USA > Illinois > Hancock County > History of Hancock County, Illinois, together with an outline history of the State, and a digest of State laws > Part 21
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CHRISTIAN WHITMER, JACOB WHITMER, PETER WHITMER, JR, HIRAM PAGE, JOSEPH SMITH, SR.,
HYRUM SMITH, SAMUEL H. SMITHI.
Late editions of the book make these eight witnesses testify of Smith as the " translator " of the work, instead of the "author and proprietor," as in the foregoing certificate. A copy issued at Plano, Ill., from the press of young Joseph Smith's reorganized Church, now before us, perpetuates this change, and also corrects a number of errors in grammar.
It is further claimed by Mormon adherents that the book con- tains internal evidence of its genuineness, proving how much men can differ; for all others than Mormons can see in it numer- ous internal evidences of a fraudulent character.
The second. theory in regard to the origin of the Book of Mor- mon, is that it was written as a mere romance by Rev. Solomon Spaulding, a Presbyterian minister of Northern Ohio; that it some- how fell into the hands of Rigdon and Smith, and was by them diverted to its present purpose.
It is however believed by many that Smith and his co-workers in iniquity manufactured the whole thing themselves, and out of whole cloth. Yet the people about Palmyra, many of them still living, who were cognizant of the facts as they occurred, and who knew the Smiths and the eleven witnesses well, assure us, in recent correspondence, that the Spaulding story is undoubtedly true.
AN INQUIRY. ,
The first questions likely to be asked by one unacquainted with any of the facts, would be, What matters it whether Spaulding wrote the story or not, either as a romance or as a veritable history; or whether Smith and Rigdon wrote it? Wliat is its character? What does it purport to be?
The following is its title in full:
"THE BOOK OF MORMON ;
an account written by the hand of Mormon, upon plates taken from the plates of Nephi; wherefore it is an abridgment of the record of the people of Nephi, and also of the Lamanites, written to the Lamanites, which are a remnant of the house of Israel, and also to Jew and Gentile; written by way of commandment, and also by the spirit of prophecy and revelation: written and sealed up and hid unto the Lord, that they might not be destroyed; to come forth by the gift and power of God, unto the interpretation thereof; sealed by the hand of Moroni, and hid up unto the Lord,
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to come forth in due time by the way of the Gentiles; the interpre- tation thereof by the gift of God, and an abridgment taken from the book of Ether.
" Also, which is a record of the people of Jared, which were scattered at the time the Lord confounded the language of the people, when they were building a tower to get to heaven; which is to show unto the remnant of the house of Israel how great things the Lord had done for their fathers, and that they may know the covenants of the Lord, that they are not cast off forever; and also to the convincing of Jews and Gentiles that Jesus is the Christ, the Eternal God, manifesting himself to all nations.
" And now, if there be fault, it be the mistake of men; wherefore condemn not the things of God, that ye may be found spotless before the judgment seat of Christ.
" By Joseph Smith, Junior, Author and Proprietor."
In late editions, instead of "By Joseph Smith, Jr., author and proprietor," the title is simply signed " MORONI."
In regard to the claims set up by Smith and his eleven witnesses, there are several things to be considered before we take their state- ments as truc. 1. The importance and value of the so-called revelation; 2. The means used; and 3. The character of the agents employed.
How any person with a well-balanced mind can see anything in the book worthy of being styled a revelation from God to man, sur- passeth understanding. Its purport and aim no man can gather from the "confounding of language," in its title; but in turning over its pages we find it to be a pretended history of the early inhabitants of this continent; that they are represented to be the descendants of some of the tribes of Israel; or, as the book of Ether has it, of the people dispersed at the tower; that they somehow got to this country in "eight barges;" and that after multitudinous and terrible wars, they were, like the Kilkenny cats, nearly used up; and that the Indian tribes are the tails that were left. What possible difference can it make to the human family, in a soul-saving point of view, whether the story is true or false? Had the general idea been eliminated into good English by one who had a well-balanced mind, and not by one who had
caten of the insane root That takes the reason prisoner,
it might have made a volume of pleasant reading, if nothing more; and were there any facts of co-incident history to verify it, it might even approach the dignity of an historical treatise. But why men should be required to believe it, is a mystery. And why these " Records " should be thus preserved and handed down through various hands, " servants of the Lord " (Mormon, Moroni, Nephi, Ether, and a lot of others), and finally " sealed up " and deposited in a hill in New York, for fourteen centuries, is another mystery. And then the character of the agents employed by the Almighty
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to bring these things to light and usher them to the world! If that is the Lord's work, truly " the ways of the Lord are past finding out."
There are so many silly things throughout the work that it is hard to speak of it seriously. They abound, but we can only make room for a few. Turn to page 504, book of Ether [Plano edition]. and learn how America was peopled, and also obtain some valuable ideas of ship-building and navigating the seas:
And the Lord said, Go to work and build after the manner of barges which ye have hitherto built. And it came to pays that the brother of Jared did go to work, and also his brethren, and built barges after the manner which they had built, according to the instructions of the Lord. And they were smail, and they were light upon the water, even unto the lightness of a fowl upon the water: and they were built after a manner that they were exceedingly tight, even that they would hold water like unto a dish; and the sides thereof were tight, like unto a dish ; and the bottom thereof was tight, like unto a dish; and the ends thereof were peaked; and the top thereof was tight like unto a dish; and the length thereof was the length of a tree; and the door thereof, when it was shut, was tight like unto a dish.
And it came to pass that the brother of Jared cried unto the Lord, saying, O Lord, I have performed the work which thou hast commanded me, and I have made the barges according as thou hast directed me. And, behold, O Lord, in them is no light: whither shall we steer ? And also we shall perish, for in them we cannot breathe, save it be the air which is in them; therefore we shall perish. And the Lord said unto the brother of Jared, Behold, thou shalt make a hole in the top thereof, and also in the bottom thereof; and when thou shalt suffer for air, thou shalt unstop the hole thereof, and receive air. And if it so be, that the water come in upon thee, behold, ye shall stop the hole thereof, that ye may not perish in the flood. And it came to pass that the brother of Jared did so, according as the Lord had commanded. And he cried again unto the Lord, saying, O Lord, behold I have done even as thou hast commanded me; and I have prepared the vessels for my people, and, behold, there is no light in them. wilt thou suffer that we shall cross this great water in darkness ? And the Lord
Behold, O Lord, said unto the brother of Jared, What will ye that I should do that ye may have light in your vessels ? For, behold, ye cannot have windows, for they will be dashed in pieces; neither shall ye take fire with you, for ye shall not go by the light of fire; for, behold, ye shall be as a whale in the midst of the sea; for the mountain waves shall dash upon you. Nevertheless, I will bring you up again out of the depths of the sea; for the winds have gone forth out of my mouth, and also the rains and the floods have I sent forth. * * And it came to % pass that the brother of Jared (now the number of vessels which had been prepared was eight) went forth unto the mount which they called mount Shelem, because of its exceeding height, and did molten out of a rock sixteen small stones ; and they were white and clear, even as transparent glass ; and he did carry them in his hands upon the top of the mount, and cried again unto the Lord, saying, O Lord, touch these stones with thy fingers, and prepare them that they may shine forth in darkness; and they shall shine forth unto us in the vessels which we have prepared, that we may have light while we shall cross the sea. * *
* And the Lord stretched forth his hand and touched the stones, one by one, with his finger. *, For it came to pass after the Lord had prepared the stones, which the brother of Jared had carried up into the mount, the brother of Jared came down out of the mount, and he did put forth the stones into the vessels which were prepared, one in each end thereof ; and behold, they did give light unto the vessels thereof. And thus the Lord caused stones to shine in darkness, to give light unto men, women and children, that they might not cross the great waters in darkness.
And it came to pass that when they had prepared all manner of food, that thereby they might subsist upon the water, and also food for their flocks and herds, and whatsoever beast, or animal, or fowl, that they should carry with them,-and it came to pass that when they had done all these things, they got aboard of their vessels or barges, and set forth into the sea, commending them-
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selves unto the Lord their God. And it came to pass that the Lord God caused that there should a furious wind blow upon the face of the waters, toward the promised land; and thus they were tossed upon the wave of the sea before the wind. And it came to pass that they were many times buried in the depths of the sea, because of the mountain waves which broke upon them, and also the great and terrible tempests, which were caused by the fierceness of the wind.
And it came to pass that when they were buried in the deep, there was no water that could hurt them, their vessels being tight like unto a dish, and also they were light like unto the ark of Noah. * * And no monster of the sea could break them, neither whale that could mar them; and they did have light con- tinually, whether it was above the water or under the water. * * * And thus they were driven forth THREE HUNDRED AND FORTY AND FOUR DAYS upon the water; and they did land upon the shore of the promised land.
Let us imagine these eight wonderfully planned vessels, on their adventurous voyage,-all built alike, light like a fowl, long as a tree, tight like a dish, all provided with holes in bottom and top, and all lighted with those transparent stones which the brother of Jared " did molten " out of a rock, -- they all start together before the wind-a furious wind,-and after a little voyage of only three hundred and forty-four days, land together, without so much as one being lost! No monster of the deep hurt them; no whale marred them! Sometimes engulfed beneath the mountain wave, the ever-watchful brother of Jared is ready, plug in hand, to stop the holes; and when rising to the surface, as the whales do to spout, he is ever on the alert to give his crew and passengers another sniff of air!
And now having them safely landed on the shore of this prom- ised land, let us turn to page 530 of this same prophet Ether, and learn some of the deeds of their descendants here. War seems to have been the main business and pastime of these people through all the long centuries of their existence in their Western home. But here is an account of one of the greatest battles ever fought since the world began. Talk of the wars of Napoleon, of the Cæsars, of Alexander; they are nothing compared to the struggles between those two great heroes, Shiz and Coriantumr. These were the chief's of the two contending parties at one time. They had already fought till Coriantumr computed he had lost " two millions. of mighty men and also their wives and children." If Shiz had lost as many, the computation would reach from fifteen to twenty millions of sonls. And now they are real mad, and are going at it in earnest:
And it came to pass that when they were all gathered together, every one to the army which he would, with their wives and their children, both men, women and children being armed with weapons of war, having shields and breast-plates and head-plates, and being clothed after the manner of war, they did march forth, one against another to battle.
Men, women and children, all armed and panoplied, going forth to battle! And it proved a nine-days battle, at that; for "on the morrow " they went at it again, and the next, to the sixth day, when the historian makes a count, and finds " they had all fallen by the sword, save it were fifty and two of the people of Corian-
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tumr, and sixty and nine of the people of Shiz." Then again, at the end of this day Shiz had 32 left and Coriantumr 27. The next day it was fight and flight; but on the morrow, which was the ninth, after a fierce and day-long struggle, only the generals Shiz and Coriantur were left. And they were about as good as dead, for Shiz fainted with the loss of blood.
And it came to pass that when Coriantumr had leaned upon his sword, that he rested a little, he smote off the head of Shiz. And it came to pass that after he had smote off the head of Shiz, that Shiz raised up his hands and fell; and after that he had struggled for breath, he died. And it came to pass that Coriantumr fell to the earth, and became as if he had no life.
And so ended the battle and that story. Messages from heaven, indeed !!
Such are some of the records, which Mormon, and Moroni, and Nephi, and Ether, and a lot of others are said to have written and preserved in Cumorah Hill, New York, and which Joseph Smith was commissioned by an angel to dig up and translate for the sal- vation of the world! And the plates, too, must be hid away again by the angel. O, why could not at least those translated ones have been retained, and exhibited to, and "hefted " by an unbelieving world? They might have been at least as convincing as the unsup- ported testimony of Oliver Cowdery and the Whitmers and . Smiths.
But, after all, the whole question turns upon human credulity, for rejection or acceptance. To speak phrenologically, those people whose heads have the organ of Marvelousness excessively devel- oped will perhaps believe the story, though the heavens should fall.
WHAT THE NEIGHBORS SAY.
We turn now to find what their neighbors say of Smith and his co-workers. In 1867 appeared from the press of D. Appleton & Co. a work entitled, "Origin, Rise and Progress of Mormonism," by Pomeroy Tucker, Palmyra, N. Y. This book is written by one whose residence was at Palmyra when this Mormon imposture began; who was personally well acquainted with all the Smith family, and with Martin Harris, Oliver Cowdery, and most of their earlier adherents; who, at the time the "Book of Mormon" first made its appearance, was editor of the paper on the press of which said book was printed; who did much of the proof-reading on the book, and had many interviews with these men.
Of the truth and general correctness of the statements contained in this book of Mr. Tneker's, we have the attestations of numbers of honored living witnesses about Palmyra; and not only that, but that it represents the beginnings of that folly, as known to all the old citizens of Palmyra and the region around it.
The name of Thurlow Weed is of national fame. He resided at Rochester during the progress of these events, and was acquainted with some, if not all, the actors therein. He says:
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NEW YORK, June 1, 1867.
DEAR SIR .- I have been so constantly occupied that I really did not get time to say how much I was interested in your history of Mormonism. I have long hoped that some person with personal knowledge of the origin of this great delu- sion, who saw it as I did, when it was " no bigger than a man's hand," and who has the courage and capacity to tell the whole truth, would undertake the task. I read enough of your manuscript to be confident that you have discharged this duty faithfully. The character you have given "Joe Smith," his family and asso- ciates, corresponds with what I have often heard from the old citizens of Palmyra. Such a work is wanted, and no one but a writer personally and familiarly acquainted with the false prophet and his surroundings could have written it. Truly yours, THURLOW WEED.
The testimony of the eleven witnesses to the book of Mormon, or of eleven hundred like them, impeached and branded as most of them have since been by Smith himself, will not weigh an atom in the scale with that brought in Tucker's book, substantiated as it is by so many living witnesses and facts.
Smith says in his biography, that his father was a farmer, and "taught him the art of husbandry." Tucker says that while in Palmyra the family subsisted on the profits of a "cake and beer shop," and that while out on the "farm " afterward, "the larger proportion of the time of the Smiths was spent in hunting and fishing, trapping muskrats (mush-rats was the word they used), digging out wood-chucks from their holes, and idly lounging around the stores and shops in the village." Further, that " the family were popularly regarded as an illiterate, whisky-drinking, shiftless, irreligious race of people; " "Joe, as he was always called, being unanimously voted the laziest and most worthless of the genera- tion," "noted only for his indolent and vagabondish character, and his habits of exaggeration and untruthfulness." His father called him the "genus of the family," and he was; for after a while he got to be a tolerable reader, and delighted in such high-toned works as " Kidd, the Pirate; " though he afterward took to reading the Bible and attending protracted meetings, once even joining a Methodist class, but was soon "let off." But the story how he passed on from reading Kidd to reading the Bible; from digging potatoes, for which he had no taste and had been poorly "in- structed," to digging for buried treasure, for which he had a pen- chant, inspired by Kidd; and from digging for treasure to proph- esying, is too long to tell in these pages. It is told in the book before us with great particularity and much sincerity. Suffice it to say that he finally succeeded in making a few ignorant persons believe that there was " something" in his pretensions. Numerous diggings for treasure were engaged in, Smith in the meantime sitting by directing the work. But nothing ever was found, the " devil " generally interfering just in time to prevent it from fall- ing into their hands. In these searchings for treasure, and other divinations, he used a little white stone, held in his hat; probably one of the identical stones used by Jared and his brother in light- ing their barges across the sea.
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We quote one of these money-digging incidents from Tucker, p. 32:
A single instance of Smith's style of conducting these money-diggings will suf- fice for the whole series, and also serve to illustrate his low cunning, and show the strange infatuation of the persons who yielded to his unprincipled designs. Assuming his aecustomed air of mystery on one of these occasions, and pretend- ing to see by his miraculous stone exactly where the sought-for chest of money had lodged in its subterranean transits, Smith gave out the revelation that a " black sheep " would be required as a sacrificial offering upon the enchanted ground, before entering upon the work of exhumation. He knew that his kind- hearted neighbor, William Stafford, who was a listener to his plausible story, a respectable farmer in comfortable worldly circumstances, possessed a fine black wether, intended for division between his family use and the village market; and Smith knew, moreover, that fresh meat was a rarity in his father's home, where he lived. The scheme succeeded completely. It was arranged that Mr. Stafford should invest the wether as his stock in the speculation, the avails of which were to be equitably shared among the company engaged in it. At the approach of the appointed hour at night, the digging fraternity, with lanterns and the fattened sheep for the sacrifice, were conducted by Smith to the place where the treasure was to be obtained. There Smith described a circle upon the ground around the buried chest, where the blood of the animal was to be shed as the necessary condi- tion of his power to secure the glittering gold. As usual, not a word was to be spoken during the ceremony, nor until after the prize was brought forth. All things being thus in readiness, the throat of the sheep was cut by one of the party, according to previous instructions, the poor animal made to pour out its own blood around the circle, and the excavation entered upon in a vigorous and solemn manner. In this case the digging was continued about three hours, when the "devil" again frustrated the plan exactly in the same way as on the repeated trials before! In the meantime, the elder Smith, aided by one of the junior sons, had withdrawn the sacrificial carcass and reduced its flesh to mutton for his family use.
We cite a case of conversion, to show the extent that human ere- dulity can go. Calvin Stoddard was a citizen whose mind was ever on the watch for the miraculous, and he also became impressed, and thought there " might be" something in these pretended revela- tions; and yet he " didn't know." Among the many Governors sent ont to govern Utah, our readers will probably recall the name of Hon. Stephen S. Harding, of Indiana. In his youth he was a fun-loving young man, with a keen sense of the ludicrous, and re- sided at Macedon, a village in the vicinity of Palmyra. Knowing Stoddard's proclivities, and bent on fun, he concluded to have some at his expense. So he repaired one dark night at midnight to Stod- dard's house, and knocking him awake, called out in as unearthly a tone as he could assume,-" Cal-vin Stod-dard! Cal-vin Stod- dard! the an-gel of the Lord com-mands that be-fore an-o-ther go-ing down of the sun thou shalt go forth among the people and preach the Gospel of Ne-phi, or thy wife shall be a widow, thy chil-dren orphans, and thy ash-es scat-ter-ed to the four winds of heaven."
Young Harding remained long enough to hear Calvin out and on his knees promising to obey the divine command, and then he " cut and run." And Calvin did obey it; was around the next day telling of the miraculous visitation; joined the new Church; came with the band to the West; was at Nauvoo, and, we believe, died in this county.
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OLAIMS FURTHER CONSIDERED.
As to the golden plates, and what became of them, no human being has ever professed to have seen them, except the eleven wit- nesses. The story is that they were hid away again by the angel, for what purpose we are left to guess; perhaps to be revealed again in another age, when another fit man makes his appearance on the earth to receive and translate them. Can any reasonable man fail to reach the conclusion that Oliver Cowdery, David Whitmer, Martin Harris, and the other eight, were liars and perjurors? It is a hard thing to believe of a fellow-being, but easier, far easier, than to believe such a story, told for such a purpose. The world is full of bad men; and that these men were of that class, we have other than " Gentile" testimony. Martin Harris was denounced by the prophet Smith himself, in the " Elders' Journal" of Angust, 1838, as " a liar and swindler;" and in the " Times and Seasons," at Nanvoo, volume I, he denounces both Cowdery and Whitmer in unsparing terms. It may be mentioned here that all three of them, at different periods, have renounced Mormonismn ; though it is claimed, with what truth we cannot say, that they all returned again to the fold .* Cowdery and Harris are both dead; Whitmer was lately living at Richmond, Missouri, near the scene of their former troubles. He is said to have in his possession the original manuscript of the " Book of Mormon," in the handwriting of Oliver Cowdery.
Who, then, was the real author of the " Book of Mormon?" We have felt inclined to reject the Spaulding story, for it seemed incredible that a college-bred Christian minister could be the author of such an ill-conceived " confusion of language " and ideas. But the proof is clear that Rev. Spaulding did write a book of similar import, which was left in manuscript at his death in 1816, and was entitled " Manuscript Found." How it came into the hands of Smith and Rigdon may never be known; one story being that the latter obtained it, or a copy of it, from the office of a book publisher in Pittsburg, where it had been left for publication; and another, that at a late day it was stolen from the widow. That Spaulding, though educated, was weak and visionary, is evident. Had he succeeded in procuring the publication of the book, he certainly would have lost in literary reputation; but it might have cut off the chance for a senseless and base imposition.
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