The prophet of Palmyra; Mormonism reviewed and examined in the life, character, and career of its founder, from "Cumorah Hill" to Carthage Jail and the desert. Together with a complete history of the Mormon era in Illinois, and an exhaustive investigation of the "Spalding manuscript" theory of the origin of the Book of Mormon

Front matter

1% -> '•^, •;' :'' '

Class.£ )A^(.t5

A

CHAPTER I. Intkodxjctoey. - - " 1

Solomon Spalding — False Prophets in all Ages — Joseph Smith, the Founder of Mormonism— Compared to Mahomet — His Character and Aims — Origin of Mormonism — An Overshadowing Question.

CHAPTER II. The Beginnings of the Impostuee. - 9

Disagreeing Statements — Impossible Claims — The Smith Family — Ignorance and Superstition — The Prophet's Own Story — "History of Joseph Smith" — The Angel Nephi — Plates Revealed — The Urim and Thummim— Second, Third, and Fourth Visions — Hill of Cumorah — Stone Box — The Prophet's Marriage — "Persecutions" — After Four Years — Martin Harris and the Translation.

Chapter VI

Professoe Anthon's Stoey. - « 57 A Plain Statement which Everybody Can Believe.

via COJ^TEKTS.

CHAPTER Vn.

A Teebible Dllemma. - - 63

Two Revelations and their Causes — Harris and Satan Unjustly- Accused — The Real Culprit Unknown — A Happy Ruse Solves the Difficulty.

CHAPTER YIIL

The Stoey and the Book Examtn^d. - 75

Evidences of Falsity — The Record — Its Title — " Confounding

of Language" — The Nephite-Lamanite Americans — Metal

of the Plates — ^Plates Still Under Ground — A Bonanza —

Mariner's Compass — To Work by Faith.

CHAPTER IX.

EXAirLNATIO:!^ CONTDTUED. - - 85

A story for Ship-Builders — A Year's Voyage — Eight Wonderful Barges — An Electric Light — The Land of Promise — War a Pastime — A Great Battle — Words of Isaiah — Beasts in the Promised Land — Remarkable Translation.

CHAPTER X.

Review Coi^inued. - - - 96

Testimony of Three Witnesses — Also of Eight Witnesses — "What More Need be Said?"— Death to Behold the Plates — A Box of Brickbats — Testimony Analyzed — Smith's Ijyse Dixit — Collusion or Deception — Testimony Invalid — Strang's Failure — Laban's Sword and Lehi's Directors.

CHAPTER XI.

Further Revelations and Labors. - 107 The World's Redemption at Hand— Harris Obstinate, but Yields — He Sees Money in It — Revelations Continue — Church Discipline — Sidney Rigdon's Hand Manifest— A New Statement Concerning Him — Church Organized — Calvin Stoddard's Conversion — "Support" for the Prophet— No. 1 Provided For— The Elect Lady— Rigdon Converted — Takes High Rank— P. P. Pratt— Zion Established — Fanatical Exceeses — Smith and Cowdery Baptized.

CHAPTER XII.

Translation of the Scriptures — Reasons for It — Translation Suspended — The First Hegira — Cowdery's Mission a Failure — The Stake at Kirtland — Another in Missouri — Expedition Thither — Ezra Booth's Secession — Zion Located — An Organ Established — The Expulsion — A Crusade and lis Termination.

CONTENTS, ix

CHAPTER XIII.

Aiq- Anti-Bai^king Bank. - - 133 Rigdon President, Smith Cashier — Notes Issued — IN^o Redemption — Pittsburgh Bankers — Bank Breaks — Flight of Its Officers — The Kirtland Stake Abandoned.

CHAPTER XIV.

FuETHEE Stake Planting. - - 138 Adam-ondi-Ahmon, Far West, and Others — Apostasy Shows its Head — The Danites — War and Violence — Mobs and Banishment.

CHAPTER XV.

Across the Mississippi Eastward. - 149 Exodus from Missouri and First Appearance in Illinois — Remarks — The Situation.

CHAPTER XVI.

Immigration and Settlement. - - 156

Status in Illinois — The New City — Mission to Washington —

Governor Lucas's Letter — Great Church Conference —

Mission to the Jews in Europe and Asia — Call to the

Faithful.

CHAPTER XVII.

Progress and Politics. - - 164

First Great Error— Presidential Election of 1840— How Will the Prophet Vote? — Whig Convention — Nominations — A Disgraceful Act — Little and Douglas — Dr. Cbarles — The Charters — Their Character — Organizations — John C. Bennett — The Warsaw Signal — Smith Offended — His Characteristic Letter — The Times and Seasons.

CHAPTER XVIII.

An Anti-Mormon Party. - - 175 Unworthy Sycophancy — A Growing Apprehension — Public Meetings — An Anti-Mormon Party — Its Candidates Elected — Thomas Ford for Governor— T/ie Wasp.

CHAPTER XIX.

The Nauvoo Temple. - - 181

Temple Building— At Nauvoo— Corner-Stone Laid— Revelation Demanding It — Also a "Boarding House" — The "Nauvoo House " Unfinished— Stockholders Named by Revelation.

CHAPTER XX.

Much Ado About Theft. - - 189 Hyrum Smith's Affidavit— And the Twelve— Brother Joseph's Affidavit and Proclamation— The Court-Martial and all the Generals.

X CONTEJ!^TS.

CHAPTER XXI.

The Game of Habeas Coepfs. - 196

Arrest of Smith at Quincy, 1S41 — Trial Before Judge Douglas

— Discharge — Attempted Assassination of Governor Boggs of Missoim — O. P. Eockwell Charged with the Crime — Xew Demand for Smith and Eockwell — Arrest in Xauvoo — Habeas Corpus Applied by the Municipal Court — Ford's Statement — Ee-arrest and Trial Before Judge Pope and ZHscharge — The "Writs, etc.

CHAPTEE XXTI.

Another Indictment and Demand — CongTessional Canvass — Walker and Hoge — Arrest Xear Dixon — Great Excitement — The Officers Prisoners — The Prophet Triumphant — A Strange Cavalcade — Another Habeas Corpus — LaTvyer SouthVick's Statement — Eesult of the Canvass — "Brother Hyrum's" Eevelation — Walker Defeated.

CHAPTEE XXin.

Two Ways of Teleixg a Stobt. - 218

Story of the Arrest, as Told by Two — The Prophet's Story — The Officer's Story.

CHAPTEE XXIV.

Quarrel Between the Chiefs— General Bennett's Defection — Charges and Denials — Bennett Accepts the "Birffetings"' and Leaves— His Letters to the Sangamo Journal — Testimonials Pro and Con.

CHAPTEE XXY.

For President of the United States, General Joseph Smith, of Illinois — For Vice-President, Sidney Eigdon, of Pennsylvania.

CHAPTEE XXVI.

Ax LycPEXDixG Ceisis. - - 235

Eumblings of a Volcano — A Secession Organized — An Opposition Church — ^AXewspaper "Xuisance'' Abated.

CHAPTEE XXVn.

A Stbaxge Documext. - 245

Showing the Reasons Why — Ji'au-coo Neighbor Extra — Reciting Action of the City Ceiiiicil Kegarding the Expositor Xuisance — OfficiaL

CONTEXTS. xi

CHAPTER XXYIII.

The Atoxement. . - - 269

Great Excitement — Writs Procured— Public Meetings — Citizens Arming — The Governor Appealed to — Arrives at Carthage and Takes Command — Mayor and Council of Nauvoo Summoned — Arrested, but Fail to Appear — Finally Came in and Surrendered — Released on Bail — Rearrested for Treason — Governor's Definition of Treason — Marches with a Small Force to the City — The Smiths Killed in Jail — Great Consternation.

CHAPTER XXIX.

How THE Deed Was Doio:. - - 281

Effect of the Panic — Governor Ford's Plan Revealed — Atttack on the Jail by the Mob — The Prophet and His Brother Killed— How it was Done — Purposes of the Mob — Willard Richard's Statement.

CHAPTER XXX.

Military Encampment Called — The Wolf Hunt — Governor Ford Interferes — Brings Another Force — March to Nauvoo — To Warsaw — Joseph H. Jackson — Indictments — Trials of the Prisoners — Found Not Guilty.

CHAPTER XXXI.

Stkuggle for the Succession. - 303

^Sidney Rigdon — Brigham Young — Parley P. Pratt — Orson Pratt — William Smith — Orson Hyde — James J. Strang — An Ecclesiastical Trial — Hyde on Rigdon.

CHAPTER XXXII.

A N^ew Prophet— J AiiES J. Straistg. - 312

Strang's Claim to the Succession— His Revelation— Sets up at Yoree— He, too, Finds Plates— His Arrogance and Pretensions—Arrested for Treason — Tried and Acquitted — ' A Polygamist — His Violent Death — Fate of Mormon Prophets.

CHAPTER XXXIII.

More Violence and Bloodshed. - 320

Three Obnoxious Officials— Arrest of Senator Davis— Nauvoo Charter Repealed — Increase of Crime — Murder of Miller and Leiza— Of Irvine Hodge— Of Colonel Davenport— Of Dr. Marshall — Death of Sheriff Deming — Burning of Morley-Town — Killing of Lieutenant Worrell— Of McBratney — Of Wilcox and Daubenheyer — Incidents of the Burning — Arrival of Colonel Hardin with State Troops.

xii CONTENTS,

CHAPTER XXXIV.

T^TKE. CoxmriES Interfere— The End ApPEOACHiNa. 334

Colonel Hardin and His Advisers — Major Warren Left in Command — Convention of Nine Counties — Browning's Resolutions — Action of tlie Convention — Correspondence with the Mormon Leaders — The Inevitable Accepted.

CHAPTER XXXV.

The Exodus Begtjn. - - 342 Active Preparations for Leaving — Crossing into Iowa — Major Warren and His Force — Disbanded and Re-mustered — O. P. Rockwell — Arrest, Trial, and Acquittal — ^Dr. Pickett — Posse Called Out — Major Parker's Force — ^War of Proclamations — Posse under Carlin — Singleton's Peace — Resigns the Command — Major Brockman Succeeds — Advance toward the City.

CHAPTER XXXVI.

A Battle — A Treaty — And the End. - 353

Warsaw SignaVs Report of the Battle — Quincy Committee of One Hundred — A Truce — The City Surrenders — The Treaty — The Killed and Wounded — More Trouble and More Troops — ^Reflections.

CHAPTER XXXVII.

The Exodus — The Desert and Wilderness. 363

Brigham Young's Choice — En-route Westward — Kanesville — "Winter Quarters" — Colonel Kane's Description — Missouri Bepuhlican Correspondent — The Mormon Battahon — Brigham Assumes Supreme Power — Pushes on to Salt Lake and Returns — Main Body Reaches the Valley — Stake Planted — State of Deseret.

CHAPTER XXXVIII.

The Mormon Temples. - 380

The Kirtland Temple — In Missouri — At Nauvoo — Its Destruction by Fire-;-The Baptismal Font — Important Decision in Ohio.

CHAPTER XXXIX.

The "Reconstructed" Mormon Church. 388

CHAPTER XL.

Polygamy and the Blood Atonement. 394

The Twin Evils of Mormonism — Polygamy in Utah — Denounced by the " Reconsti'ucted " — Originated by the Prophet — Proofs Adduced — Blood Atonement Defined by Young — Known in Missouri and Illinois — Smith and Rigdon Its Authors.

CONTENTS. xiii

CHAPTEE XLI.

The Spalding Romance. - - 408 Review of the Situation — Dr. Hurlbut and E. D. Howe — Their Book Mormonism Unveiled — Solomon Spalding's Manuscript Found — Efforts to Obtain It — Recent Statements Concerning It.

CHAPTER XLII.

Statements of the Spalding Fa:milt. - 417 Mrs. Davison's Statement — Denied by the Mormons — Mrs. Dickinson's Publication in Scribner^s Magazine — J. E. Johnson in Deseret News — Disagreeing Statements.

CHAPTER XLIII.

The Spalding Witnesses. - - 431 Statement of John Spalding — Of Martha Spalding — Of Henry- Lake — John ]Sr. Miller — Aaron Wright — Oliver Smith — Nahum Howard — Artemus Cunningham.

CHAPTER XLIV.

Lateb Testimony. - - 441

Mr. Cooper in Cincinnati Gazette — Joseph Miller's Letter — Abner Jackson's Narrative — "Mere Supposition" vs. "God-Given Testimony" — Besume of Testimony — The Book's Proper Title — Mr. Patterson — Rev. J. Winter — Rigdon's Hand Manifest.

CHAPTER XLY.

After Fifty Years. - - 458

A Strange Discovery — A Spalding Manuscript Found in Honolulu — A God-Send to the Mormons — False Impression — Not the Manuscript Found — Of No Historic Value — Description and Comments on MS. at Oberlin College — Eloquent Reference to Spalding's AYork.

CHAPTER XLVI.

The Nauvoo Charter. - - 463

CHAPTER XLYII.

Some of the City Ordinances. - 472

CHAPTER XLVIII.

Celebrated "Celestial Marriage" Revelation. 478

CHAPTER XLIX.

Miscellaneous and Anecdotal. - 489

The Kinderhook Plates— Titles of the Twelve— The Prophet

as a Linguist — Some Mormon Methods — The Prophet and

Church as Land Speculators — A Story from Stenhouse —

Bishop John D. Lee — The "Corrected" Holy Scriptures.

3dv CONTENTS.

Appendix

The Leaders in the Revolt at Nauvoo, - - 503

Governor West and the Polygamists, - - - 518 A Characteristic Document, ----- 528

Mrs. Emma Smith's Letter, . - . . 537

The Mormons or Latter-Day Saints, - - 539

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

.

Frontispiece.

Oliver Cowdery, - - -

-

-

David Whitmer,

-

Martin Harris, - - -

P.P.Pratt, -

-

The Temple at Nauvoo, -

-

-

Hyrum Smith, -

-

-

Major-General John C. Bennett, -

- a

The Scene of Smith's Death, -

-

Brigham Young - - -

-

-

Baptismal Font,

•

-

Ruins of the Temple at Nauvoo, -

- a

Fac-simile from the so-called " Book of Abraham,"

The Prophet of Palmyra.

Chapter I, Introductory

Solomon Spalding — False Prophets in All Ages — Joseph Smith, the Founder of Mormonism-- Compared to Mahomet— His Character and Aims— Origin of Mormonism — An Absorblnq Question.

Poor, unfortunate, somewhat unbalanced, yet honest and well- meaning Solomon Spalding ! His name will go down to posterity as the innocent originator of one of the most stupendous and wicked frauds ever perpetrated upon the world. Had he lived to witness the result of his work — work in which he took so much delight and spent so many days of his life — ^his gray head would have been bowed down with sorrow. But he was kindly spared the infliction. He died in 1816, and the fraud perpetrated upon his work and his good name was not committed till some ten or twelve years after he had been laid peacefully in his grave. The story of his connection with the Mormon scheme will be fully told in future chapters of this work.

2 THE PROPHET OP PALMYBA.

Prophets have flourished ever since the world was peopled. But, unfortunately for the world, many of them have been false prophets ; and prophesying, instead of bemg a vehicle of God's will to man, has been used for base and selfish ends and purposes, and to impose on the credulous and unwary. People of every age have been prone to run after false prophets. Hence the boldest, most daring and unscrupulous among them — he who has put on the most sanctity and arrogated to himself the highest authority— has generally been the most successful. As a rule, their careers have been short and their influence limited. The claims and pretensions of a few, however, have wrought great evil upon the world, and added many dark and bloody pages to its history. One, and not the least of these, will be the subject of these pages. That such a career as was his, with such remarkable results following, could be run in this enlightened Nineteenth Centur}^, and in a land where Christianity and Civilization have shed their benign rays, is a mystery which the writer prefers to leave his readers to solve.

On the 27th of June, 1844, was killed by a mob at the jail in Carthage, Hancock County, Illinois, Joseph Smith, the founder of the sect of Latter- Day Saints, and who claimed to have been divinely commissioned as a "Prophet, Seer, andRevelator,"

INTJRODVCTORY, S

Born in the State of Yermont, reared in Western New York, residing three or four years in Ohio, about as long in Missouri, and over five years in Illinois, he had adopted a policy which made him inimical to the people everywhere, and finally brought him to a violent and bloody death.

Parallels to this man's remarkable career have been sought in history. It has been likened to that of Mahomet. When at Mecca, in Arabia, the great founder of Islamism began his eventful career, he was doubtless honest in his purposes, which were to reform and improve the idolatrous worship of his people. But he was an enthusiast and a fanatic. With an ardent temperament and a restless and uneasy spirit, he could not brook opposition. His efforts met first with neglect, then ridicule and contumely, and finally with resistance and violence. Friends and neighbors turned to enemies, and their opposition increased till he was compelled to fly from his native city to save his life. The vindictive persecution and violence to which he was subjected, changed the character of the man, and henceforth revenge and ambition became his ruling passions.

But his career, in whatever light it may be regarded, was a most remarkable one. Living amongst the idolatries of the Pagan, Jewish, and Christian systems, in one of the darkest of the

Dark Ages of the world, he built up a system, which, to say the least, was superior to, and an improvement upon, an}i;hing by which he was surrounded. His successes were unprecedented in the world's history. During his own lifetime and that of his faithful friend and co-worker, Abou- Bekir, his creed, through his zeal — aided by the sword and scimiter, potent agents in the work of propagandism in all ages — had become the recognized faith through all Arabia, and was fast undermining all the other systems about him.

The curious career of the Prophet of JNIormonism has sometimes been contrasted with that of this great leader. But the contrast affords but slight parallel. When "Joe Smith" — as the Mormon Prophet was always designated in his youth (a title which stuck to him through life) — began his career at Palmyra in the State of Xew York, his motives were not honest, nor was he prompted by either reveno^e or ambition. His untutored and feeble intellect had not yet grasped at anything beyond mere toying with mysterious things. It is evident that he had at first no higher purpose in view. He was one of those indolent and illiterate young men, too numerous in all communities, who hope to shun honest labor, and who have imbibed the pernicious doctrine embraced in the phrase : ' ' The world owes me a living." Any means that would enable

JNTRODVCTORY, 5

him to obtain that living he was ready to employ. Hence we find him at an early age, trying his skill at little tricks to impose on the credulity of his ignorant associates. As he grew in years, searching for lost treasure became one of his favorite employments ; for was it not better, he reasoned, to obtain the golden thousands from the nooks and crevices of the earth, where Captain Kidd and the pirates and robbers had secreted them, and live in ease and idleness, than to obtain a small competency by the slow and uncertain processes of honest labor? And thus he plodded on, till accident opened a new career for him. A petty theft, by himself or one of his co-workers, placed the Spalding ' * Manuscript Found " in his hands ; and then it was that the idea of a new sect, a new creed, a new and deeper play upon popular ignorance and credulity, and consequent power, and place, and fortune, were gradually developed and boldly and persistently and most wickedly carried forward — aided by confederates as bad as himself and with similar purposes in view.

No ; the character and aims of these two false prophets afibrd but slight parallel ; in their successful career, a stronger resemblance is to be traced.

MoRMONiSM had its origin and incipient growth in Western New York, where it attracted little at-

6 THE PBOPHET OF PAmiYBA.

tention beyond the ridicule of sensible people and the gaping wonder of a few seekers after the new and the marvellous — and it sought fi-esh fields. In Xorthern Ohio it gained strength by contact with the world; and there, too, its leaders made the discoverv that the way to notoriety and success was to create opposition ; and an aggressive policy was boldly adopted, and aggressive tenets engrafted into the creed. In Xorth Missouri it increased greatly in strength ; but in its violent contests with its neighbors and the authorities, it became dismembered and broken, and was finally violently expelled fi'om the State. Poor, disheartened, and scattered — its prophet and some other leaders in prison — all of its members who could muster courage and means made their way eastward across the State to Illinois, where their forlorn condition attracted the sympathy- and aid of all classes of people. Settling in the latter State, at Commerce, in Hancock county, in time the same aggressive policy was pursued ; and after eight years of arrogant pretension, active proselytism, and stupendous folly, it met the fate it had encountered in Missouri, together Avith the loss of its daring prophet and leader. Later, under an equally daring and more able successor, it sought isolation and a home among the nigged crags and mountains and fertile valleys of Utah — where it

INTRODTCTOBY. 1

has for more than a third of a century increased in an astonishing degree, and developed into what it now is, an ugly and troublesome excrescence on the body politic, and a disgrace to the nation and to civilization.

A^Tiile the ' * Latter-Day Saints " remained in Ohio, Missouri, or Illinois, the *< Mormon Question " was only one of local or State concern. But since they have withdrawn to the wilderness, and there within the territory and under the jurisdiction and flag of the United States, have assumed an independent position and arrayed themselves in open hostility to the government, the matter takes a new shape. From a State problem it has advanced to a National one, and one that is daily becoming of greater magnitude, now seriously agitating the minds of the best statesmen of our country.

It bids fair to overshadow all other social questions. It is therefore highly important and necessary that the reading public should be fully informed, not only as to what Mormonism now is, but made acquainted with the origin, history and development of this the most wicked and dangerous folly of the Nineteenth Century, and with the life, character, and purposes of its founders. Such is the task before us, and to which these efforts are directed.

The term «« Mormonism" is a coinafje of the

S THE PBOPHET OF PALMYEA.

present century. It is derived from the name of one of the chief writers of the so-called Booh of Mormon (though why after Mormon, rather than Kephi, Moroni, Alma, Enos, or Lehi, it would be hard to tell) — a silly and little worthy, but in the eyes of its deluded believers, the most sacred of all books. It is less interesting and far feebler than the Koran, the holy book of Islam. Its chief ingredients are ignorance and arrogance, and it abounds in blasphemy ; it is full of falsehood, injustice toward man and impiety toward God. To accept the claims and adopt the teachings of its chief adherents, is to eschew holiness and goodness, and to dethrone the Almighty.

THE BEGINNINGS OF THE IMPOSTUBE. 9

Chapter II. The Beginnings Of The Imposture

Disagreeing Statements — Impossible Clatms — The Smith

Own Story — "History of Joseph Sahth" — The Angel Nephi — Plates Revealed— The Urevi and Thl^imim — Second, Third, and Fourth Visions — Hill of Cuiviorah — Stone Box — The Prophet's Marriage — " Persecutions" — After Four Years — Martin Harris and the Translation.

In the matter of the early life of Joseph Smith there is great contrariety of statement. The testimony of the Smith family, and of his faithful believers, goes to show that he was a most exemplary youth, truthful, without guile, and ever seeking for the highest religious truth. As this is the testimony of interested witnesses only, we are bound to reject it for that of his neighbors, who, with great unanimity, tell a far diiferent story-^ that he was indolent, ignorant, untruthful, and superstitious.

This counter-testimony has been obtained from a great many sources — people in several sections of the country where he was best known, and some of whom, in high standing, are still living toreaffirm statements made long ago b}^ themselves and others, and who could have no reason for falsifying or traducing his character. Coupled with much of his conduct after he had reached years of mature manhood, it furnishes irresistible proof that his youth was such as would render it preposterous and impossible that he should have been selected through divine agency to carry a God-given revelation to mankind and lead in a great reformation. To adopt any other theory would require that we should accept entirely new ideas of God's providence and of divine things.

The Smith family to which he belonged was of Yankee origin ; Joseph, the elder, having removed from Vermont to Western New York when that country was new and sparsely settled. He is said to have been a soldier of the Revolution. Ignorance and superstition seem to have been traits in the family. The district in which they had resided in Vermont, had for several ^^ears been the home of an arrant pretender to supernatural things, living upon the credulit}^ of the people, and who had committed gross crimes under the plea of religious inspiration — crimes which he afterwards expiated in the State's prison.* Some of the practices of the Mormon Prophet in after years, in New York and elsewhere, show a remarkable resemblance to the doings of this Vermont pretender, leading to * Stephen Burrows.

TirE BEGINNINGS OF THE IMPOSTURE. 11

the conclusion that he must have been at least familiar with them.

Mr. E. D. Plowe, in his valuable work, Mormonism Unveiled (Painesville, Ohio, 1834), presents the testimonials of eighty-one persons, neighbors and acquaintances of the Smith family, all attesting to their illiteracy and generally worthless and disreputable character, especially that of the son "Joe," as he was called. Among the most damaging of these statements, perhaps, is that of Isaac Hale, of Harmony, Pa., whose daughter the would-be prophet married. These testimonials, it will be remembered, were obtained in 1833, only three years after the Booh of Mormon appeared, and after the Smiths had left Palmyra and Manchester, where most of these certifiers resided.

The prophet's own story of his early life, and the manner in which he was called to the high position he claimed to occupy, is to be found in the third volume of the Times and /Seasons, the organ of the Mormon Church at Nauvoo, of which he was editor — page 706. It purported to have been prepared at the request of Hon. John Wentworth, editor of the Chicago Democrat. A few of the leading paragraphs were also contributed to, and are to be found in, a volume entitled. History of the Religious Denominations of the United States, published in Philadelphia. The more important portions are herewith given :

JOSEPH smith's statement.

**I was born in the town of Sharon, Windsor county, Vermont, on the 23d of December, 1805. When ten years old my parents removed to Palmyra, N. Y., where we resided about four years, and from there we removed to the town of Manchester, a distance of six miles.

' ' My father was a farmer, and taught me the art of husbandry. When about fourteen years of age, I began to reflect upon the importance of being prepared for a future state, and upon inquiring the plan of salvation, I found there was a great clash in religious sentiment; if I went to one society they referred me to one plan, and another to another, each one pointing to his own particular creed as the summum honum of perfection. Considering that all could not be right, and that God could not be the author of so much confusion, I determined to investigate the subject more fully, believing that if God had a church it would not be split up into factions, and that if He taught one society to worship one way, and administer in one set of ordinances. He would not teach another principles which were diametrically opposed. Believing the word of God, I had confidence in the declaration of James : ' If any man lack wisdom, let him ask of God, who giveth to all men liberally and upbraideth not, and it shall be given him.'

*' I retired to a secret place in a grove, and began to call upon the Lord. While fervently engaged in supplication, my mind was taken away from the objects with which I was surrounded, and I was enrapt in a heavenly vision, and saw two glorious personages who exactly resembled each other in features and likeness, surrounded by a brilliant

THE BEGINNINGS OF THE IMPOSTURE. 13

light which eclipsed the sun at noon-day. They told me that all the religious denominations were believing in incorrect doctrines, and that none of them were acknowledged of God as His Church and Kingdom. And I was expressly commanded ' to go not after them,' at the same time receiving a promise that the fulness of the gospel should at some future time be made known to me.

** On the evening of the 21st of September, a.d. 1823, while I was praying unto God, and endeavoring to exercise faith in the precious promises of Scripture, on a sudden a light like that of day, only of a far purer and more glorious appearance and brightness, burst into the room ; indeed, the first sight was as though the house was filled with consuming fire. The appearance produced a shock that affected the whole body. In a moment a personage stood before me, surrounded with a glory yet greater than that with which I was already surrounded. The messenger proclaimed himself to be an angel of God, sent to bring the joyful tidings that the covenant which God made with ancient Israel was at hand to be fulfilled ; that the preparatory work for the second coming of the Messiah was speedily to commence ; that the time was at hand for the gospel in all its fulness, to be preached in power unto all nations, that the people might be prepared for the millennial reign.

*' I was informed that I was chosen to be an instrument in the hands of God to bring about some of his purposes in this glorious dispensation.

" I was informed, also, concerning the aboriginal inhabitants of this country, and shown who they were and from whence they came ; a brief sketch of their origin, progress, civilization, laws, governments, of their righteousness and iniquity, and the blessings of God being finally withdrawn from them as ii people, was made known to me. X was also told where there was deposited some plates, on which was engraved an abridgment of the records of the ancient prophets that had existed on this continent. The angel appeared to me three times the same night, and unfolded the same things. After having receivedj many visits from the angel of God, unfolding the; majesty and glory of the events that should trans-' pire in the last days, om the morning of the 2 2d of September, a.d. 1827, the angel of the Lord delivered the records into my hands.