NEVADA TERRITORY. -- On the 4th instant, Mr. Kirkpatrick of Sierra, introduced the following concurrent resolutions in the State Senate... [draft resolutions for the creation of a new Nevada Territory follow]

We have it on good authority that Judge Cradlebaugh, with the approbation of a number of prominent men of the Territory visits Washington to defeat any act of the kind -- He is opposed to a new Territory -- believes the most effectual way to put an end to Mormonism in Utah is to preserve the Territory intact. He believes by the time the next census is taken there will be forty thousand Gentile voters in Utah -- sufficient to out-vote the Mormons -- and that with proper representation in the Legislature they will be able to repeal all obnoxious laws and enact only such as are wholesome and demanded by the people. The country is rapodly filling up with men who detest Mormonism, who would willingly serve in the Legislature. By removing the Capital from the immediate neighborhood of the Mormons, and sending a delegation to the Legislature opposed to them, both of which in Judge C's oponion, can easily be done, he predicts [that] will end the difficulties in Utah. It is well known that the greatest dissatisfaction exists among a large number of the members of the Church, and that force and fear keep them in subjection and retrain them from any open opposition. Numbers have expressed a desire to leave, and would have left months ago, had they not feared being arrested and punished "for desertion," as it is termed by the Elders. Judge Cradlebaugh's plan, we understand, to destroy the influence of the leaders and to eradicate Mormonism, is to give the Gentiles power and the disaffected Mormons encouragement and protection. This cannot be done by a separate organization; it can, by not organizing a new Territory.


Note: Most histories of the early days of Nevada leave out this important piece of information -- that the territory's first delegate to Congress, Judge John Cradlebaugh, was initially opposed to the creation of that same territory. See the Jan. 26, 1860 issue of the Pittsfield Berkshire County Eagle for further details, including Cradlebaugh's belief that the Mormons could be forced to leave the country.

Letter from St. Louis.
________

(FROM  OUR  OWN  CORRESPONDENT)
________

ST. LOUIS, January 26, 1860.    

A Coming Expose of Mormonism.

...Judge Cradlebaugh, of the United States Court in Utah, is now in Washington, doing all he can against Mormondom. He has lately challenged Hooper, the Mormon Delegate to Congress, to a public discussion of the various Mormon questions that are now in issue before the country at large. He proposes to prove the following:

1st. That the Mormon people are subject to a theocratic government, and recognize no law as binding which does not coincide with their pretended revelations as promulgated by their "Prophet, Seer and Revelator," Brigham Young.

2d. That they have taught, and still teach, treason against the government of the United States.

3d. That they practice polygamy in a manner shocking to the moral sense of the world, and aggravate the offence by incest and murder.

4th. That they teach the doctrine of "the shedding of human blood for the remission if sin," as defined by their own ecclesiastical code, and these teachings are carried into practice.

5th. That they teach the doctrine that it is right and godly that Mormons should rob Gentiles whenever they can do so with facility and escape public exposure. The Mountain Meadow massacre is a melancholy proof of this fact.

6. That they teach the doctrine, and practice it, of mutilating men, and have declared from their pulpit, with public acquiescence, that the day was near when their valleys would resound with the voice of eunuchs.

Mr. Hooper has not condescended to reply to the challenge, so far, and it is presumed that he will not. The judge is too well informed an antagonist to be met with impunity, and the wily delegate will take especial care to avoid a conflict with him. The judge will make an expose of Mormonism through the newspapers....


Note 1: The Valley Tan of published Judge Cradlebaugh's letter in full, and added this comment: "from a private letter received by a gentleman in this city from Washington, we are informed that Mr. H. will not, and dare not accept the challenge of Judge Cradlebaugh, and that his declining to do so will be regarded in Washington and elsewhere as evidence that he cannot disprove the charges made in the letter of the Judge. It has been rumored, but on what authority we know not, that Mr. Hooper denies in Washington that he is a Mormon or connected with the Mormon church. Whether he does or not we do not know; one thing is certain, whether he represents the religious tenets of the Mormons or not, as their political representative and delegate, it would certainly appear to be his duty to vindicate his constituents from such charges as the Judge has made against them, if he felt able to do so."

Note 2: Cradlebaugh's anti-Mormon efforts in Washington, D. C. appear to have accomplished little more than to cause President Buchanan to dismiss him from office -- a development which no doubt pleased the Mormon leaders in Utah (though Cradlebaugh seized upon a technicality in the law to stay in office through the end of his term). Cradlebaugh's "expose of Mormonism through the newspaperses," came in the form of a lecture delivered in his hometown of Circleville, Ohio, in March of 1860. The text was not widely published, but an excerpt can be found in the Daily Cleveland Herald of Mar. 24, 1860, while a lengthier versions were reprinted in the Circleville Religious Telescope and in John W. Barber's 1861 book, Our Whole Country. There is considerable textual overlap with parts of Cradlebaugh's 1863 address before the House of Representatives, entitled, "Utah and the Mormons."

LETTER  FROM  A  CALIFORNIAN  AT  WASHINGTON.
______

Washington, Jan. 23d, 1860.    

Editors Alta: ...

Utah Affairs -- Judges Cradlebaugh and Sinclair.

Judges Cradlebaugh and Sinclair are here, and will, as soon as Congress organizes, expose the whole Utah management. Some one will have a load of responsibility difficult to carry. Judge C., having considerable leisure time has challenged the Utah delegate to a public discussion, in which he pledges to prove --

1. That the Mormon people are subject to a theocratic government, and recognizes no law as binding which does not coincide with their pretended revelations as promulgated by their "Prophet, Seer and Revelator," Brigham Young.

2. They have taught, and still teach, treason against the government of the United States.

3. That they practice polygamy in a manner shocking to the moral sense of the world, and aggravate the offence by incest and murder.

4. That they teach the doctrine of "the shedding of human blood for the remission if sin," as defined by their own ecclesiastical code, and these teachings are carried into practice. The murders of Jones and his mother at Pond-town, of the Parrishes and others at Springville; of the Aiken party at Chicken Creek, the mud fort at Salt Creek, and at the bone yard, and of Forbes at Springville, are the natural results of these vile doctrines.

5. That they teach the doctrine that it is right and godly that Mormons should rob Gentiles whenever they can do so with facility and escape public exposure. The Mountain Meadows Massacre is a melancholy proof of this fact.

6. That they teach the doctrine and practice it, of castrating men, and have declared from their pulpit, with public acquiescence, that the day was near when their valleys would resound with the voice of Eunuchs.

I am prepared here and now with proofs to sustain these charges, unpremeditatedly taken from numberless enormities; and occupying the position which you do here -- a member of the Mormon church, having received your endowments and taken upon yourself the oaths and obligations of the Church -- I have to say to you that I will at any reasonable time and place of your own selection meet you face to face before the people and Federal authorities here, ready, but sorrowfully, to substantiate every specification herein contained.

This has caused considerable talk, as well as astonishment, from the fact that there appears to be an immense degree of ingnorance in reference to Mormon affairs....


Notes: (forthcoming)

The Great Mistake of Buchanan's Administration.
________

When President Buchanan, after going to the immense expense of sending an army to Utah, issued his pardon-proclamation, just as that army was in position to conquer submission from the traitors, we said it was a mistake. We thought it clear that sooner or later the Mormons would have to be dealt with by force; and therefore could not understand the policy of postponing the conflict, after our Government had placed itself in a hostile attitude toward the Saints, and got a military expedition on the ground, strong enough to make a favorable result almost certain. To bring that expedition over a thousand miles of desert country, in sight of the Mormons -- all armed, provisioned and equipped for a long campaign, and then, just as the serious work should have commenced, to offer the Mormons peace on terms so easy that they would have been mad not to have accepted them, seemed to us one of those blunders that could only be explained by referring to the inexplicable workings of the circumlocation office at Washington, which appeared anxious to give the country one more startling example of "how not to do it." Instead of whipping the Mormons, as the troops should have been allowed to do, and hanging Brigham Young, and a dozen other of the "Apostles," the army was quietly quartered in their territory, and the Federal Government undertook to pay the Saints handsomely for supporting the soldiers. This their presence was turned into a godsend to the Mormons; each soldier was only a good customer -- and doubtless that arch-politician Young has gained an immense amount of additional popularity among his brethren, for his wisdom in provoking the "war," and his adriotness in evading the fighting, and turning the event into a gold mine, for the enrichment of his people. That all the "glory" of the campaign was carried off by the Mormon leader, there can be no question; and that he gathered into his impoverished coffers the best portion of the millions wasted by our Government upon it, is also clear. If it were possible, we have no doubt that Brigham would pay, to-day, as much as a million, cash for just such another expedition against the Mormons as President Buchanan sent out two years ago.

Events that have been constantly occuring ever since the commission of that regal blunder by our President, have shown that in settling the Mormon quarrel we did nothing more than postpone the day of trial, which is sure to come. The Mormons have constantly harbored the bitterest hatred against our Government and people. They have never lost an opportunity to injure and outrage "Gentiles," when they could do so with safety. They have systematically instigated the savages to deeds of bloodshed, and furnished them with arms and ammunition. And, in short, while professing peace, they have waged a perpetual war upon us. Latterly their deeds have become more ipen and bold. And the massacre in Washoe Valley may be but the signal for the beginning of another Mormon and Indian war, as expensive, but far more important than the last. Such a war will not be allowed to terminate in the same absurdly useless manner. No Administration would dare to follow the policy of Mr. Buchanan, since experience has so fully shown its weakness. But the next Mormon war will be a fight of extermination. If the United States ever pays for another invading army to Salt Lake Valley, Brigham and his prophets must be prepared for bloody work. The Mormons are in "the road" of the great march of settlement and Christian civilization, and they must be "wiped out." The sooner the work is begun the better.


Notes: (forthcoming)

Utah.

The Washington correspondent of the New York Tribune says that a majority of the House is in favor of the anti-polygamy bill.

Judge Robb, of Utah, will resign; also Judges [Sinclair] and Cradlebaugh -- or be removed....

John Hartnell, late Secretary of Utah Territory, died at St. Louis on the 15th March.


Notes: (forthcoming)

OUR  SALT  LAKE  CORRESPONDENCE.
______

Salt Lake City, U. T., May 16, 1860.     

...

Trial of Dr. Forney.

A Comission is in session, at this city, composed of Surveyor-General Stambaugh and Major Montgomery, U. S. A., investigating certain charges as preferred by Judge Cradlebaugh, to the Commisioner of Indian Affairs, at Washington city, against Superintendant Jacob Forney. Amongst the charges are that Superintendent Forney purchased goods from different mercantile firms at this city, receiving from them 10 per cent. on the gross amount of purchase money; that the purchased cattle with Government funds, and speculated for his for his private benefit; and that he caused false vouchers to be made, thereby defrauding Government. The Commission has been in session near two weeks, but nothing has yet been found against Dr. Forney. The books of several business firms have been examined, and the papers of the Superintendent compared and overhauled. It appears to be more of an Inquisition than a Commission, and if the same proceedings are going to continue as they are at present, it will take six months to complete it. The charges, as preferred by Judge Cradlebaugh, are not verified under oath, nor signed officially. Up to the present time nothing at all that will implicate Dr. Forney has transpired, although there has been some contradictory swearing. Colonel Stambaugh seems to be the principal examining officer.


Notes: (forthcoming)

The Utah Judgeship.
______

The present administration appointed an Associate Justice of the Territory of Utah. The commission continues for the period of four years, and yet he has already been removed by President Buchanan. This usurpation of authority, on the part of the president, is regarded as wholly illegal and unwarranted by the Judge, who refuses to yield to his named successor, Mr. Flenniken. The law says that the incumbents shall hold fir four years, and that all the Judges appointed for Territories shall be commissioned for that period. Per contra, the contestant alleges that the right to appoint carries with it the right to remove, and that unless this were the case in the Territories, the President would be powerless to protect the people against abuses. And the new appointees and friends insist that Cradlebaugh has been guilty of heinous offences. It will be a long time, probably, before this disputed question is settled. Flenniken will duly present his commission to the holding Judge. He will disregard the demand to abdicate. The former will apply for a writ of quo warranto before another Judge, and if this is decided adversely to Cradlebaugh, he will appeal to the Supreme Court.

The charges brought against the present Judge have not, and probably can not, be sustained. So far as our information extends, he has performed the duties appertaining to his judicial position faithfully, and to the entire satisfaction of the great mass of the respectable portion of the citizens of the Second Judicial District. The attempt of selfish and unscrupulous partisans to hurl him from his office, seems to have had weight with the "old public functionary," who has ordered him to vacate for another. But it is quite another thing to "remove" an incumbant de facto, with the law on his side.


Notes: (forthcoming)

CRADLEBAUGH vs. BUCHANAN. -- The Territorial Enterprise of the 2d inst. says:

On Monday last Judge Cradlebaugh opened the U. S. District Court in Carson. There being no business to transact, he adjourned for three weeks. Before he adjourned, however, he remarked to the bar and audience, that there was another person here claiming to be District Judge for this District. He denied his authority, although Judge Flenniken had been appointed, confirmed and assigned to this District. He said the President had no right to remove a Judge; that he intended to resign on the 4th of March next, and until that time he would hold court. That it was due to his friends who had accommodated him with money do to do. That for the reason of the Government failing to honor his drafts for nine months since, his friend Wm. M. Lent, seeing his great necessity, had advanced him money upon his salary up to the 4th of March, and he intended to serve that time out. He said further, that any attorney who wished to withsraw his suit from his court in which answer had not been filed, he would permit him so to do; in other cases, papers could bot be transferred from his court elsewhere, unless by consent of counsel on both sides.


Notes: (forthcoming)

(BY  PONY  EXPRESS.)

Letter from Washington.
________

(EDITORIAL  CORRESPONDENCE.)

________

The Pony Express that arrived here on Tuesday night last brough us two letters from Washington, of the date of the 22d and 19th of January... we here extract from it such passages as have a special California interest...

On the motion of Mr. Latham, the Senate has called for a very interesting report made by Major James Carleton, U. S. A., in which he presents abundant evidence that the Mountain Meadows massacre of overland emigrants to California was the work of the Mormons.

A bill has passed both Houses paying Indian Agent Dodge, Fairbanks, and the Pacific Mail Steamship Company, the expenses of restoring to their friends in the States the surviving children of those who were murdered in the aforesaid Mountain Meadows affair.


Notes: (forthcoming)

PROFANING THE GRAVE. -- An expedition was sent from Fort Tejon, in April 1859. to bring [together] the remains of the large train that was lost in the Mountain Meadows massacre. This was done and a monument erected on the spot. By late arrival from Potosi, it appears that of that mausoleum not one stone now stands upon another, and that thebones interred at its base again lie bleaching on the desert! The Star remarks that ladt May Brigham Young visited Mountain Meadows, the outer boundary of his dominions; two days after he left the mausoleum was destroyed. For the slaying of the "Apostle" Parley Pratt, in Arkansas, his particular friend in Mormonism, he Prophesied at Salt Lake that vengeance should be executed upon Arkansas, and that "the bones of her children should bleach on the plains without burial, so help me God!" Has Brigham's visit any connection with the erasure of that pile?


Note 1: See the comments attached to the article reproduced from the Utah Daily Union Veidette of Dec. 24, 1864.

Note 2: While Brigham Young is not known to have delivered such a prophecy in direct connection with avenging the death of Parley P. Pratt, his words of Dec. 13, 1852 may be of interest here: "a [Mormon] battalion of over five hundred men... discovered the gold mines of California... Thus was opened up a flood of treasure... [whose seekers] have left their bones to bleach upon the interminable plains." -- See also the text of the discourse delivered by Brigham Young on Mar. 3, 1861: "I will tell you another prophecy of Joseph's, of which both Jews and Gentiles are my witnesses. Joseph said that the bones of hundreds of the Missouri and Illinois mobocrats, who drove the Saints from those States, should bleach on the plains, and their flesh should be meat for wolves. Are you witnesses to that, in coming over the Plains? Yes, hundreds and hundreds of those characters that started to go to the gold mines, their flesh was meat for the wolves, and their bones are there bleaching to-day, so far as they have not been buried, or entirely rotted away. That is another prophecy of Joseph's."

FUFFIANISM IN SAN BERNARDINO. -- A private letter to the Star says that a wonton and unprovoked attack was made upon a most respectable citizen lately, in the city of San Bernardino, at a locality known as Whisky Point. It seems, adds that journal, that a Mormon spy or worse named Batron, with a gang of Salt Lake outlaws, attacked the gentleman alluded to in the most ferocious manner, which but for his presence of mind would have resulted in a bloody tragedy. Major Carleton, the commander of this district was up in San Bernardino lately and we are very sorry he did not take charge of these fellows. We have no doubt they are the gang who razed the monument built by Major Carleton at the scene of the Mountain Meadow massacre, as we are satisfied they took part in that fearful tragedy. We wish our military commander would send a party to San Bernardino and arrest this gang of desperadoes.


Notes: (forthcoming)

NEWS  OF  THE  2d DECEMBER.
_____

Quincy, November 2 -- P.M.     

Congress met to-day at noon.

House. -- In the House, 114 members answered roll call... Bernhisel of Utah and Cradlebaugh of Nevada, were sworn in...


Note: Considering the fact that Judge Cradlebaugh had been opposed to the establishment of Nevada as a territory, he no doubt entered upon his new duties with mixed emotions. At least he did not have the displeasure of serving in the House alongside William H. Hooper, whom he had challenged to a debate on Mormonism two years earlier. Elder John M. Bernhisel replaced Hooper in the Utah seat, after Bernhisel's two year absence from the nation's capital. The "war of the rebellion" had been in progress for seven months when John Cradlebaugh was sworn in as the territorial delegate from Nevada. Within a few months the Judge temporarily left Congress, to raise a regiment of Union infantry in Ohio. President Lincoln gave him the commission of Colonel, but Cradlebaugh served out the remainder of his delegate's term before he joined his troops on the southern battlefields.

From Pahranagat to the Colorado.
______

(FROM AN OCCASIONAL CORRESPONDENT.)
______

Callville, June 25, 1866.    

...

Muddy River Valley -- Mormon Settlements.

The Valley of the Muddy is more extensive, and the character pf the soil better than that of the Pahranagat. Above the point where the stream crosses the California road, this valley is occupied by a large tribe of Indians who cultivate the soil to some little extent, and who are better armed, clothed and more intelligent than any Indians I have yet seen. These Indians are the especial dread of emigrants and travelers between Salt Lake and San Bernardino; but at the present time they are, for reasons presently to be mentioned, especially anxious to secure the friendship of the Americans.

In the valley, south of the road, are the three Mormon settlements known as St. Thomas, Simondsville and St. Joseph. These villages are located from thirty to forty miles a little [west] of north from Callsville, near the [intersection] of Muddy with the Virgin river, and contain a population of about three hundred souls. The houses are built of adobes after the Mexican style. A good flouring-mill has just been completed, and fine crops of wheat were being harvested as we passed through. The land is cultivated entirely by irrigation; extensive ditches have been constructed to convey the water over the land, and no matter what may be thought of the peculiar religious tenets of the people, these signs of enterprise extol a tribute to their industry under adverse circumstances...

Indian Troubles -- Great Excitement among the Saints.

For several months past troubles have been brewing all over Mormondom between the Saints and Indians. In the North, I hear of an expedition of Brigham's reserve in search of some band of Indians, and great excitement exists among Mormons and Indians in this section. Just before arriving at the first Mormon settlement on the Muddy, we encountered a large body of well-armed Indians, and as they had previously stolen our stock on every opportunity, we were apprehensive of difficulty, but they seemed particularly anxious to secure our good will rather than enmity, and were very bitter in their expressions of hostility to the Mormons. Upon our arrival at St. Joseph, we found the people assembled to consult as to the policy to be pursued in apprehension of an attempt by the Indians to kill and drive off the Saints and appropriate their crops and goods. One of the twelve apostles, Erastus Snow, from St. George, was present and presided over their deliberations and ot was finally decided to move all the settlements into one and inclose it with an adobe wall. All through the valley we met Indians and their number is constantly increasing. They acted as if they thought that the surest passport to our favor was to manifest their hatred of the Mormons in every possible manner. They did not hesitate to charge, by name, prominent Mormons with being the instigators and principal actors in many of the enormities perpetrated upon emigrants crossing the plains.

Mountain Meadow Massacre.

They are thoroughlyposted in relation to the raids of Gen. Conner's command against the Indians farther North; the excitement existing in relation to the Mountain Meadow massacre; the endeavor made by the Governor to ferret out and punish the actors in this, the bloodoest drama ever perpetrated on American soil; the part that they are charged by the Mormons with being the sole perpetrators of that tragedy, and they fear that they will soon be held to a rigid accountability. It was to this valley of the Muddy, that a large portion of the stock taken from the massacred train was brought, and here was killed the only adult, a man by the name of Williams, who escaped from Mountain Meadows. These Indians do not hesitate to acknowledge their connection with the massacre, but charge the Mormons with being the instigators and chief actors in the tragedy. The tales they tell are horrible beyond description, and while it would be unjust, considering their present relations with the Mormons, to take all their statements for truth, it is impossible to resist the conviction that revenge for the killing of Parley Pratt, in Arkansas, was the inciting cause of the Mountain Meadows massacre, and that a band of Danites were the directors of the perpetration. I was astonished at the details by these Indians of circumstances and names; in the latter particular their statements were very explicit, extending even to giving us the name of the lady under whose charge the surviving children were taken East. The Mormons have long been noted for their shrewd management of Indians, but events now transpiring indicate that their influence with the savages is lessening. The result may be the arrest and punishment of the white miscreants who planned the indiscriminate slaughter of men, women and children at Mountain Meadows....


Note 1: There appears to have been a falling out, between the Utah Mormons and the Indian natives of the Muddy River country during the mid-1860s, relative to the old 1857 emigrant massacre, the Mormon settlement west of Call's Landing, etc. Although the Indians of the Muddy River region were not the primary participants in the late 1860s "Black Hawk War," they were generally sympathizers with the northern Utes and other Indian tribes who were then more actively involved. See the Portland Oregonian of Feb 7, 1867 for more details.

Note 2: Part of this report was reprinted in the Utah Daily Union Vedette, of July 27, 1866.

The Mountain Meadows Massacre.
______

In the letter of an occasional correspondent from Callville in yesterday's Bulletin it was intimated that the Mormons were exciting the United States authorities to punish the Indians for the massacre known by the above name. The Mormons having their own troubles with the Indians are now accusing those collected in the neighborhood of Muddy river of being the murderers, and in possession of the cattle and other plunder obtained by the crime. It will be remembered that in 1857 a large train of emigrants from Arkansas were attacked at Mountain Meadows by a band of Indians or white men, and every adult, numbering 144 persons of both sexes, slain, and a large quantity of stock, wagons, carriages, jewelry, clothing and other property carried off. After the massacre, 18 children, from eight years of age down to eight months, were picked up amongst the bushes into which they had crawled for shelter. James Lynch, formerly Superintendent of the United States post as Camp Floyd, has informed us that he was instructed by the United States authorities to inquire into this matter while stationed at the above post, and he had communications with John De. [sic - D.?] Lee, Hamlin, Bishop Smith and other Mormons, and they all acknowledged that the attack was made by Mormons, assisted by five Piute Indians, John De. Lee boasting that he was the leader of the attacking party. They admitted also the finding of the children and that there had been a consultation about them, one Mormon brute advocating their death on the ground that "they should destroy the nits while killing the lice." More humanr counsels, however, prevailed, and Hamlin took charge of 16 and John De Lee of 2. These children were found by the United States authorities, in Santa Clara, in 1859, in miserable condition, and were given up to our informant. The eldest, a sharp, intelligent child of 10 years old, named Mary Dunlap, remembered distinctly the occurrences of two years before, and pointed out to Mr. Lynch the men who had taken part in the massacre. Mary Dunlap also testified to articles of dress, and jewelry worn by John De Lee's wife and other persons as being part of the plunder which she recognized; also carriages and wagons which formed part of the train then in possession of the Mormons with whom she had been loving. Over 30 witnesses testified to facrs proving the guilt of the Mormons in this matter before Judges Cradlebaugh and Eckell[s], Territorial Judges in Utah.

The children were subsequently removed to the States, and Mary Dunlap, the eldest survivor of the catastrophe, is living in Kansas City, Missouri, and can, we are informed, substantiate the charges against the men who are now seeking to throw the blame on the Indians. Mr. Lynch left by this day's steamer for Guayquil, Republic of Ecuador; but if through the instrumentality of the Judges named above or any other parties, an attempt should be made to bring the real assassins to punishment, he will be found ready to proceed to any part of the United States to depose to the above and other facts which came to his knowledge while employed in the Government service at the time the first enquiry was made.


Note 1: James Lynch's initial arrival in San Francisco was related in the Bulletin of Aug. 24, 1859. For more on James Lynch and the child survivors of the 1857 massacre, the the report given in the Memphis Commercial Appeal, during the first part of June, 1905.

Note 2: The following item appeared in the New York Times of Oct. 10, 1893: "A reunion of the survivors of the Mountain Meadow massacre is to take place here [at Harrison, Ark.] this week. James Lynch of Washington, represents the survivors in a suit against the United States, and he reached Harrison a day or two ago. The massacre occurred in September, 1857, and only fifteen children escaped death, ten of whom are now living, five of them in Boone county. -- Capt. Lynch says the Mormon Church has been sued for $256,000, and that the case is likely soon to be settled in favor of the plaintiffs. The wagon train had $70,000 in money, and $26,000 in cattle, besides household effects. -- Capt. Lynch was in the United States Army and assisted at the rescue. He has since devoted almost his entire attention to the survivors."

BRIGHAM YOUNG MAKES A SPEECH. -- December 23d. Brigham Young made a speech at the Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, which is thus reported by the Vedette.

He stated that he had invited the strictest scrutiny, and had advised vigilance to be used in the discovery of the perpetrators of the murder of Dr. Robinson. He excused himself for not having adverted to the subject before. He alluded to the Mountain Meadow massacre, denouncing it in unmeasured terms, saying he did not believe there was a being in human shape, except savages, who could have committed so base a crime. He alluded extensively to the subject of the patronage of Gentile merchants by Mormons, and counselled them to pass by the stores of those who, he said, were here for no other purpose but to destroy the Saints. He argued that there was in this community a class of men who were striving to deprive the Mormons of their houses, lands and money, and that all who patronized that class would be cut off from the Church. He launched forth many an invective against a certain sheet (which we forbear to publish), said sheet not being named but left to the conjecture of his audience. He frequently alluded to the subject of his published "Reply," and reiterated over and over again his determination to adhere to the policy expressed in his "Reply," and advowed his intention to carry it out to the very last day of his existence. He argued that the Mormons were doing no more than had been done by the professors of other religious denominations, in withholding aid and support from their enemies.


Note: Given the report circulated by the Bulletin in its issue of July 19th, saying that "the Mormons were exciting the United States authorities to punish the Indians for the massacre" conducted in 1857 at the Mountain Meadows, the modern reader can only wonder if President Young was limiting the "savages, who could have committed so base a crime" to the southern Indians. No matter to whom he was referring, the actual Mormon participants in the old secret murders must have felt uneasy in their hearing that Young had denounced the 1857 action "in unmeasured terms." Whether or not he himself ordered the terrible slaughter, the Mormon involved had thus far been able to feel vindicated in their deeds of nine years past. With Young's denunciation of the massacre, however, the stage was set for at least the eventual possibility of the Mormon leadership admitting to some non-Indian participants having been active in the massacre.

U T A H.
________

An Unfounded Report of a Fight with Indians --
The Mormons and the Mountain Meadow Massacre

Salt Lake, September 19th. -- A report from Washington of a fight with Indians near Beaver, and the consequent interruption of the Wheeler expedition, is without foundation...

The Mormon papers are still excited over the disclosures with regard to the Mountain Meadow massacre. The News to-night says the animus, charging the Mormon authorities with this crime, is despicable...


Note: The Bulletin evidently missed the AP newswire release of the Klingensmith affidavit earlier in the month, so perhaps the paper's readers were somewhat confused by its references to that document (made out on Lincoln Co., Nevada on April 10, 1871, but held back from public view until the 15th anniversary of the Mountain Meadows tragedy). The Massachisetts Lowell Daily Citizen and News had some advance notice of that affidavit -- in its issue for April 18, 1872, it reported, in passing: "The miners in the southern portion of Utah are forming secret organizations to oppose the secret influence of the Mormons, among other objects to bring to justice the perpetrators of the Mountain Meadow massacre." Lincoln county lies on the eastern border of Utah, immediately adjacent to Iron and Washington counties, where the events associated with the 1857 massacre transpired. Perhaps "the miners" mentioned in this news item were mostly Utahns who had crossed over the Nevada border to work the mines near Pioche. That is where ex-Bishop Klingensmith made out his 1871 affidavit.

U T A H.
________

Lecture against Polygamy -- Mountain Meadow Massacre...

Salt Lake, September 23d. -- Rev. Norman Mcleod lectured last night against polygamy to an immense audience, the same gentleman lectures Wednesday night; subject "Brigham unmasked."

The Mountain Meadow massacre particulars are still the exciting topic. The Gentile press do not hold the Mormon people as a community responsible, but their leaders. Affidavits corroborating Bishop Smith's statement are being obtained. There is no doubt as to where the guilt of this horrible butchery belongs....


Notes: (forthcoming)

MOUNTAIN  MEADOWS.
________

Story of the Massacre by an Eye Witness -- The Affidavit of
Philip K. Smith -- The Mormons Charged with the Burchery.

SALT LAKE CITY, Sept. 13, 1872. -- The following is the affidavit in full by one of the least guilty among the participants in the affair, showing conclusively that the terrible Mountain Meadows massacre was the act of Mormon authorities. It will be remembered that a large company of emigrants on their way to California was known to have been killed, with the exception of the small children. When their massacre was discovered, the Mormons set afloat the story that they had perished by the hands of the Indians; but from time to time circumstantial evidence has appeared indicating that they were murdered in cold blood by the Mormons, in revenge for previous outrages upon the latter perpetrated in Illinois and Missouri. A competent witness now states, under oath, that the Mormon militia attacked the emigrants, and, after a fight of several days without result, sent in a flag of truce, offering them protection if they would lay down their arms. These terms being complied with, the entire party was butchered by their captors.

THE  AFFIDAVIT.

(view original publication of this statement)

Notes: (forthcoming)

U T A H.
________

Further Corroboration on the Mountain Meadow Massacre...

Salt Lake City, September 25th. -- Affidavits have been taken to-day on the Mountain Meadow Massacre, fully corroborating the testimony of Bishop Smith and giving further details, showing still more positively the guilt of the Mormon leaders. Testimony is also being obtained proving the identity of the assassins of Dr. Robinson....

Mrs Stenhouse, wife of a former Mormon elder and authoress of the expose of polygamy in Utah, is preparing to deliver a series of lectures in Eastern cities on Mormonism....


Note: Evidently the April, 1871 disclosures by ex-Bishop Philip Klingensmith was instrumental in convincing other witnesses to Mountain Meadows massacre events to come forth with their own certified testimony. See the 1875 booklet, The Lee Trial!, for details.

U T A H.
________

Indian Murder -- News from the Wheeler Expedition --
Corroboration of Smith on the Mountain Meadow Atrocity...

Salt Lake City, September 26th. -- A dispatch to Mayor Wells to-day from Spring City says: "The Indians were upon us this morning, and a man was shot dead while driving a load of lumber, and his little son badly wounded."

The Wheeler Expedition rendezvoused at Beaver on the 22d inst. They report everything favorable, and no trouble whatever with the Indians.

A correspondent of the Pioche Record indorses Philip K. Smith, formerly Bishop of the Mormon Church, and says he is ready to return to Utah and give testimony in person relative to the Mountain Meadow atrocity.


Notes: (forthcoming)

THE  SITUATION  IN  UTAH.
________

Lecture by the Rev. Norman McLeod -- An Interesting Discourse.
________

The Rev. Norman McLeod, pastor of the Congregational Church at Great Salt Lake City, who is so uncomfortable a thorn in the side of Brigham Young, lectured before an audience of about one hundred ladies and gentlemen at Howard Presbyterian Church last night. Dr. McLeod is in the prime of life, apparently; his address is pleasing, his style earnest and his diction good... By request, the speaker briefly recited the blood curdling horror of

THE  MOUNTAIN  MEADOWS  MASSACRE.

The party of emigrants who met their awful fate in that butchery were 140 or 150 in number. They started from Missouri in September [sic], 1857, and were passing through Southern Utah, en route to California. They were well armed and provisioned, had excellent wagons, fine horses and cattle, and were very intelligent and respectable people. The train was the wealthiest that ever started across the plains. While encamped in the Mountain Meadows, they were furiously attacked by mean disguised as Indians. Their long rifles kept off the attacking party for three days. Reinforcements came to their enemies but still the Spartan band stood firm. They sunk their wagon wheels in trenches so that the bodies rested on the ground, thus securing shelder behind which they could fight. At least they were thrown off their guard by a flag of truce, and having laid down their arms under promise of honorable treatment, were mercilessly slaughtered -- men, women and children -- in cold blood, the women being devoted to a double assassination! The men who committed this atrocious butchery were Mormons, led on by Mormon bishops, one of whom was a Federal officer, and Indian Agent. Some of the smallest of the children were spared, but one of them only for a short time. She was a little girl ten years old -- too old, alas, to live. A Mormon Council sat in judgment on her fate -- she was doomed. A strong man executed the judgment; he seized the tender child , threw her down, and with his knee on her breast and his hand in her hair, severed with a knife her head from her body. The lecturer said he received this account from one who had been high in authority on the Mormon Church. Tell me not such crimes can be covered up! Never will I cease to expose and denounce the authors! Never would I stop calling for their punishment, though Brigham Young had the power, as he has the will, to damn me.

The rude monuments raised by the United States soldiers over the remains of the victims of the massacre were torn down, and their dust again scattered abroad, that Brigham's prophecy might be fulfilled: "The bones of the Gentiles shall bleach in the wastes!"...


Note: See the Oct. and Nov. issues of the 1872 Salt Lake Tribune for more on Rev. McLeod's lectures.

MOUNTAIN  MEADOWS  MASSACRE.
________

Something about an Almost Forgotten Crime.
________

John D. Lee's Dreadful Secret --
Does he Tell All he Knows?
________

(under construction)

 


Notes: (forthcoming)

MOUNTAIN  MEADOWS  MASSACRE.

On Monday next, John D. Lee will be tried for the part he took in the massacre of emigrants passing through the southern part of Utah en route to California several years ago. It is stated that LEE has consented, by advice of his counsel, to turn State s evidence and that many prominent men in Mormondom begin to quake with fear over anticipated developments.


Notes: (forthcoming)

MOUNTAIN  MEADOWS  MASSACRE.
________

The Horrors of St. Bartholomew Eclipsed.
________

The Story of the Awful Crime Told by
Actors and Eye-Witnesses.
________

The Mormon Authorities Responsible
for the Deed -- The Trial of Lee.
________

(under construction)

 


Notes: (forthcoming)

ANOTHER VINDICATION. -- The trial of John D. Lee, for participation in the "Mountain Meadow Massacre," has resulted in a disagreement and discharge of the jury. They are reported as standing 9 for acquital, 2 for conviction, and one ready to vote either way. This is an exact counterpart of the stand of the jury in the Beecher case, which... Wherefore we are justified in claiming that Lee has been "fully vindicated," and we cannot see why a grand ovation to this maligned apostle would not be in order.


Notes: (forthcoming)

THE  END  OF  ELDER  PRATT.
________

Pursued and Killed by his Seventh Wife's Husband --
The Tragedy that Led to the Mountain Meadows Massacre
Described by an Eye-Witness -- A Mother's Life Ended in Lunacy.
________

Fort Smith, Ark., September, 9th. -- A reader of the Sun having seen an account of the killing of Parley P. Pratt, second elder in the Mormon Church, in 1855 or 1856, by the husband of the woman he abducted and made his seventh wife, and knowing it to be erroneous in many particulars, has requested me, as an eye-witness of the tragedy, to write something in regard to it.

Hector H. McLean married a Miss McComb in New Orleans, and afterwards settled in San Francisco. There he became connected with the steamship companies, which brought him an income of about $2,000 a year. He had an interesting, highly-educated and accomplished wife, and two children, a boy and a girl, both intelligent beyond their years. They were living peacefully and happily together when Parley P. Pratt abducted Mrs. McLean, took her to Salt Lake City, and made her his seventh wife. So great was the shock to her husband that it almost unsettled his reason. He went to New Orleans, taking his children there to his father-in-law, and then returned to San Francisco and resumed his business. What was his surprise to learn that Pratt and Mrs. McLean had left Salt Lake and were trying to steal his children, and later that they had accomplished their purpose. McLean then set out to hunt up the abductor and recover his children. He gave up his business and started for New York. There he learned that Pratt was in the city but could not be found. A few days later he learned that Pratt was in St. Louis, and he started immediately for that city; but so well did the old scoundrel cover his tracks that no trace of him could be found. McLean then went to New Orleans, and there learned that his wife and children were in the northern part of Texas with a large caravan about to start for Salt Lake. He went to Texas and there intercepted letters addressed to Mrs. P. P. Parker, and written by old Pratt in a peculiar cypher, which he had to study a long time before he could read it. These letters proposed to meet Mrs. Parker at or near Fort Gibson in the Cherokee nation.

Mr. McLean returned dispirited to his father-in-law's in New Orleans and concluded to give up the chase. Resolving, however, to make one further effort he started up the Arkansas river under the assumed name of Johnson. Arriving at Fort Gibson he told his story in confidence to the officers there, and they afforded him every facility to trap the seducer. In this he was successful, first getting possession of his wife and children. Having Pratt, as he thought, in the hands of the law, he attempted no violence on him, but had him taken to Van Buren, Ark., for trial before the United States Court. As there was no United States law by which an abductor could be punished, a charge was made against Pratt of stealing the clothing of the wife and children when he abducted them. This charge, however, would not stand. Pratt was tried before Judge John B. Ogden, and there was great excitement about him. When Mr. McLean related his grievances on the witness stand, and read the clandestine correspondence between Pratt and his wife, there was hardly a dry eye in the court room. Then when he began to understand that there was no law for the redress of his wrings, and that it was probable the old scoundrel would be released, he became so much excited that he attempted to shoot Pratt on the spot, in the presence of the court. It was at this time that the writer was made McLean's acquaintance. He caught hold of McLean and stayed his arm as he was about to shoot, and told him that he must take no advantage of a man in custody. This led to a statement of all the facts of the case to me. Had there been at that time any mob law in Arkansas, Pratt would have been summarily hanged, so exasperated were the citizens. Having, however, more respect for the United States authorities than they might have had for the State's, no outrage was committed. The Court put the case off for a day, and had Pratt released early in the morning, so that he might escape, and he immediately left town on horseback. When McLean and his friends found this out, they started in pursuit.

On my arrival in Van Buren that morning I was informed that a footman had just come in who had met Pratt and McLean within 600 yards of each other. Some half dozen or more of us started out to see what had happened. Five or six miles out we met McLean, who said he had not seen Pratt. While returning with us he began following the track of a horse across to another road. Myself and another gentleman accompanied him, not knowing but that we were following the track of one of our men. We followed pretty rapidly until, when about eight miles from Van Buren, we got sight of a man ahead. The writer being in advance, put spurs to his horse to see whether it was Pratt, and to get away from the expected recontre. McLean followed rapidly, and immediately after the writer passed Pratt (for it was he,) a pistil ball came whizzing by his head, and he thought it best to get out of the road. On looking back I saw two horsemen going rapidly through the woods and bushes, heard the discharge of firearms, and saw the smoke of the powder. In a short time all was still, and I ventured to return by the road. What was my surprise to find that, at the point or thereabouts where the first firing began, both McLean and Pratt were dismounted and engaged in a hand-to-hand struggle. I rode right up, and in a moment or so McLean seemed suddenly to recollect that he had another postol, for he stepped back and drew one, and fired apparently right into the body of Pratt, who soon fell. Then McLean made a motion as though to draw a knife, and I ride off and found the gentleman whom we left behind. Presently McLean joined us, and finding that he had dropped his Derringer pistol, he got a postol of one of us, and returned to Pratt to pick up his. We were astonished at hearing another report of a pistol. McLean, when he returned, said he found the "old scoundrel" sitting up, leaning on his elbow, and he put a pistol to his head and shot him. He was not struck by a postol ball at all, but was killed with a knife. He lived long enough to send to town for Mrs. McLean to go and see him. Me. Mclean left here with his children, feeling that he had done no more than was right, and in this the community were with him. Mrs. McLean went to Salt Lake where she still resides. The above was the whole cause of the Mountain Meadow massacre.

SEBASTIAN.        

Notes: (forthcoming)

Salt Lake City, Oct. 10th -- At Beaver, Utah, Judge Boremen passed sentence upon John D. Lee, for participating in the Mountain Meadow massacre, 19 years ago. In doing so, he called attention to the atrocity of the crime, the inability heretofore of the authorities to procure evidence, that the conspiracy to murder was widespread, that Lee was finally offered up as a sacrifice to popular indignation, but that others equally guilty might hereafter expect punishment. The prisoner having the right, under the laws of the Territory, to chose death by hanging, shooting, or beheading, and having chosen to be shot, was sentenced to be shot to death on Jan. 26th, 1877.


Notes: (forthcoming)

BRIGHAM  YOUNG.
______

The Champion Criminal of the Age...

The telegraph brings a full statement if John D. Lee, under sentence to be shot to death to-morrow... Following are its important parts:

My name is John D. Lee. I was born September 6, 1812, Kaskaskia, Illinois. My mother belonged to the Catholic Church and I was christened in the faith. My parents died while I was still a child, and my boyhood was one of trial and hardship.

I  MARRIED

Agatha Ann Woolsey in 1833 and moved to Fayette county, Illinois, on Sucker creek. There I became wealthy. In 1836 I became acquainted with some traveling Mormon preachers. I bought, read, and believed the Book of Mormon. I sold my property in Illinois and moved to far West in Missouri in 1837, where I joined the Mormon Church and became intimately acquainted with Joseph Smith, Brigham Young, and other leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. I was subsequently initiated into the order of Danites at its first formation. The members of this order were solemnly sworn to obey all the orders of the priesthood of the Mormon Cnurch, to do any and all things as commanded.

THE  "DESTROYING  ANGELS"

of the Mormon Church were selected from this organization. I took an active part as a Mormon soldier, as it was the recurring conflicts between the people and the Mormons which made Jackson County, Missouri, a historic ground. When the Mormons were expelled from Missouri, I was one of the first to settle at Nauvoo, Illinois, where I took an active part in all that was done by the Church or city. I had charge of the construction of many public buildings there, and was the policeman and body-guard of Joseph Smith at Nauvoo. After his death I held the same position to Brigham Young, who succeeded Joseph Smith as prophet, priest and revelator in the Church. I was Recorder for

THE  QUORUM  OF  SEVENTY,

head clerk of the Church, and organized the priesthood in the Order of Seventy. I took all the degrees of the Endowment House, and stood high in the priesthood. I traveled extensively throughout the United States as a Mormon missionary, and acted as trader and financial agent of the Church. From the death of Joseph Smith until the settlement at Salt Lake City, I was one of the Locating Committee that selected sites for various towns and cities in Utah Territory. I held many offices in the Territory and was a member of the Mormon Legislature, and Probate Judge of Washington county, Utah. Immediately after Joseph Smith received

THE  REVELATION  CONCERNING  POLYGAMY,

the revelation concerning polygamy, I was informed of its doctrines by said Joseph Smith and the apostles. I believe in the doctrine, and have been sealed to eighteen women, three of whom were sisters, and one was the mother of three of my wives. I was sealed to this old woman for her soul's salvation. I was an honored man in the Church, flattered and regarded by Brigham Young and the apostles, until 1868, when I was cut off from the Church and selected as a scapegoat to suffer for and bear the sins of my people. As a duty to myself and mankind I now confess all that I did at the Mountain Meadow massacre, without animosity to any one, shielding none and giving the facts as they existed. Those with me on that occasion were

ACTING  UNDER  ORDERS

from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. The horrid deeds then committed were done as a duty which we believed [we owed] to God and our Church. We were all sworn to secrecy before and after the massacre. The penalty for giving information concerning it was death. As I am to suffer death for what I then did, and have been betrayed both by those who gave orders to act and those who were the most active of my assistants, I now give the world the true facts as they exist, and tell why the massacre was committed, and who were

THE  ACTIVE  PARTICIPANTS.

The Mountain Meadows massacre was the result of the direct teachings of Brigham Young, and it was done by order of those high in authority in the Mormon community. The immediate order for the massacre was issued by Colonel Dame, Lieutenan-Colilonel Isaac C. Haight and a council of Mormons at Cedar City, Utah. I had no position either in the civil or military departments or in the Church at that time. About September 7th I went to Cedar City, where I met Isaac C. Haight, President of that [Stake] of Zion, and also Lieutenant-Colonel of the Iron county Mormon militia. This was Sunday. Lieutenant-Colonel Haight

WAS  THE  LEADER.

in all things concerning civil, church and military matters. It was a crime punishable by death to disobey his orders. Lieutenant-Colonel Haight gave me a full account of the immigrants who were coming. We slept in the iron-works all that night, and arranged our plans. Lieutenant-Colonel Haight said the immigrants were a rough set; that they were bad men, robbers and murderers, and had helped to kill the Missouri [sic Mormon?] prophets. I believed him. I was ordered to raise an Indian band to attack their train and run off their cattle, and to [have] the Indians

KILL  THE  EMIGRANTS.

The remainder of the document is a detailed recapitulation of the steps which preceded the horrible massacre, and the particulars of the killing, and concludes as follows:

THE  FATHER  OF  SIXTY-FOUR  CHILDREN..

Ten are dead and fifty-four are still living. The witnesses on my trial have not told the whole truth. They are all guilty of helping to kill the emigrants. This is the only act of violence I ever took part in, except in lawful battle. I would not have acted on that occasion [as I did] to have saved my body from torture, had I not believed I was obeying the orders from the heads of the Church. I knew I was doing according to the teachings of the priesthood, and I still think Haight had his orders from the heads of the church. My journals and private writings have been destroyed by Brigham Young, and I have nothing left but my memory to give the account of the foul deeds done in God's name during the years when Brigham Young was chief ruler in Utah. I know of many other murders, castrations and robberies committed by order of the Priesthood, all of which I have fully stated in my writings delivered to my attorney, W. W. Bishop. I have told the whole truth, and the God I am soon to meet face to face knows that my assertions are nothing but the truth."


Note: Beginning at the sub-heading "the Active Participants," some sources quote an alternate version of Lee's confession, which provides parallel, but differently worded, information. -- (see J. H. Beadle's Western Wilds for an example of the variant reading).

JOHN  D.  LEE.
________

The Leading Spirit of the Mountain Meadows Massacre...
________

(under construction)

 

---

THE  PRATT-McLEAN  LIAISON.
________

Origin of the Mountain Meadows Massacre.
________

The McLean Family -- Elder Parley P. Pratt's
Relations to Mrs. McLean -- Pratt's
Death at the Hands of Hector
McLean -- Fate of the
Family -- The McLean
Residence.
________

The origin of the horrible burchery at Mountain Meadows, September 8, 1857, which is revived to-day through the execution and confession of John D. Lee, is directly traceable to this city, being credited to the killing of the Mormon Elder, Parley P. Pratt, by Hector McLean, near Van Buren, Arkansas, in the early part of that year. Both Pratt and McLean had been residents of this city. The McLean family, which consisted of Hector H., his wife Eleanor, and their children -- named respectively Fitzroy, Albert and Annie -- were among the earlier emigrants to California. Mrs. McLean was a well educated woman, and belonged to a highly respectable family in New Orleans. She was an ardent Campbellite -- an emotional religionist in the strict sense of the term, and ultimately became a firm believer in affinities. McLean wan an unemotional, plain man, a good bookeepper; and altogether the opposite intellectually of his wofe. He received an appointment in the Custom House when John A. Collier was Port Collector, and was instrumental in unearthing the crookedness of that official in office, having kept a duplicate set of Custom House accounts.

MRS. M'LEAN'S CONVERSION TO MORMONISM.

During the residence of the McLeans in this city, Parley P. Pratt was engaged here also in missionary work as a Mormon elder and teacher. The McLean residence was on the northeast corner of Jones and Filbert streets. The Mormons held services regularly in a building on the corner of Stockton and Jackson streets, which was afterward converted into a dancing hall, and also in an old adobe house on the corner of Powell street and Broadway. Every Sunday converts to the Mormon faith were publicaly baptized at the beach. A near neighbor of the McLean family was a Mrs. Hollenbeck, her residence being at the corner of Taylor and Chestnut streets. She was an earnest disciple of Joseph Smith and Brigham Young. She was a frequent visitor at the McLean residence, and was instrumental in converting Mrs. McLean to the Mormon faith. Mrs. McLean was also introduced to Elder Pratt by Mrs. Hollenbeck. McLean learned of his wife's espousal of Mormonism by accident, and he was greatly pained to find that she had been secretly attending the meetings of the Mormons for some time previously, and holding long converse with Elder Parley P. Pratt. Every effort made to persuade her to renounce the heresy failed.

ELDER PRATT'S CONDUCT AND TREATMENT AT THE
M'LEAN'S RESIDENCE.

Pratt was told to discontinue his visits to Mrs. McLean. But the Mormon Elder visited her after that surreptitiously. Being found in the house one day by McLean, he was kicked kicked out by him. Mrs. McLean was so thoroughly infatuated by the Mormon Elder and with the faith that he taught, that whenever he called at the house she devotedly washed his feet. She was thus engaged one evening when McLean disturbed the ceremony by appearing unexpectedly in the room. The Mormon Elder, without standing on the order of going, fled, McLean discharging the contents of a pistol he had drawn as he came in the room, at the disappearing form of the Elder as he beat a hasty retreat across the balcony in the rear of the house.

MRS. M'LEAN TRIES TO ABDUCT HER CHILDREN TO
GO TO SALT LAKE.

Mrs. McLean subsequently endeavored to abduct her children for the purpose of setting out to Salt Lake, to which place she was bent on going. McLean then sent his children to her parents in New Orleans, in hopes that she would be induced to follow, and that she would thus break loose from the baleful influences surrounding her in San Francisco. She was almost distracted at the loss of her children, and consented to return to New Orleans, to which place her husband paid her passage. It is but justice to McLean to say that his wife's family sympathized fully with him, and co-operated earnestly with him in the efforts made to reclaim her.

MRS. M'LEAN TRIES DECEIVES HER PARENTS AND STEALS
AWAY WITH HER CHILDREN.

Under the influence and advice of her old friends at New Orleans Mrs. McLean showed signs of returning rationality, but it subsequently turned out that it was all assumed for the purpose of enabling her to get her children successfully away, for one day it was discovered that she had boarded a river boat bound north, en route to Salt Lake. She was overtaken, however, by the police, and the children recovered. But she went on her way without them, arriving safely in Salt Lake, and taking up her residence in Brigham Young's family as a teacher of his children. The yearning for her children caused her to return to New Orleans, where she professed penitence, and led her parents again to believe that she had finally renounced the Mormon faith.

MRS. M'LEAN AGAIN ABDUCTS THE CHILDREN.

As soon, however, as she regained their confidence, she suddenly disappeared with the children. McLean, who was still in San Francisco, and then engaged in mercantile pursuits, was at once informed of his wife's movements. The news sent him home at once. He visited New York, the grand depot of Mormon emigration and the residence of Parley P. Pratt, who was then Emigration Superintendent, suspecting that his wife might be in that city. In this he was mistaken, spending several weeks in unavailing search. A dispatch received by him from St. Louis led him to believe that she was in that city, but he met with no better success there. He then received a letter from New Orleans, in which Houston, Texas was given as Mrs. McLean's place of concealment. But before McLean reached that city she had left for Utah with a party of Mormons. In company with his father, McLean started out in pursuit, cutting across the country to Fort Smith in the Cherokee Nation in the hope of intercepting the fugitives. The exertion was too much for the old man, and he was left behind. Arriving at Fort Smith, McLean found that he was ahead of the Mormon train. He also found letters in the post office there addressed to his wife, written by Parley Pratt.

One of PRATT's LETTERS.

ONE OF Pratt'S letters reads as follows:

Dear Eleanor: McLean is in St. Louis; he has [offered] a reward for your discovery, or your children, or me. The apostates have betrayed me and you. I had to get away on foot, and leave all to save myself. If you come to Fort Gibson, you can hire a messenger and send him to Riley Perryman's mill on the Arkansas River, twenty-five miles from Fort Gibson, and let him inquire for Washington N. Cook, Mormon Missionary, and when he has found him he will soon tell where Elder Pratt Parker is. Do not let your children or any friend know that I am in this region, or anywhere else on the earth; except it is an elder from Texas, who is in your confidence, and even him under strictest charge of keep you it.

If you send a messenger to Perryman's Mill for Elder Cook in order to find me, send a note addressed to Washington N. Cook. Everybody knows the place. He may live a few miles distant, but the folks at Riley Perryman's Mill know where he is. And if they can be made sensible that it requires immediate action, some of them can go and find him. Your messenger can leave the note at Riley Perryman's or with Elder George Burgess there, and return, but you must state in the note where you can be found, and Elder Cook will probably call on you before he can have time to see me, as I may be some days journey away, for I don't much expect you at Fort Gibson, as I don't believe you received my last letter mailed at St. Louis, March 4th, and addressed as usual to the usual place. Elder Cook knows all, and you can trust him with all necessary information. When I know that you and the children are safe and your circumstances, I will know what to do.

Be sure not to let the Texas company know anything, for all the frontiers are watched, and some of them may betray you there. I must hide you or pass you some other way.

Pray much. Be still and wise. I have made use of some of the late alterations in the alphabet. I am well, and your own _______ _______."

MRS. M'LEAN "SEALED" TO PRATT -- THEIR ARREST.

At Fort Smith McLean learned that his wife had been "sealed" to Pratt as his ninth wife, or concubine. He obtained from the United States Commissioner at Van Buren, Arkansas, a writ for the arrest of his wife and Parley P. Pratt, and on the approach of the Mormon caraven, went out with the officers to seize them. In the first wagon sat Mrs. McLean and her children and the Mormon Elder, Parley P. Pratt. McLean at once took charge of his long lost children, but Pratt and Mrs. McLean were placed in custody by the Maeshal. When the news was received at Van Buren, the excitement was intense, and it was deemed best to lock up the prisoners in jail, and postpone the examination until next day.

PRATT'S FLIGHT AND DEATH.

The excitement increasing, the Commissioner concluding that Pratt could not be legally held, mounted him on a swift horse and told him to make his escape good by flight. Pratt took that hint and started. When McLean heard of the Mormon Elder's escape he started off on horseback in hot pursuit, overtook him eight miles from Van Buren, and shot him. Pratt died from his wound within an hour later.

The Mormons were sorely exercised over the death of Pratt. The Arkansas company which was massacred at Mountain Meadows is believed to have contained in its numbers some of the very men who helped McLean to destroy Pratt at Van Buren, and the massacre is believed to have been instigated solely by a spirit of revenge for Pratt's death, although other reasons have since been given by the Mormons themselves.

THE FATE OF THE M'LEANS.

After Pratt had been disposed of, McLean was molested by no one, but his act was pretty generally sustained. Mrs. McLean fled to Memphis, but subsequently returned to Salt Lake, where she is believed to be at present. When last heard from she was engaged teaching the Mormon youth. McLean's whereabouts, if living, are not known. Fitzroy, the eldest boy, was killed during the war while serving in the rebel army; Albert, the second son, led a dissipated life and went early to the grave; the daughter married a well-to-do New Orleans man, and is believed to be living there now.

THE SAN FRANCISCO RESIDENCE OF THE M'LEANS.

The San Francisco residence of the McLeans is still standing.... In view of the excitement for the massacre of the Arkansas company, which was an outgrowth of the liaison of Parley P. Pratt and Mrs. McLean, formed in this house, the building and its surroundings are now of more than ordinary historical interest.


Note: According to a report evidently circulated by Charles H. Wandell, Eleanor McLean Pratt "is said to have recognized one or more of the emigrants as being present at the murder of the apostle," when the Fancher party passed through Salt Lake City -- see note attached to the "Argus" quotes on page 431 of T. B. H. Stenhouse's Rocky Mountain Saints.

The Death of Parley P. Pratt.
________

The date of the killing of Parley P. Pratt, the Mormon Elder, by Hector H. McLean, has now become a matter of some historical value. The execution of John D. Lee for the part he took in the massacre of the Arkansas emigrants at Mountain Meadows has revived the stiry of that horrible affair and all antecedent events bearing upon it. Parley P. Pratt was killed by McLean within eight miles of Van Buren, Arkansas, about the middle of May, 1857, the exact date we have been unable to obtain. The Bulletin of July 1, 1857, contained an elaborate account of the affair. The Mountain Meadows massacre occurred on the 8th of September in the same year. But it was not until a long time afterward that the news of the butchery was received here. Then, the only cause assigned for the massacre was the killing of Pratt, some of the members of the Arkansas company having, it was said, aided McLean in wreaking vengeance on the destroyer of his domestic happiness. When the Mormons became conscious that the finger of suspicion was pointed unmistakably in their direction, they endeavored to justify the horrible deed by accusing the emigrants of boasting in the streets of Salt Lake City that they had participated in the death of Jo. Smith and threatened to kill Brigham Young. Lee speaks of the same thing in his last confession. Those who are most familiar, however, with the history of the massacre, remember well enough that this was an after-thought, trumped up to suit the occasion by the Mormon leaders. The story that Pratt was not killed until two years after the massacre is a stupid misrepresentation, invented in the over fertile brain of a newspaper reporter, who is evidently ignorant of facts which are a matter of record. About the middle of July, 1857, Mrs. McLean, then known as Mrs. Pratt, passed an Indiana emigrant train as a passenger in the Mormon express, at Fort Bridger, on her way to Salt Lake. An attache of the Bulletin was connected with that train, on his way to California, and the killing of Pratt was the current topic of conversation among the emigrants after the departure of the Mormon express.


Note: Eleanor McLean Pratt notified her LDS superiors, by letter, of the death of Parley P. Pratt in mid-May. Word of the murder must have reached Utah Territory towards the end of June. The event was reported in the Salt Lake City Deseret News on July 1st. The widow herself had arrived in Salt Lake City before Aug. 1, 1857, when she had an interview with Apostle Wilford Woodruff (who recorded her summary of the murder in his journal on that date). The Fancher wagon train emigrants arrived in town two days later -- so it is not inconceiveable that Eleanor passed them on the trail a few days earlier and recognized somebody in that group. There is, however, no reliable evidence that she ever pointed out any of the emigrants as associates of Pratt's murderer.

Evidences  of  Brigham's  Guilt.

A correspondent writing to a San Francisco journal from Kernville, Kern county, under date of 2d instant, avers that the contents of the dispatch recently sent from Tucson, giving the military order issued by the Mormon General D. H. Wells and approved by the signature of Brigham Young, directing the Mormon militia under Haight and Lee to slaughter the Texas [sic - Arkansas?] emigrants at Mountain Meadow, is substantially correct. The writer alleges that he was at that time (1857) a Lieutenant in the Mormon militia; that he wasresent with Lee and Haight at the foundry when the order was read (as related in Lee's confession), and that he heard the order read and saw it, and saw Brigham Young's signature attached to it. The writer further alleges that at the time he remonstrated with his superiors and attempted to prevent the butchery, but was told he had better keep quiet, for "the penalty of death was meted out to all for disobedience to the orders of the Holy Prophet of the Lord."

These statements are given as additional links in the long chain of circumstantial evidence going to show that the Mormon Church and the church authorities, with Brigham Young as their representative and acknowledged head, deliberately planned and executed the butchery at Mountain Meadow.

But there are other sources of evidence, written and oral, that have passed into history, that furnish proof positive that Brigham Young was accessory before the fact, to that massacre, and that no other evidence need be adduced to convince any honest jury in the world of his guilt. As the Prophet of the Lord, claiming to receive revelations directly from Heaven, Brigham Young decreed, by prophesy, the death of the slaughtered ones long before they had entered the valley of the Great Salt Lake. The prophecy was written, spoken and published, and was reported by nearly every Mormon tongue in Utah before the unfortunate emigrants entered that Territory. Yet they were allowed to enter Salt Lake and proceed 300 miles through the Mormon settlements, and thirty-five miles beyond the most southerly town (Cedar City) on their route before the "prophecy" was fulfilled. The prophecy was uttered in accordance with what Brigham claimed, and his fanatical followers believed, to be divine will and divine revelation, and the emigrants were slaughtered to avenge the death of the Mormon Apostle, Parley Parker Pratt, who was killed in the early part of the same year, near Fort Smith, in the Cherokee country, by H. H. McLain, of San Francisco, to avenge the seduction of his wife and the abduction of his children by Pratt. The prophecy was, in substance, that "the Lord would avenge the death of His Apostles by the death of an hundred to one." Its fulfillment is proof positive that Brigham Young was accessory before the fact to the Mountain Meadow massacre.

Subsequently, to appease the pangs of conscience of those who had carried out his murderous orders, Brigham's inhumanity pursued the murdered emigrants beyond the grave, and denied their bodies sepulture. He "prophesied" again that the bones of the slaughtered emigrants would bleach in the sun till the elements had destroyed them, and that if any loving or human hand should build a monument over them, the "Lord" would tear it down, and that not one stone would be left upon another. This prophecy was likewise fulfilled; for when the troops visited the scene of the massacre, gathered the bones together and buried them, and built a rude monument of granite blocks above the resting place, they had not returned to Camp Floyd before the manument was scattered over the Meadows. If our memory is not at fault the monument was rebuilt and again tirn down, and was built a third time before it was allowed to stand. The fulfillment of this "prophecy" is proof quite as conclusive that Brigham Young was accessory after the fact to the Mountain Meadows massacre.


Note 1: The Tuscon Star's March 28, 1877 press release from "L. C. Hughes" purported to give the contents of a "Special Order" sent out to Mormon troops by James Ferguson, under command of General Daniel H. Wells. This document reportedly was "found among the papers of the late ex-Chief Justice John Titus, of Arizona, and formerly Chief Justice of Utah." The major problem being, that the transcript communicated by Hughes bore the date "April 19, 1958," and thus, even if authentic, could have no direct bearing upon the 1857 massacre at Miuntain Meadows. See the Denver Daily Rocky Mountain News and the Boston Daily Advertiser, both of March 29, 1877, for further details (cf. Mrs. Stenhouse's Tell it All, page 650 and J. H. Beadle's Life in Utah, page 193).

Note 2: The referenced Apr. 2, 1877 letter from the old ex-Mormon Kernville has not been located in any contemporary San Francisco newspaper.

SALT  LAKE.
________

Polygamous  Brigham.
________

Salt Lake City, April 30. -- Brigham Young preached in the Tabernacle yesterday a sermon justifying the Mountain Meadow massacre, on the ground that the Gentiles had killed the original Mormon Prophet, Joe Smith, and had driven the Mormons from Missouri and other States by Force of arms. He concluded by defying any power on earth or in hell to overthrow his Church, and assured his hearers that the Mormons would continue their practices and dot the whole of Utah with their temples.


Notes: (forthcoming)

HISTORIC  MOUNTAIN  MEADOWS.
________

The Destroying Angels Murder the Betrayer
of the Great Massacre.
________

(Pioche Record, July 22d.)

News has reached Pioche that Bishop Philip Klingon Smith, at one time a man of high standing and great influence in the Mormon Church, and the exposer of the Mountain Meadows Massacre, and the names of the men who participated in the bloody deed, is dead. His body was found in a prospect hole in the State of Sonora, Mexico, and a letter from there, which was received in the vicinity of Pioche, states that the mystery surrounding the body indicates that Smith had been murdered. Smith died just as he expected, for on his return from Beaver in 1876, after testifying in the trial of John D. Lee, we met Smith in town, in a sort of secluded spot, and during the conversation Smith remarked: "I know that the Church will kill me, sooner or later, and I am as confident of that fact as that I am sitting on this rock. It is only a question of time; but I'm going to love as long as I can." Immediately after Smith's return from Lee's trial, as his wife at Panaca refused to have anything to do with him, being so ordered by the Church, he started southward, and loved in Arizona for some time, following prospecting. During his residence in the mountains of that Territory two attempts were made upon his life, and by whom he was never able to discover. Smith made the exposure of the butchery at Mountain Meadows more for self protection than anything else. In the early days, when Hiko was the county seat of Lincoln and the flourishing and only prominent mining camp in this southern country, the Mormons used to haul all the freight from Salt Lake to Hiko. Smith was engaged in freighting. Smith was engaged in freighting, and his son, Bud Smith, was assisting him. During one of these trips father and son had a quarrel, and Bud went to Hiko and obtained employment. It was during the winter of 1867-68, when Klingon Smith arrived in Hiko with a load of freight, his son pointed him out to the people, and told them that just after the massacre his father pointed out a young girl to him and ordered him to kill her, saying that if "he (Bud) did not kill her he (his father) would kill him." Bud told his father that he would not kill the girl and that he might kill him. Then Bishop Smith turned upon the poor girl himself, and knocked her brains out with a club. This was the first inkling to anything authentic in connection with the massacre, and caused considerable excitement among the settlers of Hiko. Wandell, one of the county officials at that time, informed Bishop Smith what his son exposed, and hurried him out of town. After that, while engaged in handling freight, upon his arrival at Panaca, Smith would always hire some one to drive his team over to Hiko. In 1871 Bishop Smith made affidavits before the Clerk of Lincoln county, making the exposure of the massacre and the names of those connected therewith, which was published in the Record and made public for the first time. Mrs. Smith is now living at Bullionville, and is married to a man named Dolf Laundrich. Mrs. Smith is an intelligent old lady, and is the mother of seventeen children by Smith, the last two being twin girls, who are now about sixteen years of age. Most of the Smith family reside in Lincoln county.


Notes: (forthcoming)

Correspondence.
_______

A letter from Wm. B. Smith, the last remaining brother of Joseph Smith the founder of the Church of Christ of Latter Day Saints and one of the Twelve Apostles, at the date of the death of his brother, and who repudiated the leadership of Brigham Young, and his false doctrines and has ever since stood aloof from Brighamism, and who is a staunch defender of the claims of the Reorganized Church.

                                                                   Elkader, Jan. 18. 1885.
To the friends of the Expositor. After compliments and best wishes to my old comrade and fellow laborer in the gospel of Christ, Brother H. P. Brown, Editor; we take the pen to say that we are in receipt of the first number of the Expositor; and to say that we are well pleased with it would be a term too insufficient to express our gratification and praise of its true merits.

We like the looks of the Expositor very much, and the tone of the sentiments and principles it proposes to advocate. It seems to have the right kind of ring in it for the work.

More light is needed in opening the eyes of those who have been led into apostasy by false apostles; and by deceitful and designing men.

The Expositor, we trust, as an expounder of the doctrines of the Church of Christ will do much, to set the faith of the true Saint before the public; and thus draw the dividing line between the true and spurious doctrines of Mormonism

Situated as the Expositor is, upon the Pacific Slope, it will have a much better chance, with its helpers, the Herald, Hope and Advocate, to counteract the influence which is brought to bear against the truth by the bad example and teachings of the Utah Mormons.

Go on, go on, brethren and saints. May God bless and speed the good work, for the redemption of fallen Israel, and planting the gospel standard in every land, and among every nation, people and tongue. -- A kingdom to prepare in righteousness for the coming of God's dear son!

For the time is coming when all Israel will be free; when truth and peace, and the knowledge of God, shall abound from land to land and from sea to sea.

Then to accomplish so great a work, as the destruction of sin, iniquity and false doctrines from the earth; and also of those things which have so cursed the name of Mormon or Mormonism by the corrupt doings of those Utah Apostates; it becomes the duty of every Latter Day Saint to put forth a helping hand in so praiseworthy a cause, as the Expositor is engaged in.

It is needless to multiply words further on this subject. If there is anything virtuous; if there is anything honest; if there is anything just; if there is anything good dwelling in the hearts of the truth loving Saints of God, it is now a good time for them to show their faith and love for the cause, they have so much professed to love by responding to the Expositor's call for help and aid in this work, of redemption of Latter Day Israel and for the planting [of] the true gospel standard among all nations,

Brethren and Saints you will also remember that prayers like faith, without works are dead, being alone.

Send on your money brethren and saints everywhere and give aid to the good cause.

The Expositor should be maintained. In much hope I subscribe to all saints.
                                                                          Yours truly,
                                                                 WILLIAM B. SMITH.


Notes: (forthcoming)

THE  MORMON  ANNIHILATOR,
CLARK  BRADEN.
_______

The most interesting exchange we have is the Blue Valley Blade, published by L. L. Luse at Wilber, Neb. It seems Mr. Luse brought out and groomed the Rev. Clark Braden as the great Mormon annihilator, and fed and clothed him, and gave him $110 out of $150 for his services in the first Braden-Kelley debate on Mormonism. It further appears that Braden is an inbred scoundrel of the first water, having been advertised by his own church at Perry, Pike county, Ill., as unworthy of Christian confidence, and signed by five members of that church. But that made no difference; he was just the man to annihilate Mormonism with. Being completely whipped by Kelley, he made his friends believe if he could only get on the classic grounds of Kirtland, Ohio, where the Mormons first settled, he could bury Kelley and the Mormons under the load of dirt and filth so deeply that forever after he would be recognized as the "Mormon Annihilator."

Bro. Lane, still taking stock in him, and hoping he would retrieve his fortune in the next debate, went with him to Kirtland, Ohio, and attended that debate with Kelley, as a sort of second, where Braden showed such a filthy character as a debater and Christian that the people in Kirtland gave Kelley and wife an ovation, to the chagrin of Bro. Lane and the disgust of Braden... "Let the sinners in Zion be afraid, and fearfulness seize the hypocrites."


Notes: (forthcoming)

THE  "MORMON  ANNIHILATOR,"
CLARK  BRADEN.
_______

The Blue Valley Blade of April 16th, after quoting a portion of our editorial under the above caption, and giving us due credit, says:

When we engaged Braden to conduct the Wilber debate we knew nothing about him, save he had some ability as a debater, and that he represented himself to us as being a member of the Christian Church, which representation we found to be false; but it was not until both the Wilber and Kirtland debates were over. At the close of the Wilber debate, and after he and Elder Kelley had agreed to repeat it at Kirtland, we informed him that he had not given satisfaction and that Kelley had knocked out the persimmons. He promised if we would not bounce him he would do better at Kirtland; so we took him to our bosom and gave him over half of the house, greatly to the displeasure of our wife. We kept his rooms at a high temperature, at an expense of $3.75 per week for fuel, thinking we might thaw some of the crotchetyness out of him; but, alas! alas! the more we groomed him the more like the long-eared animal he became, and the more natural inherent cussedness came to the surface. We went to Kirtland at the beginning of the debate, but became so thoroughly disgusted with his unjust, dishonest and unscrupulous methods, and his sarcasm, vituperation and falsehoods, that we left Kirtland and came home before the debate was half over.

Well, Bro. Luse, we feel like forgiving you now for perpetrating such an unmitigated villain upon one of our young elders, since you have had the grace and honesty to acknowledge that you did not know his character when you pitted him against brother E. L. Kelley.

As Braden has gone where the "woodbine twineth," and is so well advertised by the Blue Valley Blade, we propose to drop a tear of commiseration for his lack of Christian virtue and purity, and hope and pray that at no distant day he may realize his situation and, through faith, repentance and baptism for the remission of sins, he may receive the gift of the Holy Ghost and become a meek and humble follower of Jesus, whom he has so signally disgraced by his anti-Christian conduct.

The lesson to be drawn from this whole matter is to be careful to know the character of the company we keep; and that when we wish to teach morality and Christianity to others, we see to it that we introduce as champions only such as we can vouch for as being both moral and Christian teachers.

---

WILLIAM SMITH ON MORMONISM.
A True Account of the Origin of the "Book of Mormon."

This work, small though it is, should be in the hands of all who believe in the divine mission of Joseph Smith. It is an important work, and should be read by every Latter-Day Saint. Brethren who remit to the author at Elkader, Clayton county, Iowa, will be promptly attended to. The price is 25 cents for one copy; five for one dollar.

From a letter from Bro. William B. Smith, dated April 6th, we extract the following:

"Glad to see the Expositor's pleasant face when it comes in. Glad to see also that plainness of speech that some newspaper editors are justly deserving of, who love to peddle out falsehood against the character of an innocent people. May the Expositor's face continue to shine while truth is the privileged ornament of a true Latter-Day Saint,"

Thanks, Uncle William, write often..


Notes: (forthcoming)

"STORY"  OF  THE  ORIGIN
OF  MORMONISM.
_______

Many accounts have been printed of the true source of the Book of Mormon which forms the foundation stone of the Church of the Latter Day Saints, and which is accepted as a genuine revelation by thousands of Mormons scattered throughout our western territories; but in "New Light on Mormonism" Mrs. Ellen E. Dickinson has brought together a mass of new information, which added to the facts already known, makes her book the most complete exposure of the great fraud of the century. The book was written in 1882, and this new edition continues the history of Mormonism down to the present time, and contains a good summary of the effects of the Edmunds law when enforced by such men as Judge Zane. The writer, Mrs. Dickinson, is a relative of the Rev. Solomon Spaulding, who, while at Conneaut, O., wrote a romance called "The Manuscript Found" -- the true source of the Book of Mormon. Spaulding was a man of much literary ability, whose curiosity in regard to the mound builders was deeply stirred by the discovery of the remains of an early race in a mound near his home. He conceived the idea of writing a book, founded on the discoveries made in this earth-mound, and attributing this work to the descendants of the immigrant Jews, who started from Jerusalem with Levi [sic] and his four sons under divine guidance. He was a semi-invalid, and it was his custom to read chapters as they were completed to the members of his family and neighbors who chanced to call. Several of these people recall the peculiar names which he gave to the wandering tribes -- Mormon, Moroni, Lamenite and Nephi -- words which he coined, and which Joseph Smith afterward appropriated. Mrs. Dickinson, with much detail, tells of the disappointment of Spaulding in failing to secure the publication of his work at Pittsburg, where he went with the manuscript. In the printing-house, where the manuscript was left for months, worked a young printer named Sidney Rigdon, who became a preacher among the Mormons, and who was accused in after years by Spaulding of copying his book while it remained in the printer's hands. Certain it is that the names, the plot and much of the imagery of Spaulding's romance is found in the Book of Mormon, which was given to the world by Joseph Smith as an inspired work. There is no positive proof that Rigdon stole the romance, as Spaulding removed his original manuscript, but there is proof of the efforts made by the Mormons to get possession of the original manuscript story. Through trickery one Dr. D. P. Hurlburt obtained possession of the coveted book for the purpose, as he claimed, of comparing it with the Book of Mormon. The owners of the manuscript never heard of it again, although they tried frequently to regain possession of it. The natural assumption is that Hurlburt sold it to the Mormons, as he was known soon after to purchase a farm at Gibsonburg, O., where he lived to the day of his death. The destruction of this evidence of the fraudulent character of the Mormon Bible was absolutely necessary, as its publication would have seriously injured the growth of the new religion. Mrs. Dickinson paid a visit to Hurlburt in 1880, but although he showed signs of great uneasiness when questioned on the subject, he denied the charge that he had sold the manuscript to the Mormons. He died two years after, and with his death ended all prospect of any direct evidence to denote the literary larceny by Rigdon and Hurlburt, which proved of so much value to the Mormons.

The story of the origin of Mormonism, its rapid spread under the leadership of the disreputable Joseph Smith, the migrations of the band, the grafting of polygamy upon the parent creed by Brigham Young, and the events which have brought the Mormons within reach of the law, and all this astonishing story of credulity and fanaticism is retold here with much power, because there is no indulgence in invective or strong feeling. It is a valuable record of a monstrous delusion which bids fair now to be robbed of most of its power in the course of a few years. (New York, Funk & Wagnalls.)

The foregoing (though evidently a paid advertisement) appeared in the Sunday Chronicle of May 31, 1885, as a pretended review of a work recently published by Mrs. Ellen E. Dickinson, who claims to be a "relative of the Rev. Solomon Spaulding," who wrote the romance called the "Manuscript Found."

The Spaulding story has been exploded more than ten thousand times since it was first invented by Dr. Philastus D. Hurlburt, and published in the book called "Mormonism Unveiled, by E. D. Howe, of Painesville, Ohio," who published and fathered the book written by said "seventh son," Doctor Hurlburt, because he was such a notorious liar no one would believe a word he said if they knew he said it. Dr.(?) Hurlburt was baptized into the Church of Latter Day Saints on the farm of our father-in-law, William Barker, near Jamestown, Chatauqua county, New York, somewhere between 1832 and 1835. He removed to Kirtland, Ohio, where he was excommunicated from the church for gross immoral and unchristian-like conduct. Here he heard that the Rev. Solomon Spaulding had written something in regard to the Indians being the descendants of the lost tribes of Israel, and that Mrs. Spaulding (then Mrs. Spaulding Davidson, of Munson, Mass.) had the manuscript of said work. He then went to Munson, saw Mrs. Davidson and her daughter, got the said manuscript, promising to publish the same and give them a part of the profits of the sale of the book. Finding the book would not answer his purpose he invented the celebrated Spaulding romance story, published it in "Mormonism Unveiled," leaving the said Spaulding manuscript with the adopted father of the "Mormonism Unvailed." E. D. Howe, since which time the Spaulding romance story has been the ammunition to load all the sectarian guns in all the civilized world, and has been the leading weapon used by priests and people against the Latter Day work ushered in through Joseph Smith.

And, although that story has been refuted times without number, yet the great leading paper of the Pacific Coast is made to say that the "'Manuscript Found' is the true source of the Book of Mormon;" and that, too, since the "manuscript lost" has in fact and truth been "found," and that, too, where the redoubtable Dr. Hurlburt and E. D. Howe placed it: and that is in the possession of L. L. Rice, now of Honolulu, Sandwich Islands.

The theory that Hurlburt sold the said manuscript to the Mormons is too farfetched, when it is history that said Hurlburt threatened the life of Joseph Smith, and was so violent that he had to be put under bonds for to keep the peace. But "Mrs. Dickinson paid a visit to Hurlburt in 1880, but, although he showed great signs of uneasiness when questioned on the subject, he denied the charge that he had sold the manuscript to the Mormons." And, notwithstanding his character for truth and veracity was bad, he told the truth as regards that matter, as recent discoveries prove.

President Fairchild, of Ohio, paid a visit to his old friend L. L. Rice at Honolulu, and in searching his old papers to find articles on the slavery question they came across this identical manuscript, an account of which was subsequently published in the Bibliotheca Sacra.

The attention of Joseph Smith, the son of the founder of Mormonism, having been called to the fact, he wrote a letter to Mr. Rice of Honolulu, and received the following answer:

                          HONOLULU, Sandwich Islands,
                          March 28th, 1885.
MR. JOSEPH SMITH: The Spaulding Manuscript in my possession came into my hands in this wise. In 1839-40 my partner and myself bought of E. D. Howe the Painesville Telegraph, published at Painesville, Ohio. The transfer of the printing department, types, press, &c., was accompanied with a large collection of books, manuscripts, &c., this manuscript of Spaulding's among the rest. So, you see, it has been in my possession over forty years. But I never examined it, or knew the character of it, until some six or eight months since. The wrapper was marked, "Manuscript Story -- Conneaut Creek." The wonder is, that in some of my movements, I did not destroy or burn it with a large amount of rubbish that had accumulated from time to time.

It happened that Pres't Fairchild was here on a visit, at the time I discovered the contents of it, and it was examined by him and others with much curiosity. Since Pres't Fairchild published the fact of its existence in my possession, I have had applications for it from half a dozen sources, each applicant seeming to think that he or she was entitled to it. Mr. Howe says when he was getting up a book to expose Mormonism as a fraud at an early day, when the Mormons had their head-quarters at Kirtland, he obtained it from some source, and it was inadvertently transferred with the other effects of his printing office. A. B. Deming, of Painesville, who is also getting up some kind of a book I believe on Mormonism, wants me to send it to him. Mrs. Dickinson, of Boston, claiming to be a relative of Spaulding, and who is getting up a book to show that he was the real author of the Book of Mormon, wants it. She thinks, at least, it should be sent to Spaulding's daughter, a Mrs. Somebody; but she does not inform me where she lives. Deming says that Howe borrowed it when he was getting up his book, and did not return it, as he should have done, etc.

This manuscript does not purport to be "a story of the Indians formerly occupying this continent;" but is a history of the wars between the Indians of Ohio and Kentucky, and their progress in civilization, &c. It is certain that this Manuscript is not the origin of the Mormon Bible, whatever some other manuscripts may have been. The only similarity between them, is, in the manner in which each purports to have been found -- one in a cave on Conneaut creek -- the other in a hill in Ontario county, New York. There is no identity of names, of persons, or places; and there is no similarity of style between them. As I told Mr. Deming, I should as soon think the Book of Revelations was written by the author of Don Quixote, as that the writer of this Manuscript was the author of the Book of Mormon. Deming says Spaulding made three copies of "Manuscript Found," one of which Sidney Rigdon stole from a printing office in Pittsburg. You can possibly tell better than I can, what ground there is for such an allegation.

I knew Joseph Smith, Jr., and Sidney Rigdon, when they were located at Kirtland; and I once visited Smith, in 1841, when he was at Nauvoo. I have heard Rigdon preach, both as a Campbellite and as a Mormon. I knew Eliza R. Snow well; she was a poetic correspondent of mine when I published a paper at Ravenna, Ohio.

I understand that you are a leader of a dissenting sect of Mormons, sometimes denominated "Reformed Mormons," who repudiate the polygamy of the sect at Salt Lake. I should like to know something more about your division of Mormonhood. I told my friend H. H. Cluff, who was at the head of the Mormon brotherhood on these Islands, and who left here a year or so ago to return to Utah, that I did not believe that Joseph Smith ever practiced or advocated polygamy; and that I supposed it was born altogether of lust, during the days [of] Brigham Young's ascendancy. He agreed to furnish me evidence that I was mistaken in that regard; and although he has sent me a large number of Mormon documents, he has sent nothing on that subject. I should like to know from you, or some other authentic source, whether or not Joseph Smith advocated polygamy in his day.

As to this manuscript, I can not see that it can be of any use to any body, except the Mormons, to show that it is not the original of the Mormon Bible. But that would not settle the claim that some other manuscript of Spaulding was the original of it. I propose to hold it in my own hands for a while, to see if it can not be put to some good use. Deming and Howe inform me that its existence is exciting great interest in that region. I am under a tacit, but not a positive pledge to President Fairchild, to deposit it eventually in the Library of Oberlin College. I shall be free from that pledge, when I see an opportunity to put it to a better use.
                         Yours, etc.
                                   L. L. RICE.

P. S. -- Upon reflection, since writing the foregoing, I am of the opinion that no one who reads this manuscript will give credit to the story that Solomon Spaulding was in any wise the author of the Book of Mormon. It is unlikely that any one who wrote so elaborate a work as the Mormon Bible, would spend his time in getting up so shallow a story as this, which at best is but a feeble imitation of the other. Finally I am more than half convinced that this is his only writing of the sort, and that any pretence that Spaulding was in any sense the author of the other, is a sheer fabrication. It was easy for any body who may have seen this, or heard anything of its contents. to get up the story that they were identical.
                                   L. L. R.

This is too bad, after telling this lie from every pulpit in the land to have it again exploded and exposed by finding the original Spaulding romance! Shades of Lucifer! what will the straight orthodox and all the modern evangelical ministers do to bind the eyes of their followers now that the Spaulding romance story is played out?

The repetition of this old story puts us in mind of the alleged dialogue between Joseph Smith and the devil relative to his starting that romance story. Joseph said: "Now, your Satanic Majesty, what made you tell the Rev. Solomon Spaulding romance story on me? Satan said: "Now, Joseph, my dear sir, when I first told that story I did so for the mere fun of talking, never once thinking that any reasonable person would believe it for one moment -- no, not at all; but judge of my surprise, when on entering church -- as is my usual custom -- on the next Sunday, to hear the minister in the pulpit relating with great solemnity and unction that same story, embellishing it with many a groan, while his congregation sat wrapt in wonder, swallowing every word he said as gospel truth; and what was I, Joseph, -- being nothing but a poor devil -- to withstand the temptation of inspiring all the ministers and newspaper editors, who love a lie better than the truth, to tell and rehash that story again and again? If you could only see how much better some people love a lie than the truth, you would be willing, with your good Christian forbearing disposition to forgive even the devil for telling such an unmitigated falsehood on you."

Now, as regards the story of Sidney Rigdon having anything to do with stealing that silly story of Rev. Solomon Spaulding, we will say: that in the year 1862 we were transacting business for Luther Stowell, Esq., and paying taxes for him and Geo. W. Robinson, President of the Cuba Bank, of Cuba, Alleghany county, N. Y.; that at that time Sidney Rigdon was living with Geo. W. Robinson, his son-in-law; that we wrote a letter to him and sent it by the hands of Companion Luther Stowell, a Royal Arch Mason, to Sidney Rigdon, a Royal Arch Mason, informing him of the claims of Joseph Smith [the 3rd] as successor of his father in the church. In reply to us, among other things, he stated to us on his honor as a Royal Arch Mason, which is good evidence to us of its truth, that when P. P. Pratt and Oliver Cowdery first presented him with a copy of the Book of Mormon he was disposed to reject it and treat it lightly, but, on the earnest solicitation of Pratt to read it before he condemned it, he took the book and carefully read it, and then fasted and prayed for an evidence whether it was true and a divine revelation, when the Lord answered his prayer by giving him such unmistakable evidence that it was a divine revelation that he had never, from that day until he wrote us, doubted it for one moment. This testimony we had of him in his old age, after he had got too old to preach any more, when he knew he would soon go into the presence of his Maker to render an account of the deeds done in the body. And we have understood that on his dying bed he gave the same testimony to the said book.

And we are proud to say we heartily believe the testimony of the venerable and much-belied and slandered Sidney Rigdon. And we mean to live long enough, by the goodness of God, to see his name and that of Joseph Smith duly vindicated, and the truth properly acknowledged by all truth-loving people; and those who love to make a lie duly exposed and driven by the truth to cry, "'tis enough!"

Let God be true though every man a liar. -- PAUL.


Note 1: The editor of the Oakland Expositor was Elder Hiram P. Brown (1825-1889). He was born in Queensbury, Warren Co., New York and was baptized a Mormon in 1842. The Feb. 1, 1844 issue of the Times and Seasons carried this notice: "As we have lately been credibly informed, that an Elder of the Church of Jesus Christ, of Latter day Saints, by the name of Hiram Brown, has been preaching Polygamy, and other false and corrupt doctrines, in the county of Lapeer, state of Michigan.... he has been cut off from the church, for his iniquity." Wilford Woodruff's Journal entry for June 4, 1844 gives his name as "Elder Hiram J Brown," of Jacksonburg, Michigan, "who had been cut of from the church in Nauvoo by an accusation presented by Elder Elsworth." Woodruff also says: "He was still preaching. We talked with him. He said he would harken to council & do what we told him to, manifested a good spirit & wished to be restored. Said that Elsworth misrepresented him. We gave him liberty to teach." History has not recorded the names of Elder Brown's plural wives, if he had any. In 1845 Brown united with James J. Strang and was made an apostle in Strang's church. He remained with Strang until the early 1850s, when, according to Warren Post, he "partially set himself up, and denied the faith, and was also cut off. Hiram was an associate of early Reorganization leader, Zenos. H. Gurley, in the Yellowstone branch in Lafayette Co., Wisconsin, but he did not join the RLDS until 1864.

Note 2: Hiram P. Brown's first wife, Hannah A. Barker (1827-1883?), was born in Chautauqua Co., N. Y. She was baptized a Strangite Mormon March 1848 at Fulton, Rock Co., Wisconsin. Hannah was the daughter of Elder William Barker, Sr., and Sylvia Barker. The Barker family was living at Busti (near Jamestown), Chautauqua Co., New York in the early 1830s when D. P. Hurlbut first associated with the Mormons. According to Elder George Reynolds, D. P. Hurlbut "embraced the gospel [i.e. was baptized a Mormon] in 1832." According to Elder Benjamin Winchester, Hurlbut "resided at Jamestown, N. Y. previous to his embracing the profession of a Latter Day Saint." According to the Sept. 26, 1832 issue of the Jamestown Journal D. P. Hurlbut was living in Ellicott, near Jamestown, as early as Sept. 13, 1832. Combining these various pieces of information with Hiram P. Brown's account, it can be said with considerable certainty that D. P. Hurlbut was baptized a Mormon on the William Barker farm late in 1832 or very early 1833.

Note 3: According to Gilbert W. Hazeltine, Elder William Barker was the "advance agent" for a group of eastern Mormon converts who gathered temporarily at West Jamestown (i.e. Busti township). Hazeltine says: "early in March [1833] Barker had charge of the Jamestown rendezvous, although Rigdon himself was frequently here... During this Mormon exodus and occupation of West Jamestown, the small pox broke out in one of the Mormon houses... The last of the Mormons left Jamestown in the spring of 1834. They made very few converts here..." (Early History of the Town of Ellicott Jamestown,1887, pp. 343-45). LDS researcher Dale W. Adams speculates that "Hurlbut may have fled from smallpox" in Chautauqua Co., New York to the Mormon headquarters at Kirtland, Ohio. Hurlbut was ordained an elder by Sidney Rigdon at Kirtland on Mar. 18, 1833.

Note 4: If Sidney Rigdon claimed to have a divine revelation which prompted him to join the LDS Church, modern Mormons might consider this to have been a truly divine revelation. Non-Mormons, on the other hand, would probably be compelled to judge Sidney's claim in this instance to be a falsehood, similar in nature to several other reported cases where Rigdon "lied in the name of the Lord." If Rigdon lied about his miraculous conversion to Mormonism, he may just as well have lied about his having no previous knowledge of the origin of the Book of Mormon.

AGAIN --  BOOK  OF  MORMON.
_______

In the July number of the EXPOSITOR we reprinted from the S. F. Chronicle, with comment, a review of a book just then published and entitled "New Light on Mormonism," by Mrs. Ellen E. Dickinson, which was entirely dependent upon and drawn from the Solomon Spaulding romance of "Manuscript Found." We also presented the letter of Mr. L. L. Rice to President Joseph Smith in exposition of the absurdity of the whole story, which has been refuted time and again. Now comes the Rev. Dr. C. M. Hyde, of the North Pacific Missionary Institute at Honolulu, H. I., who in his correspondence to the Boston Congregationalist, of July 30th, last, makes the question the text of his whole letter, which we present in its entirety as follows:

(see the Congregationalist for this text)

Notes: (forthcoming)

THE  POLYGAMY  QUESTION.

HOW TO CURE THE EVIL.
_______

It is very difficult, yes, next to impossible, to convert from the error of their ways a people who have been joined to their false doctrines by an oath-bound covenant with the death penalty attached. And such is the condition of these polygamous Mormons of Utah.

A large majority of the Brighamite Mormons of Utah are bound together by an oath-bound covenant, under the name or title of an endowment, which all the members of their church receive as soon as they are fully instructed by their leaders into the secret mysteries of their church policy, which is to govern -- or destroy.

This policy Brigham Young with his confederates had in view when they inaugurated that famous humbug endowment at Nauvoo soon after the death of the two martyrs, Joseph and Hyrum Smith.

It was plain to be seen that when the time should come that the legitimate heir to the presidency of the church should take his place at the head of the church, there must be some plan by which they could -- whether right or wrong -- hold the power in their own hands for supplanting the legal heir, Joseph's seed, who according to the revelations of God were appointed to succeed him in his office and calling in the church. Hence the famous, or rather infamous, endowment we have spoken of, which was at that time inaugurated and has been daily ever since carried on by the leaders of that people, and which is still continuously practised by them, with all of its damning influences, as an item of doctrine in their church polity. It is proper to remark here, that it is in this order, in this infamous endowment, where the honest and unsuspecting saint is sworn into the first degree of polygamous Mormonism; an institution which was wholly organized and devised since the death of Joseph, the prophet, by the conspirators against the lineal heir; and the writer of these lines is of the opinion that any effort on the part of the Reorganized Church to reclaim these backsliding Mormons to a healthy state of gospel purity will be labor lost, or at least will be attended with very few sound, conversions, for the reason that the very genius and spirit of their system of religion has become second nature to them; long-taught and imbued with it, they have grown up many of them to believe that it is divine in toto as they are now practising it; and their whole system of church polity has become impregnated with the (sin) evils which they have been sworn to protect, obey and carry out; and further, the writer is of the opinion that the present movement of the government in enforcing the Edmunds law against those Utah polygamists will be equally as ineffective of accomplishing the object for which the law was designed; as all these forced law measures will be construed as "persecution," which will result in an increase of faith in the doctrine of polygamy on the part of those who are honestly believing in the doctrine.

It looks to me like bad policy to punish the minor officers of the church and allow the heads of the church to escape. This evil of polygamy should have been clipped in the bud, but it has been allowed by the nation to grow into a great tree and to bear obnoxious fruit. Let the ax be laid at the root of the tree. Prosecute and convict the leaders; punish them for the evils they have brought upon that otherwise innocent people.

Where does this evil come from? The answer is, it comes from those who teach it; hence the law should provide against the principal men by whom this doctrine is taught.

It cannot be, at this late hour, that the government is ignorant of the fact that Mormon Utah is a monarchical theocracy, and that, as a church, all of its members are under the surveillance of its principal leaders, and to disobey the teachings or counsel of those men who are appointed as the head of the church is not only a dishonor, but endangers life, limb and property. Hence the sin and evil of polygamy and its concomitants, sealings, oath-bound covenants, and consequent disobedience to the laws of the United States. Thus, polygamous marriages must come from the president (king) of the church, as no other dare to officiate in these ceremonies (in secrecy).

While B. Young was living it was claimed that he alone held the key of sealing in the marriage ceremonial; and since his death the fact is well known that John Taylor claims to occupy the same position of holding the key and only right to perform the sealing ceremonies in these polygamous marriages; and now we are led to enquire why it is, this man who stands at the head of this church, and who claims to be the head center and boss workman in the business of marriages and divorces, should be allowed to slip away and hide in the fastness of the mountains and defy the law, while by his influence and speech he encourages his followers to hold on to the doctrine and suffer the penalty of the law, while he and his counselor, G. Q. Cannon, escape the just punishment due their crimes? Why not capture them in their hiding places and punish them, and thus crush out the means of inciting others to a violation of the law? First cage the leader with his keys, and then there will be no one to perform the ceremonies of the marriage covenant.

(See Utah Doctrine and Covenants, page 464, dub-div. 7, which states "there is never but ONE on the earth at a time on whom this power and the keys of this priesthood are conferred," -- Ed.)

When this is done there will be no new subjects for the penitentiary; the supply will be cut off. Why does not the government, under the operations of the Edmunds law, pocket this wonderful Key that locks and seals together so many wives to one man? Remove the cause and the effect will cease. Cage up the man who has become the principal in all this evil that has for forty years cursed Mormonism; we believe in sapping polygamy at its fountain head.

When this is done all the smaller streams will dry up. But while this system of polygamy is perpetrated under the church rule of a monarchical hierarchy, professing to hold keys which open the gate into the celestial kingdom of heaven, and close it against all who refuse to enter into the abominations of polygamy -- while such men as these professing to be gods are looked up to by their followers as leaders and teachers, by precept and example -- so long will polygamy and its kindred evils curse that people and the nation, wherever and whenever these assumed gods are permitted to preach or teach these damning doctrines, these principles of men. contrary to the law of God revealed in the Book of Mormon and in the Doctrine and Covenants which, together with the bible, were given as a law to govern the Church of Christ in the very beginning; and which law of God as well as the laws of the land they trample upon with impunity, and teach their followers to do likewise. Such persons should spend the remainder of their days behind the prison bars, there to contemplate the opportunities for doing good which they have squandered, and the amount of evil and wickedness they have committed, where they should have taught virtue and holiness -- without which no man can see the Lord of Peace -- there to taste the bitter sweets of their own doings and teachings, as well as the minor ones, who have, through the teachings and subtlety of their leaders, been deceived and led into the doctrine that has made them fit subjects more for the penitentiary (as convicts) than as members of the kingdom of heaven.

The next session of Congress should amend the Edmunds law by adding a longer term in the penitentiary of not less than five years and not to exceed ten years, at the discretion of the court, for this crime of polygamy, applied to all ministers who profess to be leaders of the people. This done [it] would soon put an end to polygamy in Mormon Utah. The present term of five to six or ten months in prison is too short a time for some of the knowing and more responsible ones, especially those who claim to be gods, holding special keys for the polygamy service. They should take the highest or ten years' term behind the grates as a reward for their violation of the laws of God and man. This term of imprisonment would lessen all expectation of a return to this same evil when their term had expired, and dampen their ardor of exhorting their followers to disobey the laws of the United States.

Hopeful for the Expositor's interest, I subscribe myself as ever, a friend to truth and equal justice.
                                                                      W. B. SMITH.
        Elkader, Iowa, Aug. 2, 1885.

---

In another column will be found an article from the pen of William B. Smith, who is the only surviving brother of Joseph Smith, the organizer and founder of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, on the 6th of April, 1830, and who was one of the twelve apostles at the date of the death of Joseph Smith, who would not go with Brigham Young and his confreres in apostasy. This article should have appeared before before, but was unaviodably crowded out. Since the writing of said article we have witnessed enough of their sayings and doings, wherein they claim they are "persecuted," to prove to us the justness of Bro. Smith's statement that the Edmunds bill should be amended so that the punishment should be from five to ten years imprisonment, so they could mot set up the plea to their followers that they have been martyrs for their religion...

---

L. L. Luse, of the Blue Valley Blade, who pitted the Rev. Clark Braden against Elder E. L. Kelley, in their famous debate, has just published an expose of the Rev. Clark Braden.

Bro. Luse, when a man is dead, cannot you let him rest? Do, for goodness sake, let up! if you don't, the publishers of the Braden-Kelley debate, as well as Bro. Kelley, will lose the sale of that valuable book; and we want thousands of copies sold, for the benefit of the Latter Day work. When you trot out another champion against the Latter Day Saints, see that he has a good reputation; so when he is entirely scooped out again as Braden was you will not turn round and injure the sale of the work by publishing an expose against him. Bring out your best men and then stand by them. We will furnish you good boys if you will bring out your best [men].

---

SPECIAL  NOTICE.
_______

A  CHANCE  TO  LEARN!

Elder H. P. Brown, attorney-at-law, and editor of the EXPOSITOR, will deliver a course of ten or twelve lectures on the Divinity of the Book of Mormon. at Lincoln Hall, 71 New Montgomery street, San Francisco, commencing Sunday, November 8th, at 11 A. M. Believers in the Book can have their faith strengthened, while unbelievers and skeptics will find plenty food for thought and field for study. This is a subject upon which all should be informed, and as the Judge handles it in a very interesting manner, it will be time well spent in listening to him and weighing his arguments. Come one and all, and learn of this wonderful Book of Mormon, and the abundance of proof in favor of its Divine authenticity. Services each Sunday, at 11 A. M. and 7:30 P. M.


Notes: (forthcoming)

SUBLIMINITY  OF  IGNORANCE  AND  BIGOTRY.
_______

M. H. DeYoung, proprietor of the S. F. Chronicle, has a scribbler who writes editorials for his paper whose ignorance of the Book of Mormon and the great Mormon problem and how to solve it is only equaled by his bigotry.

We have noticed on several occasions his going out of his way to vent his spleen against the Book of Mormon.

After the celebrated Spaulding romance, which Dr. P. D. [sic] Hulbert got of Spaulding's widow, was found to be nothing like the book of Mormon in any particular, he and E. D. Howe published their celebrated lie concerning the Book of Mormon and kept the manuscript from Spaulding's widow, and when Howe afterwards sold out his office to Mr. Rice, now of Honolulu, he also transferred this wonderful "Manuscript Found" to Mr. Rice, who had it in his possession nearly fifty years.

And now, when that same identical manuscript is brought to light, with the names of the witnesses endorsed upon it, who swore that the Book of Mormon contained the same names which they distinctly remember was in Spaulding's "Manuscript Found," and when it is found on examination that not a name, place or circumstance is in the Spaulding humbug that is in the Book of Mormon, and when it is further shown by the testimony of Mrs. Spaulding that Hulbert and Howe got her identical manuscript four years after the Book of Mormon was published, and that the witnesses whose names are endorsed on said "Manuscript Found," in the possession of Rice, and who testified that it was the foundation for the Book of Mormon, this Chronicle editor still thinks Rice. President Fairchild, the Congregationalist whose representative investigated the whole subject, are all wrong and that Spaulding must have written another humbug romance out of which the Book of Mormon, as remolded, although neither the Spauldings nor any of the anti-Mormon crowd ever pretended to any such thing! He is a consistent writer! Now the facts are, either the editor of the Chronicle never read the Book of Mormon in his life, or he is a chronic ass, or he means to deceive his readers.


Note: In this case, the San Francisco Chronicle editor is correct and RLDS Elder H. P. Brown is grossly mistaken. From the time of their first publication (in E. D. Howe's 1834 Mormonism Unvailed,) the Spalding authorship claims have clearly excluded the Spalding manuscript later recovered in Honolulu from being the "Manuscript Found." Conneaut witness Aaron Wright, in Dec. 1833, specifically excluded the Honolulu document from being the "Manuscript Found." So also did Spalding's adopted daughter, Matilda Spalding McKinstry. After the publication of the 1885 RLDS edition of their so-called "Manuscript Found," Mrs. McKinstry three of four times communicated the fact that the RLDS publication was not the "Manuscript Found" she had seen in her earlier years. One of McKinstry's denials to this effect was, in fact, first published in Oakland, California, under the very nose of Elder Brown. When that notice appeared in Authur B. Deming's 1888 newspaper, Brown ignored its importance and apparently made no effort to contact Mrs. McKinstry to verify her statement.

A Prophesy And Its Fulfillment.
_______

... After Joseph Smith's death Sidney Rigdon his counselor, mot comprehending the rejection of the Church and the consequent nullification of all quorum power, made an attempt to assume the leadership of the Church, but on being battled by the intriguing Brigham Young, repaired to Chambersburg, Pennsylvania and organized a Church, whose history is redolent with doctrines and practices the recital of which would arouse the unpleasant memories of all who were associated with it.

Next in order of schismatics appeared James J. Strang, claiming to be the legitimate successor of Joseph Smith, basing his pretension upon his own statement, that Joseph before his death received a revelation directing his appointment. which he communicated to him by letter at Burlington, and furthermore asserted that at the very hour and minute of martyrdom he was visited by an angelic messenger who ordained him to the prophetic office. He also organized "the Kingdom of God"Ê(?) and spared not in pouring out earnest anathemas upon all who in any manner countenanced "The damnable and soul-destroying doctrine of polygamy." He succeeded in attracting numbers to his standard and in process of time added polygamy as a proper and essential dogma to his profession. He also inaugurated, taught and practiced the doctrine of communism. Was a prolific revelator; receiving his celebrated "Book of the law" intended as asserted to be the statutes that would govern the world and its inhabitants in its glorified condition. He also discovered plates hid up in the earth which many believed to be genuine, whilst others, even to this day, believe were manufactured and hid up in the earth by himself. "Finally he was murdered by a drunken wretch whom he had undertaken to reform."

At the time Strang was at Voree in 1848, Gladden Bishop accompanied by his wife put in their appearance at that place. He also claimed a Divine commission, a Prophet. Was a regular Korah; commenced his schismatic career in Joseph's day and opposed him in many ways. He succeeded in gaining some followers to his wild vagaries, but as an organizer and retainer of a following was not a success. Was also a believer in polygamy, "That God would command its practice in the Millenium and the commencement of the Millenium would be when he, Gladden, succeeded in gathering a small body of believers to him, "together on lands of their own." He was a fearless schismatic, went to Utah and assailed Brighamism in its palmiest days of power, where he became a veritable thorn in the flesh, which brought down a promise of wrath from the existing potentate. His ending we know not.

Next in order was Lyman Wight, who it is said, under the direction of Joseph Smith, (for what purpose we are not aware) emigrated with a colony to Texas. After Joseph Smith's death he refused to be identified with the Brighamites as a member of the quorum of twelve. The doctrinal features of the party we believe included polygamy and communism; dissentions and his death scattered the community, many of them finding a supposed refuge in the Strang community.

TO BE CONTINUED.

Notes: (forthcoming)

A Prophesy And Its Fulfillment.
_______

[Continued...]

About 1850 William B. Smith appeared upon the scene, claiming that by virtue of the lineage law, he being the last surviving brother of Joseph Smith, became the lawful successor to the position of his deceased brother. His headquarters were at Palestine Grove, Illinois, now called Amboy. An organization was effected, and numbers associated with it, more we presume, on account of the relationship of its leader to the martyred brother than any other reason.

John E. Page ranks in the list of schismatics. In the chaos of thought and ruin that reigned after the martyrdom, he identified himself with Strang. He was formerly a member of the 12-quorum; but seceded. We were not acquainted with his history during his Strang experience, but about '40 or '50 the Brewster organization became complete, and seceding from Strangism he became identified with that body...

We have given this list of schisms with the object of showing that the same causes that worked iniquity and destroyed the love and confidence of so many in the first dispensation, have operated in that of the second advent... These schisms were delusions, and led their unwary followers into untold miseries. Today our land is covered with individuals who have sad experiences to relate because of them... These have been great sufferers, arising from schisms which they have unwarily followed, weary and disgusted, willingly sacrifice these precious evidences of former association; they have been overcome. We find them sometimes in another aspect. Those who have suffered so much, the victims of past deceptions, anxious to forget all recollections of the past, mindful of the present only; say they, "let it all go." These have given heed to the false and delusive spirits that are abroad. Spiritualism has thrown its shackles around them, dragging them down into that utter ruin that awaits all who thus forget God.

Thus we see the fulfillment of Christ's great prophecy. Let all who still retain the love of God, and have respect for his cause, remember the words, "He that endureth to the end the same shall be saved."     T. J. Andrews.


Note 1: Elder Andrews was more than a little vague, in his explanation of how William Smith's church, at Palestine Grove, Illinois, was a proper member of the "schisms... that worked iniquity and destroyed the love and confidence of so many in... the second advent." Andrews says nothing of William Smith's incorporation of polygamy into his religious doctrines in that "schism," or how the rejection of that doctrine, by some of his followers, led directly to the founding of the Reorganization. So long as William B. Smith lived and remained a member in good standing, the apologists of the RLDS Church were exceedingly reluctant to retell the details of their organization's founding in the early 1850s.

Note 2: For William B. Smith's distressed response to being called a "schismatic" by Elder Thomas J. Andrews, in the pages of the Expositor, see his letter of June 22, 1886. By coincidence Elder Andrews passed away just before William's response was published, thus unexpectedly calming the troubled situation considerably.

Letter from Uncle William.
_______

Brother Editor: Some time since I noticed in the Expositor a prayer, made by the editor, that some good brother or sister would donate or contribute a few hundreds or thousands of dollars to purchase a power press, office fixtures, etc., which would be a more effective means to publish and spread the Gospel in its fullness and purity which is so much needed in this day and age of the world.

I realize the means are very much needed, and would rejoice to see those who have professed this Latter-Day work, and who with honest wish and desire to see this great work spread and triumph over lying and the slang of its opposers, join with you in that petition and assist you with sufficient means to put the Expositor on a sure and permanent basis so that its visits may be weekly instead of monthly. I do most heartily join with you, Brother Brown, in that prayer to our God in whom we believe, that He will put it into the heart of some whom He has blessed with sufficient of this world's goods, that they may donate to God sufficient for this great object, and that they may soon fill the bill.

Thousands of dollars yearly are contributed by our Gentile neighbors to build up institutions which are man-made, where not one dollar is given or devoted to the spread of the Gospel preached by Christ and His Apostles.

How much good may be done with a few hundred dollars, properly devoted to the spread of the true Gospel, to give a true knowledge of God and His laws among mankind, and to build up His righteous kingdom on earth. Gold and silver will perish, while souls immortal in Heaven will rejoice over the good deeds they have done on earth with the means God has blessed them with here. See to this then my beloved Saints, that your riches perish not, and your souls be not lost through neglect of the opportunity of doing good; for remember that he that "gives even a cup of cold water to one of my Disciples," saith Christ, "shall not lose his reward." Remember that Christ loves and will bless the "cheerful giver" toward His work. Silver and gold have I none, but such as I have I send to you, and that is my prayer and best wishes for the success of the Expositor.

I have thought sometimes that I would like to visit Oakland. and enjoy once more a visit with Brother Brown. But this is a pleasure I never expect to enjoy. If my health could be spared, the means would be wanting. Has I not been whipped through hell's back kitchen with the devil's smut-bag so many times during my experiences in the history of this Latter-Day work, there might have been a dollar saved to help me on so desirable a journey. But here I am, hermited with barely a pittance to sustain ebbing life, broken down in health, without any prospect of a removal to those former days which in looking back to seems like waking from a dreamland. My race is almost run, but I feel happy to say, in closing my life's journey, that I am satisfied that the Gospel plan of salvation I have trusted in for life, will take me safely through to that better land, when the hour of my departure shall come. In much love to the editor of the Expositor, I subscribe myself,
            truly yours,             WILLIAM B. SMITH.
Elkader, Iowa, March 8, 1886.


Notes: (forthcoming)

Available.
_______

The following answer to an article published in the Chicago Tribune by one C. E. Henry, of March 27, 1886, was sent to the office of that paper by its author, Elder M. T. Short, with the request to publish it. But the managing editor, with more bigotry than brains, declined to do Mr. Short and the people with whom he labors in the Gospel the simple justice of refuting that old, threadbare, defunct, and exploded lie, started by P. D. [sic] Hulburt and E. D. Howe, and told and retold by almost every Protestant minister in the land with the inspiration of the devil, and published by both the religious and the secular press throughout the civilized world.

And when at last we have by the providence of God found that celebrated, vulgar, obscene, and irreligious "lost manuscript" of the "Rev.(?) Solomon Spaulding." his Satantic Majesty still insists through his servants that S. Rigdon stole that infidel Spaulding's obscene manuscript, and made out of it the Book of Mormon, and a portion of the press presided over by zealots and bigots delight in publishing it to the injury of an innocent people, and to prejudice the honest people against hearing the facts; and then when requested to publish the truth say it is "not available to publish." Away with such contemptible bigotry!

Here is what the managing editor says to Mr. Short:

The Chicago Tribune Editorial Rooms.

CHICAGO, April 21, 1886.      

M. T. SHORT, Millersburg, Ill.
  -- Dear Sir: I have carefully examined your communication, and not finding it available for publication in The Tribune, beg leave to return it herewith. Yours Truly,

R. W. PATTERSON,       Managing Editor.      

_______

THE ORIGIN OF THE BOOK OF MORMON.

In the Chicago Tribune of March 27 is an article from the pen of one C. E. Henry, of Geauga Lake, Ohio, in regard to Sidney Rigdon's supposed connection with the Book of Mormon. President Fairchild has the veritable original and only "Solomon Spaulding's Manuscript Found" in his custody at Oberlin, Ohio. This production of the convalescent clergyman was compiled about 1810 to 1812, for sheer diversion, while he was sojourning in the northeast part of the Buckeye State. It has been claimed that the above-named production was left a while in Patterson's printing office, where Rigdon should have either stole the original or copied from the first and sole manuscript. This romance, for such it claimed to be, was never in the care of Mr. Patterson, of Pittsburg, Pennsylvania. Mr. Rigdon's first advent into the smoky city was not in the capacity of a printer, but he came on a call to occupy the pulpit of the First Regular Baptist Church, in 1822. The sickly Presbyterian clergyman deceased in Amity, Washington County, Penn., in 1816, at which time his manuscript fell into the hands of the widow, who carefully kept it till 1834, when it was clandestinely and surreptitiously obtained by Philastus D. Hurlbut [sic]. He was a recalcitrant, and disfellowshipped Saint, who had declared vengeance upon the society he had thought to pollute. He found a confederate in the person of E. D. Howe, of Painesville, Ohio, who was busily engaged in getting up a work against the infant society styled "Mormonism Unveiled." On comparing the flat insipid thing with the Book of Mormon, it was evident that their origin as well as the subject matter, proper names, general makeup, and whole scope and drift of the two works were altogether dissimilar. Mr. Howe, who was also sometime editor of the Painesville Telegraph, sold his office, press and fixtures to the Hon. L. L. Rice, about A. D. 1840. In the purchase the identical manuscript of the late Rev. Solomon Spaulding fell into his hands, who quite recently discovered it among his papers. This important find providentially occurred at the solicitation of James Fairchild, while visiting his distinguished friend L. L. Rice, at his present home in Hawaii, Sandwich Islands. He asked for historical information touching the slavery agitation of previous days and in looking through, this manuscript was resurrected. The original is in the college library, but a faithful transcript was made under supervision and attestations of its honored guardian. The original can be seen at Oberlin College library, or a copy can be had for 25 cents, by addressing Joseph Smith, Lamoni, Decatur county, Iowa.

Rigdon's stay in Pittsburg was brief. He moved up into what was then known as the Western Reserve. About this time there was a religious upheaval all through that section of the country, which finally crystallized down to what is known as Campbellism. S. Rigdon was one of the leading spirits of the movement and became a minister of the Reformation. He was the much-loved, eloquent, and able pastor of the Christian or Campbellite Church, at Mentor, Garfield's former home, until late in the fall of 1830.

The Book of Mormon had been printed by E. Grandin, of Palmyra, New York, in the latter part of 1829, and the church was organized and set in motion April 6, 1830. Parley Parker Pratt and Oliver Cowdery came as missionaries from the Empire State, called on Rigdon, presented him the Book of Mormon, gave evidence of its divinity, and testified to the new dispensation, and finally converted the talented orator, and immersed him in Chagrin river, near Kirtland, O. Mr. Rigdon had no more to do with the originating of the system than your humble servant, who, by the way, was not born until after the assassination of Joseph Smith, the martyr, who, under God, was the true and only founder.

Mr. Henry gives us some "ors," and terms of doubt, and finally comes "to the conclusion that the Book of Mormon was the work of Sidney Rigdon, with perhaps some changes or addition by Smith or others." I wonder if he did not need a span of white elephants hooked up to a juggernaut car to draw his ponderous "conclusion." "These facts and circumstances have never been published," so you see this disciple us digging up something "new under the sun." One more and the last sentence, from the man who tried to make something out of nothing. "How many others had a hand in it or what other manuscripts, if any, assisted in the work, it would be difficult now to determine." Why does not this savant come to another "conclusion," and thereby untangle the witch ball? Oh! Why?

The Biblical evidence, in regard to the character and authenticity of the treatise under consideration, are numerous, pointed, plain, positive, direct and overwhelming...

I cannot catalogue our faith in full much less argue the points through the secular press. Praying for the perpetuity of the nation, the overspread of truth, and the glory of God I remain the firm friend of humanity,
                                                ELDER M. T. SHORT.
Millersburg, Ill.

---

We publish, in this issue, a letter from Uncle William, by his request. We wrote an article to accompany it, but it was crowded out. We regret the occasion that calls for Uncle William's reply, and can assure him that it was not intended to injure him, or written or published with any unfriendly feeling or prejudice. We rejoice to know that Uncle William is zealously working in the cause of the reorganized church.

---

William B. Smith's Letter.
________

                                                            Clinton, Iowa. June 22, 1886.
Brother H. P. Brown: I stated in a previous communication that all of the "Twelve" under Joseph were by him ordained prophets, seers and revelators, and then asked the question, what has become of that authority? I anticipate the answer. Apostacy would destroy or take away all the virtue there was in those ordinations. But supposing a portion of those twelve had remained loyal citizens of the United States and the Church of Christ, and had continued preaching the gospel of Christ as first delivered to them, and the law of marriage, and the true faith of the church, would not their ordinations and their anointings have proved a blessing to them, in the revelation of the spirit of God, unfolding to them the great treasures of wisdom and knowledge in the things of God, for the salvation of Christ's Church and the building up of God's kingdom on earth?

But, as I have stated, a departure from the true doctrine of the church has taken away that which the spirit of revelation, through the laying on of hands of the Prophet, confirmed upon them, and I am not willing to admit that in what was done in conferring these ordinations upon the "Twelve," there was a design on the part of the Prophet to perform a work of needless supererogation, nor am I willing to admit that while any member of that quorum of the twelve apostles has acted honestly, in good faith, under the Prophet's mission, having kept himself or themselves from following off after those who apostatized, that therefore such a brother has acted outside of his mission and calling by continuing to preach the gospel and administering in his apostleship as appointed him of God, as per authority received and confirmed upon him by the prophet of God, as before stated. And as some professed Latter-Day Saints seem to be anxious to convict William Smith of an error in authority for administering after the death of his brother, Joseph Smith, to say to all such that William Smith's claims for authority, if an error must rest with him, who conferred it upon him prior to his brother's death?

Nor do I believe that Joseph Smith was practicing deception when he confirmed those ordinations. It is to silence this spirit of false accusations against me that I make these statements; and I challenge the proof that William Smith apostatized from the faith of the Church at any time prior to or after the death of his brother Joseph, or that he taught any doctrine not sanctioned by Joseph Smith prior to the time of his death, either in preaching, teaching, or administering in the ministry of the Church. And if any person takes exceptions to what I have stated here concerning claims of authority and apostleship, those persons must settle the question with Joseph Smith. It is legitimate that a brother should have a chance to defend himself on these points of authority when ignorance has blinded the eyes of those who have written on the subject. And so long as William Smith holds to the faith that Joseph Smith, his brother, was a prophet of God, just so long he expects to claim and hold in his faith that works and administrations of Joseph Smith were accepted and appointed of God up to the day of his death,
                                                            WILLIAM B. SMITH.


Note 1: Elder Short says that "Mr. Rigdon's first advent" in Pittsburgh "came on a call to occupy the pulpit of the First Regular Baptist Church, in 1822." Since Rigdon lived within walking distance of Pittsburgh as a boy and as a young man, it seems unlikely that he never visited that place prior to 1822. Indeed, his own son, John Wycliffe Rigdon, says: "Sidney Rigdon went to study Theology under a Baptist minister by the name of Peters. In 1819 he obtained a license to preach & went to Pittsburgh & preached here a short time." Two Mormons who lived near Sidney Rigdon's boyhood home (and who later became members of his splinter group church) say: "in the winter of 1818 and '19 he went to Beaver Co., Pa., where he studied divinity with a Baptist preacher by the name of Clark, and was licensed to preach by the Conoquenessing Church (time not recollected) and went from there to Warren, Ohio, and was ordained a regular Baptist preacher, and returned to Pittsburgh in the winter of 1821 and '22, and took the care of the First Regular Baptist Church." If this latter statement can be trusted, Rigdon returned to Pittsburgh in 1821-22, having resided there at least briefly prior to that time. So, it seems that his "first advent" in Pittsburgh came nearer to 1819 than to 1822.

Note 2: Even the year 1819 is probably far too late a date for Sidney Rigdon's "first advent" in Pittsburgh. He seems to have walked into town as early as 1816, to pick up his mail at the little post office there. In fact, the mail clerk from those early days recalled his coming in to pick up his letters now and then. Although Sidney Rigdon may have not occupied a residence in Pittsburgh until mid-1819, he almost certainly frequented the place several years before that time.

THE  BOOK  OF  MORMON.
_______

The above named production is an emanation from the Divine mind, or solely of human origin. It could not have a satanic fatherhood, for a polluted fountain can only send forth turbid and impure waters. The would-be wise of the age have advanced incongruous and contradictory theories in regard to the coming forth, as well as the subject matter, of the work under consideration. Some have thought it a silly batch of stuff, while others have claimed it is a wise mystery. It has been branded as desperately wicked upon its very face and also extremely pious, so as to be a dangerous counterfeit. The pulpit and the press have called it the child of one Rev. Solomon Spaulding. This defunct, or sickly clergyman, did write a romance, which was dubbed "The Manuscript Found," in 1811 and 1812 while residing in northern Ohio. He removed to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, somewhere about 1814. It is now surmised he left this, his manuscript, in the printing office of Messrs. Patterson & Lambdin. It is further claimed that while it was in their custody Sidney Rigdon an employee in said office, either copied or stole the original manuscript. In after years, with this stolen Presbyterian thunder, he is supposed to have constructed an underground railroad, or formed the secret acquaintance of Joseph Smith, of New York State, while his well known home was in Mentor, Ohio. Thus Rigdon is made the scape goat, or the black pope of the entire plot of Mormonism.

The facts of the case are that Rigdon never lived in Pittsburgh till 1821-2, and then he was the pastor of the first regular Baptist church of that city, and not a printer. Patterson persistently disavows any knowledge of the manuscript being in his office at any time, and the consumptive divine died in Amity, Pa., in 1816, at which time the manuscript fell into the care of the widow, who carefully kept it till 1834. At the last named date a recalcitrant and disfellowshipped saint, named P. Hurlbut obtained the carefully kept manuscript from the family of the deceased minister, with the avowed intention of publishing it, and give the widow one-half of the net proceeds. He lodged his ill-gotten gains in the hands of a confederate in Painesville, O., named E. D. Howe. This man Hurlbut was threatening revenge and destruction upon the Latter Day Saints, and Howe was writing a work which was entitled, "Mormonism Unvailed." Howe & Co. claimed the Book of Mormon and the romance of Spalding were identical, but they never published it, as per agreement; neither did they return it to its former owner, as common decency demanded; neither would they bring it forth and make a manly, open, honest comparison, and thereby refute the supposed error, Rigdon's sojourn in Pittsburgh was brief, for he moved into the Western Reserve, and became identified with the religious upheaval that finally crystallized down to the Disciple or Campbellite church.

The Book of Mormon was published by E. Grandin, of Palmyra, N. Y., in the latter part of 1829, and sold extensively in the following year. Parley Parker Pratt and Oliver Cowdery, two traveling missionaries from the Empire State, called on Rigdon while he was an active minister in the Christian or Campbellite Church at Mentor, O. This was in the fall of 1830, many months after the printed book had been in the market and several months after the church had been duly organized and set in motion. They presented Mr. Rigdon a Book of Mormon and gave evidences of its authenticity that were convincing and conclusive, and hence Mr. Rigdon was baptized into the Church by O. Cowdery, and that, too, before he had ever seen Joseph Smith or any of that family. This "Manuscript Found" was in the hands of this veritable Howe while the Church was proselyting rapidly all around. He was an inveterate foe, but he could not kill the contagion by the much sought for comparison. Suborned witnesses state that they believe, to the best of their recollection, that there are identities of names, as also in the general scope and drift of the two works there is a striking similarity. They should have produced the only creditable and authentic witness -- that is the manuscript itself -- or forever hold their peace. It would not do them service; hence these lying vagaries are dragged into use to retard the progress of truth and afflict an innocent, confiding, humble band of worshippers...

I subscribe myself a true friend to virtue and a lover of the lovable.   ELDER M. T. SHORT,
Millersburg, Ill.


Note 1: The Expositor writer, Elder Short, says "Patterson persistently disavows any knowledge of the [Spalding] manuscript being in his office at any time." This notion does not agree with the content of the statement Robert Patterson, Sr. gave in 1842: "a gentleman, from the East originally, had put into his [R. Patterson's] hands a manuscript of a singular work, chiefly in the style of our English translation of the Bible, and handed the copy to R. P., who read only a few pages, and finding nothing apparently exceptionable, he (R. P.) said to Engles, he might publish it, if the author furnished the funds or good security..." The Expositor writer's allegation also does not agree with what the publisher of that same 1842 Patterson's statement says: "Mr. Patterson firmly believes also, from what he has heard of the Mormon Bible, that it is the same thing he examined at that time." Finally, the Expositor writer's allegation does not agree with a first-hand, eye-witness account, made by a Mormon and published in the RLDS Saints' Herald in 1876: "In connection with John E. Page I called upon General Patterson, the publisher, and asked him the following questions, and received his replies as given: Q. -- Did Sidney Rigdon have any connection with your office at the time you had the Solomon Spaulding manuscript? A. -- No... He also stated to us that the Solomon Spaulding manuscript was brought to him by the widow of Solomon Spaulding to be published..."

Note 2: In his 1834 book E. D. Howe states that Robert Patterson, Sr. did not recall seeing or having the Spalding manuscript in his possession. However, Howe gives no source for this information and it may be garbled or incomplete. Patterson's son says this about that early report: "Mr. Howe, in his book already mentioned, states that 'Mr. Patterson said he had no recollection of any such manuscript being brought there for publication, neither would he have been likely to have seen it, as the business of printing was conducted wholly by Lambdin at that time.' This statement seems irreconcilable with the testimony of the widow and daughter of Spaulding, and also in conflict with the fact that the partnership of R. Patterson and Lambdin was not formed until Jan. 1, 1818. In 1812, Lambdin was a lad of fourteen in the book-store of Patterson & Hopkins, and afterwards was continued in the employ of R. & J. Patterson. Mr. Howe, on being applied to for his authority for the statement, answered, 'I think Hurlbut was the person who talked with Patterson about the manuscript.' But Hurlbut himself informed the present writer (Aug. 19, 1879) that he had never seen Mr. Patterson or had any communication with him. There is therefore no known authority for the statement in Mr. Howe's book."

We have read Father Whitmer's pamphlets very carefully; and while we love and honor him as a witness to those things of which he was chosen to testify, yet we see clearly that Brother Whitmer has set forth many errors in his pamphlet, but which he no doubt honestly believes to be correct. One statement he makes we wish to call his attention to, so he can correct it. That is where he states that Oliver Cowdery came to his place in the winter of 1848. We visited Oliver Cowdery with Elder John E. Page in the winter of 1848 at Elkhorn, Wisconsin, where he then lived, and know that he did not leave that place until after his nomination for the assembly in the fall of 1849, when he purchased a press and started a paper. The same press afterward went to Janesville, Wisconsin, and was used to publish the Gazette on. The reason he was defeated in his election to the Wisconsin legislature was, because when a Democratic committee visited him to know if he was the Oliver Cowdery who was one of the three witnesses to the Book of Mormon, upon which he informed them that he was, and that his testimony was true when he gave it and was true then, his party dropped him, and he was defeated, although his party was at the time largely in the majority in his county. He then left Wisconsin.


Note: In 1848 Hiram P. Brown and John E. Page were both apostles in the church headed by James J. Strang. Strang's group was centered in Voree, only a few miles away from Oliver Cowdery's law office in the town of Elkhorn, Wisconsin. Whether or not Cowdery or his brother and nephew (both of whom were also there) had any plans to associate with Strang's church, or with dissenters from the Strangites remains unknown.

"Naked Truth."
______

"Whom the gods would destroy they first make mad."

We were fully impressed with the truthfulness of the above old proverb, while reading a dirty sheet recently issued from the Pacific Press office of this city, that bright luminary of the Seventh Day Adventists, for one A. B. Deming & Co., under the amazing head of "Naked Truths of Mormonism." Had this vulgar, lying sheet been issued from the office of a worldly-minded man, we should never have paid any attention to it; but having been cradled in the nursery of that extremely pious society, who would not publish a single article in favor of the Latter Day Saints, and whom they essay to despise, but who are willing to print any amount of filth, we deem it our duty to notice a few things appearing in Deming & Co.'s dump pile of filth. And as our paper is not the organ of the church to which we belong, but belongs to us individually we intend to call things by their right name, plainly if not elegantly, and hold ourselves responsible for what we say; and as we have been lied about and abused by the enemies of our religion, from our boyhood to the present time, we intend to treat these subterfuges, and their authors as they deserve.

The enemies of our church have relied upon the good nature and christian character of the Saints, to publish the most abominable lies and villainous slanders against us, knowing that the organ of the church would not lower itself to treat them with the sauce they deserve, and therefore they have not hesitated to blacken the characters of the living and the dead with impunity, and to publish as truth the most obscene and disgusting statements, believing the church would not notice them, and they thus prejudice the honest and virtuous against the investigation of our latter day work. When we started our paper we called it the EXPOSITOR, and we mean to expose all errors and humbugs as fast as we can reach them and have the means to do so, whether we are regarded by the world as a good Christian or not.

Mr. A. B. Deming, the publisher of said dirty sheet, whom a stranger might at first sight mistake for a gentleman, claims to be the son of General Deming, formerly of Carthage, Illinois.

General Deming, we have good reason to believe was a gentleman, and possessed of humane instincts and a lover of justice and truth, and he proved himself to be such an one, at the time of the cold-blooded and dastardly murder of Joseph and Hyrum Smith, his brother, at Carthage, in June 1844, and subsequent thereto.

Whether A. B. Deming, the proprietor and publisher of "Naked Truths of Mormonism" is the legitimate son of General Deming we are unable to say, but presume he is, for he says that his friends say he "is a fool for publishing" his dirty sheet; and it is an old saying "There is always one fool in the family," and we do not feel like disputing his statement, in this regard.

A. B. Deming has been for some time and now is, engaged in hawking about and peddling charcoal; and it would appear by reading the smutty sayings of the publisher of said paper, that he had chosen the use of charcoal as a profession, and felt in duty bound to blacken the character of those he does not like, with the smut of his charcoal. He is one who "creeps into houses," as he did into ours, under the garb and pretense of friendship, to see what he could glean from our church papers that he might color it with his coal smut and give it to those who "love a lie better than the truth," as the "Naked truth of Mormonism."

He informs us that in 1884 he was Clark Braden's moderator in a discussion held in Kirtland, Ohio, between Elder E. L. Kelley and said Braden, and he says that "Braden was unable to prove satisfactorily some points he claimed, and he engaged a party to collect evidence to sustain his position. The party did not accomplish much and I undertook the business. I began in March, 1884, and have been engaged in it much of the time since. Owing to legal or other troubles, I suppose, Mr. Braden was unable to fulfill his agreements with me, and I determined to continue the important labor on my own account."

To a person unacquainted with the "naked truth" of the foregoing, it would look very nice, innocent and straightforward. But let us look at the "naked truth" of this matter, and we will get the animus, that inspired this "important labor." Clark Braden, a champion debater, held a discussion with a young elder of our church, by the name of E. L. Kelley, in Nebraska, on all the important and debatable points of the doctrine of the Latter Day Saints, including the divinity of the "Book of Mormon." In that debate Kelley whipped Braden too bad for anything, and smarting under his defeat Braden thought if he could get Kelley to debate with him among the old prejudiced anti-Mormons of Kirtland, and where Braden would be surrounded with his church members as clackers to stiffen his weak knees, he would try Kelley again. The debate came off. A. B. Deming was accidentally there and Braden chose him for his moderator. Braden slung charcoal and other dirty stuff all over the Latter Day Saints, Book of Mormon, and all who had anything to do with this Latter Day work, while Kelley, with his cool, logical head so completely swept away Braden's refuge of lies that he became desperate and employed scavengers to scoop out of the cesspools of iniquity, and gutters of filth, and additional mass of the same character he had been using, and when presented to him he failed to keep his engagements through "legal trouble" as Deming says. So complete was Kelley's victory that the citizens of Kirtland gave Kelley and wife a public reception, and dinner and several presents to the utter chagrin of Mr. Braden and his conferees in his dirty work. This "legal difficulty" which Deming says prevented Braden from fulfilling his engagement with Deming was the indictment of Clark Braden by L. L. Luce the Methodist divine who championed Braden in both of said discussions. Luce had him indicted for swindling him, and wrote and published an expose of Braden, and Braden in turn had Luce arrested, and he also wrote and published an expose of Luce, each one sending their slander against each other to the Expositor, and we felt about as the old woman was said to feel when her husband and the bear was fighting. We heard that Luce had run away, and Braden, the last we heard from him, was receiving a dressing down in the New Thought by Moses Hull, the spiritual lecturer, editor and author. When Braden "failed to fulfill his engagements" with Deming this scavenger could not afford to throw away his accumulated guesswork and surmises of bigoted and prejudiced pretended witnesses and so he thought by having the aid of the "company" he could reap a rich harvest by publishing his slanders to the world. The result is his "naked" statements which he daubs "naked truths." Why did not Braden take his commodity and pay him for his dirty work! The reason is obvious. Braden is a talented man; he possesses something of a legal mind. He knows there is a standing challenge to him or any other man to debate in a gentlemanly way every principle held by the Church of Christ of Latter-Day Saints; and if Braden could have found any merits at all in any or all of Deming's statements he would have gladly "fulfilled his engagements" with Deming and paid him for all the lies and slanders he had scraped together. But Braden saw as every sensible man must see that Deming had not a single fact which would be proper evidence to be received in any court of law in the land, no not even a justice court. Therefore as evidence his trash was worthless.

Deming has not brains enough to see that his hearsay statements and surmises are of no value. He, therefore, gets a partner (who dares not meet us either in written or oral argument) and publishes them on his own account.

We will venture our reputation as a true prophet, by prophesying that A. B. Deming will find it more profitable to continue hawking about and selling his bottles of charcoal, which has some merit in it, than of publishing his vulgar, obscene and palpable falsehoods of bigoted and prejudiced enemies of truth, and that his publications will fall like a wet blanket over his own head and shoulders and bury him beneath its ample folds.

---

President Joseph Smith [III] is laboring among us at Oakland, and San Francisco. He seems to enjoy good health. We hope he will meet with abundant success in this unpromising field, for he is worthy of it. 

Deming's  Witnesses
________

WEIGHED  IN  THE  BALANCE  AND  FOUND  WANTING.
________

Christ once said: "That which cometh out of a man, that defileth the man, For from within, out of the heart of man, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness." Mark vii:20-22. Let us now examine some of the statements of Deming's witnesses, and see whether they are worthy of credit; for when a person offers a witness he by so doing vouches for their honesty and integrity, and says they are worthy of credit.

Mrs. S. F. Andericks says: "When Jo joined the Presbyterian Church, in Palmyra village, it caused much talk and surprise." (We should say so; for he never joined the Presbyterians, or any other church until April 6, 1830, when he joined the church he organized, to wit, the Church of Christ. -- ED.)

"He also claimed he found some gold plates with characters on them, in a hill between uncle's and father's, which I often crossed. Several times I saw what he claimed were the plates, which were covered with a cloth. They appeared to be six or eight inches square. He frequently carried them with him."

Just imagine Joseph Smith carrying around with him in a cloth, gold plates six or eight inches square, and showing them to this woman "several times," while everybody who pretends to know anything about the matter knows that Joseph showed them to eight witnesses, and the angel of the Lord showed them to the three witnesses, and no more, whose unimpeachable testimony was published with the Book of Mormon.

Lorenzo Saunders says: "I was frequently at the house of Joseph Smith from 1827 to 1830. That I saw Oliver Cowdery writing, I suppose the "Book of Mormon" with books and manuscripts lying on the table before him."

Now if this witness' "suppose" proves anything, then it proves that Oliver Cowdery was the author of the Book of Mormon, and not Rev.(?) Solomon Spaulding. Now contrast this statement with Deming's intelligent witness, W. R. Hines. He says: "I went there (Burgess' tavern, where he says Smith was translating the plates) and saw Jo Smith sit by a table and put a handkerchief to his forehead and peek into his hat and call out a word to Cowdery, who sat at the same table and wrote it down. Several persons sat near the same table and there was no curtain between them."

Now, which of these witnesses are we to believe? One has Oliver Cowdery writing the Book of Mormon with "manuscript before him, and scattered round about him on the table," and the other with forehead covered and Smith peeking into his hat and pronouncing only one word at a time and "Cowdery writing it down in the presence of this witness and several other persons." And to put the thing beyond doubt that Joseph did translate as he pretended, the witness not only states that himself and others stood or sat and looked on without objection, but affirms there was "no curtain between Smith and Cowdery and witness;" so that witness could detect at once any fraud or imposition if any had been practiced. No, it was an open and above-board affair. Now this statement is either true or false; if true, then the other witnesses who claim that Solomon Spaulding wrote the Book of Mormon, or that Rigdon wrote it, are untrue and slanderous in the extreme. If Smith did not translate the Book of Mormon, as he states he did, and as this witness testifies he did, then we must conclude Smith had committed the "manuscript found" by heart, and repeated it over to O. Cowdery, who wrote from Smith's dictation, as stated by this witness.

What a wonderful memory Smith had, to take the Rev. Spaulding's ungrammatical manuscript and work it over into tolerably fair English, divesting it of its vulgarities (for the book we have published as Spaulding's manuscript found is not only ungrammatical but extremely vulgar and obscene), and then with eyes covered and "peeking into a hat" he dictates a work nearly as large as the Old Testament Scriptures, one word at a time, until the whole is completed, and lo! the "Book of Mormon," that all the wise men in the world have been unable to overthrow or refute its divine origin.

This would have been ten times more of a miracle for Smith to perform, than to translate an ancient record with the Urim and Thummim; but it looks all right to Deming.

Take another statement of this last witness, in connection with Smith's marvelous memory. He says: "Joe could scarcely read or write when he lived in New York," or in other words when "he peeked into his hat," as before stated. This makes it more astounding, how this man who could "scarcely read or write," yet he could decipher the writing of the Rev. Solomon Spaulding, commit it to memory and put his head into a hat and thus completely shutting out the light so he could not read anything if he had it in his hat and thus dictate word for word that large "Book of Mormon." Is that not a little tough for even the credulous Deming to believe?

"But anything to beat the Mormons," is the motto of such men, without regard to consequences.

Take another statement of this wonderful, truthful witness; let him show his own moral depravity and you have a key to the one who introduces him on the stand in regard to their ideas of truth and morality. He says: "I met Prophet Jo's father on the dock at Fairport, O., in July, 1831. He inquired if I came on in the Mormon faith, I replied that I did: a crowd soon gathered about us. One of them asked what my faith was. I said the Mormons were the damd'st set of liars and scoundrels I ever knew. My reply caused a shout from many on the dock. We all took a drink."

This is the character of this shameless witness Deming introduces to destroy the character of a man of God, the instrument in the hands of God of opening the "dispensation of the fulness of times."

A profane, lying, drunken calumniator. The first sentence he utters, he states a falsehood in saying he had come on in the Mormon faith; and adding to this virtue of lying the other two graces of profanity and drinking and you have the character in a nutshell of a witness of Deming, who devotes almost three columns of his valuable paper to his blackmailing assertions. A splendid witness in a dirty cause, quite equal to some of those who testified against Jesus the Christ. He reflects the character of the parties who introduce him as their witness; and they say to the world, this man is our witness against Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon; we want you to believe him and believe us who vouch for him.

It is evident from the amount of space Deming gives this witness, nearly three columns -- that he is proud of his testimony, and that his mental and moral caliber is on a par with Deming's; for where he signs his statement he does so with an X, which Deming says was on account of his having his right arm paralyzed, which we are ready to believe, and only wonder it was not his lying, filthy and profane tongue.

Again, take the testimony of Henry A. Sayer, the man who says his father had twenty-one sons and four daughters, making only twenty-nine children in that "English gentleman's" family, who "never ate with them nor kissed them until they were dead," and as this witness is not dead yet he never knew a father's kiss; poor orphan!

This Henry A. Sayer, who has lost track of his numerous family, and uses Deming's paper to find them, says: "Joe Smith was said to be the laziest whelp about the country." Here is Stafford: "There was much digging for money on our farm and about the neighborhood. I saw Uncle John and Cousin Joshua Stafford dig a hole twenty feet long, eight broad and seven deep." Wonderful uncle and cousin! How did they survive that effort? "They claimed that they were digging for money." but were not successful in finding any. Joe Smith kept it up after our neighbors had abandoned it." What a pity such a lazy man should continue to play to dig a hole, after the others, who were not lazy, "quit digging."

"A year or two after Jo claimed to find the plates of the "Book of Mormon." He had now dug "a tunnel nearly fifty feet long in a hill about two miles north of the hill where he claimed to find the plates." Sayer says: "I saw Joe, Hyrum, and Bill Smith hunting and digging for buried money, -- treasure, or lost and hidden things."

Hines says: "Joe dug for salt two summers, near and in sight of my house. They dug one well thirty feet deep, and another seventy-five, at the foot and south side of the Aguaga mountains. Asa Stowell furnished the means for Joe to dig silver ore, on Monument hill. He dug next for Kidd's money. He dug for cannon."

But we have proved by Deming's own witnesses that Joseph Smith was far from being a lazy man; but, on the contrary, he was one of the hardest working men in the world; and chose the very hardest kind of work to exercise his laziness upon.

Should we need any more proof that Joseph Smith was an industrious man, take the fact of his translation and publication in his poverty of the Book of Mormon; of writing and publishing the book of "Doctrine and Covenants;" the translation of Old and New Testaments; of the translation and publication of the "Book of Abraham;" the organization of the Church of Jesus Christ; the building of two temples; the converting and bring[ing] into the Church about one hundred and fifty thousand Latter Day Saints, including such men as James G. Bennett, of the New York Herald, Arlington Bennett, of the Arlington House, New York, and many more of the leading men of the earth all in the short space of fifteen years; and with this before us, we can say, and that truthfully, that any man who has brains enough to have the headache, knows that the person who says that Joseph Smith was a lazy man or boy, is a liar, and the truth is not in him; and any person who will publish such statements is of the same character.

Take again Hines. He says: "He claimed he saw writing cut on the rocks in an unknown language telling where Kidd buried it (money), and he translated it through his peep-stone. I have had it many times and could see in it whatever I imagined. The idea that Kidd wrote in an "unknown language," when he spoke only the English language is simply ridiculous; but not quite so absurd as that this Hines had Smith's peepstone "many times," "and could see in it whatever I imagined." Can any sane man believe any such subterfuge? What a wonderful stone, and what a wonderfully truthful witness Deming introduces to destroy the character of Joseph Smith. Sallie Chase could also see things in her peepstone but the witness, Mrs. S. F. Andereck, who claims she had the stone, could see nothing! Now what is the great effort of Mr. Deming in introducing these witnesses? Why, we have run the Rev. "Spaulding manuscript," of Hulburt and Howe out of its hiding place, where it has been hid for nearly fifty years; we have published the illiterate, vulgar, profane, obscene and infidel production of this pious Presbyterian divine, and it makes the retailers of the old lies of Howe and Hurlbut sore, and destroys their stock of lying evidence, and now they wish to invent another by trying to prove this pious infidel minister wrote another "manuscript found," and the one unearthed recently is not the one they meant all the while. Their old persistent lie about Rigdon's stealing said manuscript and remodeling it into the "Book of Mormon" has been exploded, and the authors unmasked to the utter contempt of all honest men, and leaves these pious divines without ammunition to load their guns to shoot paper wads at the Latter Day Saints, and hence the effort of Mr. Deming to supply the long felt and much needed dirt for these venerable dirt slingers. This 'charcoal' Deming, like all who have written before him, has fallen into the mistake of claiming that the "Book of Mormon" was a history of the "ten lost tribes of Israel," and so the second "manuscript found" of Rev. Spaulding, they say, was a purported history of the lost tribes of Israel. And we will do as well by Deming as we once offered the Rev. (?) Dr. Roberts in the debate we had with him in Iowa on the subject. We will give Mr. Deming or any other person, 160 acres of good land if they will find a single sentence in the Book of Mormon which purports or pretends that said book is a history of the lost tribes of Israel or anything pertaining to their history. Unfortunately for the cause of Deming & Co., Mrs. Spaulding nor her daughter, Mrs. M. S. McKinstry, never told of ever giving Hurlbut but one manuscript, nor ever pretended that he got but one; and we have proved time and time again that one went into the possession of Howe, and that when Rice bought out Howe's office this identical manuscript went with the rest and has been under Rice's care and keeping since about 1840, until it was placed in the keeping of President Fairchild of Ohio, who furnished us the copy we have published.

The name "manuscript found" is the name given to Rev. Spaulding's manuscript by his widow and daughter, and by Howe and Hurlbut. And as the manuscript had no name of its own, the publishers were justified, yes, in duty bound to give it the name it had always been known by, and that all the friends of the manuscript gave it. And it comes now will ill grace for them to charge the publishers with the forgery of the name "manuscript found," which was placed on the published book. And the fact that on the wrapper which held the manuscript the words "Manuscript Story -- Conneaut Creek," -- and which name Fairchild says was evidently the handwriting of Mr. Rice of Honolulu, and not the author, and further, as the Spaulding family and friends have always called it "manuscript found," it was no forgery for the publishers to prefix the name they all had given to the production. Consequently the claim put forth that Spaulding wrote another manuscript in regard to the lost tribes of Israel from which the Book of Mormon was made, rests in the addled brains of the opponents of the Book of Mormon. And another fact, patent to any person who ever read the Book of Mormon, there is not one word or sentence in the book claiming or pretending to be an account of the lost tribes of Israel. And here is where the whole subterfuge of the false witnesses is brought to light and exposed to every person who will read the book."

---

Elder Thomas Daley reports four baptisms since he arrived in Humboldt county, Cal., and more investigating. If Deming and Lamb continue their efforts, we shall look for a large ingathering into the church. Such efforts as theirs have been followed by an increase of membership. All it wants to convince men and women of the truth of this Latter Day work is to have it opposed sufficiently to excite enough interest in the human mind to investigate, and "truth is mighty and will prevail."

Deming's dump cart was unloaded recently where Elder Daley is laboring. See the result, four baptized and more nearly ready. "Bear on McDuff."

---

We had a pleasant correspondence a short time ago with A. Miller Musser of Salt Lake City. He was curious to know if we were the "Hiram Brown" who was cut off from the Church by Joseph Smith in 1843 for teaching polygamy in Lapeer county, Michigan. As many others may be like him, we here say, we are not the man; and never saw or heard of him only as we saw his name in the Nauvoo Times and Seasons; and as we have always hated the detestable doctrine, none need be afraid of our either teaching or practicing it.
5:423

Note 1: RLDS President Joseph Smith III arrived in Oakland, by train from Utah, about the middle of January 1888, just in time to see the local publication of the first issue of Arthur B. Deming's Naked Truths About Mormonism. According to President Smith, he had previously met Mr. Deming at the Chicago Historical Society (probably in 1885 or 86). Whether or not he renewed that acquaintance while visiting the RLDS members in Oakland, Smith does not say. Certainly he must have seen Deming's newspaper and browsed through its articles (like the open letter of James A. Briggs, written to Smith months before but never published in the RLDS press). President Smith's reminiscence of this visit to the Bay Area (as published in the Saints' Herald of June 16, 1936) does not paint a very flattering picture of Elder Hiram P. Brown, editor of the Oakland Expositor. Within the year both Brown's paper and Deming's paper would cease publication. Brown saw the Oakland RLDS branch closed that October, suffered a paralyzing stroke in December, and died a year later.

Note 2: The last paragraphs of Elder Brown's "Deming's Witnesses" article were reprinted in the Mar. 3, 1888 issue of the RLDS Saints' Herald. The next issue of that same paper featured an article entitled: "The Dreadful Deming." None of the 1888 RLDS responses and reviews of Deming's paper took any of his published affidavits seriously and there was no known attempt by the Saints of that period to contact any of the deponents to verify or adjudge their various allegations regarding early Mormonism. LDS writers and editors appear to have ignored Deming entirely until the late twentieth century.

Note 3: In his "Deming's Witnesses" article, Elder Brown ridicules the statement in Deming's newspaper where witness W. R. Hine says that he saw Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery at work, translating and transcribing the Book of Mormon text. Smith and Cowdery may have given several such demonstrations (in "Badger's tavern" or elsewhere) of their ongoing "translation" work in the presence of various observers. There is no reason to positively assert that any supposed Book of Mormon text produced in such demonstrations was actually used in the printed book. Smith apparently had a fair reading ability at that time and was able to dictate a substantial portion of the text to his first scribe, Martin Harris. He reportedly dictated some of the text to other scribes as well. However, the overwhelming majority of the book's contents were transcribed in private, with only Smith and Cowdery present. Perhaps, during some of that process, only Cowdery was present. So long as Cowdery had some source for his transcription, the mechanics of how input from previous writers (Spalding, Rigdon, etc.) was entered into the Book of Mormon is not the main point of consideration here.

Seventh-Day Adventist Duplicity.
______

For without are dogs and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers,
and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie -- Rev. xxii:15.
______

The following duplicity, and which was intended to mislead its readers, was published in the Seventh-day Adventist Signs of the Times of the 17th inst., page 112:

From the publisher, A. B. Deming, 124 Post street, San Francisco, we have received a copy of Naked Truths about Mormonism, which we understand is to be published monthly. It contains a great many facts about the rise of Mormonism, and there are affidavits from respectable persons now living, testifying to the frauds by which the "Book of Mormon" was foisted upon the people as a revelation from heaven. While we like to see frauds exposed, we have no idea that such exposure will affect Mormonism in the least. The Mormon leaders well know the fraudulent character of their pretensions; and their converts are made mostly from the ignorant and the depraved in this country, and from those in foreign countries who could not be reached by any exposure published in the English language. As long as there are people who love and make a lie, lies will be believed by many in preference to the truth; and that will be until the Lord comes.

From reading the foregoing an honest man would be led to believe that A. B. Deming published his vulgar sheet at 124 Post street, San Francisco, and had sent the Times a copy of his paper, because they want to shirk the responsibility of publishing a paper which Bennett ought to prevent, on account of its obscenity, from passing through the mails. There are sentences in said sheet too vulgar to appear in the family of any decent person.

But what are the facts in the premises? Simply this: The Signs of the Times office printed Deming's paper, called Naked Truths about Mormonism, and then they had him mail a copy from 124 Post street, San Francisco, so they, true to their instincts, might publish the foregoing to deceive all their readers. We are prepared to prove that the above Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association printed that dirty sheet of A. B. Deming & Co.'s. They say: "It contains a great many facts about the rise of Mormonism, and there are affidavits from respectable persons now living testifying to frauds by which the 'Book of Mormon' was foisted upon the people as a revelation from heaven;" thus placing themselves on the record as indorsing the foolish, indecent statements in that paper which came from their press. Again they say: "While we like to see frauds exposed, we have no idea that such exposure will affect Mormonism in the least." No; you need never think that such exposures as Deming & Co. have made will affect Mormonism in the least. Honest men will not condemn the truth because somebody who "loves a lie better than the truth" maligns an innocent man like Joseph Smith. You like to see frauds exposed, do you, Mr. Adventist? Then look at your own frauds which you are now practicing and have practiced for years, and your love of exposure will be fully satisfied. Just look at this last attempt to deceive the public and this exposure of your fraud.

Again: "The Mormon leaders well know the fraudulent character of their pretensions; and their converts are made mostly from the ignorant and the depraved in this country, and from those in foreign countries who could not be reached by any exposure published in the English language." If we have any more ignorant converts than the Seventh-day Adventists, we pity them. We are not so anxious to gain converts as to take into our Church members of the Utah polygamous Mormons, as these pure and self-righteous pharisaical Seventh-day Adventists did, when they accepted one from Utah on his original Mormon baptism, after we refused him. And we are willing to compare membership with that people, either for purity, morality, virtue or ability. There was never known a time when we were so ignorant we could not produce one man to accept the challenge of any man of talent and Christian character to defend our peculiar doctrines as stated by ourselves, as you did not six months ago, when challenged by the Rev. G. W. Sweeney. Talk about ignorance, forsooth!

Again: "As long as there are people who love and make a lie, lies will be believed by many in preference to the truth; and that will be until the Lord comes." No one who understands this principle better, nor practices it with more zeal than the leaders of the Seventh-day Adventist Association do. It has been their stock in trade from the beginning. They have held out to their converts, that the Lord would come in a very short time; that property would be of no use to them then, and that the Lord needed it for his work; and their dupes have given with a liberal hand, while their leaders have feathered their nests and built up large establishments in which to publish their deceptions, and grind the faces of their innocent but deceived followers; while their buildings and money-making organizations show that they do not believe a word of their teaching; but that the whole organization is a systematic scheme carried on by its leaders to accumulate wealth at the expense of the poor laboring classes. We are glad that the San Francisco Post is looking at their ways and exposing their hypocrisy and duplicity. As they like exposure, we hope it will go on until the honest-hearted ones may see the deception and wrong which is being practiced upon them and have them to earn their own bread by honest labor.


Notes: (forthcoming)

A. B. DEMING & Co. have again unloaded their dump-cart of filth and vulgarity. But they are so evidently fabrications, and of no account that we will not waste our paper and ammunition upon such subterfuges. Their bare recital is their refutation among sensible people; and any one who is weak enough or corrupt enough to believe such frothy nonsense is not worth the expense of their conversion to the truth. When Christ said, "except you eat my flesh and drink my blood ye have no life in you," many apostatized from him; and thousands might have gone in all sincerity and made oath that Christ taught cannibalism, and have been precisely as truthful as the witnesses against Joseph Smith and others of whom Deming's witnesses testify.

If we considered A. B. Deming compos mentis, we would say more; but as we pity him, rather than despise him, we feel like letting him enjoy his hallucinations, while the "company" make the money out of him for their dirty work. Their last dodge that "they do not publish" his dirt but "only print it," is only equaled by their late editor, J. H. Waggoner, who said, "Christ would have come in 1844, had it not been for the failure of the Adventists at that time doing their duty."

We hope they will not fail of their duty again and thus prevent the coming of the Lord; for we want him to come and purify the earth and reign Lord of all; and we should feel quite bad to know that our Adventist friends hindered his coming by any failure on their part of doing their duty. We beg them to be on duty.

---

Greeting.
______

BELOVED EXPOSITOR: -- Friend of God and man, how my soul rejoiced, and I was led to thank the Editor of your most valuable columns, for the masterly way that he handled A. B. Deming and his witnesses. Truly, the title he gave to that article, "Weighed in the balance and found wanting," is fitting and abundantly sustained.

We think Deming & Co. will find that they have waked up the wrong chap. Beloved Brother Brown, that one article is stronger proof to the undersigned of the divinity of the Book of Mormon and the sacredness of our cause, than is the testimony of Oliver Cowdery, David Whitmer and Martin Harris. And why? Simply because if the Book of Mormon is a humbug, a deception and a fraud.

"Then down comes all our holy plan,
And proves to be the work of man." And our enemies know it; but if like Deming and Company, God causes their efforts to recoil with confusion upon their own heads.

"Then we will praise his holy name,
For covering them with their own shame." We will give another reason why the unsuccessful efforts of the enemies to overthrow the Book of Mormon strengthens our faith in the Book of Mormon and the latter day work. But we will do so in a figure or parable.

We will suppose that one thousand men have entered into a conspiracy to destroy Brother H. P. Brown; they have him indicted for some alleged crime that would, if proven, send him to the penitentiary for life. They all make oath that they saw him commit the crime; that they knew him; that they have seen him many times and can describe his person. The court demands that they each do so. In describing him in addition to his height, size, build and complexion they each and all testify that he had six toes on each foot, and six fingers (thumbs included) on each hand. Mr. Brown is brought forward for identification , when they all with one accord cry out, "Yes, that is the man, away with him, away with him." The defendant now removes his gloves and boots, when lo, and behold, he has but five toes on each foot, and of fingers the same number. That, Brother Brown, would be stronger evidence, to my mind, of the defendant's innocence, than for ten thousand witnesses to testify in his favor, or to try to prove an alibi.

Now for our application. None (that we know of) has testified that Joseph Smith, had six fingers or toes; but hundreds have testified that they have read the Book of Mormon and know what it contains, and they nearly all testify that it claims to give a history of the American Indians as having descended from the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel, when all who want to know the truth, and will read that book will know that said testimony and assertion is utterly false in every particular. This is only one of the many points contained in that Book where my parable of the fingers and toes will apply.

But beloved saints, and all to whom this greeting or testimony may concern, the writer has one evidence of the divinity of the Book of Mormon, and of the restoration of the gospel of Christ in these last days, in fulfillment of Rev. xiv:6-19, which gospel is preached by the elders of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints that to him is superior to the testimony of all living witnesses on earth, or all the parables that can be written.

That evidence, dear reader, is the fulfillment of the positive promise of the Savior, as recorded in John's Gospel vii:17, "They shall know of the doctrine." How shall they know? By the Spirit of Christ. Then beloved Saints, let us all strive to live in every respect, according to the teachings of the Bible, Book of Mormon and Doctrine and Covenants; that we all may have a right to the Tree of Life, finding the gate of heaven ajar. That this may be our happy lot in the prayer of your Brother in Christ.

                        W. R. CALHOUN.

Note: The modern reader of Priest William C. Calhoun's letter might well wonder who was the more outlandish, the man who wrote this strange communication, or the man who published it (RLDS High Priest, lawyer, and Expositor Editor, Hiram P. Brown). H. P. Brown might well be suspected of suffering from a type of religious monomania. In speaking of Richard R. Brown, Hiram P. Brown's brother, RLDS President Joseph Smith III once said: "He was quite a faithful man, somewhat eccentric, but not quite so much so as his lawyer-brother." The distinct impression is conveyed that H. P. Brown exceeded his brother Richard in eccentricity more so than in faith. In another instance President Smith told of how he "sat between" the feuding RLDS "Brethren [H. P.] Brown and [W. H.] Hart" in an Oakland prayer meeting; "one of whom to my certain knowledge -- and, I strongly suspected the other also -- had a pistol in his pocket."

We saw, a few days ago, our friend A. B. Deming. He has concluded that as a financial venture his "Naked Truths about Mormonism" is a failure. He will hereafter devote his physical energies to the sale of his charcoal; and his spiritual to the study of Mr. Simpson's faith cure. He is a great admirer of Simpson.

Deming is far from being totally depraved. He is not naturally a bad man; but when he fell into the hands of L. L. Luce and Clark Braden, they threw him off his balance and set him to scrape up the old worn out yarns about Joseph Smith and the Mormons, and having devoted nearly three years to that business for naught, he was glad to have an ally in the shape of a publishing house, who would handle his spurious articles, and having found such a house in the Pacific Press, he sent forth his accumulations broadcast.

We hope since he has tried the experiment of damming the Niagara Falls, he will stick to his charcoal business and not attempt to stop the work of God under the name of Latter Day Saints.

We wish Mr. Deming no harm, and have given his charcoal a free advertisement.

Go ahead, Brother Deming, try to keep in good religious company hereafter and do not again be led into the folly of overthrowing the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. No arm raised against the work of God can long prosper.

Bad conduct on the part of Christians does not prove Christ untrue, neither does bad conduct on the part of some Latter Day Saints prove our Latter Day work untrue.


Note 1: The Simpson spoken of in this report is Albert Benjamin Simpson (1843-1919), the main proponent of the late nineteenth century "Faith-Cure Movement."

Note 2: Deming remained in the Oakland area until about the turn of the century. Following his move from California to New York he tried to sell the stereotype plates he had made for his two published issues of Naked Truths About Mormonism, but without success. Some of his compiled statements and communications remained unpublished after his death (c. 1905?), filed away in the libraries of the Chicago Historical Society and the Western Reserve Historical Society. The texts of many of these documents were included in a limited "memorial" edition of Naked Truth, printed as its third number in 1988.

Here is something that is old, but it ought to be repeated until everybody has learned it by heart, and until everybody who has a conscience has learned its full meaning: "Calumny would soon starve and die of itself, if nobody took it in and gave it lodging."...

We clip the foregoing from our Adventist neighbor, who published A. B. Deming's false and absurd statements about Joseph Smith and the early Latter Day Saints. If our Adventist friends really believe what they say in the foregoing, where will they in the Judgment? By their own decision of the matter, they will be classed with those who make a lie, as well as to love one.

We have been credibly informed by a friend of Mr. Deming that he was like the man Christ speaks of, who went down from Jerusalem to Jericho. Luke x:30. That his venture among the Adventists in publishing his :Naked truths (lies) about Mormonism," was only lucrative to the printing establishment; and that poor Deming got financially left.

Brother Deming, if you have faith to be healed, you ought to pray God to save you from your friends; especially those who desire to make money by publishing your fabrications at your expense.

We extend to you our sympathies and hope hereafter you will be a wiser if not a better man, and not be ranked in the Judgment with those who love a lie.


Notes: (forthcoming)

William B. Smith.

The Brighamite Mormons' Pretended Biography of William V. Smith, as Published by Andrew Jensen of the Utah Mormon Church, in Vol. V. No. 3, of "Historical Record," of March, 1886, Together with the Reply thereto by William B. Smith, Exposing their Lying, Slandering Record of Himself, and Explaining the Reason of the Brighamite Animosity Against Him.

"William Smith, a member of the first quorum of twelve apostles, was the fifth son of Joseph Smith, Senior, and Lucy Smith, born in Royalton, Windsor county, Vermont, March 13, 1811. He was baptized at an early period, and was a teacher in the church in 1831. He took a mission to Erie county, Pennsylvania, in December, 1832, to preach the Gospel and call the elders to Kirtland to attend a school of the prophets. He was ordained to the office of a high priest under the hands of Sydney Rigdon in council on the 21st day of June, 1833. During the winter of 1833 he worked on a farm and chopped cord wood near Kirtland.

He was married to Caroline Grant, daughter of Joshua and T. Grant, February 14th, 1833, by whom he had two daughters, Mary Jane and Caroline L.

He went to Missouri, in Zion's camp, in 1834, and returned to Kirtland the same fall. He was appointed one of the twelve apostles at the organization of that quorum.

He accompanied the Twelve on their first mission through the Eastern states and returned with them to Kirtland in the same fall. While Joseph was presiding in a high council, William rebelled against him in a very headstrong manner.

At a debating school held in the house of Father Joseph Smith, December 16, 1837, the Prophet Joseph told the brethren he feared it would not result in good, whereupon William in a rage commanded Joseph to leave the house, attempted to put him out and buffeted upon him personal injury, the effects of which he occasionally felt until his death. After Hyrum and the Twelve had labored with William for several days he made confession and was forgiven.

He removed to the Far West with his family in the spring of 1838. After Joseph was taken prisoner and the mob began to drive out the Saints, William expressed himself in such a vindictive manner against Joseph that the Church suspended him from fellowship, May 4, 1839, at a general conference near Quincy.

He went to Illinois and settled near Plymouth, Hancock county, keeping a tavern. William was restored to the fellowship of the Church through the intercession of Joseph and Hyrum; but when the Twelve went to England, instead of accompanying them according to the commandment of the Lord, he remained on his farm at Plymouth.

He published a letter in the Times and Seasons, December 6, 1840, making an apology for neglecting to go on his mission on the ground of poverty, but it came with ill grace, as he was better situated to leave his family than any of the members of the quorum who went.

In the spring of 1841 he visited the branches of the church in Pennsylvania and New Jersey and collected means for his own benefit, returning to Nauvoo the same season.

He was elected a member of the House of Representatives of the Legislature if Illinois in the winter season of 1842-3. His acts as a member of the Legislature were highly approved by the people; he displayed considerable energy in defending the Nauvoo charter and the rights of his constituents.

He took a journey to the East on business in the spring of 1843, and spent his time among the churches.

William returned to Nauvoo April 22, 1844, with forty or fifty Saints from New Jersey. After staying a short time in Nauvoo, he had his last interview with his brother Joseph under the following circumstances: He asked Joseph to give him a city lot near the Temple, Joseph told him that he would do so with great pleasure, if he would build a house and live on it; but he would not give him a lot to sell. William replied he wanted it to build and live upon. The lot was well worth $1,000.

In a few hours afterward an application was made by a Mr. Irvine to the recorder to know if that lot was clear and belonged to William Smith; for William had sold it to him for $500. Joseph hearing of this, directed the clerk not to make a transfer; at which William was so offended that he threatened Joseph, who deemed it prudent to keep out of the way, until William left on a steamboat for the East accompanied by his family. He spent his time mostly in various branches of the church, and collected a good deal of money for the temple, which he used for his own accommodations.

In all his missions the course of conduct he pursued towards the females subjected him to much criticism.

In a general conference of the Church held in Nauvoo, October 5, 1845, William Smith was dropped as one of the Twelve Apostles and patriarch of the Church, and on the following Sunday (Oct. 12th) he was excommunicated, as more of his mean acts had come to light.

Some time after he associated himself with the apostate James J. Strang, who tried to organize a church of his own but failed.

William Smith is yet alive and officiates as a patriarch in the Josephite church, in Elkader, Clayton county, Iowa. He is about seventy-five years old, and the only brother of the Prophet Joseph yet alive,"


The following is a brief reply to the wholesale slander of the foregoing pretended biography:

My answer to the foregoing must be brief. There are several false entries in that account. It could not be expected otherwise from that people. They would like to reward William Smith some way for his opposition to them while concocting their hellish deeds and diabolical plans to destroy and overthrow the Church of Jesus Christ, which my brother and others had organized upon the pure and holy principles of the gospel of Christ. If my brother Joseph is authority for some of these statements I am ignorant of the fact. If differences of opinion ever arose between us as brothers I did not suppose it would become church history, nor do I believe he would or ever did make such entries; and if he did the account is to be settled with him. This Utah class of Mormons, in throwing their javelins at William Smith, think they have won a great victory when they can use the name of Joseph Smith to help them out in their forgeries and falsehoods. If people believe what these Brighamite Mormons record in their church history they will have enough to do. The story about the debating school, is prefaced with a lie and is wound up by telling a most notorious falsehood. The debating school was held at the house of William Smith, and not at Father Smith's house as stated in the Record. It is true, my brother Joseph ordered the debating school to be discontinued, which was done without personal injury to anyone. The version as given in the Historical Record about the town lot is another of their forged lies. The lot referred to was nothing but a sand reef, and never worth over two hundred dollars, besides there was never any deed made to the lot in the name of William Smith,

William Smith, however on the promise of a lot, paid into the hands of a brother by the name of Reuben Hadlock [sic -Hedlock?], three hundred dollars, to build the house as proposed. But to William Smith's surprise, in two weeks afterward Hadlock was appointed on a mission to England, sanctioned by the authorities of the church, and the sequel to the story is, in the fact that Hadlock never returned from his mission to England, and William Smith found himself minus of money, house and lot; and no deed was ever made to the lot as above stated.

And on all these several other statements, they are varnished and veneered falsehoods. The Quincy conference, and what took place there, the appropriation of church funds, are pieces off the same cloth.

It is true that William Smith never paid allegiance to Brigham Young; and these statements in regard to the church funds are all one-sided and calculated to misrepresent me and deceive the saints and the public. It is true that I never gave money to build up and perpetuate that Brighamite and apostate church.

We will now explain the "bad actions of William Smith."

1. William Smith opposed the urgent desire of his brethren, the twelve, to destroy the Expositor press and office.

2. William Smith opposed the measure and policy of placing Joseph Smith's name before the public as a candidate for President of the United States, as such a measure would be damaging to the best interests of the church, and endangering the life of Joseph Smith.

3. William Smith's disapproval of the murder of a young man by the name of Arbim [sic - Irvine?] Hodges, in Nauvoo, by the Nauvoo police, which dastardly murder was for the sole purpose of covering up Brigham Young's complicity in the murder of two men in Lee county, Iowa, for which the two Hodge brothers were hung, at Burlington, Iowa, in the spring or summer of 1845.

4. William Smith opposed the council of the twelve in regard to moving the church to the Valley of the Mountains.

These several accounts of "William Smith's bad actions," brought to light, by being a true man and outspoken in his disapproval of this cowardly murder by the Nauvoo police, and of other measures adopted by the council of the so-called twelve for the government and rule of the church, soon paved the way for them to "cut off" William Smith, that these apostate pseudo Mormons have boasted so much about.

It was a Godsend to William Smith, as it gave the world due notice that he was not of them, and did not belong to this accursed band of cut throats.

There is one more point in regard to the mission to England. It is evident that the person who wrote that "record" was either ignorant of the facts in the case or he desired to willfully misrepresent the facts. It was well known for years after the saints were driven out of Missouri, that my wife, Caroline Smith, from the exposure she passed through in that inclement season of the year, contracted a disease of which after suffering much she finally died.

At the time of the English mission was talked of, my wife was under treatment for dropsy, of which she finally died in the spring of 1845, and was buried in the city of Nauvoo, Apostle Orson Pratt delivering the funeral discourse. It would have been absolutely cruel, unjust and anti-Christian to have abandoned a sick wife under such circumstances to undertake a mission to England.

My connection with James J. Strang is not denied. The error of myself, if any, was in placing too much confidence in the signature or name of Joseph Smith, attached to the Strang letter of appointment. It was stated in the said letter that "with him (Strang) the fold would find refuge." The fold means in one sense a church or body of people. The church, according to revelation, being "rejected" at the time of the prophet's death, the Strang letter served to have a fit application to that people in Nauvoo, distracted as they were by a thousand false spirits, and who were seeking refuge somewhere.

It was enough in this terrible state of things for anyone to imagine that the rights of the priesthood had jumped clean out of the church and sanctioned by revelation, and by the appointment of a prophet, as per the signature attached to Strang's letter of appointment.

The only vital question with me was, did Joseph Smith place his signature to that letter? My following of Strang's cause was of short duration; as I became satisfied in my mind that the signature to the Strang letter was a forgery; and I am still of that opinion, although I thought differently at one time.

However false Strang's church may have been in their day and time, they could not outstrip the Brighamite church in their accursed meanness and deception. It is said "one story is good until another is told."

These Brighamite "records" are like the Indian's white man, "they have two tongues." One tongue they use to build up a pseudo church with; and with the other they use to vilify and lie about those opposed to their religion and accursed doctrines.

Much might be said of the history of this people, since their sojourn to the Valley of the Mountains, of their blood atonement. Mountain Meadow massacre, their wrongs and injuries inflicted upon innocent females in their barbarous system of polygamy and a thousand and one offenses against society, decency and the laws of our country. But they are known to the American people, and the strong arm of the government is teaching them lessons of morality it should have taught them years ago.

But in conclusion: No wrong inflicted upon harmless innocence, under cover of religion, can exempt any people from the charge of sin, either of murder or crime of adultery, as the law of God as well as the laws of government forbids and condemns all such unlawful acts. Then let the Brighamites read their own records, so well known to the civilized world, of their crimes of barbarism and blood,
                                                                WILLIAM SMITH.


Notes: (forthcoming)

William B. Smith.
_______

His reply to calumniators -- His last visit to Joseph and Hyrum
Smith at Nauvoo, June, 1844.

After attending the council composed of the "twelve," and some others, official members of the church, who had voted to place Joseph Smith's name before the public as a candidate for the presidency of the United States, and it was nearing the time of my departure on my mission to the east, I concluded to call on my brother Joseph and spend a few moments in a good bye, which I accordingly did. On going into his office quite early in the morning, to my surprise, I found my brother walking to and fro across the room, as in great trouble of mind. "Well," said I, "Joseph, what is the trouble? You seem to be in great trouble." "Well," said Joseph, "I was in the council of the 'twelve' last night, and they advised me to place my signature or name to the ordinance just passed by the city council, for the removal of the Expositor press," "Well, Joseph" said I, "it is not my province to dictate what you shall do in the case, but it is my opinion, that the mobocrats in Hancock county will seek revenge, in case you suffer that press to be destroyed, and they will hide behind every bush in the country until they kill you, and bullets will kill prophets as well as other men."

While I was having this conversation with my brother Joseph, Willard Richards, who had been listening at the door, came in with the book of city ordinances [under] his arm, and said: "President Smith, I have been listening to your brother William's remarks, and I beg leave to differ with him as to the results of removing this press." "It seems," said Richards, "that your brother William has no faith that God can or will protect his prophet." "No," said I, "not while he is facing an angry mob, who have murder in their hearts; and mobs have killed prophets in days long gone by and will do it again when they think they have just cause for doing so. To destroy a printing press is a high crime for any class of people to be guilty of. In the eyes of the world it will be looked upon as an act of treason to destroy a printing press; and if my brother Joseph should lend a helping hand in such a mean work as this, it will surely bring down the indignation of the public upon him and hasten on the work of death by a mob. Mark well, destroy that press and it will be the given signal for the prophet's death and final breaking up of the church."

"Well," said Joseph; "William, the brethren of the 'twelve' have promised me to see me safe through to the end of this trouble; and as God lives, if they break this promise, and I perish in the struggle to save the character of the church, the glory of the saints will depart from the church and the honor of the priesthood will be lost forever."

Notwithstanding all that was said in hopes of preventing my brother Joseph placing his signature as Mayor of Nauvoo, to that accursed ordinance, Richards continued pressing his desires for my brother's name, saying the Expositor press was in the hands of my brother's enemies, and that they were making use of it to destroy the character of the church and that now, said Richards, "it is in your power brother Joseph, to crush this viper in its nest." "After the crushing," said I, "there will be a reaction and I fear the consequences, as I have said, rifle balls in the hands of a merciless mob are more deadly weapons than words printed on paper, however much they may sting. The press is a means of defense, so let the Times and Seasons, and the Nauvoo Neighbor speak out and not resort to harsh means in the way of removing the Expositor press. But in conclusion, Mr. Richards, I think your advice to the prophet is very bad, and if carried out to the letter it will be the course that yourself with thousands of others will regret. I have, however, Mr. Richards, spoken freely on this subject and those are my views, and the consequences that will follow, in my humble opinion, in case that press is destroyed. But my brother Joseph must do as he thinks best. God is his refuge, and it is my prayer that He will lay [him] underneath His strong arm of defense, in hopes to meet again. I am going now, Joseph; good bye. Good bye, Mr. Richards."

In crossing the street opposite my brother's office, I met with my brother Hyrum and related to him the interview I just had with Joseph and Richards concerning the Expositor press, if destroyed, and the consequences which would follow. Hyrum seemed to be in deep thought and very reticent. I think from what I learned that he was not very strongly in favor of the passage of that ordinance, which was passed by the City Council for the removal of the Expositor press, etc. The most of the members of the quorum of the Twelve, such as Richards, Kimball, Taylor and Brigham Young, were the most rabid for the removal of the press.

In fifteen minutes after leaving brother Joseph's office I was on board the steamer Osprey on my way to St. Louis, Mo., and thence by steamer up the Ohio river to Pittsburg, crossing over the Alleghany mountains, by railroad and canal to Harrisburg and Healdsburg, and thence over the inclined planes, arriving at Philadelphia all safe, glad to find my afflicted family still in the land of the living, but in poor health and still being on the decline.

I saw nothing in the papers, which I examined daily, about the affairs in Nauvoo until I arrived in New York on my way back from Boston, where I had been attending a political meeting, where most of the Twelve had been in attendance. Stopping over Sunday in the city of New York, I was speaking in the Saints' Hall in the afternoon, and in closing gave out a subject for the evening service, when a gentleman entered the hall with a bundle of papers, which he proceeded to distribute among the saints. A single copy was handed me. It was the New York Herald, extra, with large headlines reading, "Joseph and Hyrum Smith both shot with four balls," Now friend EXPOSITOR, I have given the history of the death of my two brothers, Joseph and Hyrum Smith, not to appear egotistical nor to boast of my ability in saying what I did to prevent the destruction of that press, but to show where I stood and pointed out the natural results which would follow the destruction of that press and paper.
                                                                WILLIAM SMITH.

TO BE CONTINUED.

Note 1: The continuation of this article was not published in the final issue of The Expositor, which was the issue for November, 1888. What became of William B. Smith's manuscript for this article and similar unpublished historical recollections remains unknown. Probably his sequel episode dealt with the deaths of Joseph and Hyrum at Carthage, and followed the general sequence of events that he outlined in his letter of Mar. 25, 1879, published in the Saints' Herald of Apr.15, 1879.

Note 2: The exact chronology of William's last days in Nauvoo, prior to the assassination of his brothers on June 27, 1844, remains in doubt. LDS records show that William attended the political convention held in Nauvoo on May 17th, promoting Joseph Smith, Jr. as a candidate for the U. S. Presidency. By June 20th William had certainly departed with his family for the east, for on that day Joseph Smith directed that all absent members of the quorum of the Twelve return at once to Nauvoo and William is mentioned in that communication. If William is correct, in saying that he was yet in Nauvoo when the city council passed its declaration regarding the Nauvoo Expositor, that fact places him in the city as late as Monday, June 10th. According to the city council minutes published in the Nauvoo Neighbor on June 19, 1844, Joseph Smith, Jr. was present during the council's deliberations regarding the new newspaper and, in fact, Smith was the motivator of the group, in its passing the June 10th resolution stating that the Expositor was a public nuisance. The most charitable reading of William's recollection would place his final meeting with his brothers on the morning of the 10th, when the council's decision was easily predicted (and perhaps already set down in draft form for Joseph to review and approve) but before the council finalized its resolution, later that afternoon. If the Osprey left Nauvoo "early in the morning" on June 10th, it would have had sufficient time to land William's family in St. Louis and make the trip back to Nauvoo the following day. This same steamboat is known to have picked up Charles A. Foster (one of the owners of the destroyed Expositor press) at Warsaw on June 12th and landed him in St. Louis in time for his account of recent events to make it into the evening paper there. It is rather hard to believe that William "saw nothing in the papers... about the affairs in Nauvoo until" he "arrived in New York"... returning from the political meeting held in Boston on Saturday, June 29, 1844. Newspapers from St. Louis to New York printed reports of the growing crisis in Nauvoo well before Sunday, June 30, 1844, when William recalled reading "Joseph and Hyrum Smith both shot with four balls" in the New York Herald. In fact, the Herald did not publish the news of the assassination until July 7th, though its columns regularly featured other news from Nauvoo prior to that date.