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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.

DETAILED CONTENTS

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I. THE MORMON ORIGIN

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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II. IN OHIO

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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III. IN MISSOURI

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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"

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

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IV. IN ILLINOIS

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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 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

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V. THE MIGRATION TO UTAH

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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VI. IN UTAH

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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"

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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".

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

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

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--Means 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

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

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

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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.

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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, flaxen-haired, 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, evil-brewing 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.

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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.

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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 be 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."

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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."

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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 he 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 evil-designing 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.

Spotted a typo or a problem in this chapter? Tell us

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 driven 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.

Spotted a typo or a problem in this chapter? Tell us

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,* a much 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 Egypt." 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.

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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.

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