was
discontinued, although Mother Smith says that when she and his
father visited the prophet in Pennsylvania two months after his
return, the first thing they saw was "a red morocco trunk lying
on Emma's bureau which, Joseph shortly informed me, contained the
Urim and Thummim and the plates." Mrs. Harris's act had evidently
thrown the whole machinery of translation out of gear, and Joe
had to await instructions from his human adviser before a plan of
procedure could be announced. During this period (in which Joe
says he worked on his father's farm), says Tucker, "the stranger
[supposed to be Rigdon] had again been at Smith's, and the
prophet had been away from home, maybe to repay the former's
visits."*

* "Origin, Rise, and Progress of Mormonism," p. 48.


Two matters were decided on in these consultations, viz., that no
attempt would be made to retranslate the lost pages, and that a
second copy of all the rest of the manuscript should be prepared,
to guard against a similar perplexity in case of the loss of
later pages. The proof of the latter statement I find in the fact
that a second copy did exist. Ebenezer Robinson, who was a
leading man in the church from the time of its establishment in
Ohio until Smith's death, says in his recollections that, when
the people assembled on October 2, 1841, to lay the corner-stone
of Nauvoo House, Smith said he had a document to put into the
corner-stone, and Robinson went with him to his house to procure
it. Robinson's story proceeds as follows:--

"He got a manuscript copy of the Book of Mormon, and brought it
into the room where we were standing, and said, 'I will examine
to see if it is all here'; and as he did so I stood near him, at
his left side, and saw distinctly the writing as he turned up the
pages until he hastily went through the book and satisfied
himself that it was all there, when he said, 'I have had trouble
enough with this thing'; which remark struck me with amazement,
as I looked upon it as a sacred treasure."

Robinson says that the manuscript was written on foolscap paper
and most of it in Oliver Cowdery's handwriting. He explains that
two copies were necessary, "as the printer who printed the first
edition of the book had to have a copy, as they would not put the
original copy into his hands for fear of its being altered. This
accounts for David Whitmer having a copy and Joseph Smith having
one."*

* The Return, Vol- II, p. 314. Ebenezer Robinson, a printer,
joined the Mormons at Kirtland, followed Smith to Missouri, and
went with the flock to Nauvoo, where he and the prophet's
brother, Don Carlos, established the Times and Seasons. When the
doctrine of polygamy was announced to him and his wife, they
rejected it, and he followed Rigdon to Pennsylvania when Rigdon
was turned out by Young. In later years he was engaged in
business enterprises in Iowa, and was a resident of Davis City
when David Whitmer announced the organization of his church in
Missouri, and, not accepting the view of the prophet entertained
by his descendants in the Reorganized Church, Robinson accepted
baptism from Whitmer. The Return was started by him in January,
1889, and continued until his death, in its second year. His
reminiscences of early Mormon experiences, which were a feature
of the publication, are of value.

Major Bideman, who married the prophet's widow, partly completed
and occupied Nauvoo House after the departure of the Mormons for
Utah, and some years later he took out the cornerstone and opened
it, but found the manuscript so ruined by moisture that only a
little was legible.

In regard to the missing pages, it was decided to announce a
revelation, which is dated May, 1829 (Sec. 10, "Doctrine and
Covenants"), stating that the lost pages had got into the hands
of wicked men, that "Satan has put it into their hearts to alter
the words which you have caused to be written, or which you have
translated, "in accordance with a plan of the devil to destroy
Smith's work. He was directed therefore to translate from the
plates of Nephi, which contained a "more particular account" than
the Book of Lehi from which the original translation was made.

When Smith began translating again, Harris was not reemployed,
but Emma, the prophet's wife, acted as his scribe until April 15,
1829, when a new personage appeared upon the scene. This was
Oliver Cowdery.

Cowdery was a blacksmith by trade, but gave up that occupation,
and, while Joe was translating in Pennsylvania, secured the place
of teacher in the district where the Smiths lived, and boarded
with them. They told him of the new Bible, and, according to
Joe's later account, Cowdery for himself received a revelation of
its divine character, went to Pennsylvania, and from that time
was intimately connected with Joe in the translation and
publication of the book.

In explanation of the change of plan necessarily adopted in the
translation, the following preface appeared in the first edition
of the book, but was dropped later:--

"TO THE READER.

"As many false reports have been circulated respecting the
following work, and also many unlawful measures taken by evil
designing persons to destroy me, and also the work, I would
inform you that I translated, by the gift and power of God, and
caused to be written, one hundred and sixteen pages, the which I
took from the book of Lehi, which was an account abridged from
the plates of Lehi, by the hand of Mormon; which said account,
some person or persons have stolen and kept from me,
notwithstanding my utmost efforts to recover it again--and being
commanded of the Lord that I should not translate the same over
again, for Satan had put it into their hearts to tempt the Lord
their God, by altering the words; that they did read contrary
from that which I translated and caused to be written; and if I
should bring forth the same words again, or, in other words, if I
should translate the same over again, they would publish that
which they had stolen, and Satan would stir up the hearts of this
generation, that they might not receive this work, but behold,
the Lord said unto me, I will not suffer that Satan shall
accomplish his evil design in this thing; therefore thou shalt
translate from the plates of Nephi until ye come to that which ye
have translated, which ye have retained; and behold, ye shall
publish it as the record of Nephi; and thus I will confound those
who have altered my words. I will not suffer that they shall
destroy my work; yea, I will show unto them that my wisdom is
greater than the cunning of the Devil. Wherefore, to be obedient
unto the commandments of God, I have, through His grace and
mercy, accomplished that which He hath commanded me respecting
this thing. I would also inform you that the plates of which hath
been spoken, were found in the township of Manchester, Ontario
County, New York. --THE AUTHOR."

In June, 1829, Smith accepted an invitation to change his
residence to the house of Peter Whitmer, who, with his sons,
David, John, and Peter, Jr., lived at Fayette, Seneca County, New
York, the Whitmers promising his board free and their assistance
in the work of translation. There, Smith says, they resided
"until the translation was finished and the copyright secured."

As five of the Whitmers were "witnesses" to the existence of the
plates, and David continued to be a person of influence in Mormon
circles throughout his long life, information about them is of
value. The prophet's mother again comes to our aid, although her
account conflicts with her son's. The prophet says that David
Whitmer brought the invitation to take up quarters at his
father's, and volunteered the offer of free board and assistance.
Mother Smith says that one day, as Joe was translating the
plates, he came, in the midst of the words of the Holy Writ, to a
commandment to write at once to David Whitmer, requesting him to
come immediately and take the prophet and Cowdery to his house,"
as an evildesigning people were seeking to take away his
[Joseph's] life in order to prevent the work of God from going
forth to the world. "When the letter arrived, David's father told
him that, as they had wheat sown that would require two days'
harrowing, and a quantity of plaster to spread, he could not go
"unless he could get a witness from God that it was absolutely
necessary. "In answer to his inquiry of the Lord on the subject,
David was told to go as soon as his wheat was harrowed in.
Setting to work, he found that at the end of the first day the
two days' harrowing had been completed, and, on going out the
next morning to spread the plaster, he found that work done also,
and his sister told him she had seen three unknown men at work in
the field the day before: so that the task had been accomplished
by "an exhibition of supernatural power."*

* "Biographical Sketches," Lucy Smith, p. 135.


The translation being ready for the press, in June, 1829 (I
follow Tucker's account of the printing of the work), Joseph, his
brother Hyrum, Cowdery, and Harris asked Egbert B. Grandin,
publisher of the Wayne Sentinel at Palmyra, to give them an
estimate of the cost of printing an edition of three thousand
copies, with Harris as security for the payment. Grandin told
them he did not want to undertake the job at any price, and he
tried to persuade Harris not to invest his money in the scheme,
assuring him that it was fraudulent. Application was next made to
Thurlow Weed, then the publisher of the Anti-Masonic Inquirer, at
Rochester, New York. "After reading a few chapters," says Mr.
Weed, "it seemed such a jumble of unintelligent absurdities that
we refused the work, advising Harris not to mortgage his farm and
"beggar his family." Finally, Smith and his associates obtained
from Elihu F. Marshall, a Rochester publisher, a definite bid for
the work, and with this they applied again to Grandin, explaining
that it would be much more convenient for them to have the
printing done at home, and pointing out to him that he might as
well take the job, as his refusal would not prevent the
publication of the book. This argument had weight with him, and
he made a definite contract to print and bind five thousand
copies for the sum of $3000, a mortgage on Harris's farm to be
given him as security. Mrs. Harris had persisted in her refusal
to be in any way a party to the scheme, and she and her husband
had finally made a legal separation, with a division of the
property, after she had entered a complaint against Joe, charging
him with getting money from her husband on fraudulent
representation. At the hearing on this complaint, Harris denied
that he had ever contributed a dollar to Joe at the latter's
persuasion.

Tucker, who did much of the proof-reading of the new Bible,
comparing it with the manuscript copy, says that, when the
printing began, Smith and his associates watched the manuscript
with the greatest vigilance, bringing to the office every morning
as much as the printers could set up during the day, and taking
it away in the evening, forbidding also any alteration. The
foreman, John H. Gilbert, found the manuscript so poorly prepared
as regards grammatical construction, spelling, punctuation, etc.,
that he told them that some corrections must be made, and to this
they finally consented.

Daniel Hendrix, in his recollections, says in confirmation of
this:--

"I helped to read proof on many pages of the book, and at odd
times set some type.... The penmanship of the copy furnished was
good, but the grammar, spelling and punctuation were done by John
H. Gilbert, who was chief compositor in the office. I have heard
him swear many a time at the syntax and orthography of Cowdery,
and declare that he would not set another line of the type. There
were no paragraphs, no punctuation and no capitals. All that was
done in the printing office, and what a time there used to be in
straightening sentences out, too. During the printing of the book
I remember that Joe Smith kept in the background."

The following letter is in reply to an inquiry addressed by me to
Albert Chandler, the only survivor, I think, of the men who
helped issue the first edition of Smith's book:--

"COLDWATER, MICH., Dec. 22, 1898.

"My recollections of Joseph Smith, Jr. and of the first steps
taken in regard to his Bible have never been printed. At the time
of the printing of the Mormon Bible by Egbert B. Grandin of the
Sentinel I was an apprentice in the bookbindery connected with
the Sentinel office. I helped to collate and stitch the Gold
Bible, and soon after this was completed, I changed from
book-binding to printing. I learned my trade in the Sentinel
office.

"My recollections of the early history of the Mormon Bible are
vivid to-day. I knew personally Oliver Cowdery, who translated
the Bible, Martin Harris, who mortgaged his farm to procure the
printing, and Joseph Smith Jr., but slightly. What I knew of him
was from hearsay, principally from Martin Harris, who believed
fully in him. Mr. Tucker's 'Origin, Rise, and Progress of
Mormonism' is the fullest account I have ever seen. I doubt if I
can add anything to that history.

"The whole history is shrouded in the deepest mystery. Joseph
Smith Jr., who read through the wonderful spectacles, pretended
to give the scribe the exact reading of the plates, even to
spelling, in which Smith was woefully deficient. Martin Harris
was permitted to be in the room with the scribe, and would try
the knowledge of Smith, as he told me, saying that Smith could
not spell the word February, when his eyes were off the
spectacles through which he pretended to work. This ignorance of
Smith was proof positive to him that Smith was dependent on the
spectacles for the contents of the Bible. Smith and the plates
containing the original of the Mormon Bible were hid from view of
the scribe and Martin Harris by a screen.

"I should think that Martin Harris, after becoming a convert,
gave up his entire time to advertising the Bible to his neighbors
and the public generally in the vicinity of Palmyra. He would
call public meetings and address them himself. He was
enthusiastic, and went so far as to say that God, through the
Latter Day Saints, was to rule the world. I heard him make this
statement, that there would never be another President of the
United States elected; that soon all temporal and spiritual power
would be given over to the prophet Joseph Smith and the Latter
Day Saints. His extravagant statements were the laughing stock of
the people of Palmyra. His stories were hissed at, universally.
To give you an idea of Mr. Harris's superstitions, he told me
that he saw the devil, in all his hideousness, on the road, just
before dark, near his farm, a little north of Palmyra. You can
see that Harris was a fit subject to carry out the scheme of
organizing a new religion.

"The absolute secrecy of the whole inception and publication of
the Mormon Bible stopped positive knowledge. We only knew what
Joseph Smith would permit Martin Harris to publish, in reference
to the whole thing.

"The issuing of the Book of Mormon scarcely made a ripple of
excitement in Palmyra.

ALBERT CHANDLER."*

* Mr. Chandler moved to Michigan in 1835, and has been connected
with several newspapers in that state, editing the Kalamazoo
Gazette, and founding and publishing the Coldwater Sentinel. He
was elected the first mayor of Coldwater, serving several terms.
He was in his eighty-fifth year when the above letter was
written.


The book was published early in 1830. On paper the sale of the
first edition showed a profit of $3250 at $1.25 a volume, that
being the lowest price to be asked on pain of death, according to
a "special revelation" received by Smith. By the original
agreement Harris was to have the exclusive control of the sale of
the book. But it did not sell. The local community took it no
more seriously than they did Joe himself and his family. The
printer demanded his pay as the work progressed, and it became
necessary for Smith to spur Harris on by announcing a revelation
(Sec. 19, "Doctrine and Covenants"), saying, "I command thee that
thou shalt not covet thine own property, but impart it freely to
the printing of the Book of Mormon. "Harris accordingly disposed
of his share of the farm and paid Grandin.

To make the book "go," Smith now received a revelation which
permitted his father, soon to be elevated to the title of
Patriarch, to sell it on commission, and Smith, Sr., made
expeditions through the country, taking in pay for any copies
sold such farm produce or "store goods" as he could use in his
own family. How much he "cut" the revealed price of the book in
these trades is not known, but in one instance, when arrested in
Palmyra for a debt of $5.63, he, under pledge of secrecy, offered
seven of the Bibles in settlement, and the creditor, knowing that
the old man had no better assets, accepted the offer as a joke.*

* "Origin, Rise, and Progress of Mormonism," Tucker, p. 63.



CHAPTER VII. THE SPAULDING MANUSCRIPT

The history of the Mormon Bible has been brought uninterruptedly
to this point in order that the reader may be able to follow
clearly each step that had led up to its publication. It is now
necessary to give attention to two subjects intimately connected
with the origin of this book, viz., the use made of what is known
as the "Spaulding manuscript," in supplying the historical part
of the work, and Sidney Rigdon's share in its production.

The most careful student of the career of Joseph Smith, Jr., and
of his family and his associates, up to the year 1827, will fail
to find any ground for the belief that he alone, or simply with
their assistance, was capable of composing the Book of Mormon,
crude in every sense as that work is. We must therefore accept,
as do the Mormons, the statement that the text was divinely
revealed to Smith, or must look for some directing hand behind
the scene, which supplied the historical part and applied the
theological. The "Spaulding manuscript" is believed to have
furnished the basis of the historical part of the work.

Solomon Spaulding, born in Ashford, Connecticut, in 1761, was
graduated from Dartmouth College in 1785, studied divinity, and
for some years had charge of a church. His own family described
him as a peculiar man, given to historical researches, and
evidently of rather unstable disposition. He gave up preaching,
conducted an academy at Cherry Valley, New York, and later moved
to Conneaut, Ohio, where in 1812 he had an interest in an iron
foundry. His attention was there attracted to the ancient mounds
in that vicinity, and he set some of his men to work exploring
one of them. "I vividly remember how excited he became," says his
daughter,when he heard that they had exhumed some human bones,
portions of gigantic skeletons, and various relics. "From these
discoveries he got the idea of writing a fanciful history of the
ancient races of this country.

The title he chose for his book was "The Manuscript Found." He
considered this work a great literary production, counted on
being able to pay his debts from the proceeds of its sale, and
was accustomed to read selections from the manuscript to his
neighbors with evident pride. The impression that such a
production would be likely to make on the author's neighbors in
that frontier region and in those early days, when books were
scarce and authors almost unknown, can with difficulty be
realized now. Barrett Wendell, speaking of the days of Bryant's
early work, says:--

"Ours was a new country...deeply and sensitively aware that it
lacked a literature. Whoever produced writings which could be
pronounced adorable was accordingly regarded by his fellow
citizens as a public benefactor, a great public figure, a
personage of whom the nation could be proud."* This feeling lends
weight to the testimony of Mr. Spaulding's neighbors, who in
later years gave outlines of his work.

* "Literary History of America."


In order to find a publisher Mr. Spaulding moved with his family
to Pittsburg, Pennsylvania. A printer named Patterson spoke well
of the manuscript to its author, but no one was found willing to
publish it. The Spauldings afterward moved to Amity,
Pennsylvania, where Mr. Spaulding died in 1816. His widow and
only child went to live with Mrs. Spaulding's brother, W. H.
Sabine, at Onondaga Valley, New York, taking their effects with
them. These included an old trunk containing Mr. Spaulding's
papers. "There were sermons and other papers," says his daughter,
"and I saw a manuscript about an inch thick, closely written,
tied up with some stories my father had written for me, one of
which he called 'The Frogs of Windham.' On the outside of this
manuscript were written the words 'Manuscript Found.' I did not
read it, but looked through it, and had it in my hands many
times, and saw the names I had heard at Conneaut, when my father
read it to his friends. "Mrs. Spaulding next went to her father's
house in Connecticut, leaving her personal property at her
brother's. She married a Mr. Davison in 1820, and the old trunk
was sent to her at her new home in Hartwick, Otsego County, New
York. The daughter was married to a Mr. McKinstry in 1828, and
her mother afterward made her home with her at Monson,
Massachusetts, most of the time until her death in 1844.

When the newly announced Mormon Bible began to be talked about in
Ohio, there were immediate declarations in Spaulding's old
neighborhood of a striking similarity between the Bible story and
the story that Spaulding used to read to his acquaintances there,
and these became positive assertions after the Mormons had held a
meeting at Conneaut. The opinion was confidently expressed there
that, if the manuscript could be found and published, it would
put an end to the Mormon pretence.

About the year 1834 Mrs. Davison received a visit at Monson from
D. P. Hurlbut, a man who had gone over to the Mormons from the
Methodist church, and had apostatized and been expelled. He
represented that he had been sent by a committee to secure "The
Manuscript Found" in order that it might be compared with the
Mormon Bible. As he brought a letter from her brother, Mrs.
Davison, with considerable reluctance, gave him an introduction
to George Clark, in whose house at Hartwick she had left the old
trunk, directing Mr. Clark to let Hurlbut have the manuscript,
receiving his verbal pledge to return it. He obtained a
manuscript from this trunk, but did not keep his pledge.*

* Condensed from an affidavit by Mrs. McKinstry, dated April 3,
1880, in Scribner's Magazine for August, 1880.


The Boston Recorder published in May, 1839, a detailed statement
by Mrs. Davison concerning her knowledge of "The Manuscript
Found." After giving an account of the writing of the story, her
statement continued as follows:--

"Here [in Pittsburg] Mr. Spaulding found a friend and
acquaintance in the person of Mr. Patterson, who was very much
pleased with it, and borrowed it for perusal. He retained it for
a long time, and informed Mr. Spaulding that, if he would make
out a title-page and preface, he would publish it, as it might be
a source of profit. This Mr. Spaulding refused to do. Sidney
Rigdon, who has figured so largely in the history of the Mormons,
was at that time connected with the printing office of Mr.
Patterson, as is well known in that region, and, as Rigdon
himself has frequently stated, became acquainted with Mr.
Spaulding's manuscript and copied it. It was a matter of
notoriety and interest to all connected with the printing
establishment. At length the manuscript was returned to its
author, and soon after we removed to Amity where Mr. Spaulding
deceased in 1816. The manuscript then fell into my hands, and was
carefully preserved."

This statement stirred up the Mormons greatly, and they at once
pronounced the letter a forgery, securing from Mrs. Davison a
statement in which she said that she did not write it. This was
met with a counter statement by the Rev. D. R. Austin that it was
made up from notes of a conversation with her, and was correct.
In confirmation of this the Quincy [Massachusetts] Whig printed a
letter from John Haven of Holliston, Massachusetts, giving a
report of a conversation between his son Jesse and Mrs. Davison
concerning this letter, in which she stated that the letter was
substantially correct, and that some of the names used in the
Mormon Bible were like those in her husband's story. Rigdon
himself, in a letter addressed to the Boston Journal, under date
of May 27, 1839, denied all knowledge of Spaulding, and declared
that there was no printer named Patterson in Pittsburg during his
residence there, although he knew a Robert Patterson who had
owned a printing-office in that city. The larger part of his
letter is a coarse attack on Hurlbut and also on E. D. Howe, the
author of "Mormonism Unveiled, "whose whole family he charged
with scandalous immoralities." If the use of Spaulding's story in
the preparation of the Mormon Bible could be proved by nothing
but this letter of Mrs. Davison, the demonstration would be weak;
but this is only one link in the chain.

Howe, in his painstaking efforts to obtain all probable
information about the Mormon origin from original sources,
secured the affidavits of eight of Spaulding's acquaintances in
Ohio, giving their recollections of the "Manuscript Found."*
Spaulding's brother, John, testified that he heard many passages
of the manuscript read and, describing it, he said:--

* Howe's "Mormonism Unveiled," pp. 278-287.


 "It was an historical romance of the first settlers of America,
endeavoring to show that the American Indians are the descendants
of the Jews, or the lost tribe. It gave a detailed account of
their journey from Jerusalem, by land and sea, till they arrived
in America, under the command of Nephi and Lehi. They afterwards
had quarrels and contentions, and separated into two distinct
nations, one of which he denominated Nephites, and the other
Lamanites. Cruel and bloody Wars ensued, in which great
multitudes were slain.... I have recently read the "Book of
Mormon," and to my great surprise I find nearly the same
historical matter, names, etc., as they were in my brother's
writings. I well remember that he wrote in the old style, and
commenced about every sentence with 'and it came to pass,' or
'now it came to pass,' the same as in the 'Book of Mormon,' and,
according to the best of my recollection and belief, it is the
same as my brother Solomon wrote, with the exception of the
religious matter."

John Spaulding's wife testified that she had no doubt that the
historical part of the Bible and the manuscript were the same,
and she well recalled such phrases as "it came to pass."

Mr. Spaulding's business partner at Conneaut, Henry Lake,
testified that Spaulding read the manuscript to him many hours,
that the story running through it and the Bible was the same, and
he recalls this circumstance: "One time, when he was reading to
me the tragic account of Laban, I pointed out to him what I
considered an inconsistency, which he promised to correct, but by
referring to the 'Book of Mormon,' I find that it stands there
just as he read it to me then.... I well recollect telling Mr.
Spaulding that the so frequent use of the words 'and it came to
pass,' 'now it came to pass,' rendered it ridiculous."

John N. Miller, an employee of Spaulding in Ohio, and a boarder
in his family for several months, testified that Spaulding had
written more than one book or pamphlet, that he had heard the
author read from the "Manuscript Found," that he recalled the
story running through it, and added: "I have recently examined
the 'Book of Mormon,' and find in it the writings of Solomon
Spaulding, from beginning to end, but mixed up with Scripture and
other religious matter which I did not meet with in the
'Manuscript Found'.... The names of Nephi, Lehi, Moroni, and in
fact all the principal names, are brought fresh to my
recollection by the 'Gold Bible.'"

Practically identical testimony was given by the four other
neighbors. Important additions to this testimony have been made
in later years. A statement by Joseph Miller of Amity,
Pennsylvania, a man of standing in that community, was published
in the Pittsburg Telegraph of February 6, 1879. Mr. Miller said
that he was well acquainted with Spaulding when he lived at
Amity, and heard him read most of the "Manuscript Found," and had
read the Mormon Bible in late years to compare the two. "On
hearing read, "he says," the account from the book of the battle
between the Amlicites (Book of Alma), in which the soldiers of
one army had placed a red mark on their foreheads to distinguish
them from their enemies, it seemed to reproduce in my mind, not
only the narration, but the very words as they had been impressed
on my mind by the reading of Spaulding's manuscript.... The
longer I live, the more firmly I am convinced that Spaulding's
manuscript was appropriated and largely used in getting up the `
Book of Mormon."

Redick McKee, a resident of Amity, Pennsylvania, when Spaulding
lived there, and later a resident of Washington, D. C., in a
letter to the Washington [Pennsylvania] Reporter, of April 21,
1869, stated that he heard Spaulding read from his manuscript,
and added: "I have an indistinct recollection of the passage
referred to by Mr. Miller about the Amlicites making a cross with
red paint on their foreheads to distinguish them from enemies in
battle."

The Rev. Abner Judson, of Canton, Ohio, wrote for the Washington
County, Pennsylvania, Historical Society, under date of December
20, 1880, an account of his recollections of the Spaulding
manuscript, and it was printed in the Washington [Pennsylvania]
Reporter of January 7, 1881. Spaulding read a large part of his
manuscript to Mr. Judson's father before the author moved to
Pittsburg, and the son, confined to the house with a lameness,
heard the reading and the accompanying conversations. He says:
"He wrote it in the Bible style. 'And it came to pass,' occurred
so often that some called him 'Old Come-to-pass.' The 'Book of
Mormons' follows the romance too closely to be a stranger ....
When it was brought to Conneaut and read there in public, old
Esquire Wright heard it and exclaimed, "Old Come-to-pass' has
come to life again."*

* Fuller extracts from the testimony of these later witnesses
will be found in Robert Patterson's pamphlet, "Who wrote the Book
of Mormon," reprinted from the "History of Washington County,
Pa."


The testimony of so many witnesses, so specific in its details,
seems to prove the identity of Spaulding's story and the story
running through the Mormon Bible. The late President James H.
Fairchild of Oberlin, Ohio, whose pamphlet on the subject we
shall next examine, admits that "if we could accept without
misgiving the testimony of the eight witnesses brought forward in
Howe's book, we should be obliged to accept the fact of another
manuscript" (than the one which President Fairchild secured); but
he thinks there is some doubt about the effect on the memory of
these witnesses of the lapse of years and the reading of the new
Bible before they recalled the original story. It must be
remembered, however, that this resemblance was recalled as soon
as they heard the story of the new Bible, and there seems no
ground on which to trace a theory that it was the Bible which
originated in their minds the story ascribed to the manuscript.

The defenders of the Mormon Bible as an original work received
great comfort some fifteen years ago by the announcement that the
original manuscript of Spaulding's "Manuscript Found" had been
discovered in the Sandwich Islands and brought to this country,
and that its narrative bore no resemblance to the Bible story.
The history of this second manuscript is as follows: E. D. Howe
sold his printing establishment at Painesville, Ohio, to L. L.
Rice, who was an antislavery editor there for many years. Mr.
Rice afterward moved to the Sandwich Islands, and there he was
requested by President Fairchild to look over his old papers to
see if he could not find some antislavery matter that would be of
value to the Oberlin College library. One result of his search
was an old manuscript bearing the following certificate: 'The
writings of Solomon Spaulding,' proved by Aaron Wright, Oliver
Smith, John N. Miller and others. The testimonies of the above
gentlemen are now in my possession.

"D. P. HURLBUT."

President Fairchild in a paper on this subject which has been
published* gives a description of this manuscript (it has been
printed by the Reorganized Church at Lamoni, Iowa), which shows
that it bears no resemblance to the Bible story. But the
assumption that this proves that the Bible story is original
fails immediately in view of the fact that Mr. Howe made no
concealment of his possession of this second manuscript. Hurlbut
was in Howe's service when he asked Mrs. Davison for an order for
the manuscript, and he gave to Howe, as the result of his visit,
the manuscript which Rice gave to President Fairchild. Howe in
his book (p. 288) describes this manuscript substantially as does
President Fairchild, saying:--

* "Manuscript of Solomon Spaulding and the 'Book of Mormon,'"
Tract No. 77, Western Reserve Historical Society, Cleveland,
Ohio.


"This is a romance, purporting to have been translated from the
Latin, found on twenty-four rolls of parchment in a cave on the
banks of Conneaut Creek, but written in a modern style, and
giving a fabulous account of a ship's being drlven upon the
American coast, while proceeding from Rome to Britain, a short
time pious to the Christian era, this country then being
inhabited by the Indians."*

* Howe says in his book, "The fact that Spaulding in the latter
part of his life inclined to infidelity is established by a
letter in his handwriting now in our possession. "This letter was
given by Rice with the other manuscript to President Fairchild
(who reproduces it), thus adding to the proof that the Rice
manuscript is the one Hurlbut delivered to Howe.

Mr. Howe adds this important statement:--

"This old manuscript has been shown to several of the foregoing
witnesses, who recognize it as Spaulding's, he having told them
that he had altered his first plan of writing, by going further
back with dates, and writing in the old scripture style, in order
that it might appear more ancient. They say that it bears no
resemblance to the 'Manuscript Found.'"

If Howe had considered this manuscript of the least importance as
invalidating the testimony showing the resemblance between the
"Manuscript Found" and the Mormon Bible, he would have destroyed
it (if he was the malignant falsifier the Mormons represented him
to be), and not have first described it in his book; and then
left it to be found by any future owner of his effects. Its
rediscovery has been accepted, however, even by some non-Mormons,
as proof that the Mormon Bible is an original production.*

* Preface to "The Mormon Prophet," Lily Dugall.


Mrs. Ellen E. Dickenson, a great-niece of Spaulding, who has
painstakingly investigated the history of the much-discussed
manuscript, visited D. P. Hurlbut at his home near Gibsonburg,
Ohio, in 1880 (he died in 1882), taking with her Oscar Kellogg, a
lawyer, as a witness to the interview.* She says that her visit
excited him greatly. He told of getting a manuscript for Mr. Howe
at Hartwick, and said he thought it was burned with other of Mr.
Howe's papers. When asked, "Was it Spaulding's manuscript that
was burned?" he replied: "Mrs. Davison thought it was; but when I
just peeked into it, here and there, and saw the names Mormon,
Moroni, Lamanite, Lephi, I thought it was all nonsense. Why, if
it had been the real one, I could have sold it for $3000;** but I
just gave it to Howe because it was of no account. "During the
interview his wife was present, and when Mrs. Dickenson pressed
him with the question, "Do you know where the 'Manuscript Found'
is at the present time?" Mrs. Hurlbut went up to him and said,
"Tell her what you know." She got no satisfactory answer, but he
afterward forwarded to her an affidavit saying that he had
obtained of Mrs. Davison a manuscript supposing it to be
Spaulding's "Manuscript Found," adding: "I did not examine the
manuscript until after I got home, when upon examination I found
it to contain nothing of the kind, but being a manuscript upon an
entirely different subject. This manuscript I left with E. D.
Howe."

With this presentation of the evidence showing the similarity
between Spaulding's story and the Mormon Bible narrative, we may
next examine the grounds for believing that Sidney Rigdon was
connected with the production of the Bible.

* A full account of this interview is given in her book, "New
Light on Mormonism" (1885).

** There have been surmises that Hurlbut also found the
"Manuscript Found" in the trunk and sold this to the Mormons. He
sent a specific denial of this charge to Robert Patterson in
1879.



CHAPTER VIII. SIDNEY RIGDON

The man who had more to do with founding the Mormon church than
Joseph Smith, Jr., even if we exclude any share in the production
of the Mormon Bible, and yet who is unknown even by name to most
persons to whom the names of Joseph Smith and Brigham Young are
familiar, was Sidney Rigdon. Elder John Hyde, Jr., was well
within the truth when he wrote: "The compiling genius of
Mormonism was Sidney Rigdon. Smith had boisterous impetuosity but
no foresight. Polygamy was not the result of his policy but of
his passions. Sidney gave point, direction, and apparent
consistency to the Mormon system of theology. He invented its
forms and the manner of its arguments.... Had it not been for the
accession of these two men [Rigdon and Parley P. Pratt] Smith
would have been lost, and his schemes frustrated and abandoned."*

* "Mormonism: Its Leaders and Designs" (1857). Hyde, an
Englishman, joined the Mormons in that country when a lad and
began to preach almost at once. He sailed for this country in
1853 and joined the brethren in Salt Lake City. Brigham Young's
rule upset his faith, and he abandoned the belief in 1854. Even
H. H. Bancroft concedes him to have been "an able and honest man,
sober and sincere."

Rigdon (according to the sketch of him presented in Smith's
autobiography,* which he doubtless wrote) was born in St. Clair
township, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, on February 19, 1793.
His father was a farmer, and he lived on the farm, receiving only
a limited education, until he was twenty-six years old. He then
connected himself with the Baptist church, and received a license
to preach. Selecting Ohio as his field, he continued his work in
rural districts in that state until 1821, when he accepted a call
to a small Baptist church in Pittsburg.

* Millennial Star, Vol. XIV, Supt.


Twenty years before the publication of the Mormon Bible, Thomas
and Alexander Campbell, Scotchmen, had founded a congregation in
Washington County, Pennsylvania, out of which grew the religious
denomination known as Disciples of Christ, or Campbellites, whose
communicants in the United States numbered 871,017 in the year
1890. The fundamental principle of their teaching was that every
doctrine of belief, or maxim of duty, must rest upon the
authority of Scripture, expressed or implied, all human creeds
being rejected. The Campbells (who had been first Presbyterians
and then Baptists) were wonderful orators and convincing debaters
out of the pulpit, and they drew to themselves many of the most
eloquent exhorters in what was then the western border of the
United States. Among their allies was another Scotchman, Walter
Scott, a musician and schoolteacher by profession, who assisted
them in their newspaper work and became a noted evangelist in
their denomination. During a visit to Pittsburg in 1823, Scott
made Rigdon's acquaintance, and a little later the flocks to
which each preached were united. In August, 1824, Rigdon
announced his withdrawal from his church. Regarding his
withdrawal the sketch in Smith's autobiography says:--

"After he had been in that place [Pittsburg] some time, his mind
was troubled and much perplexed with the idea that the doctrines
maintained by that society were not altogether in accordance with
the Scriptures. This thing continued to agitate his mind more and
more, and his reflections on these occasions were particularly
trying; for, according to his view of the word of God, no other
church with whom he could associate, or that he was acquainted
with, was right; consequently, if he was to disavow the doctrine
of the church with whom he was then associated, he knew of no
other way of obtaining a living, except by manual labor, and at
that time he had a wife and three children to support."

For two years after he gave up his church connection he worked as
a journeyman tanner. This is all the information obtainable about
this part of his life. We next find him preaching at Bainbridge,
Ohio, as an undenominational exhorter, but following the general
views of the Campbells, advising his hearers to reject their
creeds and rest their belief solely on the Bible.

In June, 1826, Rigdon received a call to a Baptist church at
Mentor, Ohio, whose congregation he had pleased when he preached
the funeral sermon of his predecessor. His labors were not
confined, however, to this congregation. We find him acting as
the "stated" minister of a Disciples' church organized at Mantua,
Ohio, in 1827, preaching with Thomas Campbell at Shalersville,
Ohio, in 1828, and thus extending the influence he had acquired
as early as 1820, when Alexander Campbell called him "the great
orator of the Mahoning Association". In 1828 he visited his old
associate Scott, was further confirmed in his faith in the
Disciples' belief, and, taking his brother-in-law Bentley back
with him, they began revival work at Mentor, which led to the
conversion of more than fifty of their hearers. They held
services at Kirtland, Ohio, with equal success, and the story of
this awakening was the main subject of discussion in all the
neighborhood round about. The sketch of Rigdon in Smith's
autobiography closes with this tribute to his power as a
preacher: "The churches where he preached were no longer large
enough to contain the vast assemblies. No longer did he follow
the old beaten track, ...but dared to enter on new grounds,
...threw new light on the sacred volume, ...proved to a
demonstration the literal fulfilment of prophecy ...and the reign
of Christ with his Saints on the earth in the Millennium."

In tracing Rigdon's connection with Smith's enterprise, attention
must be carefully paid both to Rigdon's personal characteristics,
and to the resemblance between the doctrines he had taught in the
pulpit and those that appear in the Mormon Bible.

Rigdon's mental and religious temperament was just of the
character to be attracted by a novelty in religious belief. He,
with his brother-in-law, Adamson Bentley, visited Alexander
Campbell in 1821, and spent a whole night in religious
discussion. When they parted the next day, Rigdon declared that
"if he had within the last year promulgated one error, he had a
thousand," and Mr. Campbell, in his account of the interview,
remarked, "I found it expedient to caution them not to begin to
pull down anything they had builded until they had reviewed,
again and again, what they had heard; not even then rashly and
without much consideration."*

* Millennial Harbinger, 1848, p. 523.


A leading member of the church at Mantua has written, "Sidney
Rigdon preached for us, and, notwithstanding his extravagantly
wild freaks, he was held in high repute by many."*

* "Early History of the Disciples' Church in the Western
Reserve," by A: S. Hayden (1876), p. 239.


An important church discussion occurred at Warren, Ohio, in 1828.
Following out the idea of the literal interpretation of the
Scriptures taught in the Disciples' church, Rigdon sprung on the
meeting an argument in favor of a community of goods, holding
that the apostles established this system at Jerusalem, and that
the modern church, which rested on their example, must follow
them. Alexander Campbell, who was present, at once controverted
this position, showing that the apostles, as narrated in Acts,
"sold their possessions" instead of combining them for a profit,
and citing Bible texts to prove that no "community system"
existed in the early church. This argument carried the meeting,
and Rigdon left the assemblage, embittered against Campbell
beyond forgiveness. To a brother in Warren, on his way home, he
declared, "I have done as much in this reformation as Campbell or
Scott, and yet they get all the honor of it. "This claim is set
forth specifically in the sketch of Rigdon in Smith's
autobiography. Referring to Rigdon and Alexander Campbell, this
statement is there made:--

"After they had separated from the different churches, these
gentlemen were on terms of the greatest friendship, and
frequently met together to discuss the subject of religion, being
yet undetermined respecting the principles of the doctrine of
Christ or what course to pursue. However, from this connection
sprung up a new church in the world, known by the name of
'Campbellites'; they call themselves 'Disciples.' The reason why
they were called Campbellites was in consequence of Mr.
Campbell's periodical, above mentioned [the Christian Baptist],
and it being the means through which they communicated their
sentiments to the world; other than this, Mr. Campbell was no
more the originator of the sect than Elder Rigdon."

Rigdon's bitterness against the Campbells and his old church more
than once manifested itself in his later writings. For instance,
in an article in the Messenger and Advocate (Kirtland), of June,
1837, he said: "One thing has been done by the coming forth of
the Book of Mormon. It has puked the Campbellites effectually; no
emetic could have done so half as well.... The Book of Mormon has
revealed the secrets of Campbellism and unfolded the end of the
system. "In this jealousy of the Campbells, and the discomfiture
as a leader which he received at their hands, we find a
sufficient object for Rigdon's desertion of his old church
associations and desire to build up something, the discovery of
which he could claim, and the government of which he could
control.

To understand the strength of the argument that the doctrinal
teachings of the Mormon Bible were the work of a Disciples'
preacher rather than of the ne'er-do-well Smith, it is only
necessary to examine the teachings of the Disciples' church in
Ohio at that time. The investigator will be startled by the
resemblance between what was then taught to and believed by
Disciples' congregations and the leading beliefs of the Mormon
Bible. In the following examples of this the illustrations of
Disciples' beliefs and teachings are taken from Hayden's "Early
History of the Disciples' Church in the Western Reserve."

The literal interpretation of the Scriptures, on which the Mormon
defenders of their faith so largely depend,--as for explanations
of modern revelations, miracles, and signs,--was preached to so
extreme a point by Ohio Disciples that Alexander Campbell had to
combat them in his Millennial Harbinger. An outcome of this
literal interpretation was a belief in a speedy millennium,
another fundamental belief of the early Mormon church. "The hope
of the millennial glory," says Hayden, "was based on many
passages of the Holy Scriptures.... Millennial hymns were learned
and sung with a joyful fervor.... It is surprising even now, as
memory returns to gather up these interesting remains of that
mighty work, to recall the thorough and extensive knowledge which
the convert quickly obtained. Nebuchadnezzar's vision... many
portions of the Revelation were so thoroughly studied that they
became the staple of the common talk." Rigdon's old Pittsburg
friend, Scott, in his report as evangelist to the church
association at Warren in 1828, said: "Individuals eminently
skilled in the word of God, the history of the world, and the
progress of human improvements see reasons to expect great
changes, much greater than have yet occurred, and which shall
give to political society and to the church a different, a very
different, complexion from what many anticipate. The
millennium--the millennium described in the Scriptures--will
doubtless be a wonder, a terrible wonder, to all."

Disciples' preachers understood that they spoke directly for God,
just as Smith assumed to do in his "revelations." Referring to
the preaching of Rigdon and Bentley, after a visit to Scott in
March, 1828, Hayden says, "They spoke with authority, for the
word which they delivered was not theirs, but that of Jesus
Christ." The Disciples, like the Mormons, at that time looked for
the return of the Jews to Jerusalem. Scott* was an enthusiastic
preacher of this. "The fourteenth chapter of Zechariah," says
Hayden, "was brought forward in proof--all considered as
literal-- that the most marvellous and stupendous physical and
climatic changes were to be wrought in Palestine; and that Jesus
Christ the Messiah was to reign literally in Jerusalem, and in
Mount Zion, and before his ancients, gloriously."

* "In a letter to Dr. Richardson, written in 1830, he [Scott]
says the book of Elias Smith on the prophecies is the only
sensible work on that subject he had seen. He thinks this and
Crowley on the Apocalypse all the student of the Bible wants. He
strongly commends Smith's book to the doctor. This seems to be
the origin of millennial views among us. Rigdon, who always
caught and proclaimed the last word that fell from the lips of
Scott or Campbell, seized these views (about the millennium and
the Jews) and, with the wildness of his extravagant nature,
heralded them everywhere."--"Early History of the Disciples'
Church in the Western Reserve," p. 186.


Campbell taught that "creeds are but statements, with few
exceptions, of doctrinal opinion or speculators' views of
philosophical or dogmatic subjects, and tended to confusion,
disunion, and weakness." Orson Pratt, in his "Divine Authenticity
of the Book of Mormon," thus stated the early Mormon view on the
same subject: "If any man or council, without the aid of
immediate revelation, shall undertake to decide upon such
subjects, and prescribe 'articles of faith' or 'creeds' to govern
the belief or views of others, there will be thousands of
well-meaning people who will not have confidence in the
productions of these fallible men, and, therefore, frame creeds
of their own.... In this way contentions arise."

Finally, attention may be directed to the emphatic declarations
of the Disciples' doctrine of baptism in the Mormon Bible:--

"Ye shall go down and stand in the water, and in my name shall ye
baptize them.... And then shall ye immerse them in the water, and
come forth again out of the water."--3 Nephi Xi. 23, 26.

"I know that it is solemn mockery before God that ye should
baptize little children.... He that supposeth that little
children need baptism is in the gall of bitterness and in the
bond of iniquity; for he hath neither faith, hope, nor charity;
wherefore, should he be cut off while in the thought, he must go
down to hell. For awful is the wickedness to suppose that God
saveth one child because of baptism, and the other must perish
because he hath no baptism."--Moroni viii. 9, xc, 15.

There are but three conclusions possible from all this: that the
Mormon Bible was a work of inspiration, and that the agreement of
its doctrines with Disciples' belief only proves the correctness
of the latter; that Smith, in writing his doctrinal views, hit on
the Disciples' tenets by chance (he had had no opportunity
whatever to study them); or, finally, that some Disciple, learned
in the church, supplied these doctrines to him.

Advancing another step in the examination of Rigdon's connection
with the scheme, we find that even the idea of a new Bible was
common belief among the Ohio Disciples who listened to Scott's
teaching. Describing Scott's preaching in the winter of
1827-1828, Hayden says:--

"He contended ably for the restoration of the true, original
apostolic order which would restore to the church the ancient
gospel as preached by the apostles. The interest became an
excitement; ...the air was thick with rumors of a 'new religion,'
a 'new Bible.'"

Next we may cite two witnesses to show that Rigdon had a
knowledge of Smith's Bible in advance of its publication. His
brother-in-law, Bentley, in a letter to Walter Scott dated
January 22, 1841, said, "I know that Sidney Rigdon told me there
was a book coming out, the manuscript of which had been found
engraved on gold plates, as much as two years before the Mormon
book made its appearance or had been heard of by me."*

* Millennial Harbinger, 1844, p. 39. The Rev. Alexander Campbell
testified that this conversation took place in his presence.


One of the elders of the Disciples' church was Darwin Atwater, a
farmer, who afterward occupied the pulpit, and of whom Hayden
says, "The uniformity of his life, his undeviating devotion, his
high and consistent manliness and superiority of judgment, gave
him an undisputed preeminence in the church." In a letter to
Hayden, dated April 26, 1873, Mr. Atwater said of Rigdon: "For a
few months before his professed conversion to Mormonism it was
noticed that his wild extravagant propensities had been more
marked. That he knew before the coming of the Book of Mormon is
to me certain from what he said during the first of his visits at
my father's, some years before. He gave a wonderful description
of the mounds and other antiquities found in some parts of
America, and said that they must have been made by the
aborigines. He said there was a book to be published containing
an account of those things. He spoke of these in his eloquent,
enthusiastic style, as being a thing most extraordinary. Though a
youth then, I took him to task for expending so much enthusiasm
on such a subject instead of things of the Gospel. In all my
intercourse with him afterward he never spoke of antiquities, or
of the wonderful book that should give account of them, till the
Book of Mormon really was published. He must have thought I was
not the man to reveal that to."*

* "Early History of the Disciples' Church in the Western
Reserve," p. 239.


Dr. Storm Rosa, a leading physician of Ohio, in, a letter to the
Rev. John Hall of Ashtabula, written in 1841, said: "In the early
part of the year 1830 I was in company with Sidney Rigdon, and
rode with him on horseback for a few miles.... He remarked to me
that it was time for a new religion to spring up; that mankind
were all right and ready for it."*

* "Gleanings by the Way," p. 315.


Having thus established the identity of the story running through
the Spaulding manuscript and the historical part of the Mormon
Bible, the agreement of the doctrinal part of the latter with
what was taught at the time by Rigdon and his fellow-workers in
Ohio, and Rigdon's previous knowledge of the coming book, we are
brought to the query: How did the Spaulding manuscript become
incorporated in the Mormon Bible?

It could have been so incorporated in two ways: either by coming
into the possession of Rigdon and being by him copied and placed
in Smith's hands for "translation," with the theological parts
added;* or by coming into possession of Smith in his wanderings
around the neighborhood of Hartwick, and being shown by him to
Rigdon. Every aspect of this matter has been discussed by Mormon
and non-Mormon writers, and it can only be said that definite
proof is lacking. Mormon disputants set forth that Spaulding
moved from Pittsburg to Amity in 1814, and that Rigdon's first
visit to Pittsburg occurred in 1822. On the other hand, evidence
is offered that Rigdon was a "hanger around" Patterson's
printing-office, where Spaulding offered his manuscript, before
the year 1816, and the Rev. John Winter, M.D., who taught school
in Pittsburg when Rigdon preached there, and knew him well,
recalled that Rigdon showed him a large manuscript which he said
a Presbyterian minister named Spaulding had brought to the city
for publication. Dr. Winter's daughter wrote to Robert Patterson
on April 5, 1881: "I have frequently heard my father speak of
Rigdon having Spaulding's manuscript, and that he had gotten it
from the printers to read it as a curiosity; as such he showed it
to father, and at that time Rigdon had no intention of making the
use of it that he afterward did." Mrs. Ellen E. Dickenson, in a
report of a talk with General and Mrs. Garfield on the subject at
Mentor, Ohio, in 1880, reports Mrs. Garfield as saying "that her
father told her that Rigdon in his youth lived in that
neighborhood, and made mysterious journeys to Pittsburg."*** She
also quotes a statement by Mrs. Garfield's** father, Z. Rudolph,
"that during the winter previous to the appearance of the Book of
Mormon, Rigdon was in the habit of spending weeks away from his
home, going no one knew where."**** Tucker says that in the
summer of 1827 "a mysterious stranger appears at Smith's
residence, and holds private interviews with the far-famed
money-digger.... It was observed by some of Smith's nearest
neighbors that his visits were frequently repeated." Again, when
the persons interested in the publication of the Bible were so
alarmed by the abstraction of pages of the translation by Mrs.
Harris, "the reappearance of the mysterious stranger at Smith's
was," he says, "the subject of inquiry and conjecture by
observers from whom was withheld all explanation of his identity
or purpose."*****

* "Rigdon has not been in full fellowship with Smith for more
than a year. He has been in his turn cast aside by Joe to make
room for some new dupe or knave who, perhaps, has come with more
money. He has never been deceived by Joe. I have no doubt that
Rigdon was the originator of the system, and, fearing for its
success, put Joe forward as a sort of fool in the play."--Letter
from a resident near Nauvoo, quoted in the postscript to
Caswall's "City of the Mormons". (1843)

** For a collection of evidence on this subject, see Patterson's
"Who Wrote the Mormon Bible?"

**(Scribner's Magazine, October, 1881.

*** "New Light on Mormonism," p. 252.

***** "Origin, Rise, and Progress of Mormonism," pp. 28, 46.


In a historical inquiry of this kind, it is more important to
establish the fact that a certain thing WAS DONE than to prove
just HOW or WHEN it was done. The entire narrative of the steps
leading up to the announcement of a new Bible, including Smith's
first introduction to the use of a "peek-stone" and his original
employment of it, the changes made in the original version of the
announcement to him of buried plates, and the final production of
a book, partly historical and partly theological, shows that
there was behind Smith some directing mind, and the only one of
his associates in the first few years of the church's history who
could have done the work required was Sidney Rigdon.

President Fairchild, in his paper on the Spaulding manuscript
already referred to, while admitting that "it is perhaps
impossible at this day to prove or disprove the Spaulding
theory," finds any argument against the assumption that Rigdon
supplied the doctrinal part of the new Bible, in the view that "a
man as self-reliant and smart as Rigdon, with a superabundant
gift of tongue and every form of utterance, would never have
accepted the servile task of mere interpolation; "there could
have been no motive to it." This only shows that President
Fairchild wrote without knowledge of the whole subject, with
ignorance of the motives which did exist for Rigdon's conduct,
and without means of acquainting himself with Rigdon's history
during his association with Smith. Some of his motives we have
already ascertained: We shall find that, almost from the
beginning of their removal to Ohio, Smith held him in a
subjection which can be explained only on the theory that Rigdon,
the prominent churchman, had placed himself completely in the
power of the unprincipled Smith, and that, instead of exhibiting
self-reliance, he accepted insult after insult until, just before
Smith's death, he was practically without influence in the
church; and when the time came to elect Smith's successor, he was
turned out-of-doors by Brigham Young with the taunting words,
"Brother Sidney says he will tell our secrets, but I would say, `
'O don't, Brother Sidney! Don't tell our secrets--O don't.' But
if he tells our secrets we will tell his. Tit for tat! President
Fairchild's argument that several of the original leaders of the
fanaticism must have been "adequate to the task" of supplying the
doctrinal part of the book, only furnishes additional proof of
his ignorance of early Mormon history, and his further assumption
that "it is difficult--almost impossible--to believe that the
religious sentiments of the Book of Mormon were wrought into
interpolation" brings him into direct conflict, as we shall see,
with Professor Whitsitt,* amuch better equipped student of the
subject.

* Post, pp. 92. 93.


If it should be questioned whether a man of Rigdon's church
connection would deliberately plan such a fraudulent scheme as
the production of the Mormon Bible, the inquiry may be easily
satisfied. One of the first tasks which Smith and Rigdon
undertook, as soon as Rigdon openly joined Smith in New York
State, was the preparation of what they called a new translation
of the Scriptures. This work was undertaken in conformity with a
"revelation" to Smith and Rigdon, dated December, 1830 (Sec. 35,
"Doctrine and Covenants") in which Sidney was told, "And a
commandment I give unto thee, that thou shalt write for him; and
the Scriptures shall be given, even as they are in mine own
bosom, to the salvation of mine own elect. The "translating" was
completed in Ohio, and the manuscript, according to Smith, "was
sealed up, no more to be opened till it arrived in Zion."* This
work was at first kept as a great secret, and Smith and Rigdon
moved to the house of a resident of Hiram township, Portage
County, Ohio, thirty miles from Kirtland, in September, 1831, to
carry it on; but the secret soon got out. The preface to the
edition of the book published at Plano, Illinois, in 1867, under
the title, "The Holy Scriptures translated and corrected by the
Spirit of Revelation, by Joseph Smith, Jr., the Seer," says that
the manuscript remained in the hands of the prophet's widow from
the time of his death until 1866, when it was delivered to a
committee of the Reorganized Mormon conference for publication.
Some of its chapters were known to Mormon readers earlier, since
Corrill gives the twenty-fourth chapter of Matthew in his
historical sketch, which was dated 1839.

* Millenial Star, Vol. XIV, p. 361.


The professed object of the translation was to restore the
Scriptures to their original purity and beauty, the Mormon Bible
declaring that "many plain and precious parts" had been taken
from them. The real object, however, was to add to the sacred
writings a prediction of Joseph Smith's coming as a prophet,
which would increase his authority and support the pretensions of
the new Bible. That this was Rigdon's scheme is apparent from the
fact that it was announced as soon as he visited Smith, and was
carried on under his direction, and that the manuscript
translation was all in his handwriting.*

* Wyl's "Mormon Portraits," p.124.


Extended parts of the translation do not differ at all from the
King James version, and many of the changes are verbal and
inconsequential. Rigdon's object appears in the changes made in
the fiftieth chapter of Genesis, and the twenty-ninth chapter of
Isaiah. In the King James version the fiftieth chapter of Genesis
contains twenty-six verses, and ends with the words, "So Joseph
died, being an hundred and ten years old; and they embalmed him,
and he was put in a coffin in Eygpt." In the Smith-Rigdon version
this chapter contains thirty-eight verses, the addition
representing Joseph as telling his brethren that a branch of his
people shall be carried into a far country and that a seer shall
be given to them, "and that seer will I bless, and they that seek
to destroy him shall be confounded; for this promise I give unto
you; for I will remember you from generation to generation; and
his name shall be called Joseph. And he shall have judgment, and
shall write the word of the Lord."

The twenty-ninth chapter of Isaiah is similarly expanded from
twenty-four short to thirty-two long verses. Verses eleven and
twelve of the King James version read:--

"And the vision of all is become unto you as the words of a book
that is sealed, which men deliver to one that is learned, saying,
Read this, I pray thee: and he saith, I cannot; for it is sealed.

"And the book is delivered to him that is not learned, saying,
Read this, I pray thee: and he saith, I am not learned."

The Smith-Rigdon version expands this as follows:-- "11. And it
shall come to pass, that the Lord God shall bring forth unto you
the words of a book; and they shall be the words of them which
have slumbered.

"12. And behold, the book shall be sealed; and in the book shall
be a revelation from God, from the beginning of the world to the
ending thereof.

"13. Wherefore, because of the things which are sealed up, the
things which are sealed shall not be delivered in the day of the
wickedness and abominations of the people. Wherefore, the book
shall be kept from them.

"14. But the book shall be delivered unto a man, and he shall
deliver the words of the book, which are the words of those who
have slumbered in the dust; and he shall deliver these words unto
another, but the words that are sealed he shall not deliver,
neither shall he deliver the book.

"15. For the book shall be sealed by the power of God, and the
revelation which was sealed shall be kept in the book until the
own due time of the Lord, that they may come forth; for, behold,
they reveal all things from the foundation of the world unto the
end thereof."

No one will question that a Rigdon who would palm off such a
fraudulent work as this upon the men who looked to him as a
religious teacher would hesitate to suggest to Smith the scheme
for a new Bible. During the work of translation, as we learn from
Smith's autobiography, the translators saw a wonderful vision, in
which they "beheld the glory of the Son on the right hand of the
Father," and holy angels, and the glory of the worlds,
terrestrial and celestial. Soon after this they received an
explanation from heaven of some obscure texts in Revelation.
Thus, the sea of glass (iv. 6) "is the earth in its sanctified,
immortal, and eternal state"; by the little book which was eaten
by John (chapter x) "we are to understand that it was a mission
and an ordinance for him to gather the tribes of Israel."

It may be added that this translation is discarded by the modern
Mormon church in Utah. The Deseret Evening News, the church organ
at Salt Lake City, said on February 21, 1900:--

"The translation of the Bible, referred to by our correspondents,
has not been adopted by this church as authoritative. It is
understood that the Prophet Joseph intended before its
publication to subject the manuscript to an entire examination,
for such revision as might be deemed necessary. Be that as it
may, the work has not been published under the auspices of this
church, and is, therefore, not held out as a guide. For the
present, the version of the scriptures commonly known as King
James's translation is used, and the living oracles are the
expounders of the written word."

We may anticipate the course of our narrative in order to show
how much confirmation of Rigdon's connection with the whole
Mormon scheme is furnished by the circumstances attending the
first open announcement of his acceptance of the Mormon
literature and faith. We are first introduced to Parley P. Pratt,
sometime tin peddler, and a lay preacher to rural congregations
in Ohio when occasion offered. Pratt in his autobiography tells
of the joy with which he heard Rigdon preach, at his home in
Ohio, doctrines of repentance and baptism which were the "ancient
gospel" that he (Pratt) had "discovered years before, but could
find no one to minister in"; of a society for worship which he
and others organized; of his decision, acting under the influence
of the Gospel and prophecies "as they had been opened to him," to
abandon the home he had built up, and to set out on a mission
"for the Gospel's sake"; and of a trip to New York State, where
he was shown the Mormon Bible. "As I read," he says, "the spirit
of the Lord was upon me, and I knew and comprehended that the
book was true."

Pratt was at once commissioned, "by revelation and the laying on
of hands," to preach the new Gospel, and was sent, also by
"revelation" (Sec. 32, "Doctrine and Covenants"), along with
Cowdery, Z. Peterson, and Peter Whitmer, Jr., "into the
wilderness among the Lamanites." Pratt and Cowdery went direct to
Rigdon's house in Mentor, where they stayed a week. Pratt's own
account says: "We called on Mr. Rigdon, my former friend and
instructor in the Reformed Baptist Society. He received us
cordially, and entertained us with hospitality."*

* "Autobiography of P. P. Pratt," p. 49.


In Smith's autobiography it is stated that Rigdon's visitors
presented the Mormon Bible to him as a revelation from God, and
what followed is thus described:--

"This being the first time he had ever heard of or seen the Book
of Mormon, he felt very much prejudiced at the assertion, and
replied that 'he had one Bible which he believed was a revelation
from God, and with which he pretended to have some acquaintance;
but with respect to the book they had presented him, he must say
HE HAD SOME CONSIDERABLE DOUBT' Upon which they expressed a
desire to investigate the subject and argue the matter; but he
replied, 'No, young gentlemen, you must not argue with me on the
subject. But I will read your book, and see what claim it has
upon my faith, and will endeavor to ascertain whether it be a
revelation from God or not'. After some further conversation on
the subject, they expressed a desire to lay the subject before
the people, and requested the privilege of preaching in Elder
Rigdon's church, TO WHICH HE READILY CONSENTED. The appointment
was accordingly published, and a large and respectable
congregation assembled. Oliver Cowdery and Parley P. Pratt
severally addressed the meeting. At the conclusion Elder Rigdon
arose and stated to the congregation that the information they
that evening had received was of an extraordinary character, and
certainly demanded their most serious consideration; and, as the
apostle advised his brethren 'to prove all things and hold fast
that which is good,' so he would exhort his brethren to do
likewise, and give the matter a careful investigation, and NOT
TURN AGAINST IT, WITHOUT BEING FULLY CONVINCED OF ITS BEING AN
IMPOSITION, LEST THEY SHOULD POSSIBLY RESIST THE TRUTH."

* Millennial Star, Vol. XIV, p. 47.


Accepting this as a correct report of what occurred (and we may
consider it from Rigdon's pen), we find a clergyman who was a
fellow-worker with men like Campbell and Scott expressing only
"considerable doubt" of the inspiration of a book presented to
him as a new Bible, "readily consenting" to the use of his church
by the sponsors for this book, and, at the close of their
arguments, warning his people against rejecting it too readily
"lest they resist the truth"! Unless all these are misstatements,
there seems to be little necessity of further proof that Rigdon
was prepared in advance for the reception of the Mormon Bible.

After this came the announcement of the conversion and baptism by
the Mormon missionaries of a "family" of seventeen persons living
in some sort of a "community" system, between Mentor and
Kirtland. Rigdon, who had merely explained to his neighbors that
his visitors were "on a curious mission," expressed disapproval
of this at first, and took Cowdery to task for asserting that his
own conversion to the new belief was due to a visit from an
angel. But, two days later, Rigdon himself received an angel's
visit, and the next Sunday, with his wife, was baptized into the
new faith.

Rigdon, of course, had to answer many inquiries on his return to
Ohio from a visit to Smith which soon followed his conversion,
but his policy was indignant reticence whenever pressed to any
decisive point. To an old acquaintance who, after talking the
matter over with him at his house, remarked that the Koran of
Mohammed stood on as good evidence as the Bible of Smith, Rigdon
replied: "Sir, you have insulted me in my own house. I command
silence. If people come to see us and cannot treat us civilly,
they can walk out of the door as soon as they please."* Thomas
Campbell sent a long letter to Rigdon under date of February 4,
1831, in which he addressed him as "for many years not only a
courteous and benevolent friend, but a beloved brother and
fellow-laborer in the Gospel--but alas! how changed, how fallen."
Accepting a recent offer of Rigdon in one of his sermons to give
his reasons for his new belief, Mr. Campbell offered to meet him
in public discussion, even outlining the argument he would offer,
under nine headings, that Rigdon might be prepared to refute it,
proposing to take his stand on the sufficiency of the Holy
Scriptures, Smith's bad character, the absurdities of the Mormon
Bible and of the alleged miraculous "gifts," and the objections
to the "common property" plan and the rebaptizing of believers.
Rigdon, after glancing over a few lines of this letter, threw it
into the fire unanswered.**

* "Mormonism Unveiled," p. 112.

** Ibid., p. 116-123.



CHAPTER IX. "THE EVERLASTING GOSPEL"

Having presented the evidence which shows that the historical
part of the Mormon Bible was supplied by the Spaulding
manuscript, we may now pay attention to other evidence, which
indicates that the entire conception of a revelation of golden
plates by an angel was not even original, and also that its
suggestor was Rigdon. This is a subject which has been overlooked
by investigators of the Mormon Bible.

That the idea of the revelation as described by Smith in his
autobiography was not original is shown by the fact that a
similar divine message, engraved on plates, was announced to have
been received from an angel nearly six hundred years before the
alleged visit of an angel to Smith. These original plates were
described as of copper, and the recipient was a monk named Cyril,
from whom their contents passed into the possession of the Abbot
Joachim, whose "Everlasting Gospel," founded thereon, was offered
to the church as supplanting the New Testament, just as the New
Testament had supplanted the Old, and caused so serious a schism
that Pope Alexander IV took the severest measures against it.*

* Draper's "Intellectual Development of Europe," Vol. II, Chap.
III. For an exhaustive essay on the "Everlasting Gospel," by
Renan, see Revue des Deux Mondes, June, 1866. For John of Parma's
part in the Gospel, see "Histoire Litteraire de la France"
(1842), Vol. XX, p. 24.


The evidence that the history of the "Everlasting Gospel" of the
thirteenth century supplied the idea of the Mormon Bible lies not
only in the resemblance between the celestial announcement of
both, but in the fact that both were declared to have the same
important purport--as a forerunner of the end of the world --and
that the name "Everlasting Gospel" was adopted and constantly
used in connection with their message by the original leaders in
the Mormon church.

If it is asked, How could Rigdon become acquainted with the story
of the original "Everlasting Gospel," the answer is that it was
just such subjects that would most attract his attention, and
that his studies had led him into directions where the story of
Cyril's plates would probably have been mentioned. He was a
student of every subject out of which he could evolve a sect,
from the time of his Pittsburg pastorate. Hepworth Dixon said,
"He knew the writings of Maham, Gates, and Boyle, writings in
which love and marriage are considered in relation to Gospel
liberty and the future life."* H. H. Bancroft, noting his
appointment as Professor of Church History in Nauvoo University,
speaks of him as "versed in history, belles-lettres, and
oratory."** Mrs. James A. Garfield told Mrs. Dickenson that
Rigdon taught her father Latin and Greek.*** David Whitmer, who
was so intimately acquainted with the early history of the
church, testified: "Rigdon was a thorough biblical scholar, a man
of fine education and a powerful orator."**** A writer,
describing Rigdon while the church was at Nauvoo, said, "There is
no divine in the West more learned in biblical literature and the
history of the world than he."***** All this indicates that a
knowledge of the earlier "Everlasting Gospel" was easily within
Rigdon's reach. We may even surmise the exact source of this
knowledge. Mosheim's "Ecclesiastical History, Ancient and Modern"
was at his disposal. Editions of it had appeared in London in
1765, 1768, 1774, 1782, 1790, 1806, 1810, and 1826, and among the
abridgments was one published in Philadelphia in 1812. In this
work he could have read as follows:--

"About the commencement of this [the thirteenth] century there
were handed about in Italy several pretended prophecies of the
famous Joachim, abbot of Sora in Calabria, whom the multitude
revered as a person divinely inspired, and equal to the most
illustrious prophets of ancient times. The greatest part of these
predictions were contained in a certain book entitled, 'The
Everlasting Gospel,' and which was also commonly called the Book
of Joachim. This Joachim, whether a real or fictitious person we
shall not pretend to determine, among many other future events,
foretold the destruction of the Church of Rome, whose corruptions
he censured with the greatest severity, and the promulgation of a
new and more perfect gospel in the age of the Holy Ghost, by a
set of poor and austere ministers, whom God was to raise up and
employ for that purpose."

* "Spiritual Wives," p. 62.

** "Utah," p. 146.

*** Scribner's Magazine, October, 1881.

**** "Address to All Believers in Christ;" p. 35.

***** Letter in the New York Herald.


Here is a perfect outline of the scheme presented by the original
Mormons, with Joseph as the divinely inspired prophet, and an
"Everlasting Gospel," the gift of an angel, promulgated by poor
men like the travelling Mormon elders.

The original suggestion of an "Everlasting Gospel" is found in
Revelation xiv. 6 and 7:--

"And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the
everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth,
and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people, "Saying
with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour
of his judgment is come: and worship him that made heaven, and
earth, and the sea, and the fountains of water."** "Bisping
(after Gerlach) takes Rev. xiv. 6-11 to foretell that three great
events at the end of the last world-week are immediately to
precede Christ's second advent (1) the announcement of the
'eternal' Gospel to the whole world (Matt. xxiv. 14); (2)the Fall
of Babylon; (3)a warning to all who worship the beast.... Burger
says this vision can denote nothing but a last admonition and
summons to conversion shortly before the end."--Note in
"Commentary by Bishops and Other Clergy of the Anglican Church."

This was the angel of Cyril; this the announcement of those
"latter days" from which the Mormon church, on Rigdon's motion,
soon took its name.

That Rigdon's attention had been attracted to an "Everlasting
Gospel" is proved by the constant references made to it in
writings of which he had at least the supervision, from the very
beginning of the church. Thus, when he preached his first sermon
before a Mormon audience--on the occasion of his visit to Smith
at Palmyra in 1830--he took as his text a part of the version of
Revelation xiv. which he had put into the Mormon Bible (1 Nephi
xiii. 40), and in his sermon, as reported by Tucker, who heard
it, holding the Scriptures in one hand and the Mormon Bible in
the other, he said, "that they were inseparably necessary to
complete the everlasting gospel of the Saviour Jesus Christ." In
the account, in Smith's autobiography, of the first description
of the buried book given to Smith by the angel, its two features
are named separately, first, "an account of the former
inhabitants of this continent," and then "the fulness of the
Everlasting Gospel. "That Rigdon never lost sight of the
importance, in his view, of an "Everlasting Gospel" may be seen
from the following quotation from one of his articles in his
Pittsburg organ, the Messenger and Advocate, of June 15, 1845,
after his expulsion from Nauvoo: "It is a strict observance of
the principles of the fulness of the Everlasting Gospel of Jesus
Christ, as contained in the Bible, Book of Mormon, and Book of
Covenants, which alone will insure a man an inheritance in the
kingdom of our God."

The importance attached to the "Everlasting Gospel" by the
founders of the church is seen further in the references to it in
the "Book of Doctrine and Covenants," which it is not necessary
to cite,* and further in a pamphlet by Elder Moses of New York
(1842), entitled "A Treatise on the Fulness of the Everlasting
Gospel, setting forth its First Principles, Promises, and
Blessings," in which he argued that the appearance of the angel
to Smith was in direct line with the Scriptural teaching, and
that the last days were near.

* For examples see Sec. 68, 1; Sec. 101, 22; Sec. 124, 88.



CHAPTER X. THE WITNESSES TO THE PLATES

In his accounts to his neighbors of the revelation to him of the
golden plates on which the "record" was written, Smith always
declared that no person but him could look on those plates and
live. But when the printed book came out, it, like all subsequent
editions to this day, was preceded by the following
"testimonies":--


"THE TESTIMONY OF THREE WITNESSES

"Be it known unto all nations, kindreds, tongues, and people unto
whom this work shall come, that we through the grace of God the
Father, and our Lord Jesus Christ, have seen the plates which
contain this record, which is a record of the people of Nephi,
and also of the Lamanites, their brethren, and also the people of
Jared, who came from the tower of which hath been spoken; and we
also know that they have been translated by the gift and power of
God, for his voice hath declared it unto us; wherefore we know of
a surety that the work is true. And we also testify that we have
seen the engravings which are upon the plates; and they have been
shewn unto us by the power of God, and not of man. And we declare
with words of soberness, that an angel of God came down from
heaven, and he brought and laid before our eyes, that we beheld
and saw the plates, and the engravings thereon; and we know that
it is by the grace of God the Father, and our Lord Jesus Christ,
that we beheld and bear record that these things are true; and it
is marvellous in our eyes, nevertheless the voice of the Lord
commanded us that we should bear record of it; wherefore, to be
obedient unto the commandments of God, we bear testimony of these
things. And we know that if we are faithful in Christ, we shall
rid our garments of the blood of all men, and be found spotless
before the judgment-seat of Christ, and shall dwell with him
eternally in the heavens. And the honour be to the Father, and to
the Son, and to the Holy Ghost, which is one God. Amen.

"OLIVER COWDERY,DAVID WHITMER, MARTIN HARRIS.

"AND ALSO THE TESTIMONY OF THE EIGHT WITNESSES

"Be it known unto all nations, kindreds, tongues, and people unto
whom this work shall come, that Joseph Smith, Jun., the
translator of this work, has shewn unto us the plates of which
hath been spoken, which have the appearance of gold; and as many
of the leaves as the said Smith has translated we did handle with
our hands; and we also saw the engravings thereon, all of which
has the appearance of ancient work, and of curious workmanship.
And this we bear record with words of soberness, that the said
Smith has shewn unto us, for we have seen and hefted, and know of
a surety that the said Smith has got the plates of which we have
spoken. And we give our names unto the world, to witness unto the
world that which we have seen; and we lie not, God bearing
witness of it.

"CHRISTIAN WHITMER, HIRAM PAGE, JACOB WHITMER, JOSEPH SMITH,
SEN., PETER WHITMER, JUN., HYRUM SMITH, JOHN WHITMER, SAMUEL H.
SMITH."

In judging of the value of this testimony, we may first inquire,
what the prophet has to say about it, and may then look into the
character and qualification of the witnesses.

We find a sufficiently full explanation of Testimony No. 1 in
Smith's autobiography and in his "revelations." Nothing could be
more natural than that such men as the prophet was dealing with
should demand a sight of any plates from which he might be
translating. Others besides Harris made such a demand, and Smith
repeated the warning that to look on them was death. This might
satisfy members of his own family, but it did not quiet his
scribes, and he tells us that Cowdery, David Whitmer, and Harris
"teased me so much" (these are his own words) that he gave out a
"revelation" in March, 1829 (Sec. 5, "Doctrine and Covenants"),
in which the Lord was represented as saying that the prophet had
no power over the plates except as He granted it, but that to his
testimony would be added "the testimony of three of my servants,
whom I shall call and ordain, unto whom I will show these things,
"adding," and to none else will I grant this power, to receive
this same testimony among this generation. "The Lord was
distrustful of Harris, and commanded him not to be talkative on
the subject, but to say nothing about it except, "I have seen
them, and they have been shown unto me by the power of God."

Smith's own account of the showing of the plates to these three
witnesses is so luminous that it may be quoted. After going out
into the woods, they had to stand Harris off by himself because
of his evil influence. Then:--

"We knelt down again, and had not been many minutes engaged in
prayer when presently we beheld a light above us in the air of
exceeding brightness; and behold an angel stood before us. In his
hands he held the plates which we had been praying for these to
have a view of; he turned over the leaves one by one, so that we
could see them and discover the engravings thereon distinctly. He
then addressed himself to David Whitmer and said, 'David, blessed
is the Lord and he that keeps his commandments'; when immediately
afterward we heard a voice from out of the bright light above us
saying, 'These plates have been revealed by the power of God, and
they have been translated by the power of God. The translation of
them is correct, and I command you to bear record of what you now
see and hear.'

"I now left David and Oliver, and went into pursuit of Martin
Harris, whom I found at a considerable distance, fervently
engaged in prayer. He soon told me, however, that he had not yet
prevailed with the Lord, and earnestly requested me to join him
in prayer, that he might also realize the same blessings which we
had just received. We accordingly joined in prayer, and
immediately obtained our desires; for before we had yet finished,
the same vision was opened to our view, AT LEAST IT WAS AGAIN TO
ME [Joe thus refuses to vouch for Harris's declaration on the
subject]; and I once more beheld and heard the same things;
whilst, at the same moment, Martin Harris cried out, apparently
in ecstasy of joy, 'Tis enough, mine eyes hath beheld,' and,
jumping up, he shouted 'Hosannah,' blessing God, and otherwise
rejoiced exceedingly."*

* Millennial Star, Vol. XIV, Supt., p. 19.


If this story taxes the credulity of the reader, his doubts about
the value of this "testimony" will increase when he traces the
history of the three witnesses. Surely, if any three men in the
church should remain steadfast, mighty pillars of support for the
prophet in his future troubles, it should be these chosen
witnesses to the actual existence of the golden plates. Yet every
one of them became an apostate, and every one of them was loaded
with all the opprobrium that the church could pile upon him.

Cowdery's reputation was locally bad at the time. "I was
personally acquainted with Oliver Cowdery," said Danforth Booth,
an old resident of Palmyra, in 1880. "He was a pettifogger; their
(the Smiths') cat-paw to do their dirty work."* Smith's trouble
with him, which began during the work of translating, continued,
and Smith found it necessary to say openly in a "revelation"
given out in Ohio in 1831 (Sec. 69), when preparations were
making for a trip of some of the brethren to Missouri, "It is not
wisdom in me that he should be intrusted with the commandments
and the monies which he shall carry unto the land of Zion, except
one go with him who will be true and faithful."

* Among affidavits on file in the county clerk's office at
Canandaigua, New York.


By the time Smith took his final departure to Missouri, Cowdery
and David and John Whitmer had lost caste entirely, and in June,
1838, they fled to escape the Danites at Far West. The letter of
warning addressed to them and signed by more than eighty Mormons,
giving them three days in which to depart, contained the
following accusations:--

"After Oliver Cowdery had been taken by a state warrant for
stealing, and the stolen property found in the house of William
W. Phelps; in which nefarious transaction John Whitmer had also
participated. Oliver Cowdery stole the property, conveyed it to
John Whitmer, and John Whitmer to William W. Phelps; and then the
officers of law found it. While in the hands of an officer, and
under an arrest for this vile transaction, and, if possible, to
hide your shame from the world like criminals (which, indeed, you
were), you appealed to our beloved brethren, President Joseph
Smith Jr. and Sidney Rigdon, men whose characters you had
endeavored to destroy by every artifice you could invent, not
even the basest lying excepted....

"The Saints in Kirtland having elected Oliver Cowdery to a
justice of the peace, he used the power of that office to take
their most sacred rights from them, and that contrary to law. He
supported a parcel of blacklegs, and in disturbing the worship of
the Saints; and when the men whom the church had chosen to
preside over their meetings endeavored to put the house to order,
he helped (and by the authority of his justice's office too)
these wretches to continue their confusion; and threatened the
church with a prosecution for trying to put them out of the
house; and issued writs against the Saints for endeavoring to
sustain their rights; and bound themselves under heavy bonds to
appear before his honor; and required bonds which were both
inhuman and unlawful; and one of these was the venerable father,
who had been appointed by the church to preside--a man of upwards
of seventy years of age, and notorious for his peaceable habits.

"Oliver Cowdery, David Whitmer and Lyman E. Johnson, united with
a gang of counterfeiters, thieves, liars and blacklegs of the
deepest dye, to deceive, cheat and defraud the Saints out of
their property, by every art and stratagem which wickedness could
invent; using the influence of the vilest persecutions to bring
vexatious lawsuits, villainous prosecutions, and even stealing
not excepted.... During the full career of Oliver Cowdery and
David Whitmer's bogus money business, it got abroad into the
world that they were engaged in it, and several gentlemen were
preparing to commence a prosecution against Cowdery; he finding
it out, took with him Lyman E. Johnson, and fled to Far West with
their families; Cowdery stealing property and bringing it with
him, which has been, within a few weeks past, obtained by the
owner by means of a search warrant, and he was saved from the
penitentiary by the influence of two influential men of the
place. He also brought notes with him upon which he had received
pay, and made an attempt to sell them to Mr. Arthur of Clay
County."*

* "Documents in Relation to the Disturbances with the Mormons,"
Missouri Legislature (1841), p. 103.


Rigdon, who was the author of this arraignment, realizing that
the enemies of the church would not fail to make use of this
aspersion of the character of the witnesses, attempted to "hedge"
by saying, in the same document, "We wish to remind you that
Oliver Cowdery and David Whitmer were among the principal of
those who were the means of gathering us to this place by their
testimony which they gave concerning the plates of the Book of
Mormon, that they were shown to them by an angel; which testimony
we believe now as much as before you had so scandalously
disgraced it." Could affrontery go to greater lengths?

Cowdery and David Whitmer fled to Richmond, Missouri, where
Whitmer lived until his death in January, 1888. Cowdery went to
Tiffin, Ohio, where, after failing to obtain a position as an
editor because of his Mormon reputation, he practised law. While
living there he renounced his Mormon views, joined the Methodist
church, and became superintendent of a Sunday-school. Later he
moved to Wisconsin, but, after being defeated for the legislature
there, he recanted his Methodist belief, and rejoined the Saints
while they were at Council Bluffs, in October, 1848, after the
main body had left for Salt Lake Valley. He addressed a meeting
there by invitation, testifying to the truth of the Book of
Mormon, and the mission of Smith as a prophet, and saying that he
wanted to be rebaptized into the church, not as a leader, but
simply as a member.* He did not, however, go to Utah with the
Saints, but returned to his old friend Whitmer in Missouri, and
died there in 1850. It has been stated that he offered to give a
full renunciation of the Mormon faith when he united with the
Methodists at Tiffin, if required, but asked to be excused from
doing so on the ground that it would invite criticism and bring
him into contempt.** One of his Tiffin acquaintances afterward
testified that Cowdery confessed to him that, when he signed the
"testimony," he "was not one of the best men in the world," using
his own expression.*** The Mormons were always grateful to him
for his silence under their persecutions, and the Millennial
Star, in a notice of his death, expressed satisfaction that in
the days of his apostasy "he never, in a single instance, cast
the least doubt on his former testimony," adding, "May he rest in
peace, to come forth in the morning of the first resurrection
into eternal life, is the earnest desire of all Saints."

* Millennial Star, Vol. XI, p.14.

** "Naked Truths about Mormonism," A. B. Demming, Oakland,
California, 1888.

*** "Gregg's History of Hancock County, Illinois," p. 257.


The Whitmers were a Dutch family, known among their neighbors as
believers in witches and in the miraculous generally, as has been
shown in Mother Smith's account of their sending for Joseph. A
"revelation" to the three witnesses which first promised them a
view of the plates (Sec. 17) told them, "It is BY YOUR FAITH you
shall obtain a view of them," and directed them to testify
concerning the plates, "that my servant Joseph Smith, Jr., may
not be destroyed." One of the converts who joined the Mormons at
Kirtland, Ohio, testified in later years that David Whitmer
confessed to her that he never actually saw the plates,
explaining his testimony thus: "Suppose that you had a friend
whose character was such that you knew it impossible that he
could lie; then, if he described a city to you which you had
never seen, could you not, by the eye of faith, see the city just
as he described it?"*

* Mrs. Dickenson's "New Light on Mormonism."


The Mormons have found consolation in the fact that Whitmer
continued to affirm his belief in the authenticity of the Mormon
Bible to the day of his death. He declared, however, that Smith
and Young had led the flock astray, and, after the open
announcement of polygamy in Utah, he announced a church of his
own, called "The Church of Christ," refusing to affiliate even
with the Reorganized Church because of the latter's adherence to
Smith. In his "Address to Believers in the Book of Mormon, "a
pamphlet issued in his eighty-second year, he said, "Now, in 1849
the Lord saw fit to manifest unto John Whitmer, Oliver Cowdery
and myself nearly all the remaining errors of doctrine into which
we had been led by the heads of the church." The reader from all
this can form an estimate of the trustworthiness of the second
witness on such a subject.

We have already learned a great deal about Martin Harris's mental
equipment. A lawyer of standing in Palmyra told Dr. Clark that,
after Harris had signed the "testimony," he pressed him with the
question: "Did you see the plates with your natural eyes, just as
you see this pencil case in my hand? Now say yes or no." Harris
replied (in corroboration of Joe's misgiving at the time): "Why,
I did not see them as I do that pencil case, yet I saw them with
the eye of faith. I saw them just as distinctly as I see anything
around me--though at the time they were covered over with a
cloth."*

* "Gleanings by the Way."


Harris followed Smith to Ohio and then to Missouri, but was ever
a trouble to him, although Smith always found his money useful.
In 1831, in Missouri, it required a "revelation" (Sec. 58) to
spur him to "lay his monies before the Bishop." As his money grew
scarcer, he received less and less recognition from the Mormon
leaders, and was finally expelled from the church. Smith thus
referred to him in the Elders' Journal, July, 1837, one of his
publications in Ohio: "There are negroes who wear white skins as
well as black ones, granny Parish, and others who acted as
lackeys, such as Martin Harris."

Harris did not appear on the scene during the stay of the Mormons
in Illinois, having joined the Shakers and lived with them a year
or two. When Strang claimed the leadership of the church after
Smith's death, Harris gave him his support, and was sent by him
with others to England in 1846 to do missionary work. His arrival
there was made the occasion of an attack on him by the Millennial
Star, which, among other things, said:--

"We do not feel to warn the Saints against him, for his own
unbridled tongue will soon show out specimens of folly enough to
give any person a true index to the character of the man; but if
the Saints wish to know what the Lord hath said of him, they may
turn to the 178th page of the Book of Doctrine and Covenants, and
the person there called a WICKED MAN is no other than Martin
Harris, and he owned to it then, but probably might not now. It
is not the first time the Lord chose a wicked man as a witness.
Also on page 193, read the whole revelation given to him, and ask
yourselves if the Lord ever talked in that way to a good man.
Every one can see that he must have been a wicked man."*

*Vol. VIII, p. 123.


Harris visited Palmyra in 1858. He then said that his property
was all gone, that he had declined a restoration to the Mormon
church, but that he continued to believe in Mormonism. He thought
better of his declination, however, and sought a reunion with the
church in Utah in 1870. His backslidings had carried him so far
that the church authorities told him it would be necessary for
him to be rebaptized. This he consented to with some reluctance,
after, as he said, "he had seen his father seeking his aid. He
saw his father at the foot of a ladder, striving to get up to
him, and he went down to him, taking him by the hand, and helped
him up."* He settled in Cache County, Utah, where he died on July
10, 1875, in his ninety-third year. "He bore his testimony to the
truth and divinity of the Book of Mormon a short time before he
departed," wrote his son to an inquirer, "and the last words he
uttered, when he could not speak the sentence, were 'Book,'
'Book,' 'Book.'"

* For an account of Harris's Utah experience, see Millennial
Star, Vol. XLVIII, pp.357-389.


The precarious character of Smith's original partners in the
Bible business is further illustrated by his statement that, in
the summer of 1830, Cowdery sent him word that he had discovered
an error in one of Smith's "revelations,"* and that the Whitmer
family agreed with him on the subject. Smith was as determined in
opposing this questioning of his divine authority as he always
was in stemming any opposition to his leadership, and he made
them all acknowledge their error. Again, when Smith returned to
Fayette from Harmony, in August, 1830 (more than a year after the
plates were shown to the witnesses), he found that "Satan had
been lying in wait," and that Hiram Page, of the second list of
witnesses, had been obtaining revelations through a "peek-stone"
of his own, and that, what was more serious, Cowdery and the
Whitmer family believed in them. The result of this was an
immediate "revelation" (Sec. 28) directing Cowdery to go and
preach the Gospel to the Lamanites (Indians) on the western
border, and to take along with him Hiram Page, and tell him that
the things he had written by means of the "peek-stone" were not
of the Lord.

* Millennial Star, Vol. XIV, p. 36.


Neither Smith's autobiography nor the "Book of Doctrine and
Covenants" contains any explanation of the second "testimony."
The list of persons who signed it, however, leaves little doubt
that the prophet yielded to their "teasing" as he did to that of
the original three. The first four signers were members of the
Whitmer family. Hiram Page was a root-doctor by calling, and a
son-in-law of Peter Whitmer, Sr. The three Smiths were the
prophet's father and two of his brothers.*

* Christian Whitmer died in Clay County, Missouri, November 27,
1835; Jacob died in Richmond County, April 21, 1866; Peter died
in Clay County, September 22, 1836; Hiram Page died on a farm in
Ray County, August 12, 1852.


The favorite Mormon reply to any question as to the value of
these "testimonies" is the challenge, "Is there a person on the
earth who can prove that these eleven witnesses did not see the
plates?" Curiously, the prophet himself can be cited to prove
this, in the words of the revelation granting a sight of the
plates to the first three, which said, "And to none else will I
grant this power, to receive this same testimony among this
generation." A footnote to this declaration in the "Doctrine and
Covenants" offers, as an explanation of Testimony No. 2; the
statement that others "may receive a knowledge by other
manifestations." This is well meant but transparent.

Mother Smith in later years added herself to these witnesses. She
said to the Rev. Henry Caswall, in Nauvoo, in 1842, "I have
myself seen and handled the golden plates." Mr. Caswall adds:--

"While the old woman was thus delivering herself, I fixed my eyes
steadily upon her. She faltered and seemed unwilling to meet my
glances, but gradually recovered her self-possession. The
melancholy thought entered my mind that this poor old creature
was not simply a dupe of her son's knavery, but that she had
taken an active part in the deception."

Two matters have been cited by Mormon authorities to show that
there was nothing so very unusual in the discovery of buried
plates containing engraved letters. Announcement was made in 1843
of the discovery near Kinderhook, Illinois, of six plates similar
to those described by Smith. The story, as published in the Times
and Seasons, with a certificate signed by nine local residents,
set forth that a merchant of the place, named Robert Wiley, while
digging in a mound, after finding ashes and human bones, came to
"a bundle that consisted of six plates of brass, of a bell shape,
each having a hole near the small end, and a ring through them
all"; and that, when cleared of rust, they were found to be
"completely covered with characters that none as yet have been
able to read." Hyde, accepting this story, printed a facsimile of
one of these plates on the cover of his book, and seems to rest
on Wiley's statement his belief that "Smith did have plates of
some kind." Stenhouse,* who believed that Smith and his witnesses
did not perpetrate in the new Bible an intentional fraud, but
thought they had visions and "revelations," referring to the
Kinderhook plates, says that they were "actually and
unquestionably discovered by one Mr. R. Wiley." Smith himself,
after no one else could read the writing on them, declared that
he had translated them, and found them to be a history of a
descendant of Ham.**

* T. B. H. Stenhouse, a Scotchman, was converted to the Mormon
belief in 1846, performed diligent missionary work in Europe, and
was for three years president of the Swiss and Italian missions.
Joining the brethren in Utah with his wife, he was persuaded to
take a second wife. Not long afterward he joined in the protest
against Young's dictatorial course which was known as the "New
Movement," and was expelled from the church. His "Rocky Mountain
Saints" (1873) contains so much valuable information connected
with the history of the church that it has been largely drawn on
by E. W. Tullidge in his "History of Salt Lake City and Its
Founders," which is accepted by the church.

**Millennial Star, January 15, 1859, where cuts of the plates
(here produced) are given.


But the true story of the Kinderhook plates was disclosed by an
affidavit made by W. Fulgate of Mound Station, Brown County,
Illinois, before Jay Brown, Justice of the Peace, on June 30,
1879. In this he stated that the plates were "a humbug, gotten up
by Robert Wiley, Bridge Whitton, and myself. Whitton (who was a
blacksmith) cut the plates out of some pieces of copper Wiley and
I made the hieroglyphics by making impressions on beeswax and
filling them with acid, and putting it on the plates. When they
were finished, we put them together with rust made of nitric
acid, old iron and lead, and bound them with a piece of hoop
iron, covering them completely with the rust." He describes the
burial of the plates and their digging up, among the spectators
of the latter being two Mormon elders, Marsh and Sharp. Sharp
declared that the Lord had directed them to witness the digging.
The plates were borrowed and shown to Smith, and were finally
given to one "Professor" McDowell of St. Louis, for his museum.*

* Wyl's "Mormon Portraits," p. 207. The secretary of the Missouri
Historical Society writes me that McDowell's museum disappeared
some years ago, most of its contents being lost or stolen, and
the fate of the Kinderhook plates cannot be ascertained.


In attacking Professor Anthon's statement concerning the alleged
hieroglyphics shown to him by Harris, Orson Pratt, in his "Divine
Authenticity of the Book of Mormon," thought that he found
substantial support for Smith's hieroglyphics in the fact that
"Two years after the Book of Mormon appeared in print, Professor
Rafinesque, in his Atlantic journal for 1832, gave to the public
a facsimile of American glyphs,* found in Mexico. They are
arranged in columns.... By an inspection of the facsimile of
these forty-six elementary glyphs, we find all the particulars
which Professor Anthon ascribes to the characters which he says
'a plain-looking countryman' presented to him. "These" elementary
glyphs "of Rafinesque are some of the characters found on the
famous "Tablet of the Cross" in the ruins of Palenque, Mexico,
since so fully described by Stevens. A facsimile of the entire
Tablet may be found on page 355, Vol. IV, Bancroft's "Native
Races of the Pacific States." Rafinesque selected these
characters from the Tablet, and arranged them in columns
alongside of other ancient writings, in order to sustain his
argument that they resembled an old Libyan alphabet. Rafinesque
was a voluminous writer both on archaeological and botanical
subjects, but wholly untrustworthy. Of his Atlantic Journal (of
which only eight numbers appeared) his biographer, R. E. Call,
says that it had "absolutely no scientific value." Professor Asa
Gray, in a review of his botanical writings in Silliman's
Journal, Vol. XL, No. 2, 1841, said, "He assumes thirty to one
hundred years as the average time required for the production of
a new species, and five hundred to one thousand for a new genus."
Professor Gray refers to a paper which Rafinesque sent to the
editor of a scientific journal describing twelve new species of
thunder and lightning. He was very fond of inventing names, and
his designation of Palenque as Otolum was only an illustration of
this. So much for the "elementary glyphs."

* "Glyph: A pictograph or word carved in a compact distinct
figure."--"Standard Dictionary.



CHAPTER XI. THE MORMON BIBLE

The Mormon Bible,* both in a literary and a theological sense, is
just such a production as would be expected to result from
handing over to Smith and his fellow-"translators" a mass of
Spaulding's material and new doctrinal matter for collation and
copying. Not one of these men possessed any literary skill or
accurate acquaintance with the Scriptures. David Whitmer, in an
interview in Missouri in his later years, said, "So illiterate
was Joseph at that time that he didn't know that Jerusalem was a
walled city, and he was utterly unable to pronounce many of the
names that the magic power of the Urim and Thummim revealed."
Chronology, grammar, geography, and Bible history were alike
ignored in the work. An effort was made to correct some of these
errors in the early days of the church, and Smith speaks of doing
some of this work himself at Nauvoo. An edition issued there in
1842 contains on the title-page the words, "Carefully revised by
the translator." Such corrections have continued to the present
day, and a comparison of the latest Salt Lake edition with the
first has shown more than three thousand changes.

* The title of this Bible is "The Book of Mormon"; but as one of
its subdivisions is a Book of Mormon, I use the title "Mormon
Bible," both to avoid confusion and for convenience.


The person who for any reason undertakes the reading of this book
sets before himself a tedious task. Even the orthodox Mormons
have found this to be true, and their Bible has played a very
much less considerable part in the church worship than Smith's
"revelations" and the discourses of their preachers. Referring to
Orson Pratt's* labored writings on this Bible, Stenhouse says,
"Of the hundreds of thousands of witnesses to whom God has
revealed the truth of the 'Book of Mormon,' Pratt knows full well
that comparatively few indeed have ever read that book, know
little or nothing intelligently of its contents, and take little
interest in it."** An examination of its contents is useful,
therefore, rather as a means of proving the fraudulent character
of its pretension to divine revelation than as a means of
ascertaining what the members of the Mormon church are taught.

* Orson Pratt was a clerk in a store in Hiram, Ohio, when he was
converted to Mormonism. He seems to have been a natural student,
and he rose to prominence in the church, being one of the first
to expound and defend the Mormon Bible and doctrines, holding a
professorship in Nauvoo University, publishing works on the
higher mathematics, and becoming one of the Twelve Apostles.

** "Rocky Mountain Saints," p. 553.


The following page(omitted in this etext) presents a facsimile of
the title-page of the first edition of this Bible. The editions
of to-day substitute "Translated by Joseph Smith, Jun.," for "By
Joseph Smith, junior, author and proprietor."

The first edition contains 588 duodecimo pages, and is divided
into 15 books which are named as follows: "First Book of Nephi,
his reign and ministry," 7 chapters; "Second Book of Nephi," 15
chapters; "Book of Jacob, the Brother of Nephi," 5 chapters;
"Book of Enos," 1 chapter; "Book of Jarom," 1 chapter; "Book of
Omni," 1 chapter; "Words of Mormon," 1 chapter; "Book of Mosiah,"
13 chapters; "Book of Alma, a Son of Alma," 30 chapters; "Book of
Helaman," 5 chapters; "Third Book of Nephi, the Son of Nephi,
which was the son of Helaman," 14 chapters; "Fourth Book of
Nephi, which is the Son of Nephi, one of the Disciples of Jesus
Christ," 1 chapter; "Book of Mormon," 4 chapters; "Book of
Ether," 6 chapters; "Book of Moroni," 10 chapters. The chapters
in the first edition were not divided into verses, that work,
with the preparation of the very complete footnote references in
the later editions, having been performed by Orson Pratt.

The historical narrative that runs through the book is so
disjointedly arranged, mixed up with doctrinal parts, and
repeated, that it is not easy to unravel it. The following
summary of it is contained in a letter to Colonel John Wentworth
of Chicago, signed by Joseph Smith, Jr., which was printed in
Wentworth's Chicago newspaper and also in the Mormon Times and
Seasons of March 1, 1842:--

"The history of America is unfolded from its first settlement by
a colony that came from the Tower of Babel at the confusion of
languages, to the beginning of the 5th century of the Christian
era. We are informed by these records that America in ancient
times has been inhabited by two distinct races of people. The
first were called Jaredites, and came directly from the Tower of
Babel. The second race came directly from the city of Jerusalem
about 600 years before Christ. They were principally Israelites
of the descendants of Joseph. The Jaredites were destroyed about
the time that the Israelites came from Jerusalem, who succeeded
them in the inhabitance of the country. The principal nation of
the second race fell in battle toward the close of the fourth
century. The remnant are the Indians that now inhabit this
country."

This history purports to have been handed down, on metallic
plates, from one historian to another, beginning with Nephi, from
the time of the departure from Jerusalem. Finally (4 Nephi i. 48,
49*), the people being wicked, Ammaron, by direction of the Holy
Ghost, hid these sacred records "that they might come again unto
the remnant of the house of Jacob."

* All references to the Mormon Bible by chapter and verse refer
to Salt Lake City edition of 1888.


To bring the story down to a comparatively recent date, and
account for the finding of the plates by Smith, the Book of
Mormon was written by the "author." This subdivision is an
abridgment of the previous records. It relates that Mormon, a
descendant of Nephi, when ten years old, was told by Ammaron
that, when about twenty-four years old, he should go to the place
where the records were hidden, take only the plates of Nephi, and
engrave on them all the things he had observed concerning the
people. The next year Mormon was taken by his father, whose name
also was Mormon, to the land of Zarahemla, which had become
covered with buildings and very populous, but the people were
warlike and wicked. Mormon in time, "seeing that the Lamanites
were about to overthrow the land," took the records from their
hiding place. He himself accepted the command of the armies of
the Nephites, but they were defeated with great slaughter, the
Lamanites laying waste their cities and driving them northward.

Finally Mormon sent a letter to the king of the Lamanites, asking
that the Nephites might gather their people "unto the land of
Cumorah, by a hill which was called Cumorah, and there we would
give them battle." There, in the year 384 A.D., Mormon "made this
record out of the plates of Nephi, and hid up in the hill Cumorah
all the records which have been entrusted to me by the hand of
the Lord, save it were those few plates which I gave unto my son
Moroni."* This hill, according to the Mormon teaching, is the
hill near Palmyra, New York, where Smith found the plates, just
as Mormon had deposited them.

* Hyde gives a list of twenty-four additional plates mentioned in
this Bible which must still await digging up in the hill near
Palmyra.


In the battle which took place there the Nephites were
practically annihilated, and all the fugitives were killed except
Moroni, the son of Mormon, who undertook the completion of the
"record." Moroni excuses the briefness of his narrative by
explaining that he had not room in the plates, "and ore have I
none" (to make others). What he adds is in the nature of a
defence of the revealed character of the Mormon Bible and of
Smith's character as a prophet. Those, for instance, who say that
there are no longer "revelations, nor prophecies, nor gifts, nor
healing, nor speaking with tongues," are told that they know not
the Gospel of Christ and do not understand the Scriptures. An
effort is made to forestall criticism of the "mistakes" that are
conceded in the title-page dedication by saying, "Condemn me not
because of mine imperfection, neither my father, because of his
imperfection, neither them who have written before him" (Book of
Mormon ix. 31).

Evidently foreseeing that it would be asked why these "records,"
written by Jews and their descendants, were not in Hebrew, Mormon
adds (chap. ix. 32, 33):--

"And now behold, we have written this record according to our
knowledge, in the characters which are called among us the
reformed Egyptian, being handed down and altered by us, according
to our manner of speech.

"And if our plates had been sufficiently large, we should have
written in Hebrew; but the Hebrew hath been altered by us also;
and if we could have written in Hebrew, behold, ye would have had
no imperfection in our record."

Few parts of this mythical Bible approached nearer to the
burlesque than this excuse for having descendants of the Jews
write in "reformed Egyptian."

The secular story of the ancient races running through this Bible
is so confused by the introduction of new matter by the "author"*
and by repetitions that it is puzzling to pick it out. The Book
of Ether was somewhat puzzling even to the early Mormons, and we
find Parley P. Pratt, in his analysis of it, printed in London in
1854, saying, "Ether SEEMS to have been a lineal descendant of
Jared."

*Professor Whitsitt, of the Southern Baptist Theological
Seminary, Louisville, Kentucky, in his article on Mormonism in
"The Concise Dictionary of Religious Knowledge, and Gazetteer"
(New York, 1891), divides the Mormon Bible into three sections,
viz.: the first thirteen books, presented as the works of Mormon;
the Book of Ether, with which Mormon had no connection; and the
fifteenth book," which was sent forth by the editor under the
name of Moroni. "He thus explains his view of the "editing" that
was done in the preparation of the work for publication:--

"The editor undertook to rewrite and recast the whole of the
abridgment (of Nephi's previous history), but his industry failed
him at the close of the Book of Omni. The first six books that he
had rewritten were given the names of the small plates.... The
book called the 'Words of Mormon' in the original work stood at
the beginning, as a sort of preface to the entire abridgment of
Mormon; but when the editor had rewritten the first six books, he
felt that these were properly his own performance, and the 'Words
of Mormon' were assigned a position just in front of the Book of
Mosiah, when the abstract of Mormon took its real
commencement....

"The question may now be raised as to who was the editor of the
Book of Mormon.... In its theological positions and coloring the
Book of Mormon is a volume of Disciple theology (this does not
include the later polygamous doctrine and other gross Mormon
errors). This conclusion is capable of demonstration beyond any
reasonable question. Let notice also be taken of the fact that
the Book of Mormon bears traces of two several redactions. It
contains, in the first redaction, that type of doctrine which the
Disciples held and proclaimed prior to November 18, 1827, when
they had not yet formally embraced what is commonly considered to
be the tenet of baptismal remission. It also contains the type of
doctrine which the Disciples have been defending since November
18, 1827, under the name of the ancient Gospel, of which the
tenet of socalled baptismal remission is a leading feature. All
authorities agree that Mr. Smith obtained possession of the work
on September 22, 1827, a period of nearly two months before the
Disciples concluded to embrace this tenet. The editor felt that
the Book of Mormon would be sadly incomplete if this notion were
not included. Accordingly, he found means to communicate with Mr.
Smith, and, regaining possession of certain portions of the
manuscript, to insert the new item.... Rigdon was the only
Disciple minister who vigorously and continuously demanded that
his brethren should adopt the additional points that have been
indicated."


Very concisely, this Bible story of the most ancient race that
came to America, the Jaredites, may be thus stated:--

This race, being righteous, were not punished by the Lord at
Babel, but were led to the ocean, where they constructed a vessel
by direction of the Lord, in which they sailed to North America.
According to the Book of Ether, there were eight of these
vessels, and that they were remarkable craft needs only the
description given of them to show: "They were built after a
manner that they were exceeding tight, even that they would hold
water like unto a dish; and the bottom thereof was tight like
unto a dish; and the sides thereof were tight like unto a dish;
and the ends thereof were peaked; and the top thereof was tight
like unto a dish; and the length thereof was the length of a
tree; and the door thereof, when it was shut, was tight like unto
a dish" (Book of Ether ii. 17). This description certainly
establishes the general resemblance of these barges to some kind
of a dish, but the rather careless comparison of their length
simply to that of a "tree" leaves this detail of construction
uncertain.

Just before they embarked in these vessels, a brother of Jared
went up on Mount Shelem, where the Lord touched sixteen small
stones that he had taken up with him, two of which were the Urim
and Thummim, by means of which Smith translated the plates. These
stones lighted up the vessels on their trip across the ocean.
Jared's brother was told by the spirit on the mount, "Behold, I
am Jesus Christ. "A footnote in the modern edition of this Bible
kindly explains that Jared's brother "saw the preexistent spirit
of Jesus."

When they landed (somewhere on the Isthmus of Darien), the Lord
commanded Nephi to make "plates of ore," on which should be
engraved the record of the people. This was the origin of Smith's
plates. In time this people divided themselves, under the
leadership of two of Lehi's sons--Nephi and Laman--into Nephites
and Lamanites (with subdivisions). The Lamanites, in the course
of two hundred years, had become dark in color and "wild and
ferocious, and a bloodthirsty people; full of idolatry and
filthiness; feeding upon beasts of prey; dwelling in tents and
wandering about in the wilderness, with a short skin girdle about
their loins, and their heads shaven; and their skill was in the
bow and the cimeter and the ax" (Enos i, 2o). The Nephites, on
the other hand, tilled the land and raised flocks. Between the
two tribes wars waged, the Nephites became wicked, and in the
course of 320 years the worst of them were destroyed (Book of
Alma).

Then the Lord commanded those who would hearken to his voice to
depart with him to the wilderness, and they journeyed until they
came to the land of Zarahemla, which a footnote to the modern
edition explains "is supposed to have been north of the head
waters of the river Magdalena, its northern boundary being a few
days' journey south of the Isthmus" (of Darien). There they found
the people of Zarahemla, who had left Jerusalem when Zedekiah was
carried captive into Babylon. New teachers arose who taught the
people righteousness, and one of them, named Alma, led a company
to a place which was called Mormon, "where was a fountain of pure
water, and there Alma baptized the people. The Book of Alma, the
longest in this Bible, is largely an account of the secular
affairs of the inhabitants, with stories of great battles, a
prediction of the coming of Christ, and an account of a great
migration northward, and the building of ships that sailed in the
same direction.

Nephi describes the appearance of Christ to the people of the
western continent, preceded by a star, earthquakes, etc. On the
day of His appearance they heard "a small voice" out of heaven,
saying, "Behold my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased, in
whom I have glorified my name; hear ye him." Then Christ appeared
and spoke to them, generally in the language of the New Testament
(repeating, for instance, the Sermon on the Mount*), and
afterward ascended into heaven in a cloud. The expulsion of the
Nephites northward, and their final destruction, in what is now
New York State, followed in the course of the next 384 years.

* In the Mormon version of this sermon the words, "If thy right
eye offend thee, pluck it out and cast it from thee," and "If thy
right hand offend thee, cut it off and cast it from thee," are
lacking. The Deseret Evening News of February 21, 1900, in
explaining this omission, says that the report by Mormon of the
"discourse delivered by Jesus Christ to the Nephites on this
continent after his resurrection from the dead... may not be full
and complete."


There is throughout the book an imitation of the style of the
Holy Scriptures. Verse after verse begins with the words "and it
came to pass," as Spaulding's Ohio neighbors recalled that his
story did. The following extract, from 1 Nephi, chap. viii, will
give an illustration of the literary style of a large part of the
work:--

"1.. And it came to pass that we had gathered together all manner
of seeds of every kind, both of grain of every kind, and also of
the seeds of fruit of every kind.

"2. And it came to pass that while my father tarried in the
wilderness, he spake unto us, saying, Behold, I have dreamed a
dream; or in other words, I have seen a vision.

"3. And behold, because of the thing which I have seen, I have
reason to rejoice in the Lord, because of Nephi and also of Sam;
for I have reason to suppose that they, and also many of their
seed, will be saved.

"4. But behold, Laman and Lemuel, I fear exceedingly because of
you; for behold, methought I saw in my dream, a dark and dreary
wilderness.

"5. And it came to pass that I saw a man, and he was dressed in a
white robe; and he came and stood before me.

"6. And it came to pass that he spake unto me, and bade me follow
him.

"7. And it came to pass that as I followed him, I beheld myself
that I was in a dark and dreary waste.

"8. And after I had travelled for the space of many hours in
darkness, I began to pray unto the Lord that he would have mercy
on me, according to the multitude of his tender mercies.

"9. And it came to pass after I had prayed unto the Lord, I
beheld a large and spacious field.

"10. And it came to pass that I beheld a tree, whose fruit was
desirable to make one happy.

"11. And it came to pass that I did go forth, and partake of the
fruit thereof; and I beheld that it was most sweet, above all
that I ever before tasted. Yea, and I beheld that the fruit
thereof was white, to exceed all the whiteness that I had ever
seen."

Whole chapters of the Scriptures are incorporated word for word.
In the first edition some of these were appropriated without any
credit; in the Utah editions they are credited. Beside these,
Hyde counted 298 direct quotations from the New Testament, verses
or sentences, between pages 2 to 428, covering the years from 600
B.C. to Christ's birth. Thus, Nephi relates that his father, more
than two thousand years before the King James edition of the
Bible was translated, in announcing the coming of John the
Baptist, used these words, "Yea, even he should go forth and cry
in the wilderness, prepare ye the way of the Lord, and make his
paths straight; for there standeth one among you whom ye know
not; and he is mightier than I, whose shoe's latchet I am not
worthy to unloose" (1 Nephi x. 8). In Mosiah v. 8, King Benjamin
is represented as saying, 124 years before Christ was born, "I
would that you should take upon you the name of Christ as there
is no other name given whereby salvation cometh."

The first Nephi represents John as baptizing in Bethabara (the
spelling is Beathabry in the Utah edition), and Alma announces
(vii. 10) that "the Son of God shall be born of Mary AT
JERUSALEM." Shakespeare is proved a plagiarist by comparing his
words with those of the second Nephi, who, speaking twenty-two
hundred years before Shakespeare was born, said (2 Nephi i. 14),
"Hear the words of a trembling parent, whose limbs you must soon
lay down in the cold and silent grave, from whence no traveller
can return."

The chapters of the Scriptures appropriated bodily, and the
places where they may be found, are as follows:--

 First Edition Utah Edition

Isaiah xlviii and xlix pp. 52 to 56 1 Nephi, ch. xx, xxi Isaiah 1
and li ...pp. 76 2 Nephi, ch. vii Isaiah lii .... . pp. 498 3
Nephi, ch. xx Isaiah liv .... . pp. 501, 502 3 Nephi, ch. xx
Isaiah ii to xiv . . pp. 86 to 101 2 Nephi, ch. xii to xxiv
Malachi iii, iv ... pp. 503 to 505 3 Nephi, ch. xxiv, xxv Matthew
v, vi, vii . .pp. 479 to 483 3 Nephi, ch. xii to xix 1
Corinthians xiii ... pp. 580 Moroni, ch. vii

Among the many anachronisms to be found in the book may be
mentioned the giving to Laban of a sword with a blade "of the
most precious steel" (1 Nephi iv. 9), centuries before the use of
steel is elsewhere recorded. and the possession of a compass by
the Jaredites when they sailed across the ocean (Alma xxxvii.
38), long before the invention of such an instrument. The ease
with which such an error could be explained is shown in the
anecdote related of a Utah Mormon who, when told that the compass
was not known in Bible times, responded by quoting Acts xxviii.
13, where Paul says, "And from thence we fetched a compass." When
Nephi and his family landed in Central America" there were beasts
in the forest of every kind, both the cow, and the ox, and the
ass, and the horse" (ix Nephi xviii. 25). If Nephi does not
prevaricate, there must have been a fatal plague among these
animals in later years, for horses, cows, and asses were unknown
in America until after its discovery by Europeans. Moroni, in the
Book of Ether (ix. 18, 19), is still more generous, adding to the
possessions of the Jaredites sheep and swine* and elephants and
"cureloms and cumoms." Neither sheep nor swine are indigenous to
America; but the prophet is safe as regards the "cureloms and
cumoms," which are animals of his own creation.

* "And," it is added, "many other kinds of animals which were
useful for the use of man, "thus ignoring the Hebrew antipathy to
pork.


The book is full of incidental proofs of the fraudulent
profession that it is an original translation. For instance, in
incorporating 1 Corinthians iii. 4, in the Book of Moroni, the
phrase "is not easily provoked" is retained, as in the King James
edition. But the word "easily" is not found in any Greek
manuscript of this verse, and it is dropped in the Revised
Version of 1881.

Stenhouse calls attention to many phrases in this Bible which
were peculiar to the revival preachers of those days, like
Rigdon, such as "Have ye spiritually been born of God?" "If ye
have experienced a change of heart."

The first edition was full of grammatical errors and amusing
phrases. Thus we are told, in Ether xv. 31, that when Coriantumr
smote off the head of Shiz, the latter "raised upon his hands and
fell." Among other examples from the first edition may be quoted:
"and I sayeth"; "all things which are good cometh of God";
"neither doth his angels"; and "hath miracles ceased." We find in
Helaman ix. 6, "He being stabbed by his brother by a garb of
secrecy." This remains uncorrected.

Alexander Campbell, noting the mixture of doctrines in the book,
says, "He [the author] decides all the great controversies
discussed in New York in the last ten years, infant baptism, the
Trinity, regeneration, repentance, justification, the fall of
man, the atonement, transubstantiation, fasting, penance, church
government, the call to the ministry, the general resurrection,
eternal punishment, who may baptize, and even the questions of
Freemasonry, republican government and the rights of man."*

* "Delusions: an Analysis of the Book of Mormon" (1832). An
exhaustive examination of this Bible will be found in the "Braden
and Kelley Public Discussion."


Such is the book which is accepted to this day as an inspired
work by the thousands of persons who constitute the Mormon
church. This acceptance has always been rightfully recognized as
fundamentally necessary to the Mormon faith. Orson Pratt
declared, "The nature of the message in the Book of Mormon is
such that, if true, none can be saved who reject it, and, if
false, none can be saved who receive it." Brigham Young told the
Conference at Nauvoo in October, 1844, that "Every spirit that
confesses that Joseph Smith is a prophet, that he lived and died
a prophet, and that the Book of Mormon is true, is of God, and
every spirit that does not is of Anti-Christ." There is no
modification of this view in the Mormon church of to-day.



CHAPTER XII. ORGANIZATION OF THE CHURCH

The director of the steps taken to announce to the world a new
Bible and a new church realized, of course, that there must be
priests, under some name, to receive members and to dispense its
blessing. No person openly connected with Smith in the work of
translation had been a clergyman. Accordingly, on May 15, 1829
(still following the prophet's own account), while Smith and
Cowdery were yet busy with the work of translation, they went
into the woods to ask the Lord for fuller information about the
baptism mentioned in the plates. There a messenger from heaven,
who, it was learned, was John the Baptist, appeared to them in a
cloud of light, "and having laid his hands on us, he ordained us,
saying unto us, 'Upon you, my fellow servants, in the name of
Messiah, I confer the priesthood of Aaron, which holds the keys
of the ministering angels, and of the Gospel of repentance, and
of baptism by immersion for the remission of sins.'" The
messenger also informed them that "the power of laying on of
hands for the gift of the Holy Ghost" would be conferred on them
later, through Peter, James, and John, "who held the keys of the
priesthood of Melchisedec"; but he directed Smith to baptize
Cowdery, and Cowdery then to perform the same office for Smith.
This they did at once, and as soon as Cowdery came out of the
water he "stood up and prophesied many things" (which the prophet
prudently omitted to record). The divine authority thus
conferred, according to Orson Pratt, exceeds that of the bishops
of the Roman church, because it came direct from heaven, and not
through a succession of popes and bishops.*

* Orson Pratt, in his "Questions and Answers on Doctrine" in his
Washington newspaper, the Seer (p. 205), thus defined the Mormon
view of the Roman Catholic church:--

Q."Is the Roman Catholic Church the Church of Christ?" A."No, for
she has no inspired priesthood or officers."

Q."After the Church of Christ fled from earth to heaven what was
left?" A."A set of wicked apostates, murderers and idolaters,"
etc.

Q."Who founded the Roman Catholic Church?" A."The devil, through
the medium of the apostates, who subverted the whole order of God
by denying immediate revelation, and substituting in place
thereof tradition and ancient revelations as a sufficient rule of
faith and practice."


Smith and Cowdery at once began telling of the power conferred
upon them, and giving their relatives and friends an opportunity
to become members of the new church. Smith's brother Samuel was
the first convert won over, Cowdery baptizing him. His brother
Hyrum came next,* and then one J. Knight, Sr., of Colesville, New
York.** Each new convert was made the subject of a "revelation,"
each of which began, "A great and marvelous work is about to come
forth among the children of men." Hyrum Smith, and David and
Peter Whitmer, Jr., were baptized in Seneca Lake in June, and
"from this time forth," says Smith, "many became believers and
were baptized, while we continued to instruct and persuade as
many as applied for information."

* Hyrum wanted to start in to preach at once, and a "revelation"
was necessary to inform him: "You need not suppose you are called
to preach until you are called.... Keep my commandments; hold
your peace" (Sec.11).

** Colesville is the township in Broome County of which
Harpursville is the voting place. Smith organized his converts
there about two miles north of Harpursville.


By April 6, 1830, branches of the new church had been established
at Fayette, Manchester, and Colesville, New York, with some
seventy members in all, it has been stated. Section 20 of the
"Doctrine and Covenants" names April 6, 1830, as the date on
which the church was "regularly organized and established,
agreeable to the laws of our country." This date has been
incorrectly given as that on which the first step was taken to
form a church organization. What was done then was to organize in
a form which, they hoped, would give the church a standing as a
legal body.* The meeting was held at the house of Peter Whitmer.
Smith, who, it was revealed, should be the first elder, ordained
Cowdery, and Cowdery subsequently ordained Smith. The sacrament
was then administered, and the new elders laid their hands on the
others present.

* Whitmer's "Address to Believers in the Book of Mormon."


"The revelation" (Sec. 20) on the form of church government is
dated April, 1830, at least six months before Rigdon's name was
first associated with the scheme by the visit of Cowdery and his
companions to Ohio. If the date is correct, it shows that Rigdon
had forwarded this "revelation" to Smith for promulgation, for
Rigdon was unquestionably the originator of the system of church
government. David Whitmer has explained, "Rigdon would expound
the Old Testament Scriptures of the Bible and Book of Mormon, in
his way, to Joseph, concerning the priesthood, high priests,
etc., and would persuade Brother Joseph to inquire of the Lord
about this doctrine and about that doctrine, and of course a
revelation would always come just as they desired it."*

* Whitmer's "Address to Believers in the Book of Mormon."


The "revelation" now announced defined the duty of elders,
priests, teachers, deacons, and members of the Church of Christ.
An apostle was an elder, and it was his calling to baptize,
ordain, administer the sacrament, confirm, preach, and take the
lead in all meetings. A priest's duty was to preach, baptize,
administer the sacrament, and visit members at their houses.
Teachers and deacons could not baptize, administer the sacrament,
or lay on hands, but were to preach and invite all to join the
church. The elders were directed to meet in conference once in
three months, and there was to be a High Council, or general
conference of the church, by which should be ordained every
President of the high priesthood, bishop, high counsellor, and
high priest.

Smith's leadership had, before this, begun to manifest itself. He
had, in a generous mood, originally intended to share with others
the honor of receiving "revelations," the first of these in the
"Book of Doctrine and Covenants," saying, "I the Lord also gave
commandments to others, that they should proclaim these things to
the world." In the original publication of these "revelations,"
under the title "Book of Commandments," we find such headings as,
"A revelation given to Oliver," "A revelation given to Hyrum,"
etc. These headings are all changed in the modern edition to
read, "Given through Joseph the Seer," etc.

Cowdery was the first of his associates to seek an open share in
the divine work. Smith was so pleased with his new scribe when
they first met at Harmony, Pennsylvania, that he at once received
a "revelation" which incited Cowdery to ask for a division of
power. Cowdery was told (Sec. 6), "And behold, I grant unto you a
gift, if you desire of me, to translate even as my servant
Joseph. "Cowdery's desire manifested itself immediately, and
Joseph almost as quickly became conscious that he had committed
himself too soon. Accordingly, in another "revelation," dated the
same month of April, 1829 (Sec. 8), he attempted to cajole Oliver
by telling him about a "gift of Aaron" which he possessed, and
which was a remarkable gift in itself, adding, "Do not ask for
that which you ought not." But Cowdery naturally clung to his
promised gift, and kept on asking, and he had to be told right
away in still another "revelation" (Sec. 9), that he had not
understood, but that he must not murmur, since his work was to
write for Joseph. If he was in doubt about a subject, he was
advised to "study it out in your mind"; and if it was right, the
Lord promised, "I will cause that your bosom shall burn within
you"; but if it was not right, "you shall have a stupor of
thought, that shall cause you to forget the thing which is
wrong." To assist him until he became accustomed to discriminate
between this burning feeling and this stupor, the Lord told him
very plainly, "It is not expedient that you should translate
now." That all this rankled in Cowdery's heart was shown by his
attempt to revise one of Smith's "revelations," and the support
he gave to Hiram Page's "gazing."

Cowdery continued to annoy the prophet, and Smith decided to get
rid of him. Accordingly in July, 1830, came a "revelation,"
originally announced as given direct to Joseph's wife Emma,
instructing her to act as her husband's scribe, "that I may send
my servant Oliver Cowdery whithersoever I will." This occurred on
a trip the Smiths had made to Harmony. On their return to
Fayette, Smith found Cowdery still persistent, and he accordingly
gave out a "revelation" to him, telling him again that he must
not "write by way of commandment," inasmuch as Smith was at the
head of the church, and directing him to "go unto the Lamanites
(Indians) and preach my Gospel unto them." This was the first
mention of the westward movement of the church which shaped all
its later history.

A "revelation" in June, 1829 (Sec. 18), had directed the
appointment of the twelve apostles, whom Cowdery and David
Whitmer were to select. The organized members now began to
inquire who was their leader, and Smith, in a "revelation" dated
April 6, 1830 (Sec. 21), addressed to himself, announced: "Behold
there shall be a record kept among you, and in it thou shalt be
called a seer, a translator, a prophet, an apostle of Jesus
Christ, an elder of the church through the will of God the
Father, and the grace of your Lord Jesus Christ"; and the church
was directed in these words, "For his word ye shall receive, as
if from mine own mouth, in all patience and faith." Thus was
established an authority which Smith defended until the day of
his death, and before which all who questioned it went down.

Some of the few persons who at this time expressed a willingness
to join the new church showed a repugnance to being baptized at
his hands, and pleaded previous baptism as an excuse for evading
it. But Smith's tyrannical power manifested itself at once, and
he straightway announced a "revelation" (Sec. 22), in which the
Lord declared, "All old covenants have I caused to be done away
in this thing, and this is a new and everlasting covenant, even
that which was from the beginning."

Five days after the formal organization, the first sermon to the
Mormon church was preached in the Whitmer house by Oliver
Cowdery, Smith probably concluding that it would be wiser to
confine himself to the receipt of "revelations" rather than to
essay pulpit oratory too soon. Six additional persons were then
baptized. Soon after this the first Mormon miracle was
performed--the casting out of a devil from a young man named,
Newel Knight.

The first conference of the organized church was held at Fayette,
New York, in June, 1830, with about thirty members present. In
recent "revelations" the prophet had informed his father and his
brothers Hyrum and Samuel that their calling was "to exhortation
and to strengthen the church," so that they were provided for in
the new fold.

The region in New York State where the Smiths had lived and were
well known was not favorable ground for their labors as church
officers, conducting baptisms and administering the sacrament.
When they dammed a small stream in order to secure a pool for an
announced baptism, the dam was destroyed during the night. A
Presbyterian sister-in-law of Knight, from whom a devil had been
cast, announced her conversion to Smith's church, and, when she
would not listen to the persuasions of her pastor, the latter
obtained legal authority from her parents and carried her away by
force. She succeeded, however, in securing the wished-for
baptism. All this stirred up public feeling against Smith, and he
was arrested on a charge of disorderly conduct.

At the trial testimony was offered to show that he had obtained a
horse and a yoke of oxen from his dupes, on the statement that a
"revelation" had informed him that he was to have them, and that
he had behaved improperly toward the daughters of one of these
men. But the parties interested all testified in his favor, and
the prosecution failed. He was immediately rearrested on a
warrant and removed to Colesville, amid the jeers of the people
in attendance. Knight was subpoenaed to tell about the miracle
performed on him, and Smith's old character of a money-digger was
ventilated; but the court found nothing on which to hold him.
Mormon writers have dilated on these "persecutions", but the
outcome of the hearings indicated fair treatment of the accused
by the arbiters of the law, and the indignation shown toward him
and his associates by their neighbors was not greater than the
conduct of such men in assuming priestly rights might evoke in
any similar community.

Smith returned to his home in Pennsylvania after this, and
endeavored to secure the cooperation of his father-in-law in his
church plans, but without avail. It was four years later that Mr.
Hale put on record his opinion of his son-in-law already quoted.
Failing to find other support in Harmony, and perceiving much
public feeling against him, Smith prepared for his return to New
York by receiving a "revelation" (Sec.20) which directed him to
return to the churches organized in that state after he had sold
his crops. "They shall support thee", declared the "revelation";
but if they receive thee not I shall send upon them a cursing
instead of a blessing". For Smith's protection the Lord further
declared: "Whosoever shall lay their hand upon you by violence ye
shall command to be smitten in my name, and behold, I will smite
them according to your words, IN MINE OWN DUE TIME. And whosoever
shall go to law with thee shall be cursed by the law." This
threat, it will be noted, was safeguarded by not requiring
immediate fulfillment.

Smith returned to Fayette in September, and continued church work
thereabouts in company with his brothers and John and David
Whitmer.

Meanwhile Parley P. Pratt had made his visit to Palmyra and
returned to Ohio, and in the early winter Rigdon set out to make
his first open visit to Smith, arriving in December. Martin
Harris, on the ground that Rigdon was a regularly authorized
clergyman, tried to obtain the use of one of the churches of the
town for him, but had to content himself with the third-story
hall of the Young Men's Association. There Rigdon preached a
sermon to a small audience, principally of non-Mormons, annoucing
himself as a "messenger of God". The audience regarded the sermon
as blasphemous, and no further attempt was made to secure this
room for Mormon meetings. Rigdon, however, while in conference
with Smith, preached and baptized the neighborhood, and Smith and
Harris tried their powers as preachers in barns and under a tree
in the open air.

A well-authenticated story of the manner in which one of the
Palmyra Mormons received his call to preach is told by Tucker*
and verified by the principal actor. Among the first baptized in
New York State were Calvin Stoddard and his wife (Smith's sister)
of Macedon. Stoddard told his neighbors of wonderful things he
had seen in the sky, and about his duty to preach. One night,
Steven S. Harding, a young man who was visiting the place, went
with a companion to Stoddard's house, and awakening him with
knocks on the door, proclaimed in measured tones that the angel
of the Lord commanded him to "go forth among the people and
preach the Gospel of Nephi." Then they ran home and went to bed.
Stoddard took the call in all earnestness, and went about the
next day repeating to his neighbors the words of the "celestial
messenger," describing the roaring thunder and the musical sounds
of the angel's wings that accompanied the words. Young Harding,
who participated in this joke, became Governor of Utah in 1862,
and incurred the bitter enmity of Brigham Yound and the church by
denouncing polygamy, and asserting his own civil authority.**

* "Origin, Rise and Progress of Mormonism," pp. 80, 285

**Stoddard and Smith had a quarrel over a lot in Kirtland in
1835, and Smith knocked down his brother-in-law and was indicted
for assault and battery, but was acquitted on the ground of
self-defence.


AS a result of Smith's and Rigdon's conferences came a
"revelation" to them both (Sec. 35), delivered as in the name of
Jesus Christ, defining somewhat Rigdon's position. How nearly it
met his demands cannot be learned, but it certainly granted him
no more authority than Smith was willing to concede. It told him
that he should do great things, conferring the Holy Ghost by the
laying on of hands, as did the apostles of old, and promising to
show miracles, signs, and wonders unto all believers. He was told
that Joseph had received the "keys of the mysteries of those
things that have been sealed," and was directed to "watch over
him that his faith fail not." This "revelation" ordered the
retranslation of the Scriptures.

The most important result of Rigdon's visit to Smith was a
decision to move the church to Ohio. This decision was
promulgated in the form of "revelations" dated December, 1830,
and January, 1831, which set forth (Secs. 37, 38):--

"And that ye might escape the power of the enemy, and be gathered
unto me a righteous people, without spot and blameless:

"Wherefore, for this cause I give unto you the commandment that
ye should go to the Ohio; and there I will give unto you my law;
and there you shall be endowed with power from on high; and from
thence whomsoever I will shall go forth among all nations, and it
shall be told them what they shall do; for I have a great work
laid up in store, for Israel shall be saved.... And they that
have farms that cannot be sold, let them be left or rented as
seemeth them good."

A sufficient reason for the removal was the failure to secure
converts where Smith was known, and the ready acceptance of the
new belief among Rigdon's Ohio people. The Rev. Dr. Clark says,
"You might as well go down in the crater of Vesuvius and attempt
to build an icehouse amid its molten and boiling lava, as to
convince any inhabitant in either of these towns [Palmyra or
Manchester] that Joe Smith's pretensions are not the most gross
and egregious falsehood."*

* "Gleanings by the Way."


The Rev. Jesse Townsend of Palmyra, in a reply to a letter of
inquiry about the Mormons, dated December 24, 1833 (quoted in
full by Tucker), says: "All the Mormons have left this part of
the state, and so palpable is their imposture that nothing is
here said or thought of the subject, except when inquiries from
abroad are occasionally made concerning them. I know of no one
now living in this section of the country that ever gave them
credence."



CHAPTER XIII. THE MORMONS' BELIEFS AND DOCTRINES--CHURCH
GOVERNMENT

The Mormons teach that, for fourteen hundred years to the time of
Smith's "revelations," there had been "a general and awful
apostasy from the religion of the New Testament, so that all the
known world have been left for centuries without the Church of
Christ among them; without a priesthood authorized of God to
administer ordinances; that every one of the churches has
perverted the Gospel."* As illustrations of this perversion are
cited the doing away of immersion for the remission of sins by
most churches, of the laying on of hands for the gift of the Holy
Ghost, and of the miraculous gifts and powers of the Holy Spirit.
The new church presented a modern prophet, who was in direct
communication with God and possessed power to work miracles, and
who taught from a Golden Bible which says that whoever asserts
that there are no longer "revelations, nor prophecies, nor gifts,
nor healing, nor speaking with tongues and the interpretation of
tongues,... knoweth not the Gospel of Christ" (Book of Mormon ix.
7, 8).

* Orson Pratt's "Remarkable Visions," No. 6.


It is impossible to decide whether the name "Mormon" was used by
Spaulding in his "Manuscript Found," or was introduced by Rigdon.
It is first encountered in the Mormon Bible in the Book of Mosiah
xviii. 4, as the name of a place where there was a fountain in
which Alma baptized those whom his admonition led to repentance.
Next it occurs in 3 Nephi v. 20: "I am Mormon, and a pure
descendant of Lehi." This Mormon was selected by the "author" of
the Bible to stand sponsor for the condensation of the "records"
of his ancestors which Smith unearthed. It was discovered very
soon after the organization of the Mormon church was announced
that the word was of Greek derivation, uopuw or uopuwv <Greek>
meaning bugbear, hobgoblin. In the form of "mormo" it is
Anglicized with the same meaning, and is used by Jeremy Collier
and Warburton.* The word "Mormon" in zoology is the generic name
of certain animals, including the mandril baboon. The discovery
of the Greek origin and meaning of the word was not pleasing to
the early Mormon leaders, and they printed in the Times and
Seasons a letter over Smith's signature, in which he solemnly
declared that "there was no Greek or Latin upon the plates from
which I, through the grace of God, translated the Book of
Mormon," and gave the following explanation of the derivation of
the word:

* See "Century Dictionary."


"Before I give a definition to the word, let me say that the
Bible, in its widest sense, means good; for the Saviour says,
according to the Gospel of St. John, 'I am the Good Shepherd';
and it will not be beyond the common use of terms to say that
good is amongst the most important in use, and, though known by
various names in different languages, still its meaning is the
same, and is ever in opposition to bad. We say from the Saxon,
good; the Dane, god; the Goth, gods; the German, gut; the Dutch,
goed; the Latin, bonus; the Greek, kalos; the Hebrew, tob; the
Egyptian, mo. Hence, with the addition of more, or the
contraction mor, we have the word Mormon, which means literally
more good.

This lucid explanation was doubtless entirely satisfactory to the
persons to whom it was addressed.

In the early "revelations" collected in the "Book of
Commandments" the new church was not styled anything more
definite than "My Church," and the title-page of that book, as
printed in 1833, says that these instructions are "for the
government of the Church of Christ." The name "Mormons" was not
acceptable to the early followers of Smith, who looked on it as a
term of reproach, claiming the designation "Saints." This
objection to the title continues to the present day. It was not
until May 4, 1834, that a council of the church, on motion of
Sidney Rigdon, decided on its present official title, "Church of
Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints."

The belief in the speedy ending of the world, on which the title
"Latter-Day Saints" was founded, has played so unimportant a part
in modern Mormon belief that its prominence as an early tenet of
the church is generally overlooked. At no time was there more
widespread interest in the speedy second coming of Christ and the
Day of Judgment than during the years when the organization of
the Mormon church was taking place. We have seen how much
attention was given to a speedy millennium by the Disciples
preachers. It was in 1833 that William Miller began his sermons
in which he fixed on the year 1843 as the end of the world, and
his views not only found acceptance among his personal followers,
but attracted the liveliest interest in other sects.

The Mormon leaders made this belief a part of their early
doctrine. Thus, in one of the first "revelations" given out by
Smith, dated Fayette, New York, September, 1830, Christ is
represented as saying that "the hour is nigh" when He would
reveal Himself, and "dwell in righteousness with men on earth a
thousand years." In the November following, another "revelation"
declared that "the time is soon at hand that I shall come in a
cloud, with power and great glory." Soon after Smith arrived in
Kirtland a "revelation," dated February, 1831, announced that
"the great day of the Lord is nigh at hand." In January, 1833,
Smith predicted that "there are those now living upon the earth
whose eyes shall not be closed in death until they shall see all
these things of which I have spoken" (the sweeping of the wicked
from the United States, and the return of the lost tribes to it).
Smith declared in 1843 that the Lord had promised that he should
see the Son of Man if he lived to be eighty-five (Sec. 130).*
When Ferris was Secretary of Utah Territory, in 1852-1853, he
found that the Mormons were still expecting the speedy coming of
Christ, but had moved the date forward to 1870. All through
Smith's autobiography and the Millennial Star will be found
mention of every portent that might be construed as an indication
of the coming disruption of this world. As late as December 6,
1856, an editorial in the Millennial Star said, "The signs of the
times clearly indicate to every observing mind that the great day
of the second advent of Messiah is at hand."

* Speaking of W. W. Phelps's last years in Utah, Stenbouse says:
"Often did the old man, in public and in private, regale the
Saints with the assurance that he had the promise by revelation
that he should not taste of death until Jesus came." Phelps died
on March 7, 1872.


As the devout Mohammedan* passes from earth to a heaven of
material bliss, so the Mormons are taught that the Saints, the
sole survivors of the day of judgment, will, with resurrected
bodies, possess the purified earth. The lengths to which Mormon
preachers have dared to go in illustrating this view find a good
illustration in a sermon by arson Pratt, printed in the Deseret
News, Salt Lake City, of August 21, 1852. Having promised that
"farmers will have great farms upon the earth when it is so
changed," and foreseeing that some one might suggest a difficulty
in providing land enough to go round, he met that in this way:--

* The similarity between Smith's early life and visions and
Mohammed's has been mentioned by more than one writer. Stenhouse
observes that Smith's mother "was to him what Cadijah was to
Mohammed," and that "a Mohammedan writer, in a series of essays
recently published in London, treats of the prophecies concerning
the Arabian Prophet, to be found in the Old and New Testaments,
precisely as Orson Pratt applied them to the American Prophet."


"But don't be so fast, says one; don't you know that there are
only about 197,000,000 of square miles, or about 126,000,000,000
of acres upon the surface of the globe? Will these accommodate
all the inhabitants after the resurrection? Yes; for if the earth
should stand 8000 years, or 80 centuries, and the population
should be a thousand millions in every century, that would be
80,000,000,000 of inhabitants, and we know that many centuries
have passed that would not give the tenth part of this; but
supposing this to be the number, there would then be over an acre
and a half for each person upon the surface of the globe."

By eliminating the wicked, so that only one out of a hundred
would share this real estate, he calculated that every Saint
"would receive over 150 acres, which would be quite enough to
raise manna, flax to make robes of, and to have beautiful
orchards of fruit trees."

The Mormon belief is stated by the church leaders to rest on the
Holy Bible, the Mormon Bible, and the "Book of Doctrine and
Covenants," together with the teachings of the Mormon instructors
from Smith's time to the present day. Although the Holy Bible is
named first in this list, it has, as we have seen, played a
secondary part in the church ritual, its principal use by the
Mormon preachers having been to furnish quotations on which to
rest their claims for the inspiration of their own Bible and for
their peculiar teachings. Mormon sermons (usually styled
discourses) rarely, if ever, begin with a text. The "Book of
Doctrine and Covenants" "containing," as the title-page declares,
"the revelations given to Joseph Smith, Jr., for the building up
of the Kingdom of God in the last days," was the directing
authority in the church during Smith's life, and still occupies a
large place in the church history. An examination of the origin
and character of this work will therefore shed much light on the
claims of the church to special direction from on high.

There is little doubt that this system of "revelation" was an
idea of Rigdon. Smith was not, at that time, an inventor; his
forte was making use of ideas conveyed to him. Thus, he did not
originate the idea of using a "peek-stone," but used one freely
as soon as he heard of it. He did not conceive the idea of
receiving a Bible from an angel, but readily transformed the
Spaniard-with-his-throat-cut to an angel when the perfected
scheme was presented to him. We can imagine how attractive
"revelations" would have been to him, and how soon he would
concentrate in himself the power to receive them, and would adapt
them to his personal use.

David Whitmer says, "The revelations, or the Book of
Commandments, up to June, 1829, were given through the stone
through which the Book of Mormon was translated"; but that after
that time" they came through Joseph as a mouthpiece; that is, he
would inquire of the Lord, pray and ask concerning a matter, and
speak out the revelation, which he thought to be a revelation
from the Lord; but sometimes he was mistaken about its being from
the Lord."* Who drew the line between truth and error has never
been explained, but Smith would certainly have resented any such
scepticism.

* "Address to Believers in the Book of Mormon."


Parley P. Pratt thus describes Smith's manner of receiving
"revelations" in Ohio, "Each sentence was uttered slowly and very
distinctly, and with a pause between each sufficiently long for
it to be recorded by an ordinary writer in long hand."*


* Pratt's "Autobiography," p. 65.


These "revelations" made the greatest impression on Smith's
followers, and no other of his pretensions seems to have so
convinced them of his divine credentials. The story of Vienna
Jaques well illustrates this. A Yankee descendant of John
Rodgers, living in Boston, she was convinced by a Mormon elder,
and joined the church members while they were in Kirtland, taking
with her her entire possession, $1500 in cash. This money, like
that of many other devoted members, found its way into Smith's
hands--and stayed there. But he had taken her into his family,
and her support became burdensome to him. So, when the Saints
were "gathering" in Missouri, he announced a "revelation" in
these words (Sec. 90):--

"And again, verily, I [the Lord] say unto you, it is my will that
my handmaid, Vienna Jaques, should receive money to bear her
expenses, and go up unto the land of Zion; and the residue of the
money may be consecrated unto me, and she be rewarded in mine own
due time. Verily, I say unto you, that it is meet in mine eyes
that she should go up unto the land of Zion, and receive an
inheritance from the hand of the Bishop, that she may settle down
in peace, inasmuch as she is faithful, and not to be idle in her
days from thenceforth."

The confiding woman obeyed without a murmur this thinly concealed
scheme to get rid of her, migrated with the church from Missouri
to Illinois and to Utah, and was in Salt Lake City in 1833,
supporting herself as a nurse, and "doubly proud that she has
been made the subject of a revelation from heaven."*

* "Utah and the Mormons," p. 182.


These "revelations" have been published under two titles. The
first edition was printed in Jackson, Missouri, in 1833, in the
Mormon printing establishment, under the title, "Book of
Commandments for the Government of the Church of Christ,
organized according to Law on the 6th of April, 1830." This
edition contained nothing but "revelations," divided into
sixty-five "chapters," and ending with the one dated Kirtland,
September, 1831, which forms Section 64 of the Utah edition of
"Doctrine and Covenants." David Whitmer says that when, in the
spring of 1832, it was proposed by Smith, Rigdon, and others to
publish these revelations, they were earnestly advised by other
members of the church not to do so, as it would be dangerous to
let the world get hold of them; and so it proved. But Smith
declared that any objector should "have his part taken out of the
Tree of Life."*

* It has been stated that the "Book of Commandments" was never
really published, the mob destroying the sheets before it got
out. But David Whitmer is a very positive witness to the
contrary, saying, "I say it was printed complete (and
copyrighted) and many copies distributed among the members of the
church before the printing press was destroyed."


Two years later, while the church was still in Kirtland, the
"revelations" were again prepared for publication, this time
under the title, "Doctrine and Covenants of the Church of the
Latter-Day Saints, carefully selected from the revelations of
God, and compiled by Joseph Smith, Jr.; Oliver Cowdery, Sidney
Rigdon, F. G. Williams, proprietors." On August 17, 1835, a
general assembly of the church held in the Kirtland Temple voted
to accept his book as the doctrine and covenants of their faith.
Ebenezer Robinson, who attended the meeting, says that the
majority of those so voting "had neither time nor opportunity to
examine the book for themselves; they had no means of knowing
whether any alterations had been made in any of the revelations
or not."* In fact, many important alterations were so made, as
will be pointed out in the course of this story. One method of
attempting to account for these changes has been by making the
plea that parts were omitted in the Missouri editions. On this
point, however, Whitmer is very positive, as quoted.

* In his reminiscences in The Return.


At the very start Smith's revelations failed to "come true." An
amusing instance of this occurred before the Mormon Bible was
published. While the "copy" was in the hands of the printer,
Grandin, Joe's brother Hyrum and others who had become interested
in the enterprise became impatient over Harris's delay in raising
the money required for bringing out the book. Hyrum finally
proposed that some of them attempt to sell the copyright in
Canada, and he urged Joe to ask the Lord about doing so. Joe
complied, and announced that the mission to Canada would be a
success. Accordingly, Oliver Cowdery and Hiram Page made a trip
to Toronto to secure a publisher, but their mission failed
absolutely. This was a critical test of the faith of Joe's
followers. "We were all in great trouble," says David Whitmer,*
"and we asked Joseph how it was that he received a 'revelation'
from the Lord for some brethren to go to Toronto and sell the
copyright, and the brethren had utterly failed in their
undertaking. Joseph did not know how it was, so he inquired of
the Lord about it, and behold, the following 'revelation' came;
through the stone: 'Some revelations are from God, some
revelations are of man, and some revelations are of the Devil.'"
No rule for distinguishing and separating these revelations was
given; but Whitmer, whose faith in Smith's divine mission never
cooled, thus disposes of the matter, "So we see that the
revelation to go to Toronto and sell the copyright was not of
God." Of course, a prophet whose followers would accept such an
excuse was certain of his hold upon them. This incident well
illustrates the kind of material which formed the nucleus of the
church.

* "Address to All Believers in Christ," p. 30.


Smith never let the previously revealed word of the Lord protect
any of his flock who afterward came in conflict with his own
plans. For example: On March 8, 1831, he announced a "revelation"
(Sec. 47), saying, "Behold, it is expedient in me that my servant
John [Whitmer] should write and keep a regular history" of the
church. John fell into disfavor in later years, and, when he
refused to give up his records, Smith and Rigdon addressed a
letter to him,* in connection with his dismissal, which said that
his notes required correction by them before publication,
"knowing your incompetency as a historian, that writings coming
from your pen could not be put to press without our correcting
them, or else the church must suffer reproach. Indeed, sir, we
never supposed you capable of writing a history." Why the Lord
did not consult Smith and Rigdon before making this appointment
is one of the unexplained mysteries.

* Millennial Star, Vol. XVI, p. 133.


These "revelations," which increased in number from 16 in 1829 to
19 in 1830, numbered 35 in 1831, and then decreased to 16 in
1832, 13 in 1833, 5 in 1834, 2 in 1835, 3 in 1836, 1 in 1837, 8
in 1838 (in the trying times in Missouri), 1 in 1839, none in
1840, 3 in 1841, none in 1842, and 2, including the one on
polygamy, in 1843. We shall see that in his latter days, in
Nauvoo, Smith was allowed to issue revelations only after they
had been censored by a council. He himself testified to the
reckless use which he made of them, and which perhaps brought
about this action. The following is a quotation from his diary:--

"May 19, 1842.-- While the election [of Smith as mayor by the
city council] was going forward, I received and wrote the
following revelation: 'I Verily thus saith the Lord unto you my
servant Joseph, by the voice of the Spirit, Hiram Kimball has
been insinuating evil and forming evil opinions against you with
others; and if he continue in them, he and they shall be
accursed, for I am the Lord thy God, and will stand by thee and
bless thee.' Which I threw across the room to Hiram Kimball, one
of the counsellors."

Thus it seems that there was some limit to the extent of Joe's
effrontery which could be submitted to.

We shall see that Brigham Young in Utah successfully resisted
constant pressure that was put upon him by his flock to continue
the reception of "revelations." While he was prudent enough to
avoid the pitfalls that would have surrounded him as a revealer,
he was crafty enough not to belittle his own authority in so
doing. In his discourse on the occasion of the open announcement
of polygamy, he said, "If an apostle magnifies his calling, his
words are the words of eternal life and salvation to those who
hearken to them, just as much so as any written revelations
contained in these books" (the two Bibles and the "Doctrine and
Covenants").

Hiram Page was not the only person who tried to imitate Smith's
"revelations." A boy named Isaac Russell gave out such messages
at Kirtland; Gladdin Bishop caused much trouble in the same way
at Nauvoo; the High Council withdrew the hand of fellowship from
Oliver Olney for setting himself up as a prophet; and in the same
year the Times and Seasons announced a pamphlet by J. C.
Brewster, purporting to be one of the lost books of Esdras,
"written by the power of God."

In the Times and Seasons (p. 309) will he found a report of a
conference held in New York City on December 4, 1840, at which
Elder Sydney Roberts was arraigned, charged with "having a
revelation that a certain brother must give him a suit of clothes
and a gold watch, the best that could be had; also saluting the
sisters with what he calls a holy kiss." He was told that he
could retain his membership if he would confess, but he declared
that "he knew the revelations which he had spoken were from God."
So he was thereupon "cut off."

The other source of Mormon belief--the teachings of their leading
men--has been no more consistent nor infallible than Smith's
"revelations." Mormon preachers have been generally uneducated
men, most of them ambitious of power, and ready to use the pulpit
to strengthen their own positions. Many an individual elder, firm
in his faith, has travelled and toiled as faithfully as any
Christian missionary; but these men, while they have added to the
church membership, have not made its beliefs.

Smith probably originated very little of the church polity,
except the doctrine of polygamy, and what is published over his
name is generally the production of some of his counsellors.
Section 130 of the "Book of Doctrine and Covenants," headed
"Important Items of Instruction, given by Joseph the Prophet,
April 2, 1843," contains the following:--

"When the Saviour shall appear, we shall see him as he is. We
shall see that he is a man like ourselves....

"The Father has a body of flesh and bones as tangible as man's;
the Son also; but the Holy Ghost has not a body of flesh and
bones, but is a personage of spirit. Were it not so, the Holy
Ghost could not dwell in us."

An article in the Millennial Star, Vol. VI, for which the prophet
vouched, contains the following:--

"The weakest child of God which now exists upon the earth will
possess more dominion, more property, more subjects, and more
power in glory than is possessed by Jesus Christ or by his
Father; while, at the same time, Jesus Christ and his Father will
have their dominion, kingdom and subjects increased in
proportion."

One more illustration of Smith's doctrinal views will suffice. In
a funeral sermon preached in Nauvoo, March 20, 1842, he said: "As
concerning the resurrection, I will merely say that all men will
come from the grave as they lie down, whether old or young; there
will not be 'added unto their stature one cubit,' neither taken
from it. All will be raised by the power of God, having spirit in
their bodies but not blood."*

* Millennial Star, Vol. XIX, p. 213.


In "The Latter-Day Saints' Catechism or Child's Ladder," by Elder
David Moffat, Genesis v. 1, and Exodus xxxiii. 22, 23, and xxiv.
10 are cited to prove that God has the form and parts of a man.

The greatest vagaries of doctrinal teachings are found during
Brigham Young's reign in Utah. In the way of a curiosity the
following diagram and its explanation, by Orson Hyde, may be
reproduced from the Millennial Star, Vol. IX, p. 23:--

"The above diagram (not included in this etext) shows the order
and unity of the Kingdom of God. The eternal Father sits at the
head, crowned King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Wherever the other
lines meet there sits a king and priest under God, bearing rule,
authority and dominion under the Father. He is one with the
Father because his Kingdom is joined to his Father's and becomes
part of it.... It will be seen by the above diagram that there
are kingdoms of all sizes, an infinite variety to suit all grades
of merit and ability. The chosen vessels of God are the kings and
priests that are placed at the heads of their kingdoms. They have
received their washings and anointings in the Temple of God on
earth."

Young's ambition was not to be satisfied until his name was
connected with some doctrine peculiarly his own. Accordingly, in
a long sermon preached in the Tabernacle on April 9, 1852, he
made this announcement (the italics and capitals follow the
official report):--

"Now hear it, O inhabitants of the earth, Jew and Gentile, saint
and sinner. When our father Adam came into the Garden of Eden, he
came into it with a CELESTIAL BODY, and brought Eve, ONE OF HIS
WIVES, with him. He helped to make and organize this world. He is
MICHAEL, the ARCHANGEL, the ANCIENT OF DAYS, about whom holy men
have written and spoken.* HE is our FATHER and our GOD, AND THE
ONLY GOD WITH WHOM 'WE' HAVE TO DO... Every man upon the earth,
professing Christians or non-professing, must hear it and WILL
KNOW IT SOONER OR LATER.... I could tell you much more about
this; but were I to tell you the whole truth, blasphemy would be
nothing to it, in the estimation of the superstitious and over
righteous of mankind.... Jesus, our Elder Brother, was begotten
in the flesh by the same character that was in the Garden of
Eden, and who is our Father in heaven."**

* Young, in a public discourse on October 23, 1853, declared that
he rejected the story of Adam's creation as "baby stories my
mother taught me when I was a child." But the Mormon Bible (2
Nephi ii. 18-22) tells the story of Adam's fall.

** Journal of Discourses, VOL I, pp. 50, 51.


This doctrine was made a leading point of difference between the
Utah church and the Reorganized Church, when the latter was
organized, but it is no longer defended even in Utah. The Deseret
Evening News of March 21, 1900, said on this point, "That which
President Young set forth in the discourse referred to is not
preached either to the Latter-Day Saints or to the world as a
part of the creed of the church."

Young never hesitated to rebuke an associate whose preaching did
not suit him. In a discourse in Salt Lake City, on March 8, 1857,
he rebuked Orson Pratt, one of the ablest of the church writers,
declaring that Pratt did not "know enough to keep his foot out of
it, but drowns himself in his philosophy." He ridiculed his
doctrine that "the devils in hell are composed of and filled with
the Holy Spirit, or Holy Ghost, and possess all the knowledge,
wisdom, and power of the gods, "and said, "When I read some of
the writings of such philosophers they make me think, 'O dear,
granny, what a long tail our puss has got.'"*

* Ibid., Vol. IV, p. 297.


The Mormon church still holds that an existing head of that
organization can always interpret the divine will regarding any
question. This was never more strikingly illustrated than when
Woodruff, by a mere dictum, did away with the obligatory
character of polygamy.

When the Mormons were under a cloud in Illinois, in 1842, John
Wentworth, editor of the Chicago Democrat, applied to Smith for a
statement of their belief, and received in reply a list of 13
"Articles of Faith" over Smith's signature. This statement was
intended to win for them sympathy as martyrs to a simple
religious belief, and it has been cited in Congress as proof of
their soul purity. But as illustrating the polity of the church
it is quite valueless.

The doctrine of polygamy and the ceremonies of the Endowment
House will be considered in their proper place. One distinctive
doctrine of the church must be explained before this subject is
dismissed, namely, that which calls for "baptism for the dead."
This doctrine is founded on an interpretation of Corinthians xv.
29: "Else what shall they do which are baptized for the dead, if
the dead rise not at all? Why are they then baptized for the
dead?"

An explanation of this doctrine in the Times and Seasons of May
1, 1841, says:--"This text teaches us the important and cheering
truth that the departed spirit is in a probationary state, and
capable of being affected by the proclamation of the Gospel....
Christ offers pardon, peace, holiness, and eternal life to the
quick and the dead, the living, on condition of faith and baptism
for remission of sins; the departed, on the same condition of
faith in person and baptism by a living kinsman in his behalf. It
may be asked, will this baptism by proxy necessarily save the
dead? We answer, no; neither will the same necessarily save the
living."

This doctrine was first taught to the church in Ohio. In later
years, in Nauvoo, Smith seemed willing to accept its paternity,
and in an article in the Times and Seasons of April 15, x 842,
signed "Ed.," when he was its editor, he said that he was the
first to point it out. The article shows, however, that it was
doubtless written by Rigdon, as it indicates a knowledge of the
practice of such baptism by the Marcionites in the second
century, and of Chrysostom's explanation of it. A note on
Corinthians xv. 29, in "The New Testament Commentary for English
Readers," edited by Lord Bishop Ellicott of Gloucester and
Bristol (London, 1878), gives the following historical sketch of
the practice:--

"There have been numerous and ingenious conjectures as to the
meaning of this passage. The only tenable interpretation is that
there existed amongst some of the Christians at Corinth a
practice of baptizing a living person in the stead of some
convert who had died before that sacrament had been administered
to him. Such a practice existed amongst the Marcionites in the
second century, and still earlier amongst a sect called the
Cerinthians. The idea evidently was that, whatever benefit flowed
from baptism, might be thus vicariously secured for the deceased
Christian. St. Chrysostom gives the following description of
it:--

"After a catechumen (one prepared for baptism but not actually
baptized) was dead, they hid a living man under the bed of the
deceased; then, coming to the bed of the dead man, they spoke to
him, and asked whether he would receive baptism; and, he making
no answer, the other replied in his stead, and so they baptized
the living for the dead: Does St. Paul then, by what he here
says, sanction the superstitious practice? Certainly not. He
carefully separated himself and the Corinthians, to whom he
immediately addresses himself, from those who adopted this custom
.... Those who do that, and disbelieve a resurrection, refute
themselves. This custom possibly sprang up among the Jewish
converts, who had been accustomed to something similar in their
faith. If a Jew died without having been purified from some
ceremonial uncleanness, some living person had the necessary
ablution performed on him, and the dead were so accounted clean."

Other commentators have found means to explain this text without
giving it reference to a baptism for dead persons, as, for
instance, that it means, "with an interest in the resurrection of
the dead."* Another explanation is that by "the dead" is meant
the dead Christ, as referred to in Romans vi. 3, "Know ye not
that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were
baptized into his death?"

* "Commentary by Bishops and Other Clergy of the Anglican
Church."


This doctrine was a very taking one with the uneducated Mormon
converts who crowded into Nauvoo, and the church officers saw in
it a means to hasten the work on the Temple. At first families
would meet on the bank of the Mississippi River, and some one, of
the order of the Melchisedec Priesthood, would baptize them
wholesale for all their dead relatives whose names they could
remember, each sex for relatives of the same. But as soon as the
font in the Temple was ready for use, these baptisms were
restricted to that edifice, and it was required that all the
baptized should have paid their tithings. At a conference at
Nauvoo in October, 1841, Smith said that those who neglected the
baptism of their dead "did it at the peril of their own
salvation."*

* Times and Seasons, Vol. II, p. 578.


The form of church government, as worked out in the early days,
is set forth in the "Book of Doctrine and Covenants." The first
officers provided for were the twelve apostles,* and the next the
elders, priests, teachers, and deacons, Edward Partridge being
announced as the first bishop in 1831. The church was loosely
governed for the first years after its establishment at Kirtland.
A guiding power was provided for in a revelation of March 8, 1833
(Sec. 90), when Smith was told by the Lord that Rigdon and F. G.
Williams were accounted as equal with him "in holding the keys of
this last kingdom." These three first held the famous office of
the First Presidency, representing the Trinity.

* (Sec. 18, June, 1829.)


On February 17, 1834 (Sec. 102), a General High Council of
twenty-four High Priests assembled at Smith's house in Kirtland
and organized the High Council of the church, consisting of
Twelve High Priests, with one or three Presidents, as the case
might require. The office of High Priest, and the organization of
a High Council were apparently an afterthought, and were added to
the "revelation" after its publication in the "Book of
Commandments." Other forms of organization that were from time to
time decided on were announced in a revelation dated March 28,
1835 (Sec. 107), which defined the two priesthoods, Melchisedec
and Aaronic, and their powers. There were to be three Presiding
High Priests to form a Quorum of the Presidency of the church; a
Seventy, called to preach the Gospel, who would form a Quorum
equal in authority to the Quorum of the Twelve, and be presided
over by seven of their number. Smith soon organized two of these
Quorums of Seventies. At the time of the dedications of the
Temple at Nauvoo, in 1844, there were fifteen of them, and to-day
they number more than 120.

Each separate church organization, as formed, was called a Stake,
and each Stake had over it a Presidency, High Priests, and
Council of Twelve. We find the meaning of the word "Stake" in
some of Smith's earlier "revelations." Thus, in the one dated
June 4, 1833, regarding the organization of the church at
Kirtland, it was said, "It is expedient in me that this Stake
that I have set for the strength of Zion be made strong." Again,
in one dated December 16, 1839, on the gathering of the Saints,
it is stated, "I have other places which I will appoint unto
them, and they shall be called Stakes for the curtains, or the
strength of Zion." In Utah, to-day, the Stakes form groups of
settlements, and are generally organized on county lines.

The prophet made a substantial provision for his father, founding
for him the office of Patriarch, in accordance with an
unpublished "revelation." The principal business of the Patriarch
was to dispense "blessings," which were regarded by the faithful
as a sort of charm, to ward off misfortune. Joseph, Sr., awarded
these blessings without charge when he began dispensing them at
Kirtland, but a High Council held there in 1835 allowed him $10 a
week while blessing the church. After his formal anointing in
1836 he was known as Father Smith, and the next year his salary
was made $1.50 a day.* Hyrum became Patriarch when his father
died in 1840, his brother William succeeded him, his Uncle John
came next, and his Uncle Joseph after John. Patriarchal blessings
were advertised in the Mormon newspaper in Nauvoo like other
merchandise. They could be obtained in writing, and contained
promises of almost anything that a man could wish, such as
freedom from poverty and disease, life prolonged until the coming
of Christ, etc.** In 1875 the price of a blessing in Utah had
risen to $2. The office of Patriarch is still continued, with one
chief Patriarch, known as Patriarch of the Church, and
subordinate Patriarchs in the different Stakes. The position of
Patriarch of the church has always been regarded as a hereditary
one, and bestowed on some member of the Smith family, as it is
to-day.

* The departure of the Patriarch from Ohio was somewhat dramatic.
As his wife tells the story in her book, the old man was taken by
a constable before a justice of the peace on a charge of
performing the marriage service without any authority, and was
fined $3000, and sentenced to the penitentiary in default of
payment. Through the connivance of the constable, who had been a
Mormon, the prisoner was allowed to leap out of a window, and he
remained in hiding at New Portage until his family were ready to
start for Missouri. The revelation of January 19, 1841, announced
that he was then sitting "with Abraham at his right hand."


* Ferris's "Utah and the Mormons," p. 314, and "Wife No. 19," p.
581.



BOOK II. IN OHIO

CHAPTER I. THE FIRST CONVERTS AT KIRTLAND

The four missionaries who had been sent to Ohio under Cowdery's
leadership arrived there in October, 1830. Rigdon left Kirtland
on his visit to Smith in New York State in the December
following, and in January, 1831, he returned to Ohio, taking
Smith with him.

The party who set out for Ohio, ostensibly to preach to the
Lamanites, consisted of Oliver Cowdery, Parley P. Pratt, Peter
Whitmer, Jr., and Ziba Peterson, the latter one of Smith's
original converts, who, it may be noted, was deprived of his land
and made to work for others a year later in Missouri, because of
offences against the church authorities. These men preached as
they journeyed, making a brief stop at Buffalo to instruct the
Indians there. On reaching Ohio, Pratt's acquaintance with
Rigdon's Disciples gave him an opportunity to bring the new Bible
to the attention of many people. The character of the Smiths was
quite unknown to the pioneer settlers, and the story of the
miraculously delivered Bible filled many of them with wonder
rather than with unbelief.

The missionaries began the work of organizing a church at once.
Some members of Rigdon's congregation had already formed a
"common stock society," and were believers in a speedy
millennium, and to these the word brought by the new-comers was
especially welcome. Cowdery baptized seventeen persons into the
new church. Rigdon at the start denied his right to do this, and,
in a debate between him and the missionaries which followed at
Rigdon's house, Rigdon quoted Scripture to prove that, even if
they had seen an angel, as they declared, it might have been
Satan transformed. Cowdery asked if he thought that, in response
to a prayer that God would show him an angel, the Heavenly Father
would suffer Satan to deceive him. Rigdon replied that if Cowdery
made such a request of the Heavenly Father "when He has never
promised you such a thing, if the devil never had an opportunity
of deceiving you before, you give him one now."* But after a
brief study of the new book, Rigdon announced that he, too, had
had a "revelation," declaring to him that Mormonism was to be
believed. He saw in a vision all the orders of professing
Christians pass before him, and all were "as corrupt as
corruption itself," while the heart of the man who brought him
the book was "as pure as an angel."

* "It seemed to be a part of Rigdon's plan to make such a fight
that, when he did surrender, the triumph of the cause that had
defeated him would be all the more complete."--Kennedy, "Early
Days of Mormonism."


The announcement of Rigdon's conversation gave Mormonism an
advertisement and a support that had a wide effect, and it
alarmed the orthodox of that part of the country as they had
never been alarmed before. Referring to it, Hayden says, "The
force of this shock was like an earthquake when Symonds Ryder,
Ezra Booth, and many others submitted to the 'New Dispensation.'"
Largely through his influence, the Mormon church at Kirtland soon
numbered more than one hundred members.

During all that autumn and early winter crowds went to Kirtland
to learn about the new religion. On Sundays the roads would be
thronged with people, some in whatever vehicles they owned, some
on horseback, and some on foot, all pressing forward to hear the
expounders of the new Gospel and to learn the particulars of the
new Bible. Pioneers in a country where there was little to give
variety to their lives, they were easily influenced by any
religious excitement, and the announcement of a new Bible and
prophet was certain to arouse their liveliest interest. They had,
indeed, inherited a tendency to religious enthusiasm, so recently
had their parents gone through the excitements of the early days
of Methodism, or of the great revivals of the new West at the
beginning of the century, when (to quote one of the descriptions
given by Henry Howe) more than twenty thousand persons assembled
in one vast encampment, "hundreds of immortal beings moving to
and fro, some preaching, some praying for mercy, others praising
God. Such was the eagerness of the people to attend, that entire
neighborhoods were forsaken, and the roads literally crowded by
those pressing forward on their way to the groves."* Any new
religious leader could then make his influence felt on the
Western border: Dylkes, the "Leatherwood God," had found it
necessary only to announce himself as the real Messiah at an Ohio
campmeeting, in 1828, to build up a sect on that assumption.
Freewill Baptists, Winebrennerians, Disciples, Shakers, and
Universalists were urging their doctrines and confusing the minds
of even the thoughtful with their conflicting views. We have seen
to what beliefs the preaching of the Disciples' evangelists had
led the people of the Western Reserve, and it did not really
require a much broader exercise of faith (or credulity) to accept
the appearance of a new prophet with a new Bible.

* "Historical Collections of the Great West."


While the main body of converts was made up of persons easily
susceptible to religious excitement, and accustomed to have their
opinions on such subjects formed for them, men of education and
more or less training in theology were found among the early
adherents to the new belief. It is interesting to see how the
minds of such men were influenced, and this we are enabled to do
from personal experiences related by some of them.

One of these, John Corrill, a man of intelligence, who stayed
with the church until it was driven out of Missouri, then became
a member of the Missouri Legislature, and wrote a brief history
of the church to the year 1839, in this pamphlet answered very
clearly the question often asked by his friends, "How did you
come to join the Mormons?" A copy of the new Bible was given to
him by Cowdery when the missionaries, on their Western trip,
passed through Ashtabula County, Ohio, where he lived. A brief
reading convinced him that it was a mere money-making scheme, and
when he learned that they had stopped at Kirtland, he did not
entertain a doubt, that, under Rigdon's criticism, the
pretensions of the missionaries would be at once laid bare. When,
on the contrary, word came that Rigdon and the majority of his
society had accepted the new faith, Corrill asked himself: "What
does this mean? Are Elder Rigdon and these men such fools as to
be duped by these impostors?" After talking the matter over with
a neighbor, he decided to visit Kirtland, hoping to bring Rigdon
home with him, with the idea that he might be saved from the
imposition if he could be taken from the influence of the
impostors. But before he reached Kirtland, Corrill heard of
Rigdon's baptism into the new church. Finding Kirtland in a state
of great religious excitement, he sought discussions with the
leaders of the new movement, but not always successfully.

Corrill started home with a "heart full of serious reflections."
Were not the people of Berea nobler than the people of
Thessalonica because "they searched the Scriptures daily; whether
these things were so?" Might he not be fighting against God in
his disbelief? He spent two or three weeks reading the Mormon
Bible; investigated the bad reports of the new sect that reached
him and found them without foundation; went back to Kirtland, and
there convinced himself that the laying on of hands and "speaking
with tongues" were inspired by some supernatural agency; admitted
to himself that, accepting the words of Peter (Acts ii. 17-20),
it was "just as consistent to look for prophets in this age as in
any other." Smith seemed to have been a bad man, but was not
Moses a fugitive from justice, as the murderer of a man whose
body he had hidden in the sand, when God called him as a prophet?
The story of the long hiding and final delivery of the golden
plates to Smith taxed his credulity; but on rereading the
Scriptures he found that books are referred to therein which they
do not contain--Book of Nathan the Prophet, Book of Gad the Seer,
Book of Shemaiah the Prophet, and Book of Iddo the Seer (1 Chron.
xxix. 29; 2 Chron. ix. 29 and xii. 15). This convinced him that
the Scriptures were not complete. Daniel and John were commanded
to seal the Book. David declared (Psalms xxxv.) "that truth shall
spring out of the earth," and from the earth Smith took the
plates; and Ezekiel (xxxvii. 15-21) foretold the existence of two
records, by means of which there shall be a gathering together of
the children of Israel. It finally seemed to Corrill that the
Mormon Bible corresponded with the record of Joseph referred to
by Ezekiel, the Holy Bible being the record of Judah.

Not fully satisfied, he finally decided, however, to join the new
church, with a mental reservation that he would leave it if he
ever found it to be a deception. Explaining his reasons for
leaving it when he did, he says, "I can see nothing that
convinces me that God has been our leader; calculation after
calculation has failed, and plan after plan has been overthrown,
and our prophet seemed not to know the event till too late."

The two other most prominent converts to the new church in Ohio
were the Rev. Ezra Booth, a Methodist preacher of more than
ordinary culture, of Mantua, and Symonds Ryder, a native of
Vermont, whom Alexander Campbell had converted to the Disciples'
belief in 1828, and who occupied the pulpit at Hiram when called
on. Booth visited Smith in 1831, with some members of his own
congregation, and was so impressed by the miraculous curing of
the lame arm of a woman of his party by Smith, that he soon gave
in his allegiance. Ryder had always found one thing lacking in
the Disciples' theology--he looked for some actual "gift of the
Holy Spirit" in the way of "signs" that were to follow them that
believed. He was eventually induced to announce his conversion to
the new church after "he read in a newspaper, an account of the
destruction of Pekin in China, and remembered that, six weeks
before, a young Mormon girl had predicted the destruction of that
city. "This statement was made in the sermon preached at his
funeral. Both of these men confessed their mistake four months
later, after Booth had returned from a trip to Missouri with
Smith.

Among the ignorant, even the most extravagant of the claims of
the Mormon leaders had influence. One man, when he heard an elder
in the midst of a sermon "speak with tongues," in a language he
had never heard before, "felt a sudden thrill from the back of
his head down his backbone," and was converted on the spot. John
D. Lee, of Catholic education, was convinced by an elder that the
end of the world was near, and sold his property in Illinois for
what it would bring, and moved to Far West, in order to be in the
right place when the last day dawned. Lorenzo Snow, the recent
President of the church, says that he was "thoroughly convinced
that obedience to those [the Mormon] prophets would impart
miraculous powers, manifestations, and revelations," the first
manifestation of which occurred some weeks later, when he heard a
sound over his head "like the rustling of silken robes, and the
spirit of God descended upon me."*

* Biography of Snow, by his sister Eliza.


The arguments that control men's religious opinions are too
varied even for classification. In a case like Mormonism they
range from the really conscientious study of a Corrill to the
whim of the Paumotuan, of whom Stevenson heard in the South Seas,
who turned Mormon when his wife died, after being a pillar of the
Catholic church for fifteen years, on the ground that "that must
be a poor religion that could not save a man his wife." Any
person who will examine those early defences of the Mormon faith,
Parley P. Pratt's "A Voice of Warning," and Orson Pratt's "Divine
Authenticity of the Book of Mormon," will find what use can be
made of an insistence on the literal acceptance of the Scriptures
in defending such a sect as theirs, especially with persons whose
knowledge of the Scriptures is much less than their reverence for
them.

Professor J. B. Turner,* writing in 1842, when the early
teachings of Mormonism had just had their effect in what is now
styled the middle West, observed that these teachings had made
more infidels than Mormon converts. This is accounted for by the
fact that persons who attempted to follow the Mormon argument by
studying the Scriptures, found their previous interpretation of
parts of the Holy Bible overturned, and the whole book placed
under a cloud. W. J. Stillman mentions a similar effect in the
case of Ruskin. When they were in Switzerland, Ruskin would do no
painting on Sunday, while Stillman regarded the sanctity of the
first day of the week as a "theological fiction." In a discussion
of the subject between them, Stillman established to Ruskin's
satisfaction that there was no Scriptural authority for
transferring the day of rest from the seventh to the first day of
the week." The creed had so bound him to the letter, "says
Stillman, "that the least enlargement of the stricture broke it,
and he rejected, not only the tradition of the Sunday Sabbath,
but the whole of the ecclesiastical interpretation of the texts.
He said, 'If they have deceived me in this, they have probably
deceived me in all.'" The Mormons soon learned that it was more
profitable for them to seek converts among those who would accept
without reasoning.

* "Mormonism in all Ages."



CHAPTER II. WILD VAGARIES OF THE CONVERTS

The scenes at Kirtland during the first winter of the church
there reached the limit of religious enthusiasm. The younger
members outdid the elder in manifesting their belief. They saw
wonderful lights in the air, and constantly received visions.
Mounting stumps in the field, they preached to imaginary
congregations, and, picking up stones, they would read on them
words which they said disappeared as soon as known. At the
evening prayer-meetings the laying on of hands would be followed
by a sort of fit, in which the enthusiasts would fall apparently
lifeless on the floor, or contort their faces, creep on their
hands or knees, imitate the Indian process of killing and
scalping, and chase balls of fire through the fields.*

*Corrill's "Brief History of the Church," p. 16; Howe's
"Mormonism Unveiled," p. 104.


Some of the young men announced that they had received
"commissions" to teach and preach, written on parchment, which
came to them from the sky, and which they reached by jumping into
the air. Howe reproduces one of these, the conclusion of which,
with the seal, follows:--

"That you had a messenger tell you to go and get the other night,
you must not show to any son of Adam. Obey this, and I will stand
by you in all cases. My servants, obey my commandments in all
cases, and I will provide.

 "Be ye always ready, Be ye always ready, Whenever I shall call,
Be ye always ready, My seal.

"There shall be something of great importance revealed when I
shall call you to go: My servants, be faithful over a few things,
and I will make you a ruler over many. Amen, Amen, Amen."

Foolishly extravagant as these manifestations appear (Corrill
says that comparatively few members indulged in them), there was
nothing in them peculiar to the Mormon belief. The meetings of
the Disciples, in the year of Smith's arrival in Ohio and later,
when men like Campbell and Scott spoke, were swayed with the most
intense religious enthusiasm. A description of the effect of
Campbell's preaching at a grove meeting in the Cuyahoga Valley in
1831 says:--

"The woods were full of horses and carriages, and the hundreds
already there were rapidly swelled to many thousands; all were of
one race-the Yankee; all of one calling, or nearly, the
farmer.... When Campbell closed, low murmurs broke and ran
through the awed crowd; men and women from all parts of the vast
assembly with streaming eyes came forward; young men who had
climbed into small trees from curiosity, came down from
conviction, and went forward for baptism."*

* Riddle's "The Portrait."

It is easy to cite very "orthodox" precedents for such
manifestations. One of these we find in the accounts of what were
called "the jerks," which accompanied a great revival in 1803,
brought about by the preaching of the Rev. Joseph Badger, a Yale
graduate and a Congregationalist, who was the first missionary to
the Western Reserve. J. S. C. Abbott, in his history of Ohio,
describing the "jerks," says:--

"The subject was instantaneously seized with spasms in every
muscle, nerve and tendon. His head was thrown backward and
forward, and from side to side, with inconceivable rapidity. So
swift was the motion that the features could no more be discerned
than the spokes of a wheel can be seen when revolving with the
greatest velocity.... All were impressed with a conviction that
there was something supernatural in these convulsions, and that
it was opposing the spirit of God to resist them."

The most extravagant enthusiasm of the Kirtland converts, and the
most extravagant claims of the Mormon leaders at that time, were
exceeded by the manifestations of converts in the early days of
Methodism, and the miraculous occurrences testified to by Wesley
himself,*--a cloud tempering the sun in answer to his prayer; his
horse cured of lameness by faith; the case of a blind Catholic
girl who saw plainly when her eyes rested on the New Testament,
but became blind again when she took up the Mass Book.

* For examples see Lecky's "England in the Nineteenth Century,
Vol. III, Chap. VIII, and Wesley's "Journal."


These Mormon enthusiasts were only suffering from a manifestation
to which man is subject; and we can agree with a Mormon elder
who, although he left the church disgusted with its
extravagances, afterward remarked, "The man of religious feeling
will know how to pity rather than upbraid that zeal without
knowledge which leads a man to fancy that he has found the ladder
of Jacob, and that he sees the angel of the Lord ascending and
descending before his eyes."

When Smith and Rigdon reached Kirtland they found the new church
in a state of chaos because of these wild excitements, and of an
attempt to establish a community of possessions, growing out of
Rigdon's previous teachings. These communists held that what
belonged to one belonged to all, and that they could even use any
one's clothes or other personal property without asking
permission. Many of the flock resented this, and anything but a
condition of brotherly love resulted. Smith, in his account of
the situation as they found it, says that the members were
striving to do the will of God, "though some had strange notions,
and false spirits had crept in among them. With a little caution
and some wisdom, I soon assisted the brothers and sisters to
overcome them. The plan of 'common stock,' which had existed in
what was called 'the family,' whose members generally had
embraced the Everlasting Gospel, was readily abandoned for the
more perfect law of the Lord,"*--which the prophet at once
expounded.

* Millennial Star, Vol. XIV, Supt., p. 56.


Smith announced that the Lord had informed him that the ravings
of the converts were of the devil, and this had a deterring
effect; but at an important meeting of elders to receive an
endowment, some three months later, conducted by Smith himself,
the spirits got hold of some of the elders. "It threw one from
his seat to the floor," says Corrill. "It bound another so that
for some time he could not use his limbs or speak; and some other
curious effects were experienced. But by a mighty exertion, in
the name of the Lord, it was exposed and shown to be of an evil
source."



CHAPTER III. GROWTH OF THE CHURCH

In order not to interrupt the story of the Mormons' experiences
in Ohio, leaving the first steps taken in Missouri to be treated
in connection with the regular course of events in that state, it
will be sufficient to say here that Cowdery, Pratt, and their two
companions continued their journey as far as the western border
of Missouri, in the winter of 1830 and 1831, making their
headquarters at Independence, Jackson County; that, on receipt of
their reports about that country, Smith and Rigdon, with others,
made a trip there in June, 1831, during which the corner-stones
of the City of Zion and the Temple were laid, and officers were
appointed to receive money for the purchase of the land for the
Saints, its division; etc. Smith and Rigdon returned to Kirtland
on August 27, 1831.

The growth of the church in Ohio was rapid. In two or three weeks
after the arrival of the four pioneer missionaries, 127 persons
had been baptized, and by the spring of 1831 the number of
converts had increased to 1000. Almost all the male converts were
honored with the title of elder. By a "revelation" dated February
9, 1831 (Sec. 42), all of these elders, except Smith and Rigdon,
were directed to "go forth in the power of my spirit, preaching
my Gospel, two by two, in my name, lifting up your voices as with
the voice of a trump. "This was the beginning of that extensive
system of proselyting which was soon extended to Europe, which
was so instrumental in augmenting the membership of the church in
its earlier days, and which is still carried on with the utmost
zeal and persistence. The early missionaries travelled north into
Canada and through almost all the states, causing alarm even in
New England by the success of their work. One man there, in 1832,
reprinted at his own expense Alexander Campbell's pamphlet
exposing the ridiculous features of the Mormon Bible, for
distribution as an offset to the arguments of the elders. Women
of means were among those who moved to Kirtland from
Massachusetts. In three years after Smith and Rigdon met in
Palmyra, Mormon congregations had been established in nearly all
the Northern and Middle states and in some of the Southern, with
baptisms of from 30 to 130 in a place.*

Smith had relaxed none of his determination to be the one head of
the church. As soon as he arrived in Kirtland he put forth a long
"revelation" (Sec. 43) which left Rigdon no doubt of the
prophet's intentions. It declared to the elders that "there is
none other [but Smith appointed unto you to receive commandments
and revelations until he be taken," and that "none else shall be
appointed unto his gift except it be through him. "Not only was
Smith's spiritual power thus intrenched, but his temporal welfare
was looked after. "And again I say unto you," continues this
mouthpiece of the Lord, "if ye desire the mysteries of the
Kingdom, provide for him food and raiment and whatsoever he
needeth to accomplish the work wherewith I have commanded him."
In the same month came another declaration, saying (Sec. 41 " is
meet that my servant Joseph Smith, Jr., should have a house
built, in which to live and translate" (the Scriptures). With a
streak of generosity it was added, "It is meet that my servant
Sidney Rigdon should live as seemeth him good."

*Turner's "Mormonism in all Ages," p. 38.


The iron hand with which Smith repressed Rigdon from the date of
their arrival in Ohio affords strong proof of Rigdon's complicity
in the Bible plot, and of Smith's realization of the fact that he
stood to his accomplice in the relation of a burglar to his mate,
where the burglar has both the boodle and the secret in his
possession. An illustration of this occurred during their first
trip to Missouri. Rigdon and Smith did not agree about the
desirability of western Missouri as a permanent abiding-place for
the church. The Rev. Ezra Booth, after leaving the Mormons,
contributed a series of letters on his experience with Smith to
the Ohio Star of Ravenna.* In the first of these he said: "On our
arrival in the western part of the state of Missouri we
discovered that prophecy and visions had failed, or rather had
proved false. This fact was so notorious that Mr. Rigdon himself
says that 'Joseph's vision was a bad thing.'" Smith nevertheless
directed Rigdon to write a description of that promised land,
and, when the production did not suit him, he represented the
Lord as censuring Rigdon in a "revelation" (Sec. 63):--

* Copied in Howe's "Mormonism Unveiled."


"And now behold, verily I say unto you, I, the Lord, am not
pleased with my servant Sidney Rigdon; he exalteth himself in his
heart, and receiveth not counsel, but grieveth the spirit.
Wherefore his writing is not acceptable unto the Lord; and he
shall make another, and if the Lord receiveth it not, behold he
standeth no longer in the office which I have appointed him."

That the proud-minded, educated preacher, who refused to allow
Campbell to claim the foundership of the Disciples' church,
should take such a rebuke and threat of dismissal in silence from
Joe Smith of Palmyra, and continue under his leadership,
certainly indicates some wonderful hold that the prophet had upon
him.

While the travelling elders were doing successful work in adding
new converts to the fold, there was beginning to manifest itself
at Kirtland that "apostasy" which lost the church so many members
of influence, and was continued in Missouri so far that Mayor
Grant said, in Salt Lake City, in 1856, that "one-half at least
of the Yankee members of this church have apostatized."* The
secession of men like Booth and Ryder, and their public exposure
of Smith's methods, coupled with rumors of immoral practices in
the fold, were followed by the tarring and feathering of Smith
and Rigdon on the night of Saturday, March 25, 1832. The story of
this outrage is told in Smith's autobiography, and the details
there given may be in the main accepted.

* Journal of Discourses, Vol. III, p. 201.

Smith and his wife were living at the house of a farmer named
Johnson in Hiram township, while he and Rigdon were translating
the Scriptures. Mrs. Smith had taken two infant twins to bring
up, and on the night in question she and her husband were taking
turns sitting up with these babies, who were just recovering from
the measles. While Smith was sleeping, his wife heard a tapping
on the window, but gave it no attention. The mob, believing that
all within were asleep, then burst in the door, seized Smith as
he lay partly dressed on a trundle bed, and rushed him out of
doors, his wife crying "murder." Smith struggled as best he
could, but they carried him around the house, choking him until
he became unconscious. Some thirty yards from the house he saw
Rigdon, "stretched out on the ground, whither they had dragged
him by the heels." When they had carried Smith some thirty yards
farther, some of the mob meantime asking, "Ain't ye going to kill
him?" a council was held and some one asked, "Simmons, where's
the tarbucket?" When the bucket was brought up they tried to
force the "tarpaddle" into Smith's mouth, and also, he says, to
force a phial between his teeth. He adds:

"All my clothes were torn off me except my shirt collar, and one
man fell on me and scratched my body with his nails like a mad
cat. They then left me, and I attempted to rise, but fell again.
I pulled the tar away from my lips, etc., so that I could breathe
more freely, and after a while I began to recover, and raised
myself up, when I saw two lights. I made my way toward one of
them, and found it was father Johnson's. When I had come to the
door I was naked, and the tar made me look as though I had been
covered with blood; and when my wife saw me she thought I was all
smashed to pieces, and fainted. During the affray abroad, the
sisters of the neighborhood collected at my room. I called for a
blanket; they threw me one and shut the door; I wrapped it around
me and went in.... My friends spent the night in scraping and
removing the tar and washing and cleansing my body, so that by
morning I was ready to be clothed again.... With my flesh all
scarified and defaced, I preached [that morning] to the
congregation as usual, and in the afternoon of the same day
baptized three individuals."

Rigdon's treatment is described as still more severe. He was not
only dragged over the ground by the heels, but was well covered
with tar and feathers; and when Smith called on him the next day
he found him delirious, and calling for a razor with which to
kill his wife.

All Mormon accounts of this, as well as later persecutions,
attempt to make the ground of attack hostility to the Mormon
religious beliefs, presenting them entirely in the light of
outrages on liberty of opinion. Symonds Ryder (whom Smith accuses
of being one of the mob), says that the attack had this origin:
The people of Hiram had the reputation of being very receptive
and liberal in their religious views. The Mormons therefore
preached to them, and seemed in a fair way to win a decided
success, when the leaders made their first trip to Missouri.
Papers which they left behind outlining the internal system of
the new church fell into the hands of some of the converts, and
revealed to them the horrid fact that a plot was laid to take
their property from them and place it under the control of Smith,
the Prophet.... Some who had been the dupes of this deception
determined not to let it pass with impunity; and, accordingly, a
company was formed of citizens from Shalersville, Garretsville,
and Hiram, and took Smith and Rigdon from their beds and tarred
and feathered them."*

* Hayden's "Early History of the Disciples' Church in the Western
Reserve," p. 221.


This manifestation of hostility to the leaders of the new church
was only a more pronounced form of that which showed itself
against Smith before he left New York State. When a man of his
character and previous history assumes the right to baptize and
administer the sacrament, he is certain to arouse the animosity,
not only of orthodox church members, but of members of the
community who are lax in their church duties. Goldsmith
illustrates this kind of feeling when, in "She Stoops to
Conquer," he makes one of the "several shabby fellows with punch
and tobacco" in the alehouse say, "I loves to hear him, the
squire sing, bekeays he never gives us nothing that's low," and
another responds, "O, damn anything that's low." The AntiMormon
feeling was intensified and broadened by the aggressiveness with
which the Mormons sought for converts in the orthodox flocks.

Beliefs radically different from those accepted by any of the
orthodox denominations have escaped hostile opposition in this
country, even when they have outraged generally accepted social
customs. The Harmonists, in a body of 600, emigrated to
Pennsylvania to escape the persecution to which they were
subjected in Germany, purchased 5000 acres of land and organized
a town; moved later to Indiana, where they purchased 25,000
acres; and ten years afterward returned to Pennsylvania, and
bought 5000 acres in another place,--all the time holding to
their belief in a community of goods and a speedy coming of
Christ, as well as the duty of practicing celibacy,--without
exciting their neighbors or arousing their enmity. The
Wallingford Community in Connecticut, and the Oneida Community in
New York State, practised free love among themselves without
persecution, until their organizations died from natural causes.
The leaders in these and other independent sects were clean men
within their own rules, honest in their dealings with their
neighbors, never seeking political power, and never pressing
their opinions upon outsiders. An old resident of Wallingford
writes to me, "The Community were, in a way, very generally
respected for their high standard of integrity in all their
business transactions."

As we follow the career of the Mormons from Ohio to Missouri, and
thence to Illinois, we shall read their own testimony about the
character of their leading men, and about their view of the
rights of others in each of their neighborhoods. When Horace
Greeley asked Brigham Young in Salt Lake City for an explanation
of the "persecutions" of the Mormons, his reply was that there
was "no other explanation than is afforded by the crucifixion of
Christ and the kindred treatment of God's ministers, prophets,
and saints in all ages"; which led Greeley to observe that, while
a new sect is always decried and traduced,--naming the Baptists,
Quakers, Methodists, and Universalists,--he could not remember
"that either of them was ever generally represented and regarded
by the other sects of their early days as thieves, robbers, and
murderers."*

* "Overland Journey," p. 214.


Another attempt by Rigdon to assert his independence of Smith
occurred while the latter was still at Mr. Johnson's house and
Rigdon was in Kirtland. The fullest account of this is found in
Mother Smith's "History," pp. 204-206. She says that Rigdon came
in late to a prayer-meeting, much agitated, and, instead of
taking the platform, paced backward and forward on the floor.
Joseph's father told him they would like to hear a discourse from
him, but he replied, "The keys of the Kingdom are rent from the
church, and there shall not be a prayer put up in this house this
day." This caused considerable excitement, and Smith's brother
Hyrum left the house, saying, "I'll put a stop to this fuss
pretty quick," and, mounting a horse, set out for Johnson's and
brought the prophet back with him. On his arrival, a meeting of
the brethren was held, and Joseph declared to them, "I myself
hold the keys of this Last Dispensation, and will forever hold
them, both in time and eternity, so set your hearts at rest upon
that point. All is right." The next day Rigdon was tried before a
council for having "lied in the name of the Lord," and was
"delivered over to the buffetings of Satan," and deprived of his
license, Smith telling him that "the less priesthood he had, the
better it would be for him." Rigdon, Mrs. Smith says, according
to his own account, "was dragged out of bed by the devil three
times in one night by the heels," and, while she does not accept
this literally, she declares that "his contrition was as great as
a man could well live through." After awhile he got another
license.



CHAPTER IV. GIFTS OF TONGUES AND MIRACLES

In January, 1833, Smith announced a revival of the "gift of
tongues," and instituted the ceremony of washing the feet.* Under
the new system, Smith or Rigdon, during a meeting, would call on
some brother, or sister, saying, "Father A., if you will rise in
the name of Jesus Christ you can speak in tongues." The rule
which persons thus called on were to follow was thus explained,
"Arise upon your feet, speak or make some sound, continue to make
sounds of some kind, and the Lord will make a language of it." It
was not necessary that the words should be understood by the
congregation; some other Mormon would undertake their
interpretation. Much ridicule was incurred by the church because
of this kind of revelation. Gunnison relates that when a woman
"speaking in tongues" pronounced "meliar, meli, melee," it was at
once translated by a young wag, "my leg, my thigh, my knee," and,
when he was called before the Council charged with irreverence,
he persisted in his translation, but got off with an
admonition.** At a meeting in Nauvoo in later years a doubting
convert delivered an address in real Choctaw, whereupon a woman
jumped up and offered as a translation an account of the glories
of the new Temple.

* This ceremony has fallen into disuse in Utah.

** "The Mormons." p. 74.


At the conference of June 4, 1831, Smith ordained Elder Wright to
the high priesthood for service among the Indians, with the gift
of tongues, healing the sick, etc. Wright at once declared that
he saw the Saviour. At one of the sessions at Kirtland at this
time, as described by an eye-witness, Smith announced that the
day would come when no man would be permitted to preach unless he
had seen the Lord face to face. Then, addressing Rigdon, he
asked, "Sidney, have you seen the Lord?" The obedient Sidney made
reply, "I saw the image of a man pass before my face, whose locks
were white, and whose countenance was exceedingly fair, even
surpassing all beauty that I ever beheld." Smith at once rebuked
him by telling him that he would have seen more but for his
unbelief.

Almost simultaneously with Smith's first announcement of his
prophetic powers, while working his "peek-stone" in Pennsylvania
and New York, he, as we have seen, claimed ability to perform
miracles, and he announced that he had cast out a devil at
Colesville in 1830.* The performance of miracles became an
essential part of the church work at Kirtland, and had a great
effect on the superstitious converts. The elders, who in the
early days labored in England, laid great stress on their
miraculous power, and there were some amusing exposures of their
pretences. The Millennial Star printed a long list of successful
miracles dating from 1839 to 1850, including the deaf made to
hear, the blind to see, dislocated bones put in place, leprosy
and cholera cured, and fevers rebuked. Smith, Rigdon, and Cowdery
took a leading part in this work at Kirtland.** To a man nearly
dead with consumption Rigdon gave assurance that he would recover
"as sure as there is a God in heaven." The man's death soon
followed. When a child, whose parents had been persuaded to trust
its case to Mormon prayers instead of calling a physician,***
died, Smith and Rigdon promised that it would rise from the dead,
and they went through certain ceremonies to accomplish that
object.****

* For particulars of this miracle, see Millennial Star, Vol. XIV,
pp. 28, 32.

** While Smith was in Washington in 1840, pressing on the federal
authorities the claims of the Mormons for redress for their
losses in Missouri, he preached on the church doctrines. A member
of Congress who heard him sent a synopsis of the discourse to his
wife, and Smith printed this entire in his autobiography
(Millennial Star, Vol. XVII, p. 583). Here is one passage: "He
[Smith] performed no miracles. He did not pretend to possess any
such power." This is an illustration of the facility with which
Smith could lie, when to do so would serve his purpose.

*** The Saints were early believers in faith cure. Smith, in a
sermon preached in 1841, urged them "to trust in God when sick,
and live by faith and not by medicine or poison" (Millennial
Star, Vol. XVIII, p. 663). A coroner's jury, in an inquest over a
victim of this faith in London, England, cautioned the sect
against continuing this method of curing (Times and Seasons,
1842, p. 813).

**** For further illustrations of miracle working, in Ohio, see
Kennedy's "Early Days of Mormonism," Chap. V.


The lengths to which Smith dared go in his pretensions are well
illustrated in an incident of these days. Among the curiosities
of a travelling showman who passed through Kirtland were some
Egyptian mummies. As the golden plates from which the Mormon
Bible was translated were written in "reformed Egyptian," the
translator of those plates was interested in all things coming
from Egypt, and at his suggestion the mummies were purchased by
and for the church. On them were found some papyri which Joseph,
with the assistance of Phelps and Cowdery, set about
"translating." Their success was great, and Smith was able to
announce: "We found that one of these rolls contained the
writings of Abraham, another the writings of Joseph.* Truly we
could see that the Lord is beginning to reveal the abundance of
truth." That there might be no question about the accuracy of
Smith's translation, he exhibited a certificate signed by the
proprietor of the show, saying that he had exhibited the
"hieroglyphic characters" to the most learned men in many cities,
"and from all the information that I could ever learn or meet
with, I find that of Joseph Smith, Jr., to correspond in the most
minute matters." * When the papyri were shown to Josiah Quincy
and Charles Francis Adams, on the occasion of their visit to
Nauvoo in 1844, Joseph Smith, pointing out the inscriptions,
said: "That is the handwriting of Abraham, the Father of the
Faithful. This is the autograph of Moses, and these lines were
written by his brother Aaron. Here we have the earliest account
of the creation, from which Moses composed the first Book of
Genesis."--"Figures of the Past," p. 386.

Smith's autobiography contains this memorandum: "October 1, 1835.
This afternoon I labored on the Egyptian alphabet in company with
Brother O. Cowdery and W. W. Phelps, and during the research the
principals of astronomy, as understood by Father Abraham and the
Ancients, unfolded to our understanding. "When he was in the
height of his power in Nauvoo, Smith printed in the Times and
Seasons a reproduction of these hieroglyphics accompanied by this
alleged translation, of what he called "the Book of Abraham," and
they were also printed in the Millennial Star.* The translation
was a meaningless jumble of words after this fashion:--

* See Vol. XIX, p. 100, etc., from which the accompanying
facsimile is taken.


"In the land of the Chaldeans, at the residence of my father, I,
Abraham, saw that it was needful for me to obtain another place
of residence, and finding there was greater happiness and peace
and rest for me, I sought for the blessings of the Fathers, and
the right whereunto I should be ordained to administer the same,
having been myself a follower of righteousness, desiring to be
one also who possessed great knowledge, and to possess greater
knowledge, and to be a greater follower of righteousness."

Remy submitted a reproduction of these hieroglyphics to Theodule
Deveria, of the Museum of the Louvre, in Paris, who found, of
course, that Smith's purported translation was wholly fraudulent.
For instance, his Abraham fastened on an altar was a
representation of Osiris coming to life on his funeral couch, his
officiating priest was the god Anubis, and what Smith represents
to indicate an angel of the Lord is "the soul of Osiris, under
the form of a hawk."* Smith's whole career offered no more brazen
illustration of his impostures than this.

* See "A Journey to Great Salt Lake City", by Jules Remy (1861),
Note XVII.


A visitor to the Kirtland Temple some years later paid Joseph's
father half a dollar in order to see the Egyptian curios, which
were kept in the attic of that structure.

A well-authenticated anecdote, giving another illustration of
Smith's professed knowledge of the Egyptian language is told by
the Rev. Henry Caswall, M.A., who, after holding the
Professorship of Divinity in Kemper College, in Missouri, became
vicar of a church in England. Mr. Caswall, on the occasion of a
visit to Nauvoo in 1842, having heard of Smith's Egyptian lore,
took with him an ancient Greek manuscript of the Psalter, on
parchment, with which to test the prophet's scholarship. The
belief of Smith's followers in his powers was shown by their
eagerness to have him see this manuscript, and their persistence
in urging Mr. Caswall to wait a day for Smith's return from
Carthage that he might submit it to the prophet. Mr. Caswall the
next day handed the manuscript to Smith and asked him to explain
its contents. After a brief examination, Smith explained: "It
ain't Greek at all, except perhaps a few words. What ain't Greek
is Egyptian, and what ain't Egyptian is Greek. This book is very
valuable. It is a dictionary of Egyptian hieroglyphics. These
figures (pointing to the capitals] is Egyptian hieroglyphics
written in the reformed Egyptian. These characters are like the
letters that were engraved on the golden plates."*

* "The City of the Mormons," p. 36 (1842).



CHAPTER V. SMITH'S OHIO BUSINESS ENTERPRISES

When Rigdon returned to Ohio with Smith in January, 1831, it
seems to have been his intention to make Kirtland the permanent
headquarters of the new church. He had written to his people from
Palmyra, "Be it known to you, brethren, that you are dwelling on
your eternal inheritance." When Cowdery and his associates
arrived in Ohio on their first trip, they announced as the
boundaries of the Promised Land the township of Kirtland on the
east and the Pacific Ocean on the west. Within two months of his
arrival at Kirtland Smith gave out a "revelation" (Sec. 45), in
which the Lord commanded the elders to go forth into the western
countries and buildup churches, and they were told of a City of
Refuge for the church, to be called the New Jerusalem. No
definite location of this city was given, and the faithful were
warned to "keep these things from going abroad unto the world."
Another "revelation" of the same month (Sec. 48) announced that
it was necessary for all to remain for the present in their
places of abode, and directed those who had lands "to impart to
the eastern brethren," and the others to buy lands, and all to
save money" to purchase lands for an inheritance, even the city."

The reports of those who first went to Missouri induced Smith and
Rigdon, before they made their first trip to that state, to
announce that the Saints would pass one more winter in Ohio. But
when they had visited the Missouri frontier and realized its
distance from even the Ohio border line, and the actual
privations to which settlers there must submit, their zeal
weakened, and they declared, "It will be many years before we
come here, for the Lord has a great work for us to do in Ohio."
The building of the Temple at Kirtland, and the investments in
lots and in business enterprises there showed that a permanent
settlement in Ohio was then decided on.

Smith's first business enterprise for the church in Ohio was a
general store which he opened in Hiram. This establishment has
been described as "a poorly furnished country store where
commerce looks starvation in the face."* The difficulty of
combining the positions of prophet, head of the church, and
retail merchant was naturally great. The result of the
combination has been graphically pictured by no less an authority
than Brigham Young. In a discourse in Salt Lake City, explaining
why the church did not maintain a store there, Young said:--

* Salt Lake Herald, November 17, 1877.


"You that have lived in Nauvoo, in Missouri, in Kirtland, Ohio,
can you assign a reason why Joseph could not keep a store and be
a merchant? Let me just give you a few reasons; and there are men
here who know just how matters went in those days. Joseph goes to
New York and buys $20,000 worth of goods, comes into Kirtland and
commences to trade. In comes one of the brethren. Brother Joseph,
let me have a frock pattern for my wife: What if Joseph says,
'No, I cannot without money.' The consequence would be, 'He is no
Prophet,' says James. Pretty soon Thomas walks in. 'Brother
Joseph, will you trust me for a pair of boots?' 'No, I cannot let
them go without money.' 'Well,' says Thomas, 'Brother Joseph is
no Prophet; I have found THAT out and I am glad of it.' After a
while in comes Bill and Sister Susan. Says Bill, 'Brother Joseph,
I want a shawl. I have not got any money, but I wish you to trust
me a week or a fortnight.' Well, Brother Joseph thinks the others
have gone and apostatized, and he don't know but these goods will
make the whole church do the same, so he lets Bill have a shawl.
Bill walks of with it and meets a brother. 'Well,' says he, 'what
do you think of Brother Joseph?' 'O, he is a first rate man, and
I fully believe he is a Prophet. He has trusted me with this
shawl.' Richard says, 'I think I will go down and see if he won't
trust me some.' In walks Richard. Brother Joseph, I want to trade
about $20.' 'Well,'says Joseph, 'these goods will make the people
apostatize, so over they go; they are of less value than the
people.' Richard gets his goods. Another comes in the same way to
make a trade of $25, and so it goes. Joseph was a first rate
fellow with them all the time, provided he never would ask them
to pay him. And so you may trace it down through the history of
this people."*

* Journal of Discourses, Vol. 1, p. 215.


If this analysis of the flock which Smith gathered in Ohio, and
which formed the nucleus of the settlements in Missouri, was not
permanently recorded in an official church record, its
authenticity would be vigorously assailed.

Later enterprises at Kirtland, undertaken under the auspices of
the church, included a steam sawmill and a tannery, both of which
were losing concerns. But the speculation to which later Mormon
authorities attributed the principal financial disasters of the
church at Kirtland was the purchase of land and its sale as town
lots.* The craze for land speculation in those days was not
confined, however, to the Mormons. That was the period when the
purchase of public lands of the United States seemed likely to
reach no limit. These sales, which amounted to $2,300,000 in
1830, and to $4,800,000 in 1834, lumped to $14,757,600 in 1835,
and to $24,877,179 in 1836. The government deposits (then made in
the state banks) increased from $10,000,000 on January 1, 1835,
to $41,500,000 on June 1, 1836, the increase coming from receipts
from land sales. This led to that bank expansion which was
measured by the growth of bank capital in this country from
$61,000,000 to $200,000,000 between 1830 and 1834, with a further
advance to $251,000,000.

* "Real estate rose from 100 to 800 per cent and in many cases
more. Men who were not thought worth $50 or $100 became
purchasers of thousands. Notes (sometimes cash), deeds and
mortgages passed and repassed, till all, or nearly all, supposed
they had become wealthy, or at least had acquired a
competence."--Messenger and Advocate, June, 1837.


The Mormon leaders and their people were peculiarly liable to be
led into disaster when sharing in this speculators' fever. They
were, however, quick to take advantage of the spirit of the
times. The Zion of Missouri lost its attractiveness to them, and
on February 23, 1833, the Presidency decided to purchase land at
Kirtland, and to establish there on a permanent Stake of Zion.
The land purchases of the church began at once, and we find a
record of one Council meeting, on March 23, 1833, at which it was
decided to buy three farms costing respectively $4000, $2100, and
$5000. Kirtland was laid out (on paper) with 32 streets, cutting
one another at right angles, each four rods wide. This provided
for 225 blocks of 20 lots each. Twenty-nine of the streets were
named after Mormons. Joseph and his family appear many times in
the list of conveyors of these lots. The original map of the
city, as described in Smith's autobiography, provided for 24
public buildings temples, schools, etc.; no lot to contain more
than one house, and that not to be nearer than 25 feet from the
street, with a prohibition against erecting a stable on a house
lot.*

* Millennial Star, Vol. XIV, pp. 438-439.


Of course this Mormon capital must have a grand church edifice,
to meet Smith's views, and he called a council to decide about
the character of the new meeting-house. A few of the speakers
favored a modest frame building, but a majority thought a log one
better suited to their means. Joseph rebuked the latter, asking,
"Shall we, brethren, build a house for our God of logs?" and he
straightway led them to the corner of a wheat field, where the
trench for the foundation was at once begun.* No greater
exhibition of business folly could have been given than the
undertaking of the costly building then planned on so slender a
financial foundation.

* Mother Smith's "Biographical Sketches" p. 213.


The corner-stone was laid on July 23, 1833, and the Temple was
not dedicated until March 27, 1836. Mormon devotion certainly
showed itself while this work was going on. Every male member was
expected to give oneseventh of his time to the building without
pay, and those who worked on it at day's wages had, in most
instances, no other income, and often lived on nothing but corn
meal. The women, as their share, knit and wove garments for the
workmen.

The Temple, which is of stone covered with a cement stucco (it is
still in use), measures 60 by 80 feet on the ground, is 123 feet
in height to the top of the spire, and contains two stories and
an attic.

The cost of this Temple was $40,000, and, notwithstanding the
sacrifices made by the Saints in assisting its construction, and
the schemes of the church officers to secure funds, a debt of
from $15,000 to $20,000 remained upon it. That the church was
financially embarrassed at the very beginning of the work is
shown by a letter addressed to the brethren in Zion, Missouri, by
Smith, Rigdon, and Williams, dated June 25, 1833, in which they
said, "Say to Brother Gilbert that we have no power to assist him
in a pecuniary point, as we know not the hour when we shall be
sued for debts which we have contracted ourselves in New York."*

* Millennial Star, Vol. XIV, p. 450.


To understand the business crash and scandals which compelled
Smith and his associates to flee from Ohio, it is necessary to
explain the business system adopted by the church under them.
This system began with a rule about the consecration of property.
As originally published in the Evening and Morning Star, and in
chapter xliv of the "Book of Commandments," this rule declared,
"Thou shalt consecrate all thy properties, that which thou hast,
unto me, with a covenant and a deed which cannot be broken," with
a provision that the Bishop, after he had received such an
irrevocable deed, should appoint every man a steward over so much
of his property as would be sufficient for himself and family. In
the later edition of the "Doctrine and Covenants" this was
changed to read, "And behold, thou wilt remember the poor, and
consecrate thy properties for their support," etc.

By a "revelation" given out while the heads of the church were in
Jackson County, Missouri, in April, 1832 (Sec. 82), a sort of
firm was appointed, including Smith, Rigdon, Cowdery, Harris, and
N. K. Whitney, "to manage the affairs of the poor, and all things
pertaining to the bishopric," both in Ohio and Missouri. This
firm thus assumed control of the property which "revelation" had
placed in the hands of the Bishop. This arrangement was known as
The Order of Enoch. Next came a "revelation" dated April 23,
1834. (Sec. 104), by which the properties of the Order were
divided, Rigdon getting the place in which he was living in
Kirtland, and the tannery; Harris a lot, with a command to
"devote his monies for the proclaiming of my words"; Cowdery and
Williams, the printing-office, with some extra lots to Cowdery;
and Smith, the lot designed for the Temple, and "the inheritance
on which his father resides." The building of the Temple having
brought the Mormon leaders into debt, this "revelation," was
designed to help them out, and it contained these further
directions, in the voice of the Lord, be it remembered: "The
covenants being broken through transgression, by covetousness and
feigned words, therefore you are dissolved as a United Order with
your brethren, that you are not bound only up to this hour unto
them, only on this wise, as I said, by loan as shall be agreed by
this Order in council, as your circumstances will admit, and the
voice of the council direct.....

"And again verily I say unto you, concerning your debts, behold
it is my will that you should pay all your debts; and it is my
will that you should humble yourselves before me, and obtain this
blessing by your diligence and humility and the prayer of faith;
and inasmuch as you are diligent and humble, and exercise the
prayer of faith, behold, I will soften the hearts of those to
whom you are in debt, until I shall send means unto you for your
deliverance.... I give you a promise that you shall be delivered
this once out of your bondage; inasmuch as you obtained a chance
to loan money by hundreds, or thousands even until you shall loan
enough [meaning borrow] to deliver yourselves from bondage, it is
your privilege; and pledge the properties which I have put into
your hands this once.... The master will not suffer his house to
be broken up. Even so. Amen."

It does not appear that the Mormon leaders took advantage of this
authorization to borrow money on Kirtland real estate, if they
could; but in 1835 they set up several mercantile establishments,
finding firms in Cleveland, Buffalo, and farther east who would
take their notes on six months' time." A great part of the goods
of these houses, "says William Harris, "went to pay the workmen
on the Temple, and many were sold on credit, so that when the
notes became due the houses were not able to meet them."

Smith's autobiography relates part of one story of an effort of
his to secure money at this trying time, the complete details of
which have been since supplied. He simply says that on July 25,
1836, in company with his brother Hyrum, Sidney Rigdon, and
Oliver Cowdery, he started on a trip which brought them to Salem,
Massachusetts, where "we hired a house and occupied the same
during the month, teaching the people from house to house."* The
Mormon of to-day, in reading his "Doctrine and Covenants," finds
Section 111 very perplexing. No place of its reception is given,
but it goes on to say:--

* Millennial Star, Vol. XV, p. 281.


"I, the Lord your God, am not displeased with your coming this
journey, notwithstanding your follies; I have much treasure in
this city for you, for the benefit of Zion;...and it shall come
to pass in due time, that I will give this city into your hands,
that you shall have power over it, insomuch that they shall not
discover your secret parts; and its wealth pertaining to gold and
silver shall be yours. Concern not yourself about your debts, for
I will give you power to pay them.... And inquire diligently
concerning the more ancient inhabitants and founders of this
city; for there are more treasures than one for you in this
city."

"This city" was Salem, Massachusetts, and the "revelation" was
put forth to brace up the spirits of Smith's fellow-travellers. A
Mormon named Burgess had gone to Kirtland with a story about a
large amount of money that was buried in the cellar of a house in
Salem which had belonged to a widow, and the location of which he
alone knew. Smith credited this report, and looked to the
treasure to assist him in his financial difficulties, and he took
the persons named with him on the trip. But when they got there
Burgess said that time had so changed the appearance of the
houses that he could not be sure which was the widow's, and he
cleared out. Smith then hired a house which he thought might be
the right one,--it proved not to be,--and it was when his
associates were--becoming discouraged that the ex-money-digger
uttered the words quoted, to strengthen their courage. "We speak
of these things with regret," says Ebenezer Robinson, who
believed in the prophet's divine calling to the last.*

* The Return, July, 1889.


Brought face to face with apparent financial disaster, the next
step taken to prevent this was the establishment of a bank. Smith
told of a "revelation" concerning a bank "which would swallow up
all other banks." An application for a charter was made to the
Ohio legislature, but it was refused. The law of Ohio at that
time provided that "all notes and bills, bonds and other
securities [of an unchartered bank] shall be held and taken in
all courts as absolutely void." This, however, did not deter a
man of Smith's audacity, and soon came the announcement of the
organization of the "Kirtland Safety Society Bank," with an
alleged capital of $4,000,000. The articles of agreement had been
drawn up on November 2, 1836, and Oliver Cowdery had been sent to
Philadelphia to get the plates for the notes at the same time
that Orson Hyde set out to the state capital to secure a charter.
Cowdery took no chances of failure, and he came back not only
with a plate, but with $200,000 in printed bills. To avoid the
inconvenience of having no charter, the members of the Safety
Society met on January 2, 1837, and reorganized under the name of
the "Kirtland Society Anti-banking Company," and, in the hope of
placing the bills within the law (or at least beyond its reach),
the word "Bank" was changed with a stamp so that it read
"Anti-BANK-ing Co.," as in the facsimile here presented.

W. Harris thus describes the banking scheme:--

"Subscribers for stock were allowed to pay the amount of their
subscriptions in town lots at five or six times their real value;
others paid in personal property at a high valuation, and some
were paid in cash. When the notes were first issued they were
current in the vicinity, and Smith took advantage of their credit
to pay off with them the debts he and his brethren had contracted
in the neighborhood for land, etc. The Eastern creditors,
however, refused to take them. This led to the expedient of
exchanging them for the notes of other banks.

Accordingly, the Elders were sent into the country to barter off
Kirtland money, which they did with great zeal, and continued the
operation until the notes were not worth twelve and a half cents
to the dollar."*

* "Mormonism Portrayed," p. 31


Just how much of this currency was issued the records do not
show. Hall says that Brigham Young, who had joined the flock at
Kirtland, disposed of $10,000 worth of it in the States, and that
Smith and other church officers reaped a rich harvest with it in
Canada, explaining, "The credit of the bank here was good, even
high."* Kidder quotes a gentleman living near Kirtland who said
that the cash capital paid in was only about $5000, and that they
succeeded in floating from $50,000 to $100,000. Ann Eliza,
Brigham's "wife No. 19," says that her father invested everything
he had but his house and shop in the bank, and lost it all.

* "Abominations of Mormonism Exposed" (1852), pp. 19, 20.


Cyrus Smalling, one of the Seventy at Kirtland, wrote an account
of Kirtland banking operations under date of March 10, 1841, in
which he said that Smith and his associates collected about $6000
in specie, and that when people in the neighborhood went to the
bank to inquire about its specie reserve, "Smith had some one or
two hundred boxes made, and gathered all the lead and shot the
village had, or that part of it that he controlled, and filled
the boxes with lead, shot, etc., and marked them $1000 each.
Then, when they went to examine the vault, he had one box on a
table partly filled for them to see; and when they proceeded to
the vault, Smith told them that the church had $200,000 in
specie; and he opened one box and they saw that it was silver;
and they were seemingly satisfied, and went away for a few days
until the elders were packed off in every direction to pass their
paper money."*

* "Mormons; or Knavery Exposed" (1841).


Smith believed in specie payments to his bank, whatever might be
his intentions as regards the redemption of his notes, for, in
the Messenger and Advocate (pp. 441-443), following the by-laws
of the Anti-banking Company, was printed a statement signed by
him, saying:--

"We want the brethren from abroad to call on us and take stock in
the Safety Society, and we would remind them of the sayings of
the Prophet Isaiah contained in the 60th chapter, and more
particularly in the 9th and 17th verses which are as follows:--

"Surely the isles shall wait for me, and the ships of Tarshish
first, to bring thy sons from far, their silver and their gold
with them, unto the name of the Lord thy God.

"For brass I will bring gold, and for iron I will bring silver,
etc."

The Messenger and Advocate (edited by W. A. Cowdery), of July,
1837, contained a long article on the bank and its troubles,
pointing out, first, that the bank was opened without a charter,
being "considered a kind of joint stock association," and that
"the private property of the stockholders was holden in
proportion to the amount of their subscriptions for the
redemption of the paper," and also that its notes were absolutely
void under the state law. The editor goes on to say:--

"Previously to the commencement of discounting by the bank, large
debts had been contracted for merchandise in New York and other
cities, and large contracts entered into for real estate in this
and adjoining towns; some of them had fallen due and must be met,
or incur forfeitures of large sums. These causes, we are bound to
believe, operated to induce the officers of the bank to let out
larger sums than their better judgments dictated, which almost
invariably fell into or passed through the hands of those who
sought our ruin.... Hundreds who were enemies either came or sent
their agents and demanded specie, till the officers thought best
to refuse payment."

This subtle explanation of the suspension of specie payments is
followed with a discussion of monopolies, etc., leading up to a
statement of the obligations of the Mormons in regard to the
discredited bank-notes, most of which were in circulation
elsewhere. To the question; "Shall we unite as one man, say it is
good, and make it good by taking it on a par with gold?" he
replies, "No," explaining that, owing to the fewness of the
church members as compared with the world at large, "it must be
confined in its circulation and par value to the limits of our
own society." To the question, "Shall we then take it at its
marked price for our property," he again replies, "No,"
explaining that their enemies had received the paper at a
discount, and that, to receive it at par from them, would "give
them voluntarily and with one eye open just that advantage over
us to oppress, degrade and depress us." This combined financial
and spiritual adviser closes his article by urging the brethren
to set apart a portion of their time to the service of God, and a
portion to "the study of the science of our government and the
news of the day."

A card which appeared in the Messenger and Advocate of August,
1837, signed by Smith, warned "the brethren and friends of the
church to beware of speculators, renegades, and gamblers who are
duping the unwary and unsuspecting by palming upon them those
bills, which are of no worth here."

The actual test of the bank's soundness had come when a request
was made for the redemption of the notes. The notes seem to have
been accepted freely in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, where it was
taken for granted that a cashier and president who professed to
be prophets of the Lord would not give countenance to bank paper
of doubtful value.* When stories about the concern reached the
Pittsburg banks, they sent an agent to Kirtland with a package of
the notes for redemption. Rigdon loudly asserted the stability of
the institution; but when a request for coin was repeated, it was
promptly refused by him on the ground that the bills were a
circulating medium" for the accommodation of the public, "and
that to call any of them in would defeat their object.**

* "Rocky Mountain Saints," p. 71.

** "Early Days of Mormonism," p. 163.


Other creditors of the Mormons were now becoming active in their
demands. For failing to meet a note given to the bank at
Painesville, Smith, Rigdon, and N. K. Whitney were put under
$8000 bonds. Smith, Rigdon, and Cowdery were called into court as
indorsers of paper for one of the Mormon firms, and judgment was
given against them. To satisfy a firm of New York merchants the
heads of the church gave a note for $4500 secured by a mortgage
on their interest in the new Temple and its contents.* The
Egyptian mummies were especially excepted from this mortgage.
Mother Smith describes how these relics were saved by "various
stratagems" under an execution of $50 issued against the prophet.

* Ibid., pp. 159-160.


The scheme of calling the bank corporation an "anti-banking"
society did not save the officers from prosecution under the
state law. Informers against violators of the banking law
received in Ohio a share of the fine imposed, and this led to the
filing of an information against Rigdon and Smith in March, 1837,
by one S. D. Rounds, in the Geauga County Court, charging them
with violating the law, and demanding a penalty of $1000 They
were at once arrested and held in bail, and were convicted the
following October. They appealed on the ground that the
institution was an association and not a bank; but this plea was
never ruled upon by the court, as the bank suspended payments and
closed its doors in November, 1837, and, before the appeal could
be argued, Smith and Rigdon had fled from the state to Missouri.



CHAPTER VI. LAST DAYS AT KIRTLAND

It is easy to understand that a church whose leaders had such
views of financial responsibility as Smith's and Rigdon's, and
whose members were ready to apostatize when they could not obtain
credit at the prophet's store, was anything but a harmonious
body. Smith was not a man to maintain his own dignity or to spare
the feelings of his associates. Wilford Woodruff, describing his
first sight of the prophet, at Kirtland, in 1834, said he found
him with his brother Hyrum, wearing a very old hat and engaged in
the sport of shooting at a mark. Woodruff accompanied him to his
house, where Smith at once brought out a wolfskin, and said,
"Brother Woodruff, I want you to help me tan this," and the two
took off their coats and went to work at the skin.* Smith's
contempt for Rigdon was never concealed. Writing of the situation
at Kirtland in 1833, he spoke of Rigdon as possessing "a
selfishness and independence of mind which too often manifestly
destroys the confidence of those who would lay down their lives
for him."** Smith was in the habit of announcing, from his lofty
pulpit in the Temple, "The truth is good enough without dressing
up, but brother Rigdon will now proceed to dress it up."*** Some
of the new converts backed out as soon as they got a close view
of the church. Elder G. A. Smith, a cousin of Joseph, in a sermon
in Salt Lake City, in 1855, mentioned some incidents of this
kind. One family, who had journeyed a long distance to join the
church in Kirtland, changed their minds because Joseph's wife
invited them to have a cup of tea "after the word of wisdom was
given." Another family withdrew after seeing Joseph begin playing
with his children as soon as he rested from the work of
translating the Scriptures for the day. A Canadian ex-Methodist
prayed so long at family worship at Father Johnson's that Joseph
told him flatly "not to bray so much like a jackass." The prayer
thereupon returned to Canada.

* Journal of Discourses, Vol. 1, p. 101.

** Millennial Star, Vol. XIV, pp. 584-585.

*** Lippincott's Magazine, August, 1880.


But the discontented were not confined to new-comers. Jealousy
and dissatisfaction were constantly manifesting themselves among
Smith's old standbys. Written charges made against Cowdery and
David Whitmer, when they were driven out of Far West, Missouri,
told them: "You commenced your wickedness by heading a party to
disturb the worship of the Saints in the first day of the week,
and made the house of the Lord in Kirtland to be a scene of abuse
and slander, to destroy the reputation of those whom the church
had appointed to be their teachers, and for no other cause only
that you were not the persons." In more exact terms, their
offence was opposition to the course pursued by Smith. During the
winter and spring of 1837, these rebels included in their list F.
G. Williams, of the First Presidency, Martin Harris, D. Whitmer,
Lyman E. Johnson, P. P. Pratt, and W. E. McLellin. In May, 1837,
a High Council was held in Kirtland to try these men. Pratt at
once objected to being tried by a body of which Smith and Rigdon
were members, as they had expressed opinions against him. Rigdon
confessed that he could not conscientiously try the case, Cowdery
did likewise, Williams very properly withdrew, and "the Council
dispersed in confusion."* It was never reassembled, but the
offenders were not forgotten, and their punishment came later.

* Millennial Star, Vol. XVI, p. 10.


Mother Smith attributes much of the discord among the members at
this time to "a certain young woman," an inmate of David
Whitmer's house, who began prophesying with the assistance of a
black stone. This seer predicted Smith's fall from office because
of his transgressions, and that David Whitmer or Martin Harris
would succeed him. Her proselytes became so numerous that a
written list of them showed that "a great proportion of the
church were decidedly in favor with the new party."*

* "Biographical Sketches," p. 221.


While Smith was thus fighting leading members of his own church,
he was called upon to defend himself against a serious charge in
court. A farmer near Kirtland, named Grandison Newell, received
information from a seceding Mormon that Smith had directed the
latter and another Mormon named Davis to kill Newell because he
was a particularly open opponent of the new sect. The affidavit
of this man set forth that he and Davis had twice gone to
Newell's house to carry out Smith's order, and were only
prevented by the absence of the intended victim. Smith was placed
under $500 bonds on this charge, but on the formal hearing he was
discharged on the ground of insufficient evidence.*

* Fanny Brewer of Boston, in an affidavit published in 1842,
declared, "I am personally acquainted with one of the employees,
Davis by name, and he frankly acknowledged to me that he was
prepared to do the deed under the direction of the prophet, and
was only prevented by the entreaties of his wife."


A rebellious spirit had manifested itself among the brethren in
Missouri soon after Smith returned from his first visit to that
state. W. W. Phelps questioned the prophet's "monarchical power
and authority," and an unpleasant correspondence sprung up
between them. As Smith did not succeed by his own pen in
silencing his accusers, a conference of twelve high priests was
called by him in Kirtland in January, 1833, which appointed Orson
Hyde and Smith's brother Hyrum to write to the Missouri brethren.
In this letter they were told plainly that, unless the rebellious
spirit ceased, the Lord would seek another Zion. To Phelps the
message was sent, "If you have fat beef and potatoes, eat them in
singleness of heart, and not boast yourself in these things." It
was, however, as a concession to this spirit of complaint,
according to Ferris, that Smith announced the "revelation" which
placed the church in the hands of a supreme governing body of
three.

Smith himself furnishes a very complete picture of the disrupted
condition of the Mormons in 1838, in an editorial in the Elders'
journal, dated August, of that year. The tone of the article,
too, sheds further light on Smith's character. Referring to the
course of "a set of creatures" whom the church had excluded from
fellowship, he says they "had recourse to the foulest lying to
hide their iniquity...; and this gang of horse thieves and
drunkards were called upon immediately to write their lives on
paper." Smith then goes on to pay his respects to various
officers of the church, all of whom, it should be remembered,
held their positions through "revelation" and were therefore
professedly chosen directly by God.

Of a statement by Warren Parish, one of the Seventy and an
officer of the bank, Smith says: "Granny Parish made such an
awful fuss about what was conceived in him that, night after
night and day after day, he poured forth his agony before all
living, as they saw proper to assemble. For a rational being to
have looked at him and heard him groan and grunt, and saw him
sweat and struggle, would have supposed that his womb was as much
swollen as was Rebecca's when the angel told her there were two
nations there." He also accuses Parish of immorality and stealing
money.

Here is a part of Smith's picture of Dr. W. A. Cowdery, a
presiding high priest: "This poor pitiful beggar came to Kirtland
a few years since with a large family, nearly naked and
destitute. It was really painful to see this pious Doctor's (for
such he professed to be) rags flying when he walked upon the
streets. He was taken in by us in this pitiful condition, and we
put him into the printing-office and gave him enormous wages, not
because he could earn it, but merely out of pity.... A truly
niggardly spirit manifested itself in all his meanness."

Smith's old friend Martin Harris, now a high priest, and Cyrus
Smalling, one of the Seventy, are lumped among Parish's
"lackeys,", of whom Smith says: "They are so far beneath contempt
that a notice of them would be too great a sacrifice for a
gentleman to make." Of Leonard Rich, one of the seven presidents
of the seventy elders, Smith says that he "was generally so drunk
that he had to support himself by something to keep from falling
down." J. F. Boynton and Luke Johnson, two of the Twelve, are
called "a pair of young blacklegs," and Stephen Burnett, an
elder, is styled "a little ignorant blockhead, whose heart was so
set on money that he would at any time sell his soul for $50, and
then think he had made an excellent bargain."

Smith's own personal character was freely attacked, and the
subject became so public that it received notice in the Elders'
Journal. One charge was improper conduct toward an orphan girl
whom Mrs. Smith had taken into her family. Smith's autobiography
contains an account of a council held in New Portage, Ohio, in
1834, at which Rigdon accused Martin Harris of telling A. C.
Russel that "Joseph drank too much liquor when he was translating
the Book of Mormon," and Harris set up as a defence that "this
thing occurred previous to the translating of the Book."*

* Millennial Star, Vol. XV, p. 12.


There was a good deal of talk concerning a confession "about a
girl," which Oliver Cowdery was reported to have said that Smith
made to him. Denials of this for Cowdery appeared in the Elders'
Journal of July, 1838, one man's statement ending thus, "Joseph
asked if he ever said to him (Oliver) that he (Joseph) confessed
to any one that he was guilty of the above crime; and Oliver,
after some hesitation, answered no."

The Elders' Journal of August, 1838, contains a retraction by
Parley P. Pratt of a letter he had written, in which he censured
both Smith and Rigdon, "using great severity and harshness in
regard to certain business transactions." In that letter Pratt
confessed that "the whole scheme of speculation" in which the
Mormon leaders were engaged was of the "devil," and he begged
Smith to make restitution for having sold him, for $2000, three
lots of land that did not cost Smith over $200.

Not only was the moral character of Smith and other individual
members of the church successfully attacked at this time, but the
charge was openly made that polygamy was practised and
sanctioned. In the "Book of Doctrine and Covenants," published in
Kirtland in 1835, Section 101 was devoted to the marriage rite.
It contained this declaration: "Inasmuch as this Church of Christ
has been reproached with the crime of fornication and polygamy,
we declare that we believe that one man should have one wife, and
one woman one husband, except in case of death, when either is at
liberty to marry again." The value of such a denial is seen in
the ease with which this section was blotted out by Smith's later
"revelation" establishing polygamy.

An admission that even elders did practise polygamy at that time
is found in a minute of a meeting of the Presidents of the
Seventies, held on April 29, 1837, which made this declaration:
"First, that we will have no fellowship whatever with any elder
belonging to the Quorum of the Seventies, who is guilty of
polygamy."*

* Messenger and Advocate, p. 511.


Again: The Elders' journal dated Far West, Missouri, 1838,
contained a list of answers by Smith to certain questions which,
in an earlier number, he had said were daily and hourly asked by
all classes of people. Among these was the following: "Q. Do the
Mormons believe in having more wives than one? A. No, not at the
same time." (He condemns the plan of marrying within a few weeks
or months of the death of the first wife.) The statement has been
made that polygamy first suggested itself to Smith in Ohio, while
he was translating the so-called "Book of Abraham" from the
papyri found on the Egyptian mummies. This so-called translation
required some study of the Old Testament, and it is not at all
improbable that Smith's natural inclination toward such a
doctrine as polygamy secured a foundation in his reading of the
Old Testament license to have a plurality of wives.

For the business troubles hanging over the community, Smith and
Rigdon were held especially accountable. The flock had seen the
funds confided by them to the Bishop invested partly in land that
was divided among some of the Mormon leaders. Smith and Rigdon
were provided with a house near the Temple, and a printing-office
was established there, which was under Smith's management.
Naturally, when the stock and notes of the bank became valueless,
its local victims held its organizers responsible for the
disaster. Mother Smith gives us an illustration of the depth of
this feeling. One Sunday evening, while her husband was preaching
at Kirtland, when Joseph was in Cleveland "on business pertaining
to the bank," the elder Smith reflected sharply upon Warren
Parish, on whom the Smiths tried to place the responsibility for
the bank failure. Parish, who was present, leaped forward and
tried to drag the old man out of the pulpit. Smith, Sr., appealed
to Oliver Cowdery for help, but Oliver retained his seat. Then
the prophet's brother William sprang to his father's assistance,
and carried Parish bodily out of the church. Thereupon John
Boynton, who was provided with a sword cane, drew his weapon and
threatened to run it through the younger Smith. "At this
juncture," says Mrs. Smith, "I left the house, not only terrified
at the scene, but likewise sick at heart to see the apostasy of
which Joseph had prophesied was so near at hand."*

* "Biographical Sketches," p. 221.


Eliza Snow gives a slightly different version of the same
outbreak, describing its wind-up as follows:--

John Boynton and others drew their pistols and bowie knives and
rushed down from the stand into a congregation, Boynton saying he
would blow out the brains of the first man who dared lay hands on
him.... Amid screams and shrieks, the policemen in ejecting the
belligerents knocked down a stove pipe, which fell helter-skelter
among the people; but, although bowie knives and pistols were
wrested from their owners and thrown hither and thither to
prevent disastrous results, no one was hurt, and after a short
but terrible scene to be enacted in a Temple of God, order was
restored and the services of the day proceeded as usual."*

* "Biography of Lorenzo Snow," p. 20.


Smith made a stubborn defence of his business conduct. He
attributed the disaster to the bank to Parish's peculation, and
the general troubles of the church to "the spirit of speculation
in lands and property of all kinds," as he puts it in his
autobiography, wherein he alleges that "the evils were actually
brought about by the brethren not giving heed to my counsel." If
Smith gave any such counsel, it is unfortunate for his reputation
that neither the church records nor his "revelations" contain any
mention of it.

The final struggle came in December, 1837, when Smith and Rigdon
made their last public appearance in the Kirtland Temple. Smith
was as bold and aggressive as ever, but Rigdon, weak from
illness, had to be supported to his seat. An eye-witness of the
day's proceedings says* that "the pathos of Rigdon's plea, and
the power of his denunciation, swayed the feelings and shook the
judgments of his hearers as never in the old days of peace, and,
when he had finished and was led out, a perfect silence reigned
in the Temple until its door had closed upon him forever. Smith
made a resolute and determined battle; false reports had been
circulated, and those by whom the offence had come must repent
and acknowledge their sin or be cut off from fellowship in this
world, and from honor and power in that to come." He not only
maintained his right to speak as the head of the church, but,
after the accused had partly presented their case, and one of
them had given him the lie openly, he proposed a vote on their
excommunication at once and a hearing of their further pleas at a
later date. This extraordinary proposal led one of the accused to
cry out, "You would cut a man's head off and hear him afterward."
Finally it was voted to postpone the whole subject for a few
days.

* "Early Days of Mormonism," Kennedy, p. 169.


But the two leaders of the church did not attend this adjourned
session. Alarmed by rumors that Grandison Newell had secured a
warrant for their arrest on a charge of fraud in connection with
the affairs of the bank (unfounded rumors, as it later appeared),
they fled from Kirtland on horseback on the evening of January
12, 1838, and Smith never revisited that town. In his description
of their flight, Smith explained that they merely followed the
direction of Jesus, who said, "When they persecute you in one
city, flee ye to another." He describes the weather as extremely
cold, and says, "We were obliged to secrete ourselves sometimes
to elude the grasp of our pursuers, who continued their race more
than two hundred miles from Kirtland, armed with pistols, etc.,
seeking our lives." There is no other authority for this story of
an armed pursuit, and the fact seems to be that the non-Mormon
community were perfectly satisfied with the removal of the mock
prophet from their neighborhood.

Although Kirtland continued to remain a Stake of the church, the
real estate scheme of making it a big city vanished with the
prophet. Foreclosures of mortgages now began; the church
printing-office was first sold out by the sheriff and then
destroyed by fire, and the so-called reform element took
possession of the Temple. Rigdon had placed his property out of
his own hands, one acre of land in Kirtland being deeded by him
and his wife to their daughter.

The Temple with about two acres of land adjoining was deeded by
the prophet to William Marks in 1837, and in 1841 was redeeded to
Smith as trustee in trust for the church. In 1862 it was sold
under an order of the probate court by Joseph Smith's
administrator, and conveyed the same day to one Russel Huntley,
who, in 1873, conveyed it to the prophet's grandson, Joseph
Smith, and another representative of the Reorganized Church
(nonpolygamist). The title of the latter organization was
sustained in 1880 by judge L. S. Sherman, of the Lake County
Court of Common Pleas, who held that, "The church in Utah has
materially and largely departed from the faith, doctrines, laws,
ordinances and usages of said original Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-Day Saints, and has incorporated into its system of faith
the doctrines of celestial marriage and a plurality of wives, and
the doctrine of Adam-God worship, contrary to the laws and
constitution of said original church," and that the Reorganized
Church was the true and lawful successor to the original
organization. At the general conference of the Reorganized
Church, held at Lamoni, Iowa, in April, 1901, the Kirtland
district reported a membership of 423 members.
BOOK III. IN MISSOURI




CHAPTER I. THE DIRECTIONS TO THE SAINTS ABOUT THEIR ZION

The state of Missouri, to which the story of the Mormons is now
transferred, was, at the time of its admission to the Union, in
1821, called "a promontory of civilization into an ocean of
savagery." Wild Indian tribes occupied the practically unexplored
region beyond its western boundary, and its own western counties
were thinly settled. Jackson County, which in 1900 had 195,193
inhabitants, had a population of 2823 by the census of 1830, and
neighboring counties not so many. It was not until 1830 that the
first cabin of a white man was built in Daviess County. All this
territory had been released from Indian ownership by treaty only
a few years when the first Mormons arrived there.

The white settler's house was a log hut, generally with a dirt
floor, a mudplastered chimney, and a window without glass, a
board or quilt serving to close it in time of storm or severe
cold. A fireplace, with a skillet and kettle, supplied the place
of a well-equipped stove. Corn was the principal grain food, and
wild game supplied most of the meat. The wild animals furnished
clothing as well as food; for the pioneers could not afford to
pay from 15 to 25 cents a yard for calico, and from 25 to 75
cents for gingham.* Some persons indulged in homespun cloth for
Sunday and festal occasions, but the common outside garments were
made of dressed deerskins. Parley P. Pratt, in his autobiography,
speaks of passing through a settlement where "some families were
entirely dressed in skins, without any other clothing, including
ladies young and old."

* "When the merchants sold a calico or gingham dress pattern they
threw in their profit by giving a spool of thread (two hundred
yards), hooks and eyes and lining. In the thread business,
however, it was only a few years after that thirty and fifty yard
spools took the place of the two hundred yards."--"History of
Daviess County", p. 161.


The pioneer agriculturist of those days not only lacked the
transportation facilities and improved agricultural appliances
which have assisted the developers of the Northwest, but they did
not even understand the nature and capability of the soil. The
newcomers in western Missouri looked on the rich prairie land as
worthless, and they almost invariably directed their course to
the timber, where the soil was more easily broken up, and
material for buildings was available. The first attempts to
plough the prairie sod were very primitive. David Dailey made the
first trial in Jackson County with what was called a "barshear
plough" (drawn by from four to eight yokes of oxen), the "shear"
of which was fastened to the beam. This cut the sod in one
direction pretty well, but when he began to cross-furrow, the sod
piled up in front of the plough and stopped his progress.
Determined to see what the soil would grow, he cut holes in the
sod with an axe, and in these dropped his seed. The first sod was
broken in Daviess County in 1834, with a plough made to order,
"to see what the prairies amounted to in the way of raising a
crop." Such was the country toward which the first Mormon
missionaries turned their faces.

We have seen that the first intimation in the Mormon records of a
movement to the West was found in Smith's order to Oliver Cowdery
in 1830 to go and establish the church among the Lamanites
(Indians), and that Rigdon expected that the church would remain
in Ohio, when he wrote to his flock from Palmyra. The four
original missionaries--Cowdery, P. P. Pratt, Peter Whitmer, and
Peterson--did not stop long in Kirtland, but, taking with them
Frederick G. Williams, they pushed on westward to Sandusky,
Cincinnati, and St. Louis, preaching to some Indians on the way,
until they reached Independence, Jackson County, Missouri, early
in 1831. That county forms a part of the western border of the
state, and from 1832, until the railroad took the place of wagon
trains, Independence was the eastern terminus of the famous Santa
Fe trail, and the point of departure for many companies destined
both for Oregon and California. Pratt, describing their journey
west of St. Louis, says: "We travelled on foot some three hundred
miles, through vast prairies and through trackless wilds of snow;
no beaten road, houses few and far between. We travelled for
whole days, from morning till night, without a house or fire. We
carried on our backs our changes of clothing, several books, and
corn bread and raw pork."*

* "Autobiography of P. P. Pratt," p. 54.


The sole idea of these pioneers seemed to be to preach to the
Indians. Arriving at Independence, Whitmer and Peterson went to
work to support themselves as tailors, while Cowdery and Pratt
crossed the border into the Indian country. The latter, however,
were at once pronounced by the federal officers there to be
violators of the law which forbade the settlement of white men
among the Indians, and they returned to Independence, and
preached thereabout during the winter. Early in February the four
decided that Pratt should return to Kirtland and make a report,
and he did so, travelling partly on foot, partly on horseback,
and partly by steamer.

As early as March, 1830, Smith had conceived the idea (or some
one else for him) of a gathering of the elect "unto one place" to
prepare for the day of desolation (Sec. 29). In October, 1830,
the four pioneers were commanded to start "into the wilderness
among the Lamanites," and on January 2, 1831, while Rigdon was
visiting Smith in New York State, another "revelation" (Sec. 38)
described the land of promise as "a land flowing with milk and
honey, upon which there shall be no curse when the Lord cometh."
This land they and their children were to possess, both "while
the earth shall stand, and again in eternity." A "revelation"
(Sec. 45), dated March 7, 1831, at Kirtland, called on the
faithful to assemble and visit the Western countries, where they
were promised an inheritance, to be called "the New Jerusalem, a
land of peace, a city of refuge, a place of safety for the saints
of most High God." These things they were to "keep from going
abroad into the world" for the present.

The manner in which the elect were told by "revelation" that they
should possess their land of promise has a most important bearing
on the justification of the opposition which the Missourians soon
manifested toward their new neighbors. In one of these
"revelations," dated Kirtland, February, 1831 (Sec. 42), Christ
is represented as saying, "I will consecrate the riches of the
Gentiles unto my people which are of the house of Israel."
Another, in the following June (Sec. 52), which directed Smith's
and Rigdon's trip, promised the elect, "If ye are faithful ye
shall assemble yourselves together to rejoice upon the land in
Missouri, which is the land of your inheritance, WHICH IS NOW THE
LAND OF YOUR ENEMIES." Another, given while Smith was in
Missouri, in August, 1831 (Sec. 59), promised to those "who have
come up into this land with an eye single to My glory," that
"they shall inherit the earth," and "shall receive for their
reward the good things of the earth." On the same date the Saints
were told that they should "open their hearts even to purchase
the whole region of country as soon as time will permit,...lest
they receive none inheritance save it be by the shedding of
blood." It seems to have been thought wise to add to this last
statement, after the return of the party to Ohio, and a
"revelation" dated August, 1831 (Sec. 63), was given out, stating
that the land of Zion could be obtained only "by purchase or by
blood," and "as you are forbidden to shed blood, lo, your enemies
are upon you, and ye shall be scourged from city to city."

* Tullidge, in his "History of Salt Lake City" (1886), defining
the early Mormon view of their land rights, after quoting Brigham
Young's declaration to the first arrivals in Salt Lake Valley,
that he (or the church) had "no land to sell," but "every man
should have his land measured out to him for city and family
purposes," says: "Young could with absolute propriety give the
above utterances on the land question. In the early days of the
church they applied to land not only owned by the United States,
but within the boundaries of states of the Union." After quoting
from the above-cited "revelation" the words "save they be by the
shedding of blood," he explains, "The latter clause of the
quotation signifies that the Mormon prophet foresaw that, unless
his disciples purchased 'this whole region of country' of the
unpopulated Far West of that period, the land question held
between them and anti-Mormons would lead to the shedding of
blood, and that they would be in jeopardy of losing their
inheritance; and this was realized."

As to their obligation to pay for any of the "good things"
purchased of their enemies, a "revelation" dated September 11,
1831 (the month after the return from Missouri), gave this
advice:--

"Behold it is said in my laws, or forbidden, to get in debt to
thine enemies;

"But behold it is not said at any time, that the Lord should not
take when he pleased, and pay as seemeth him good.

"Wherefore as ye are agents, and ye are on the Lord's errand; and
whatever ye do according to the will of the Lord, it is the
Lord's business, and it is the Lord's business to provide for his
Saints in these last days, that they may obtain an inheritance in
the land of Zion."--"Book of Commandments," Chap. 65.

In the modern version of this "revelation" to be found in Sec. 64
of the "Doctrine and Covenants," the latter part of this
declaration is changed to read, "And he hath set you to provide
for his saints in these last days," etc.

So eager were the Saints to occupy their land of Zion, when the
movement started, that the word of "revelation" was employed to
give warning against a hasty rush to the new possessions, and to
establish a certain supervision of the emigration by the Bishop
and other agents of the church. Notwithstanding this, the rush
soon became embarrassing to the church authorities in Missouri,
and a modified view of the Lord's promise was thus stated in the
Evening and Morning Star of July, 1832, "Although the Lord has
said that it is his business to provide for the Saints in these
last days, he is not BOUND to do so unless we observe his sayings
and keep them." Saints in the East were warned against giving
away their property before moving, and urged not to come to
Missouri without some means, and to bring with them cattle and
improved breeds of sheep and hogs, with necessary seeds.



CHAPTER II. SMITH'S FIRST VISITS TO MISSOURI--FOUNDING THE CITY
AND THE TEMPLE

On June 7, 1831, a "revelation" was given out (Sec. 52)
announcing that the next conference would be held in the promised
land in Missouri, and directing Smith and Rigdon to go thither,
and naming some thirty elders, including John Corrill, David
Whitmer, P. P. and Orson Pratt, Martin Harris, and Edward
Partridge, who should also make the trip, two by two, preaching
by the way. Booth says: "Only about two weeks were allowed them
to make preparations for the journey, and most of them left what
business they had to be closed by others. Some left large
families, with the crops upon the ground."*

* Howe's "Mormonism Unveiled."


Smith's party left Kirtland on June 19, and arrived at
Independence in the following month, journeying on foot after
reaching St. Louis, a distance of about three hundred miles.
Smith was delighted with the new country, with "its beautiful
rolling prairies, spread out like real meadows; the varied timber
of the bottoms; the plums and grapes and persimmons and the
flowers; the rich soil, the horses, cattle, and hogs, and the
wild game.... The season is mild and delightful nearly three
quarters of the year, and as the land of Zion is situated at
about equal distances from the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, as
well as from the Alleghany and Rocky Mountains, it bids fair to
become one of the most blessed places on the earth."* The town of
Independence then consisted of a brick courthouse, two or three
stores, and fifteen or twenty houses, mostly of logs.

* Smith's "Autobiography," Millennial Star, Vol. XIV.


The usual "revelation" came first (Sec. 57), announcing that
"this is the land of promise and the place for the City of Zion,"
with Independence as its centre, and the site of the Temple a lot
near the courthouse. It was also declared that the land should be
purchased by the Saints, "and also every tract lying westward,
even unto the line running directly between Jew and Gentile"
(whatever that might mean), "and also every tract bordering by
the prairies." Sidney Gilbert was ordered to "plant himself"
there, and establish a store, "that he might sell goods without
fraud," to obtain money for the purchase of land. Edward
Partridge was "to divide the Saints their inheritance," and W. W.
Phelps* and Cowdery were to be printers to the church.

* Phelps came from Canandaigua, New York, where, Howe says, he
was an avowed infidel. He had been prominent in politics and had
edited a party newspaper. Disappointed in his political ambition,
he threw in his lot with the new church.


Marvellous stories were at once circulated of the grandeur that
was to characterize the new city, of the wealth that would be
gathered there by the faithful who would survive the speedy
destruction of the wicked, and of the coming of the lost tribes
of Israel, who had been located near the north pole, where they
had become very rich. While not tracing these declarations to
Smith himself, Booth, who was one of the party, says that they
were told by persons in daily intercourse with him. It is doing
the prophet no injustice to say that they bear his imprint.

The laying of the foundation of the City of Zion was next in
order. Rigdon delivered an address in consecrating the ground, in
which he enjoined them to obey all of Smith's commands. A small
scrub oak tree was then cut down and trimmed, and twelve men,
representing the Apostles, conveyed it to a designated place.
Cowdery sought out the best stone he could find for a
corner-stone, removed a little earth, and placed the stone in the
excavation, delivering an address. One end of the oak tree was
laid on this stone, "and there," says Booth, "was laid down the
first stone and stick which are to form an essential part of the
splendid City of Zion."

The next day the site of the Temple was consecrated, Smith laying
the cornerstone. When the ceremonies were over, the spot was
merely marked by a sapling, from two sides of which the bark was
stripped, one side being marked with a "T" for Temple, and the
other with "ZOM," which Smith stated stood for "Zomas," the
original of Zion. At the foot of this sapling lay the
corner-stone--"a small stone, covered over with bushes."

Such ceremonies might have been viewed with indulgence if
conducted in some suburb of Kirtland. But when men had travelled
hundreds of miles at Smith's command, suffering personal
privations as well as submitting to pecuniary sacrifices, it was
a severe test of their faith to have two small trees and t wo
round stones in the wilderness offered to them as the only
tangible indications of a land of plenty. Rigdon expressed
dissatisfaction with the outcome, as we have seen; Booth left the
church as soon as he got back to Ohio; members of the party
called Cowdery and Smith imperious, and the prophet and Rigdon
incurred the charge of "excessive cowardice" on the way.

Smith made a second trip to Independence, leaving Ohio on April
2, 1832, and arriving there on his return the following June. His
stay in Missouri this time was marked by nothing more important
than his acknowledgment as President of the high priesthood by a
council of the church there, and a "revelation" which declared
that Zion's "borders must be enlarged, her Stakes must be
strengthened."



CHAPTER III. THE EXPULSION FROM JACKSON COUNTY--THE ARMY OF ZION

The efforts of the church leaders to check too precipitate an
emigration to the new Zion were not entirely successful, and,
according to the Evening and Morning Star of July, 1833, the
Mormons with their families then numbered more than twelve
hundred, or about one-third of the total population of the
county. The elders had been pushing their proselyting work
throughout the States and in Canada, and the idea of a land of
plenty appealed powerfully to the new believers, and especially
to those of little means. The branch of the church established at
Colesville, New York, numbering about sixty members, emigrated in
a body and settled twelve miles from Independence. Other
settlements were made in the rural districts, and the non-Mormons
began to be seriously exercised over the situation. The Saints
boasted openly of their future possession of the land, without
making clear their idea of the means by which they would obtain
title to it. An open defiance in the name of the church appeared
in an article in the Evening and Morning Star for July, 1833,
which contained this declaration:--

"No matter what our ideas or notions may be on the subject; no
matter what foolish report the wicked may circulate to gratify an
evil disposition; the Lord will continue to gather the righteous
and destroy the wicked, till the sound goes forth, IT IS
FINISHED."

With even greater fatuity came the determination to publish the
prophet's "revelations" in the form of the "Book of
Commandments." Of the effect of this publication David Whitmer
says, "The main reason why the printing press [at Independence]
was destroyed, was because they published the 'Book of
Commandments.' It fell into the hands of the world, and the
people of Jackson County saw from the revelations that they were
considered intruders upon the Land of Zion, as enemies of the
church, and that they should be cut off out of the Land of Zion
and sent away."*

* "Address to All Believers in Christ," p. 54.


Corrill says of the causes of friction between the Mormons and
their neighbors:--*

* Corrill's" Brief History of the Church," p. 19.


"The church got crazy to go up to Zion, as it was then called.
The rich were afraid to send up their money to purchase lands,
and the poor crowded up in numbers, without having any places
provided, contrary to the advice of the Bishop and others, until
the old citizens began to be highly displeased. They saw their
country filling up with emigrants, principally poor. They
disliked their religion, and saw also that, if let alone, they
would in a short time become a majority, and of course rule the
county. The church kept increasing, and the old citizens became
more and more dissatisfied, and from time to time offered to sell
their farms and possessions, but the Mormons, though desirous,
were too poor to purchase them."*

* After the survey of Jackson County, Congress granted to the
state of Missouri a large tract of land, the sale of which should
be made for educational purposes, and the Mormons took title to
several thousand acres of this, west of Independence.


The active manifestation of hostility toward the new-comers by
the residents of Jackson County first took shape in the spring of
1832, in the stoning of Mormon houses at night and the breaking
of windows. Soon afterward a county meeting was called to take
measures to secure the removal of the Mormons from that county,
but nothing definite was done. The burning of haystacks, shooting
into houses, etc., continued until July, 1833, when the Mormon
opponents circulated a statement of their complaints, closing
with a call for a meeting in the courthouse at Independence, on
Saturday, July 20. The text of this manifesto, which is important
as showing the spirit as well as the precise grounds of the
opposition, is as follows:--

"We, the undersigned, citizens of Jackson County, believing that
an important crisis is at hand, as regards our civil society, in
consequence of a pretended religious sect of people that have
settled, and are still settling, in our county, styling
themselves Mormons, and intending, as we do, to rid our society,
peaceably if we can, forcibly if we must; and believing as we do,
that the arm of the civil law does not afford us a guarantee, or
at least, a sufficient one, against the evils which are now
inflicted upon us, and seem to be increasing, by the said
religious sect, we deem it expedient and of the highest
importance to form ourselves into a company for the better and
easier accomplishment of our purpose--a purpose, which we deem it
almost superfluous to say, is justified as well by the law of
nature, as by the law of self preservation.

"It is more than two years since the first of these fanatics, or
knaves, (for one or the other they undoubtedly are,) made their
first appearance amongst us, and, pretending as they did, and now
do, to hold personal communication and converse face to face with
the Most High God; to receive communications and revelations
direct from heaven; to heal the sick by laying on hands; and, in
short, to perform all the wonder-working miracles wrought by the
inspired Apostles and Prophets of old.

"We believed them deluded fanatics, or weak and designing knaves,
and that they and their pretensions would soon pass away; but in
this we were deceived. The arts of a few designing leaders
amongst them have thus far succeeded in holding them together as
a society; and, since the arrival of the first of them, they have
been daily increasing in numbers; and if they had been
respectable citizens in society, and thus deluded, they would
have been entitled to our pity rather than our contempt and
hatred; but from their appearance, from their manners, and from
their conduct since their coming among us, we have every reason
to fear that, with but few exceptions, they were of the very
dregs of that society from which they came, lazy, idle, and
vicious. This we conceive is not idle assertion, but a fact
susceptible of proof, for with these few exceptions above named,
they brought into our county little or no property with them, and
left less behind them, and we infer that those only yoked
themselves to the Mormon car who had nothing earthly or heavenly
to lose by the change; and we fear that if some of the leaders
amongst them had paid the forfeit due to crime, instead of being
chosen ambassadors of the Most High, they would have been inmates
of solitary cells.

"But their conduct here stamps their characters in their true
colors. More than a year since, it was ascertained that they had
been tampering with our slaves, and endeavoring to rouse
dissension and raise seditions amongst them. Of this their Mormon
leaders were informed, and they said they would deal with any of
their members who should again in like case offend. But how
specious are appearances. In a late number of the Star, published
in Independence by the leaders of the sect, there is an article
inviting free negroes and mulattoes from other states to become
Mormons, and remove and settle among us. This exhibits them in
still more odious colors. It manifests a desire on the part of
their society to inflict on our society an injury, that they knew
would be to us entirely insupportable, and one of the surest
means of driving us from the county; for it would require none of
the supernatural gifts that they pretend to, to see that the
introduction of such a caste amongst us would corrupt our blacks,
and instigate them to bloodshed.

"They openly blaspheme the Most High God, and cast contempt on
His holy religion, by pretending to receive revelations direct
from heaven, by pretending to speak unknown tongues by direct
inspirations, and by divers pretences derogatory of God and
religion, and to the utter subversion of human reason.

"They declare openly that their God hath given them this county
of land, and that sooner or later they must and will have the
possession of our lands for an inheritance; and, in fine, they
have conducted themselves on many other occasions in such a
manner that we believe it a duty we owe to ourselves, our wives,
and children, to the cause of public morals, to remove them from
among us, as we are not prepared to give up our pleasant places
and goodly possessions to them, or to receive into the bosom of
our families, as fit companions for our wives and daughters, the
degraded and corrupted free negroes and mulattoes that are now
invited to settle among us.

"Under such a state of things, even our beautiful county would
cease to be a desirable residence, and our situation intolerable!
We, therefore, agree that, if after timely warning, and receiving
an adequate compensation for what little property they cannot
take with them, they refuse to leave us in peace, as they found
us--we agree to use such means as may be sufficient to remove
them, and to that end we each pledge to each other our bodily
powers, our lives, fortunes, and sacred honors.

"We will meet at the court-house, at the Town of Independence, on
Saturday next, the 20th inst., to consult ulterior movements."*

* Evening and Morning Star, p. 227; Millennial Star, Vol. XIV, p.
516.


Some hundreds of names were signed to this call, and the meeting
of July 20 was attended by nearly five hundred persons. There is
no doubt that it was a representative county gathering. P. P.
Pratt says that the anti-Mormon organization, which he calls
"outlaws," was "composed of lawyers, magistrates, county
officers, civil and military, religious ministers, and a great
number of the ignorant and uninformed portion of the
population."* The language of the address adopted shows that
skilled pens were not wanting in its preparation.

* "Pratt's "Autobiography," p. 103.


The first business of the meeting was the appointment of a
committee to prepare an address stating the grievances of the
people with somewhat greater fulness than the manifesto above
quoted. Like the latter, it conceded at the start that there was
no law under which the object in view could be obtained. It
characterized the Mormons as but little above the negroes as
regards property or education; charged them with having exerted a
"corrupting influence" on the slaves;* asserted that even the
more intelligent boasted daily to the Gentiles that the Mormons
would appropriate their lands for an inheritance, and that their
newspaper organ taught them that the lands were to be taken by
the sword. Noting the rapid increase in the immigration of
members of the new church, the address, looking to a near day
when they would be in a majority in the county, asked: "What
would be the state of our lives and property in the hands of
jurors and witnesses who do not blush to declare, and would not
upon occasion hesitate to swear, that they have wrought miracles,
and have been the subjects of miraculous and supernatural cures,
have conversed with God and his angels, and possess and exercise
the gifts of divination and of unknown tongues, and are fired
with the prospect of obtaining inheritances without money and
without price, may be better imagined than described." That this
apprehension was not without grounds will be seen when we come to
the administration of justice in Nauvoo and in Salt Lake City.

* The Mormons never hesitated to change their position on the
slavery question. An elder's address, published in the Evening
and Morning Star of July, 1833, said: "As to slaves, we have
nothing to say. In connection with the wonderful events of this
age, much is doing toward abolishing slavery and colonizing the
blacks in Africa." Three years later, in April, 1836 the
Messenger and Advocate published a strong proslavery article,
denying the right of the people of the North to interfere with
the institution, and picturing the happy condition of the slaves.
Orson Hyde, in the Frontier Guardian in 1850 (quoted in the
Millennial Star, Vol. XIII, p. 63), said: "When a man in the
Southern states embraces our faith and is the owner of slaves,
the church says to him, 'If your slaves wish to remain with you,
and to go with you, put them not away; but if they choose to
leave you, and are not satisfied to remain with you, it is for
you to sell them or to let them go free, as your own conscience
may direct you. The church on this point assumes not the
responsibility to direct.'" Horace Greeley quoted Brigham Young
as saying to him in Salt Lake City, "We consider slavery of
divine institution and not to be abolished until the curse
pronounced on Ham shall have been removed from his descendants"
("Overland journey," p. 211).

The address closed with these demands:--

"That no Mormon shall in future move and settle in this county.

"That those now here, who shall give a definite pledge of their
intention within a reasonable time to remove out of the county,
shall be allowed to remain unmolested until they have sufficient
time to sell their property and close their business without any
material sacrifice.

"That the editor of the Star (W. W. Phelps) be required forthwith
to close his office and discontinue the business of printing in
this county; and, as to all other stores and shops belonging to
the sect, their owners must in every case strictly comply with
the terms of the second article of this declaration; and, upon
failure, prompt and efficient measures will be taken to close the
same.

"That the Mormon leaders here are required to use their influence
in preventing any further emigration of their distant brethren to
this county, and to counsel and advise their brethren here to
comply with the above regulations.

"That those who fail to comply with the requisitions be referred
to those of their brethren who have the gifts of divination and
of unknown tongues, to inform them of the lot that awaits them"*

* Millennial Star, Vol. XIV, pp. 487-489.


A recess of two hours was taken in which to permit a committee of
twelve to call on Bishop Partridge, Phelps, and Gilbert, and
present these terms. This committee reported that these men
"declined giving any direct answer to the requisitions made of
them, and wished an unreasonable time for consultation, not only
with their brethren here, but in Ohio." The meeting thereupon
voted unanimously that the Star printing-office should be razed
to the ground, and the type and press be "secured."

A report of the action of this meeting and its result was
prepared by the chairman and two secretaries, and printed over
their signatures in the Western Monitor of Fayette, Missouri, on
August 2, 1833, and it is transferred to Smith's autobiography.
It agrees with the Mormon account set forth in their later
petition to Governor Dunklin. It particularized, however, that
the Mormon leaders asked the committee first for three months,
and then for ten days, in which to consider the demands, and were
told that they could have only fifteen minutes.

What happened next is thus set forth in the, chairman's report:--

"Which resolution (for the razing of the Star office) was with
the utmost order and the least noise and disturbance possible,
forthwith carried into execution, AS ALSO SOME OTHER STEPS OF A
SIMILAR TENDENCY; but no blood was spilled nor any blows
inflicted."

Mobs do not generally act with the "utmost order," and this one
was not an exception to the rule, as an explanation of the "other
steps" will make clear. The first object of attack was the
printing office, a two-story brick building. This was demolished,
causing a loss of $6000, according to the Mormon claims. The mob
next visited the store kept by Gilbert, but refrained from
attacking it on receiving a pledge that the goods would be packed
for removal by the following Tuesday. They then called at the
houses of some of the leading Mormons, and conducted Bishop
Partridge and a man named Allen to the public square. Partridge
told his captors that the saints had been subjected to
persecution in all ages; that he was willing to suffer for
Christ's sake, but that he would not consent to leave the
country. Allen refused either to agree to depart or to deny the
inspiration of the Mormon Bible. Both men were then relieved of
their hats, coats, and vests, daubed with tar, and decorated with
feathers. This ended the proceedings of that day, and an
adjournment as announced until the following Tuesday.

On Tuesday, July 23 (the date of the laying of the corner-stone
of the Kirtland Temple), the Missourians gathered again in the
town, carrying a red flag and bearing arms. The Mormon statement
to Governor Dunklin says, "They proceeded to take some of the
leading elders by force, declaring it to be their intention to
whip them from fifty to five hundred lashes apiece, to demolish
their dwelling houses, and let their negroes loose to go through
our plantations and lay open our fields for the destruction of
our crops."* The official report of the officers of the meeting**
says that, when the chairman had taken his seat, a committee was
appointed to wait on the Mormons at the request of the latter.

* Greene, in his "Facts Relative to the Expulsion of the Mormons
from the State of Missouri (1839), says that the mob seized a
number of Mormons and, at the muzzle of their guns, compelled
them to confess that the Mormon Bible was a fraud.

** Millennial Star Vol. XIV, p. 500.


As a result of a conference with this committee, a written
agreement was entered into, signed by the committee and the
Mormons named in it, to this effect: That Oliver Cowdery, W. W.
Phelps, W. E. McLellin, Edward Partridge, John Wright, Simeon
Carter, Peter and John Whitmer, and Harvey Whitlock, with their
families, should move from the county by January 1 next, and use
their influence to induce their fellow-Mormons in the county to
do likewise--one half by January 1 and all by April 1--and to
prevent further immigration of the brethren; John Corrill and A.
S. Gilbert to remain as agents to wind up the business of the
society, Gilbert to be allowed to sell out his goods on hand; no
Mormon paper to be published in the county; Partridge and Phelps
to be allowed to go and come after January 1, in winding up their
business, if their families were removed by that time; the
committee pledging themselves to use their influence to prevent
further violence, and assuring Phelps that "whenever he was ready
to move, the amount of all his losses in the printing house
should be paid to him by the citizens." In view of this
arrangement there was no further trouble for more than two
months.

The Mormon leaders had, however, no intention of carrying out
their part of this undertaking. Corrill, in a letter to Oliver
Cowdery written in December, 1833, said that the agreement was
made, "supposing that before the time arrived the mob would see
their error and stop the violence, or that some means might be
employed so that we could stay in peace."* Oliver Cowdery was
sent at once to Kirtland to advise with the church officers
there. On his arrival, early in August, a council was convened,
and it was decided that legal measures should be taken to
establish the rights of the Saints in Missouri. Smith directed
that they should neither sell their lands nor move out of Jackson
County, save those who had signed the agreement.** It was also
decided to send Orson Hyde and John Gould to Missouri "with
advice to the Saints in their unfortunate situation through the
late outrage of the mob."***

* Evening and Morning Star, January, 1834

** Elder Williams's Letter, Millennial Star, Vol. XIV, p. 519.

*** Millennial Star, Vol. XIV, p. 504.


To strengthen the courage of the flock in Missouri, Smith gave
forth at Kirtland, under date of August 2, 1833, a "revelation"
(Sec. 97), "in answer to our correspondence with the prophet,"
says P. P. Pratt,* in which the Lord was represented as saying,
"Surely, Zion is the city of our God, and surely Zion cannot
fail, NEITHER BE MOVED OUT OF HER PLACE; for God is there, and
the hand of God is there, and he has sworn by the power of his
might to be her salvation and her high tower." The same
"revelation" directed that the Temple should be built speedily by
means of tithing, and threatened Zion with pestilence, plague,
sword, vengeance, and devouring fire unless she obeyed the Lord's
commands.

*Pratt's "Autobiography," p. 100,


The outcome of all the deliberations at Kirtland was the sending
of W. W. Phelps and Orson Hyde to Jefferson City with a long
petition to Governor Dunklin, setting forth the charges of the
Missourians against the Mormons, and the action of the two
meetings at Independence, and making a direct appeal to him for
assistance, asking him to employ troops in their defence, in
order that they might sue for damages, "and, if advisable, try
for treason against the government."

The governor sent them a written reply under date of October 19,
in which, after expressing sympathy with them in their troubles,
he said: "I should think myself unworthy the confidence with
which I have been honored by my fellow citizens did I not
promptly employ all the means which the constitution and laws
have placed at my disposal to avert the calamities with which you
are threatened.... No citizen, or number of citizens, have a
right to take the redress of their grievances, whether real or
imaginary, into their own hands. Such conduct strikes at the very
existence of society." He advised the Mormons to invoke the laws
in their behalf; to secure a warrant from a justice of the peace,
and so test the question "whether the law can be peaceably
executed or not"; if not, it would be his duty to take steps to
execute it.

The Mormons and their neighbors were thus brought face to face in
a manner which admitted of no compromise. The situation naturally
seemed rather a simple one to the governor, who was probably
ignorant of the intentions and ambition of the Mormons. If he had
understood the nature and weight of the objections to them, he
would have understood also that he could protect them in their
possessions only by maintaining a military force.

His letter gave the Mormons of Jackson County new courage. They
had been maintaining a waiting attitude since the meeting of July
23, but now they resumed their occupations, and began to erect
more houses, and to improve their places as if for a permanent
stay, and meanwhile there was no cessation of the immigration of
new members from the East. Their leaders consulted four lawyers
in Clay County, and arranged with them to look after their legal
interests.

This evident repudiation by the Mormons of their part of their
agreement with the committee incensed the Jackson County people,
and hostilities were resumed. On the night of October 31, a mob
attacked a Mormon settlement called Big Blue, some ten miles west
of Independence, damaged a number of houses, whipped some of the
men, and frightened women and children so badly that they fled to
the outlying country for hiding-places. On the night of November
1, Mormon houses were stoned in Independence, and the church
store was broken into and its goods scattered in the street. The
Mormons thereupon showed the governor's letter to a justice of
the peace, and asked him for a warrant, but their accounts say
that he refused one. When they took before the same officer a man
whom they caught in the act of destroying their property, the
justice not only refused to hold him, but granted a warrant in
his behalf against Gilbert, Corrill, and two other Mormons for
false imprisonment, and they were locked up.* Thrown on their own
resources for defence, the Mormons now armed themselves as well
as they could, and established a night picket service throughout
their part of the county. On Saturday night, November 2, a second
attack was made by the mob on Big Blue and, the Mormons
resisting, the first "battle" of this campaign took place. A sick
woman received a pistolshot wound in the head, and one of the
Mormons a wound in the thigh. Parley P. Pratt and others were
then sent to Lexington to procure a warrant from Circuit Judge
Ryland, but, according to Pratt, he refused to grant one, and
"advised us to fight and kill the outlaws whenever they came upon
us."**

* Corrill's letter, Evening and Morning Star, January, 1834.

** Pratt's "Autobiography," p. 105.


On Monday evening, November 4, a body of Missourians who had been
visiting some of the Mormon settlements came in contact with a
company of Mormons who had assembled for defence, and an exchange
of shots ensued, by which a number on both sides were wounded,
one of the Mormons dying the next day.

These conflicts increased the excitement, and the Mormons,
knowing how they were outnumbered, now realized that they could
not stay in Jackson County any longer, and they arranged to move.
At first they decided to make their new settlement only fifty
miles south of Independence, in Van Buren County, but to this the
Jackson County people would not consent. They therefore agreed to
move north into Clay County, between which and Jackson County the
Missouri River, which there runs east, formed the boundary. Most
of them went to Clay County, but others scattered throughout the
other nearby counties, whose inhabitants soon let them know that
their presence was not agreeable.

The hasty removal of these people so late in the season was
accompanied by great personal hardships and considerable
pecuniary loss. The Mormons have stated the number of persons
driven out at fifteen hundred, and the number of houses burned;
before and after their departure, at from two hundred to three
hundred. Cattle and household effects that could not be moved
were sold for what they would bring, and those who took with them
sufficient provisions for their immediate wants considered
themselves fortunate. One party of six men and about one hundred
and fifty women and children, panic-stricken by the action of the
mob, wandered for several days over the prairie without even
sufficient food. The banks of the Missouri River where the
fugitives were ferried across presented a strange spectacle. In a
pouring rain the big company were encamped there on November 7,
some with tents and some without any cover, their household goods
piled up around them. Children were born in this camp, and the
sick had to put up with such protection as could be provided. So
determined were the Jackson County people that not a Mormon
should remain among them, that on November 23 they drove out a
little settlement of some twenty families living about fifteen
miles from Independence, compelling women and children to depart
on immediate notice.

The Mormons made further efforts through legal proceedings to
assert their rights in Jackson County, but unsuccessfully. The
governor declared that the situation did not warrant him in
calling out the militia, and referred them to the courts for
redress for civil injuries. In later years they appealed more
than once to the federal authorities at Washington for assistance
in reestablishing themselves in Jackson County,* but were
informed that the matter rested with the state of Missouri. Their
future bitterness toward the federal government was explained on
the ground of this refusal to come to their aid.

* James Hutchins, a resident of Wisconsin, addressed a long
appeal "for justice" to President Grant in 1876, asking him to
reinstate the Mormons in the homes from which they had been
driven.


Meanwhile Smith had been preparing to use the authority at his
command to make good his predictions about the permanency of the
church in the Missouri Zion. On December 6, 1833, he gave out a
long "revelation" at Kirtland (Sec. 101), which created a great
sensation among his followers. Beginning with the declaration
that "I, the Lord," have suffered affliction to come on the
brethren in Missouri "in consequence of their transgressions,
envyings and stripes, and lustful and covetous desires," it went
on to promise them as follows:--

"Zion shall not be moved out of her place, notwithstanding her
children are scattered.... And, behold, there is none other place
appointed than that which I have appointed; neither shall there
be any other place appointed than that which I have appointed,
for the work of the gathering of my saints, until the day cometh
when there is found no more room for them."

The "revelation" then stated the Lord's will "concerning the
redemption of Zion" in the form of a long parable which contained
these instructions:--

"And go ye straightway into the land of my vineyard, and redeem
my vineyard, for it is mine, I have bought it with money.

"Therefore get ye straightway unto my land; break down the walls
of mine enemies; throw down their tower and scatter their
watchmen;

"And inasmuch as they gather together against you, avenge me of
mine enemies, that by and by I may come with the residue of mine
house and possess the land."

This "revelation" was industriously circulated in printed form
among the churches of Ohio and the East, and so great was the
demand for copies that they sold for one dollar each. The only
construction to be placed upon it was that Smith proposed to make
good his predictions by means of an armed force led against the
people of Missouri. This view soon had confirmation.

The arrival of P. P. Pratt and Lyman Wight in Kirtland in
February, 1834, was followed by a "revelation" (Sec. 103)
promising an outpouring of God's wrath on those who had expelled
the brethren from their Missouri possessions, and declaring that
"the redemption of Zion must needs come by power," and that Smith
was to lead them, as Moses led the children of Israel.

In obedience to this direction there was assembled a military
organization, known in church history as "The Army of Zion."
Recruiters, led by Smith and Rigdon, visited the Eastern states,
and by May 1 some two hundred men had assembled at Kirtland ready
to march to Missouri to aid their brethren.*

* There are three detailed accounts of this expedition, one in
Smith's autobiography, another in H. C. Kimball's journal in
Times and Seasons, Vol. 6, and another in Howe's "Mormonism
Unveiled," procured from one of the accompanying sharpshooters.


The Army of Zion, as it called itself, was not an impressive one
in appearance. Military experience was not required of the
recruits; but no one seems to have been accepted who was not in
possession of a weapon and at least $5 in cash. The weapons
ranged from butcher knives and rusty swords to pistols, muskets,
and rifles. Smith himself carried a fine sword, a brace of
pistols (purchased on six months' credit), and a rifle, and had
four horses allotted to him. He had himself elected treasurer of
the expedition, and to him was intrusted all the money of the
men, to be disbursed as his judgment dictated.

According to his own account, they were constantly threatened by
enemies during their march; but they paid no attention to them,
knowing that angels accompanied them as protectors, "for we saw
them."

As they approached Clay County a committee from Ray County called
on them to inquire about their intention, and, when a few miles
from Liberty, in Clay County, General Atchison and other
Missourians met them and warned them not to defy popular feeling
by entering that town. Accepting this advice, they took a
circuitous route and camped on Rush Creek, whence Smith on June
25 sent a letter to General Atchison's committee saying that, in
the interest of peace, "we have concluded that our company shall
be immediately dispersed."

The night before this letter was sent, cholera broke out in the
camp. Smith at once attempted to perform miraculous cures of the
victims, but he found actual cholera patients very different to
deal with from old women with imaginary ailments, or, as he puts
it, "I quickly learned by painful experience that, when the great
Jehovah decrees destruction upon any people, and makes known his
determination, man must not attempt to stay his hand."* There
were thirteen deaths in camp, among the victims being Sidney
Gilbert.

* "Millennial Star, Vol. XV, p. 86.


Of course, some explanation was necessary to reconcile the
prophet's surrender without a battle with the "revelation" which
directed the army to march and promised a victory. This came in
the shape of another "revelation" (Sec. 105) which declared that
the immediate redemption of the people must be delayed because of
their disobedience and lack of union (especially excepting
himself from this censure); that the Lord did not "require at
their hands to fight the battles of Zion"; that a large enough
force had not assembled at the Lord's command, and that those who
had made the journey were "brought thus far for a trial of their
faith." The brethren were directed not to make boasts of the
judgment to come on the Missourians, but to keep quiet, and
"gather together, as much in one region as can be, consistently
with the feelings of the people"; to purchase all the lands in
Jackson County they could, and then "I will hold the armies of
Israel guiltless in taking possession of their own lands, which
they have previously purchased with their monies, and of throwing
down the powers of mine enemies." But first the Lord's army was
to become very great.

It seems incredible that any set of followers could retain faith
in "revelations" at once so conflicting and so nonsensical.



CHAPTER IV. Fruitless Negotiations With The Jackson County People

Meanwhile, the Mormons in Clay County, with the assent of the
natives there, had opened a factory for the manufacture of arms
"to pay the Jackson mob in their own way,"* and it was rumored
that both sides were supplying themselves with cannon, to make
the coming contest the more determined. Governor Dunklin, fearing
a further injury to the good name of the state, wrote to Colonel
J. Thornton urging a compromise, and on June 10 Judge Ryland sent
a communication to A. S. Gilbert, asking him to call a meeting of
Mormons in Liberty for a discussion of the situation.

* Millennial Star, Vol. XV, p. 68.


This meeting was held on June 16, and a committee from Jackson
County presented the following proposition: "That the value of
the lands, and the improvements thereon, of the Mormons in
Jackson County, be ascertained by three disinterested appraisers,
representatives of the Mormons to be allowed freely to point out
the lands claimed and the improvements; that the people of
Jackson County would agree to pay the Mormons the valuation fixed
by the appraisers, WITH ONE HUNDRED PER CENT ADDED, within thirty
days of the award; or, the Jackson County citizens would agree to
sell out their lands in that county to the Mormons on the same
terms." The Mormon leaders agreed to call a meeting of their
people to consider this proposition.

The fifteen Jackson County committeemen, it may be mentioned, in
crossing the river on their way home, were upset, and seven of
them were drowned, including their chairman, J. Campbell, who was
reported to have made threats against Smith. The latter thus
reports the accident in his autobiography, "The angel of God saw
fit to sink the boat about the middle of the river, and seven,
out of the twelve that attempted to cross were drowned, thus
suddenly and justly went they to their own place by water."

On June 21 the Mormons gave written notice to the Jackson County
people that the terms proposed were rejected, and that they were
framing "honorable propositions" on their own part, which they
would soon submit, adding a denial of a rumor that they intended
a hostile invasion. Their objection to the terms proposed was
thus stated in an editorial in the Evening and Morning Star of
July, 1834, "When it is understood that the mob hold possession
of a large quantity of land more than our friends, and that they
only offer thirty days for the payment of the same, it will be
seen that they are only making a sham to cover their past
unlawful conduct." This explanation ignores entirely the offer of
the Missourians to buy out the Mormons at a valuation double that
fixed by the appraisers, and simply shows that they intended to
hold to the idea that their promised Zion was in Jackson County,
and that they would not give it up.*

* The idea of returning to a Zion in Jackson County has never
been abandoned by the Mormon church. Bishop Partridge took title
to the Temple lot in Independence in his own name. In 1839, when
the Mormons were expelled from the state, still believing that
this was to be the site of the New Jerusalem, he deeded
sixty-three acres of land in Jackson County, including this lot,
to three small children of Oliver Cowdery. In 1848, seven years
after Partridge's death, and when all the Cowdery grantees were
dead, a man named Poole got a deed for this land from the heirs
of the grantees, and subsequent conveyances were made under
Poole's deed. In 1851 a branch of the church, under a title
Church of Christ, known as Hendrickites, from Grandville
Hendrick, its originator, was organized in Illinois, with a basis
of belief which rejects most of the innovations introduced since
1835. Hendrick in 1864 was favored with a "revelation" which
ordered the removal of his church to Jackson County. On arriving
there different members quietly bought parts of the old Temple
lot. In 1887 the sole surviving sister and heir of the Cowdery
children executed a quit claim deed of the lot to Bishop
Blakeslee of the Reorganized Church in Iowa, and that church at
once began legal proceedings to establish their title. Judge
Philips, of the United States Circuit Court for the Western
Division of Missouri, decided the case in March, 1894, in favor
of the Reorganized Church, but the United States Court of Appeals
reversed this decision on the ground that the respondents had
title through undisputed possession ("United States Court of
Appeals Reports," Vol. XVII, p. 387). The Hendrickites in this
suit were actively aided by the Utah Mormons, President Woodruff
being among their witnesses. This Church of Christ has now a
membership of less than two hundred.

Two Mormon elders, describing their visit to Independence in
1888, said that they went to the Temple lot and prayed as
follows: "O Lord, remember thy words, and let not Zion suffer
forever. Hasten her redemption, and let thy name be glorified in
the victory of truth and righteousness over sin and iniquity.
Confound the enemies of the people and let Zion be free:'
--"Infancy of the Church," Salt Lake City, 1889.


On June 23 (the date of Smith's last quoted "revelation"), the
Mormons presented their counter proposition in writing. It was
that a board of six Mormons and six Jackson County non-Mormons
should decide on the value of lands in that county belonging to
"those men who cannot consent to live with us," and that they
should receive this sum within a year, less the amount of damage
suffered by the Mormons, the latter to be determined by the same
persons. The Jackson County people replied that they would "do
nothing like according to their last proposition," and expressed
a hope that the Mormons "would cast an eye back of Clinton, to
see if that is not a county calculated for them." Clinton was the
county next north of Clay.

Governor Dunklin, in his annual message to the legislature that
year, expressed the opinion that "conviction for any violence
committed against a Mormon cannot be had in Jackson County," and
told the lawmakers it was for them to determine what amendments
were necessary "to guard against such acts of violence for the
future." The Mormons sent a petition in their own behalf to the
legislature, which was presented by Corrill, but no action was
taken.





CHAPTER V. In Clay, Caldwell, And Daviess Counties

The counties in which the Mormons settled after leaving Jackson
County were thinly populated at that time, Clay County having
only 5338 inhabitants, according to the census of 1830, and
Caldwell, Carroll, and Daviess counties together having only 6617
inhabitants by the census of 1840. County rivalry is always a
characteristic of our newly settled states and territories, and
the Clay County people welcomed the Mormons as an addition to
their number, notwithstanding the ill favor in which they stood
with their southern neighbors. The new-comers at first occupied
what vacant cabins they could find in the southern part of the
county, until they could erect houses of their own, while the men
obtained such employment as was offered, and many of the women
sought places as domestic servants and school-teachers. The
Jackson County people were not pleased with this friendly spirit,
and they not only tried to excite trouble between the new
neighbors, but styled the Clay County residents "Jack Mormons," a
name applied in later years in other places to non-Mormons who
were supposed to have Mormon sympathies.

Peace was maintained, however, for about three years. But the
Mormons grew in numbers, and, as the natives realized their
growth, they showed no more disposition to be in the minority
than did their southern neighbors. The Mormons, too, were without
tact, and they did not conceal the intention of the church to
possess the land. Proof of their responsibility for what followed
is found in a remark of W. W. Phelps, in a letter from Clay
County to Ohio in December, 1833, that "our people fare very
well, and, when they are discreet, little or no persecution is
felt."*

* Millennial Star, Vol. XIV, p. 646.


The irritation kept on increasing, and by the spring of 1836 Clay
County had become as hostile to the Mormons as Jackson County had
ever been. In June, the course adopted in Jackson County to get
rid of the new-comers was imitated, and a public meeting in the
court house at Liberty adopted resolutions* setting forth that
civil war was threatened by the rapid immigration of Mormons;
that when the latter were received, in pity and kindness, after
their expulsion across the river, it was understood that they
would leave "whenever a respectable portion of the citizens of
this county should require it," and that that time had now come.
The reasons for this demand included Mormon declarations that the
county was destined by Heaven to be theirs, opposition to
slavery, teaching the Indians that they were to possess the land
with the Saints, and their religious tenets, which, it was said,
"always will excite deep prejudices against them in any populous
country where they may locate." In explanations of the
anti-Mormon feeling in Missouri frequent allusion is made to
polygamous practices. This was not charged in any of the formal
statements against them, and Corrill declares that they had done
nothing there that would incriminate them under the law. The
Mormons were urged to seek a new abiding-place, the territory of
Wisconsin being recommended for their investigation. The
resolutions confessed that "we do not contend that we have the
least right, under the constitution and laws of the country, to
expel them by force"; but gave as an excuse for the action taken
the certainty of an armed conflict if the Mormons remained. Newly
arrived immigrants were advised to leave immediately,
non-landowners to follow as soon as they could gather their crops
and settle up their business, and owners of forty acres to remain
indefinitely, until they could dispose of their real estate
without loss.

* Millennial Star, Vol. XV, p. 763.


The Mormons, on July 1, adopted resolutions denying the charges
against them, but agreeing to leave the county. The Missourians
then appointed a committee to raise money to assist the needy
Saints to move. Smith and his associates in Ohio had not at that
time the same interest in a Zion in Missouri that they had three
years earlier, and they only expressed sorrow over the new
troubles, and advised the fugitives to stop short of Wisconsin if
they could. An appeal was again made by the Missouri Mormons to
the governor of that state, but he now replied that if they could
not convince their neighbors of their innocence, "all I can say
to you is that in this republic the vox populi is the vox dei."

The Mormons selected that part of Ray County from which Caldwell
County was formed (just northeast of Clay County) for their new
abode, and on their petition the legislature framed the new
county for their occupancy. This was then almost unsettled
territory, and the few inhabitants made no objection to the
coming of their new neighbors. They secured a good deal of land,
some by purchase, and some by entry on government sections, and
began its improvement. Many of them were so poor that they had to
seek work in the neighboring counties for the support of their
families. Some of their most intelligent members afterward
attributed their future troubles in that state to their failure
to keep within their own county boundaries.

As the county seat they founded a town which they named Far West,
and which soon presented quite a collection of houses, both log
and frame, schools, and shops. Phelps wrote in the summer of
1837, "Land cannot be had around town now much less than $10 per
acre."* There were practically no inhabitants but Mormons within
fifteen or twenty miles of the town,** and the Saints were
allowed entire political freedom. Of the county officers, two
judges, thirteen magistrates, the county clerk, and all the
militia officers were of their sect. They had credit enough to
make necessary loans, and, says Corrill, "friendship began to be
restored between them and their neighbors, the old prejudices
were fast dying away, and they were doing well, until the summer
of 1838."

* Messenger and Advocate, July, 1837.

** Lee's "Mormonism Unveiled," p. 53.


It was in January, 1838, that Smith fled from Kirtland. He
arrived in Far West in the following March; Rigdon was detained
in Illinois a short time by the illness of a daughter. Smith's
family went with him, and they were followed by many devoted
adherents of the church, who, in order to pay church debts in
Ohio and the East, had given up their property in exchange for
orders on the Bishop at Far West. In other words, they were
penniless.

The business scandals in Ohio had not affected the reputation of
the church leaders with their followers in Missouri (where the
bank bills had not circulated and Smith and Rigdon received a
hearty welcome, their coming being accepted as a big step forward
in the realization of their prophesied Zion. It proved, however,
to be the cause of the expulsion of their followers from the
state.





CHAPTER VI. Radical Dissensions In The Church--Origin Of The
Danites--Tithing

While the church, in a material sense, might have been as
prosperous as Corrill pictured, Smith, on his arrival, found it
in the throes of serious internal discord. The month before he
reached Far West, W. W. Phelps and John Whitmer, of the
Presidency there, had been tried before a general assembly of the
church,* and almost unanimously deposed on several charges, the
principal one being a claim on their part to $2000 of the church
funds which they had bound the Bishop to pay to them. Whitmer was
also accused of persisting in the use of tea, coffee, and
tobacco. T. B. Marsh, one of the Presidents pro tem. selected in
their places, in a letter to the prophet on this subject, said:--

* For the minutes of this General Assembly, and text of Marsh's
letter, see Elders' Journal, July, 1838.

"Had we not taken the above measures, we think that nothing could
have prevented a rebellion against the whole High Council and
Bishop; so great was the disaffection against the Presidents that
the people began to be jealous that the whole authorities were
inclined to uphold these men in wickedness, and in a little time
the church undoubtedly would have gone every man his own way,
like sheep without a shepherd."

On April 11, Elder Bronson presented nine charges against Oliver
Cowdery to the High Council, which promptly found him guilty of
six of them, viz. urging vexatious lawsuits against the brethren,
accusing the prophet of adultery, not attending meeting,
returning to the practice of law "for the sake of filthy lucre,"
"disgracing the church by being connected with the bogus
[counterfeiting] business, retaining notes after they had been
paid," and generally "forsaking the cause of God." On this
finding he was expelled from the church. Two days later David
Whitmer was found guilty of unchristianlike conduct and defaming
the prophet, and was expelled, and Lyman E. Johnson met the same
fate.* Smith soon announced a "revelation" (Sec. 114), directing
the places of the expelled to be filled by others.

* For minutes of these councils, see Millennial Star, Vol. XVI,
pp. 130-134.


It was in the June following that the paper drawn up by Rigdon
and signed by eighty-three prominent members of the church was
presented to the recalcitrants, ordering them to leave the
county, and painting their characters in the blackest hues.* This
radical action did not meet the approval of the more conservative
element, which included men like Corrill, and he soon announced
that he was no longer a Mormon. Not long afterward Thomas B.
Marsh, one of the original members of the High Council of Twelve
in Missouri, and now President of the Twelve, and Orson Hyde, one
of the original Apostles, also seceded, and both gave testimony
about the Mormon schemes in Caldwell and Daviess Counties.
Cowdery and Whitmer considered their lives in such danger that
they fled on horseback at night, leaving their families, and
after riding till daylight in a storm, reached the house of a
friend, where they found refuge until their families could join
them.

* See p. 81 ante. For the full text of Rigdon's paper, see the
"Correspondence, Orders, etc., in Relation to the Mormon
Disturbances in Missouri," published by order of the Missouri
legislature (1841).


The most important event that followed the expulsion of leading
members from the church by the High Council was the formation of
that organization which has been almost ever since known as the
Danites, whose dark deeds in Nauvoo were scarcely more than
hinted at,* but which, under Brigham Young's authority in Utah,
became a band of murderers, ready to carry out the most radical
suggestion which might be made by any higher authority of the
church.

* Lee's "Mormonism Unveiled," p. 158.


Corrill, an active member of the church in Missouri, writing in
1839 with the events fresh in his memory, said* that the members
of the Danite society entered into solemn covenants to stand by
one another when in difficulty, whether right or wrong, and to
correct each other's wrongs among themselves, accepting strictly
the mandates of the Presidency as standing next to God. He
explains that "many were opposed to this society, but such was
their determination and also their threatenings, that those
opposed dare not speak their minds on the subject . . . . It
began to be taught that the church, instead of God, or, rather,
the church in the hands of God, was to bring about these things
(judgments on the wicked), and I was told, but I cannot vouch for
the truth of it, that some of them went so far as to contrive
plans how they might scatter poison, pestilence, and disease
among the inhabitants, and make them think it was judgments sent
from God. I accused Smith and Rigdon of it, but they both denied
it promptly."

* "Brief History of the Church," pp. 31, 32.


Robinson, in his reminiscences in the Return in later years, gave
the same date of the organization of the Danites, and said that
their first manifesto was the one directed against Cowdery,
Whitmer, and others.

We must look for the actual origin of this organization, however,
to some of the prophet's instructions while still at Kirtland. In
his "revelation" of August 6, 1833 (Sec. 98), he thus defined the
treatment that the Saints might bestow upon their enemies: "I
have delivered thine enemy into thine hands, and then if thou
wilt spare him, thou shalt be rewarded for thy righteousness; . .
. nevertheless thine enemy is in thine hands, and if thou reward
him according to his works thou art justified, if he has sought
thy life, and thy life is endangered by him, thine enemy is in
thine hands and thou art justified."

What such a license would mean to a following like Smith's can
easily be understood.

The next step in the same direction was taken during the
exercises which,accompanied the opening of the Kirtland Temple.
Three days after the dedicatory services, all the high officers
of the church, and the official members of the stake, to the
number of about three hundred, met in the Temple by appointment
to perform the washing of feet. While this was going on
(following Smith's own account),* "the brethren began to prophesy
blessings upon each other's heads, and cursings upon the enemies
of Christ who inhabit Jackson County, Missouri, and continued
prophesying and blessing and sealing them, with hosannah and
amen, until nearly seven o'clock P. M. The bread and wine were
then brought in. While waiting, I made the following remarks, 'I
want to enter into the following covenant, that if any more of
our brethren are slain or driven from their lands in Missouri by
the mob, we will give ourselves no rest until we are avenged of
our enemies to the uttermost.' This covenant was sealed
unanimously, with a hosannah and an amen." **

* Millennial Star, Vol. XV, pp. 727-728.


* "The spirit of that covenant evidently bore fruit in the Fourth
of July oration of 1838 and the Mountain Meadow Massacre."--The
Return, Vol. II, p. 271.


The original name chosen for the Danites was "Daughters of Zion,"
suggested by the text Micah iv. 13: "Arise and thresh, O daughter
of Zion; for I will make thine horn iron, and I will make thine
hoofs brass; and thou shalt beat in pieces many people; and I
will consecrate thy gain unto the Lord, and their substance unto
the Lord of the whole earth." "Daughters" of anybody was soon
decided to be an inappropriate designation for such a band, and
they were next called "Destroying (or Flying) Angels," a title
still in use in Utah days; then the "Big Fan," suggested by
Jeremiah xv. 7, or Luke iii. 17; then "Brothers of Gideon," and
finally "Sons of Dan" (whence the name Danites,) from Genesis
xlix. 17: "Dan shall be a serpent by the way, an adder in the
path, that biteth the horse's heels, so that his rider shall fall
backward."*

* Hyde's "Mormonism Exposed," pp. 104-105.


Avard presented the text of the constitution to the court at
Richmond, Missouri, during the inquiry before Judge King in
November, 1838* It begins with a preamble setting forth the
agreement of the members "to regulate ourselves under such laws
as in righteousness shall be deemed necessary for the
preservation of our holy religion, and of our most sacred rights,
and the rights of our wives and children," and declaring that,
"not having the privileges of others allowed to us, we have
determined, like unto our fathers, to resist tyranny, whether it
be in kings or in the people. It is all alike to us. Our rights
we must have, and our rights we shall have, in the name of
Israel's God." The President of the church and his counsellors
were to hold the "executive power," and also, along with the
generals and colonels of the society, to hold the "legislative
powers"; this legislature to "have power to make all laws
regulating the society, and regulating punishments to be
administered to the guilty in accordance with the offence." Thus
was furnished machinery for carrying out any decree of the
officers of the church against either life or property.

* Missouri "Correspondence, Orders, etc.," pp. 101-102.


The Danite oath as it was administered in Nauvoo was as
follows:-- "In the name of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, I do
solemnly obligate myself ever to regard the Prophet and the First
Presidency of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints as
the supreme head of the church on earth, and to obey them in all
things, the same as the supreme God; that I will stand by my
brethren in danger or difficulty, and will uphold the Presidency,
right or wrong; and that I will ever conceal, and never reveal,
the secret purposes of this society, called Daughters of Zion.
Should I ever do the same, I hold my life as the forfeiture, in a
caldron of boiling oil."*

* Bennett's "History of the Saints," p. 267.


John D. Lee, who was a member of the organization, explaining
their secret signs, says,* "The sign or token of distress is made
by placing the right hand on the right side of the face, with the
points of the fingers upward, shoving the hand upward until the
ear is snug up between the thumb and forefinger."

*Lee's "Mormonism Unveiled," p. 57.


It has always been the policy of the Mormon church to deny to the
outside world that any such organization as the Danites existed,
or at least that it received the countenance of the authorities.
Smith's City Council in Nauvoo made an affidavit that there was
no such society there, and Utah Mormons have professed similar
ignorance. Brigham Young, himself, however, gave testimony to the
contrary in the days when he was supreme in Salt Lake City. In
one of his discourses which will be found reported in the Deseret
News (Vol. VII, p. 143) he said: "If men come here and do not
behave themselves, they will not only find the Danites, whom they
talk so much about, biting the horses' heels, but the scoundrels
will find something biting THEIR heels. In my plain remarks I
merely call things by their own names." It need only be added
that the church authority has been powerful enough at any time in
the history of the church to crush out such an organization if it
so desired.

A second organization formed about the same time, at a fully
attended meeting of the Mormons of Daviess County, was called
"The Host of Israel." It was presided over by captains of tens,
of fifties, and of hundreds, and, according to Lee, "God
commanded Joseph Smith to place the Host of Israel in a situation
for defence against the enemies of God and the Church of Jesus
Christ of Latter-Day Saints."

Another important feature of the church rule that was established
at this time was the tithing system, announced in a "revelation"
(Sec. 119), which is dated July 8, 1838. This required the flock
to put all their "surplus property" into the hands of the Bishop
for the building of the Temple and the payment of the debts of
the Presidency, and that, after that, "those who have thus been
tithed, shall pay one-tenth of all their interest annually; and
this shall be a standing law unto them forever."

Ebenezer Robinson gives an interesting explanation of the origin
of tithing. *In May, 1838, the High Council at Far West, after
hearing a statement by Rigdon that it was absolutely necessary
for the church to make some provision for the support of the
families of all those who gave their entire time to church
affairs, instructed the Bishop to deed to Smith and Rigdon an
eighty-acre lot belonging to the church, and appointed a
committee of three to confer with the Presidency concerning their
salary for that year. Smith and Rigdon thought that $1100 would
be a proper sum, and the committee reported in favor of a salary,
but left the amount blank. The council voted the salaries, but
this action caused such a protest from the church members that at
the next meeting the resolution was rescinded. Only a few days
later came this "revelation" requiring the payment of tithes, in
which there was no mention of using any of the money for the
poor, as was directed in the Ohio "revelation" about the
consecration of property to the Bishop.

* The Return, Vol. 1, p. 136.


This tithing system has provided ever since the principal revenue
of the church. By means of it the Temple was built at Nauvoo, and
under it vast sums have been contributed in Utah. By 1878 the
income of the church by this source was placed at $1,000,000 a
year,* and during Brigham Young's administration the total
receipts were estimated at $13,000,000. We shall see that Young
made practically no report of the expenditure of this vast sum
that passed into his control. To Horace Greeley's question, "What
is done with the proceeds of this tithing?" Young replied, "Part
of it is devoted to building temples and other places of worship,
part to helping the poor and needy converts on their way to this
country, and the largest portion to the support of the poor among
the Saints."

* Salt Lake Tribune, June 25, 1879.


As the authority of the church over its members increased, the
regulation about the payment of tithes was made plainer and more
severe. Parley P. Pratt, in addressing the General Conference in
Salt Lake City in October, 1849, said, "To fulfil the law of
tithing, a man should make out and lay before the Bishop a
schedule of all his property, and pay him one-tenth of it. When
he hath tithed his principal once, he has no occasion to tithe
again; but the next year he must pay one-tenth of his increase,
and one-tenth of his time, of his cattle, money, goods, and
trade; and, whatever use we put it to, it is still our own, for
the Lord does not carry it away with him to heaven."* *
Millennial Star, Vol. XII, p. 134.


The Seventh General Epistle to the church (September, 1851) made
this statement, "It is time that the Saints understood that the
paying of their tithing is a prominent portion of the labor which
is allotted to them, by which they are to secure a
futureresidence in the heaven they are seeking after."* This view
was constantly presented to the converts abroad.

* Ibid., Vol. XIV, p. 18.


At the General Conference in Salt Lake City on September 8, 1850,
Brigham Young made clear his radical view of tithing--a duty, he
declared, that few had lived up to. Taking the case of a supposed
Mr. A, engaged in various pursuits (to represent the community),
starting with a capital of $100,000 he must surrender $10,000 of
this as tithing. With his remaining $90,000 he gains $410,000;
$41,000 of this gain must be given into the storehouse of the
Lord. Next he works nine days with his team; the tenth day's work
is for the church, as is one-tenth of the wheat he raises,
one-tenth of his sheep, and one-tenth of his eggs.*

* Ibid., Vol. XIII, p. 21.


Under date of July 18, came another "revelation" (Sec. 120),
declaring that the tithings "shall be disposed of by a Council,
composed of the First Presidency of my church, and of the Bishop
and his council, and by my High Council." The first meeting of
this body decided "that the First Presidency should keep all
their property that they could dispose of to advantage for their
support, and the remainder be put into the hands of the Bishop,
according to the commandments."* The coolness of this proceeding
in excepting Smith and Rigdon from the obligation to pay a tithe
is worthy of admiration.

* Ibid., Vol. XVI, p. 204.



CHAPTER VII. Beginning Of Active Hostilities

Smith had shown his dominating spirit as soon as he arrived at
Far West. In April, 1838, he announced a "revelation" (Sec. 115),
commanding the building of a house of worship there, the work to
begin on July 4, the speedy building up of that city, and the
establishment of Stakes in the regions round about. This last
requirement showed once more Smith's lack of judgment, and it
became a source of irritation to the non-Mormons, as it was
thought to foreshadow a design to control the neighboring
counties. Hyde says that Smith and Rigdon deliberately planned
the scattering of the Saints beyond the borders of Clay County
with a view to political power.*

* Hyde's "Mormonism," p. 203.


In accordance with this scheme, a "revelation" of May 19 (Sec.
116), directed the founding of a town on Grand River in Daviess
County, twenty-five miles northwest of Far West. This settlement
was to be called "Adam-ondi-Ahman," "because it is the place
where Adam shall come to visit his people, or the Ancient of Days
shall sit, as spoken of by Daniel the Prophet." The "revelation"
further explains that, three years before his death, Adamcalled a
number of high priests and all of his posterity who were
righteous, into the valley of Adam-ondi-Ahman, and there blessed
them. Lee (who, following the common pronunciation, writes the
name "Adam-on-Diamond") expresses the belief, which Smith
instilled into his followers, that it "was at the point where
Adam came and settled and blessed his posterity, after being
driven from the Garden of Eden. There Adam and Eve tarried for
several years, and engaged in tilling the soil." By order of the
Presidency, another town was started in Carroll County, where the
Saints had been living in peace. Immediately the new settlement
was looked upon as a possible rival of Gallatin, the county seat,
and the non-Mormons made known their objections.

* "Mormonism Unveiled," p. 91.


With Smith and Rigdon on the ground, if these men had had any
tact, or any purpose except to enforce Mormon supremacy in
whatever part of Missouri they chose to call Zion, the troubles
now foreshadowed might easily have been prevented. Every step
they took, however, was in the nature of a defiance. The sermons
preached to the Mormons that summer taught them that they would
be able to withstand, not only the opposition of the Missourians,
but of the United States, if this should be put to the test.*

* Corrill's "Brief History of the Church," p. 29.


The flock in and around Far West were under the influence of such
advice when they met on July 4 to lay the corner-stone of the
third Temple, whose building Smith had revealed, and to celebrate
the day. There was a procession, with a flagpole raising, and
Smith embraced the occasion to make public announcement of the
tithing "revelation" (although it bears a later date).

The chief feature of the day, and the one that had most influence
on the fortunes of the church, was a sermon by Sidney Rigdon,
known ever since as the "salt sermon," from the text Matt. v. 13:
"If the salt have lost its savour, wherewith shall it be salted?
It is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be
trodden under foot of men." He first applied these words to the
men who had made trouble in the church, declaring that they ought
to be trodden under foot until their bowels gushed out, citing as
a precedent that "the apostles threw Judas Iscariot down and
trampled out his bowels, and that Peter stabbed Ananias and
Sapphira." It was what followed, however, which made the serious
trouble, a defiance to their Missouri opponents in these words:
"It is not because we cannot, if we were so disposed, enjoy both
the honors and flatteries of the world, but we have voluntarily
offered them in s