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SMITH, JOSEPH. 



SMITH, JOSEPH. 



parts of the Book of Mormon. The story is incoherent in its details 

 and the authenticity of the affidavits does not seem clear ; but the 

 work itself appears to agree pretty well with such an origin, sup- 

 posing, that is, that the presbyterian preacher, RB might well have 

 been the case, was a rude-minded, uneducated man, sufficiently 

 familiar with the Old Testament to find no difficulty in clothing his 

 story in its language, and making use of the easily obtained informa- 

 tion respecting the ruins of ancient " towns and temples," which have 

 been discovered in various parts of America, as a ground-work for his 

 narrative. The book itself is (even now that its grosser grammatical 

 errors are said to have been expunged) a singularly ill-written one, and 

 how any decently educated man could have written it as a book to 

 be read for amusement would bo inconceivable, were it not that 

 experience teaches us that authors are by no means unfrequently mis- 

 taken in that respect. At the same time there is certainly nothing in 

 the book to contradict the supposition that it is the work of Smith 

 himself for as to its being a divine revelation, the most cursory 

 examination of the book will be enough to convince an educated man 

 of the utter improbability of that, if its possibility were otherwise con- 

 ceivable. Be the author who he may, Smith having obtained the 

 book whether from Solomon Spalding's travelling chest, his own brain, 

 or the stone-box which the angel discovered to him thought it behoved 

 him to make his treasure known. At first he told the members of his 

 own and his father's household, and, more fortunate than Mahomet, 

 found little difficulty in ^persuading them of the truth of his mission 

 and the reality of the gift. But he says : " As soon as the news of 

 this discovery was made known, false reports, misrepresentation, and 

 slander flew, as on the wings of the wind, in every direction. My house 

 was frequently beset by mobs and evil-designing persons ; several times 

 I was shot at, and very narrowly escaped ; and every device was made 

 use of to get the plates away from me ; but the power and blessing of 

 God attended me, and several began to believe my testimony." 



Among those he told of the discovery was a farmer named Martin 

 Harris, whom he persuaded to convert his stock into money in order to 

 assist in printing the book. But Harris wanted to consult some scholar, 

 and Smith was induced to entrust him with a copy of a portion of one 

 of the golden plates to carry to New York. Harris took the copy to 

 Dr. Anthon, who according to the triumphant declaration of the 

 Mormonites was unable to make out the characters, which he described 

 to be " reformed Egyptian " and this is one of "the proofs" cited 

 by Mormonite teachers of the authenticity of the book. But Dr. 

 Anthon's own account is very different. He says that he at first 

 supposed the paper to be a hoax, and gave little heed to it ; but on 

 hearing the man's story, he assured him that the work was an 

 imposture, and strongly advised him not to have anything to do 

 with it. The paper itself he thus describes (and it is the only 

 description of the ' Book of Mormon ' which has been published) : 

 "The 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 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 Humboldt, but copied in such a way as not to 

 betray the source whence it was derived." (' Letter to Mr. Howe,' 

 February 17, 1834.) 



Mrs. Lucy Smith (the Prophet's mother) tells an odd rambling story 

 about the first translation made from the plates having been entrusted 

 to this Harris, and stolen from him by his wife. Smith she says was, 

 after long repentance, assured by the angel of forgiveness for his 

 negligence, but at the same time informed that Satan would cause the 

 stolen work to be interpolated and altered ; and in order to avoid the 

 mischief that would else arise from these machinations, he was 

 directed to make another translation not as the first was to have 

 been from the original book, but from an abridgment of it. Harris, 

 though despite of Dr. Anthon's advice he did sell his goods as a con- 

 tribution towards Smith's outlay, afterwards apostatised, and one 

 might fancy from Mrs. Smith's story that he had in his possession 

 some version of the revelation differing from that eventually pub- 

 lished, but it is possible that she might have written with sorre 

 reference to the Spalding story. 



No sooner was the discovery published, than great curiosity was 

 manifested by the faithful as well as by unbelievers, to obtain a sight 

 of the marvellous plates, and the Prophet and his mother give a 

 minute account of the shifts to which he was driven to conceal them. 

 At length it was revealed to him that the desired sight should be 

 vouchsafed to three witnesses whose ' testimony ' is prefixed to every 

 printed copy of the ' Book of Mormon.' These witnesses aver in 

 their strange language " that an angel of God came down from 

 heaven, and he brought and laid before our eyes, that we beheld and 

 saw the plates, and the engravings thereon." This is sufficiently 

 vague, and it is noteworthy that the more detailed account of this 

 transaction by the prophet's mother, has just the same vagueness as 

 to what manner of vision this was. But a more specific testimony 

 was given by eight other witnesses, to whom Smith was permitted to 

 show the plates. Mrs. Smith says that these eight men went with 



Joseph into a secret place " where the family were in the habit of 

 offering up their secret devotions to God. They went to this place 

 because it had been revealed to Joseph that the plates would be 

 carried by one of the ancient Nephites. Here it was that these eight 

 witnesses, whose names are recorded in the Book of Mormon, looked 

 upon them and handled them." The witnesses themselves say " We 

 have seen and hefted, and know of a surety that the said Smith has 

 got the plates of which we have spoken." Of these eight witnesses 

 three were members of Smith's own family. After these witnesses 

 had seen the plates, Mrs. Smith tells us, " The angel again made his 

 appearance to Joseph, at which time Joseph delivered up the plates 

 into the angel's hands ; " and, Joseph himself says, " He (the angel) 

 has them in his charge to this day." It is needless to remark that 

 this disposes of any demand on the part of the sceptic to see the 

 original plates, and gets rid of many awkward inquiries : nor need we 

 add that it is a story quite satisfactory to Mormon ' saints ' but how 

 far it is likely to satisfy the outside world the reader will judge for 

 himself. We have, at the risk of being tedious, related these par- 

 ticulars, because they concern the very foundations of the system. To 

 satisfy the curious we may mention that Smith carried on tlie process 

 of translating the plates by retiring behind a screen where he read the 

 plates through the " curious instrument called the Urim and 

 Thummim," and was thus enabled to translate them, while a ' scribe ' 

 outside the screen wrote as he dictated. 



The 'Book of Mormon' was published in 1830. In the previous 

 year Smith and Oliver Cowdery, the scribe, had been baptised by an 

 angel, and power given them to baptise others. Smith himself may 

 now carry on the narrative : " On the 6th April 1830, ' The Church 

 of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints ' was first organised, in the town 

 of Manchester, Ontario county, state of New York. Some few were 

 called and ordained by the spirit of revelation and prophecy, and 

 began to preach as the spirit gave them utterance, and though weak, 

 yet were they strengthened by the power of God ; and many were 

 brought to repentance, were immersed in the water, and were filled 

 with the Holy Ghost by the laying on of hands. They saw visions 

 and prophesied, devils were cast out, and the sick healed by the laying 

 on of hands. From that time the work rolled forth with astonishing 

 rapidity, and churches were soon formed in the states of New York, 

 Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Missouri. In the last-named 

 state a considerable settlement was formed in Jackson county ; 

 numbers joiued the church, and we were increasing rapidly ; we made 

 large purchases of land, our farms teemed with plenty, and peace and 

 happiness were enjoyed in our domestic circle and throughout our 

 neighbourhood ; but as we could not associate with our neighbours 

 who were many of them of the basest of men, and had fled from the 

 face of civilised society to the frontier country to escape the hands of 

 justice in their midnight revels, their sabbath-breaking, horse-racing, 

 they commenced at first to ridicule, then to persecute, and finally an 

 organised mob assembled and burned our houses, tarred and feathered 

 and whipped many of our brethren [Smith himself was tarred and 

 feathered], and finally drove them from their habitations; these, 

 houseless and homeless, contrary to law, justice, and humanity, had to 

 wander on the bleak prairies till the children left their blood on the 

 prairie. This took place in the month of November (1833)." The 

 government, he says, winked at these proceedings, and "the result 

 was, that a great many of them died j many children were left 

 orphans; wives, widows; and husbands, widowers. Our farms were 

 taken possession of by the mob, many thousands of cattle, sheep, 

 horses, and hogs were taken, and our household goods, store goods, 

 and printing-presses were broken, taken, or otherwise destroyed." 

 These outrageous proceedings were the result of the reports which had 

 spread abroad of the scandalous practices of the Mormonites 

 practices almost perfectly analogous to those formerly charged upon 

 the Anabaptists and other new sects, and in all probability with no 

 more foundation in truth. Driven from Jackson, the Mormonites 

 settled in Clay county, where they remained three years, when being 

 again threatened with violence, they removed to Caldwell and Davies 

 counties. Here their numbers rapidly increased. They formed three 

 extensive settlements, established a bank, and appeared to be in a 

 most flourishing condition. But again various troubles fell upon 

 them. The bank failed, and Smith was obliged to conceal himself. 

 Their old persecutors roused the popular feeling against them, and 

 finally, by "an extraordinary order," issued by the governor of Mis- 

 souri, in the summer of 1838, they were violently ejected from their 

 homes, plundered of their goods, and subjected, the women especially, 

 to the most frightful atrocities. 



Being thus expelled from Misssouri, they settled in Illinois, where 

 they were at first treated with great kindness. An admirable site 

 having been purchased by them on the Mississippi, at the head of the 

 Des Moines liapids, they "in the fall of 1839" laid the foundation of 

 their famous^city of Nauvoo, or ' the Beautiful,' for which the state 

 legislature granted them in December 1840 a charter of incorporation 

 with unusual privileges. Smith dwells with great delight on this city, 

 which he had seen rise up under his presidency from a wild tract to 

 be a place of " 1500 well-built houses, and more than 15,000 inhabit- 

 ants," all looking to him for temporal as well as spiritual guidance. 

 Among the chief things which he describes as provided for, was " the 

 University of Nauvoo, where all the arts and sciences will grow with 



