The Story of the Mormons, from the Date of Their Origin to the Year 1901 Part 7

"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 b.l.o.o.d.y Wars ensued, in which great mult.i.tudes 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 pa.s.s,' or 'now it came to pa.s.s,' 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 ma.n.u.script were the same, and she well recalled such phrases as "it came to pa.s.s."

Mr. Spaulding's business partner at Conneaut, Henry Lake, testified that Spaulding read the ma.n.u.script to him many hours, that the story running through it and the Bible was the same, and he recalls this circ.u.mstance: "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 pa.s.s,' 'now it came to pa.s.s,' 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 "Ma.n.u.script 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 'Ma.n.u.script Found'.... The names of Nephi, Lehi, Moroni, and in fact all the princ.i.p.al 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 "Ma.n.u.script 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 ma.n.u.script.... The longer I live, the more firmly I am convinced that Spaulding's ma.n.u.script was appropriated and largely used in getting up the "Book of Mormon."

Red.i.c.k 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 ma.n.u.script, and added: "I have an indistinct recollection of the pa.s.sage 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 ma.n.u.script, and it was printed in the Washington [Pennsylvania] Reporter of January 7, 1881.

Spaulding read a large part of his ma.n.u.script 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 pa.s.s,'

occurred so often that some called him 'Old Come-to-pa.s.s.' 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-pa.s.s' 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 ident.i.ty 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 ma.n.u.script" (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 ma.n.u.script.

The defenders of the Mormon Bible as an original work received great comfort some fifteen years ago by the announcement that the original ma.n.u.script of Spaulding's "Ma.n.u.script 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 ma.n.u.script 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 ma.n.u.script 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 ma.n.u.script (it has been printed by the Reorganized Church at Lamoni, Iowa), which shows that it bears no resemblance to the Bible story. But the a.s.sumption 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 ma.n.u.script. Hurlbut was in Howe's service when he asked Mrs. Davison for an order for the ma.n.u.script, and he gave to Howe, as the result of his visit, the ma.n.u.script which Rice gave to President Fairchild. Howe in his book (p. 288) describes this ma.n.u.script substantially as does President Fairchild, saying:--

* "Ma.n.u.script 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 ma.n.u.script to President Fairchild (who reproduces it), thus adding to the proof that the Rice ma.n.u.script is the one Hurlbut delivered to Howe.

Mr. Howe adds this important statement:--

"This old ma.n.u.script 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 'Ma.n.u.script Found.'"

If Howe had considered this ma.n.u.script of the least importance as invalidating the testimony showing the resemblance between the "Ma.n.u.script 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. d.i.c.kenson, a great-niece of Spaulding, who has painstakingly investigated the history of the much-discussed ma.n.u.script, 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 ma.n.u.script 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 ma.n.u.script 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. d.i.c.kenson pressed him with the question, "Do you know where the 'Ma.n.u.script 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 ma.n.u.script supposing it to be Spaulding's "Ma.n.u.script Found,"

adding: "I did not examine the ma.n.u.script until after I got home, when upon examination I found it to contain nothing of the kind, but being a ma.n.u.script upon an entirely different subject. This ma.n.u.script 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 "Ma.n.u.script Found" in the trunk and sold this to the Mormons. He sent a specific denial of this charge to Robert Patterson in 1879.

CHAPTER VIII. -- SIDNEY RIGDON

The man who had more to do with founding the Mormon church than Joseph Smith, Jr., even if we exclude any share in the production of the Mormon Bible, and yet who is unknown even by name to most persons to whom the names of Joseph Smith and Brigham Young are familiar, was Sidney Rigdon.

Elder John Hyde, Jr., was well within the truth when he wrote: "The compiling genius of Mormonism was Sidney Rigdon. Smith had boisterous impetuosity but no foresight. Polygamy was not the result of his policy but of his pa.s.sions. 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 a.s.sisted 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 G.o.d, no other church with whom he could a.s.sociate, or that he was acquainted with, was right; consequently, if he was to disavow the doctrine of the church with whom he was then a.s.sociated, 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 a.s.sociation". In 1828 he visited his old a.s.sociate 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 a.s.semblies. 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.