A  LYING  CHARGE  REFUTED.


(under construction)

Notes: (forthcoming)

MORMONISM  ARRAIGNED.
_____

Lecture Delivered by Rev. George W. Gallagher,
in Ogden, on Sunday Evening. January 18th,
on the Opening of the Presbyterian Church.

The fountain of Mormonism was Joseph Smith. The character of the prophet is well known. The neighbors of the Smith family when the Smiths lived in Palmyra, Manchester and Fayette, New York, testify to the loose, immoral habits of the Smiths and especially of Joseph Smith, Jr....

That the Book of Mormon is a fraud can be proved in two ways, first, by the internal evidence, second, by the external evidence.... When the Book of Mormon was first published, the widow of Solomon Spaulding, a lady of pure moral character, whose testimony has not been impeached, testified under oath [sic] that the Book of Mormon was her husband's lost novel interpolated and changed to suit the purposes of Joseph Smith and Sidney Rigdon. To this testimony was added that of John Miller, a partner in business with Mr. Spaulding, and that of scores of neighbors who lived near Mr. Spaulding in the different towns where he had resided. Such evidence is sufficient to convince any mind that can be influenced by the weight of testimony that the so-called revelation of Joseph Smith is a fraud.

(under construction)

Notes: (forthcoming)

REORGANIZATIONS  IN  MORMONDOM.


(under construction)

Notes: (forthcoming)

(communicated)

THE  SECRET  AND  FINAL  SOLUTION  OF  POLYGAMY.
_____

"The New England fathers," says the historian Motley, "had no notion of establishing a democracy. The virtues of the Puritans were many and colosal, their vices were few but formidable, for they were intolerance, cruelty, tyranny and bigotry. They came here to establish, not liberty of conscience, but the true church. They people, as such, had no rights at all. * * * A true picture of those early times would present this quaint, solemn, arbitrary government keeping the people as tight as a drum, prying about and thrusting its primitive and patriarchal nose into everybody's business and meddling with the most minute and trifling matters."

Mormonism, polygamy and all, is not so much a relic of barbarism as a relic -- indeed, the bitter kiss -- of Puritanism. Salt Lake is much closer to Boston, to-day, than it is to San Francisco. The vices of these old Puritans were indeed but few, but, as Motley well says, "formidable."

We shall never be able to account for the practice of polygamy amd the concomitant idea of "blood atonement" in our day, in Utah Mormonism, until we divine the true cause and source of these things. Their roots are deep and to the many unknown and unguessed of.

Polygamy is superficially berated as if it were one with -- had its origin in common with -- ordinary libertinism and licentiousness. Such a thing is bad enough, people think, in irreligious people, but in a community professing itself religious a thousandfold less excusable -- horrible --incredible -- unaccountable.

Nothing can be wider of the mark than to arraign polygamy in this wise. The secret of polygamy is to be found in the perversion of the sexual instincts, and a blind, wild craving of outraged nature to right itself.

[Onddaism?] and kindred sexual [craves?] have one and all the same root in perversion. And while this is true, physically and practically considered, it is equally true, literally and ideally, that they have sprung from a certain morbid cnsciontiousness, which is widely removed from reckless and lawless licentiousness, although its tendency has been more and more, as normal conditions of physical health and soundness have supervened, to sun in parallel lines with the libertine spirit and even [embrace] with it. Thank God, "the quadruped opinion" is not humanity's ultimate.

A clear and full understanding of the peculiar nature and character of the man Rigdon throws such a flood of light upon all Mormonism as nothing else can. The fons et principaux of the whole thing is to be found in him.

The most aggravated cases of polygamy are where a pure and unperverted natural woman has found herself "unequally yoked" with a diseased and perverted man. Such a woman never could understand where polygamy came in. Her whole nature has felt itself outraged by it, and she is revolted from it. And yet, her thought, her partially reconciling reflection has been, "well, man's nature is essentially more gross than woman's." The same God who made my nature to revolt at polygamy, made my husband's which is disposed to it."

Poor woman, thus generalizing from a disordered and morbid specimen of mankind, you are nearer to nature and to the God of nature than is your husband. The conditions of your birth, your extraction, your life course, have run harmoneously along with that God of nature, while some and perhaps all of his have been running counter thereto. That is the difference -- the sad gulf -- between you, and diseased conditions of body and mind the secret of the introduction or, more properly and exactly, of the first germinating and eventual establishing of polygamy. Most likely two quite different characters and dispositions, first evolved the thought (S. Rigdon), and finally established the practice of polygamy (B. Young), but much more closely akin to one another than to the third party (J. Smith), who has had the nsame and borne the stigma of introducing it.

The ever deepening horror of the thing is that the young and unperverted should be still enmeshed, when a full knowledge and comprehension of what is here briefly hinted at would save them.

"Blood Atonement," which may be justly viewed as a blood-relation of polygamy, seems to have had its principal source in the dyspeptic habit, amounting to hypochondria, of J. M. Grant, though Rigdon may have been before Grant in this, as he was before Joseph in the religio-polygamic idea. Rigdon had a temperament tinged with sadness and inclining to melancholy (black bile,) whereas the natural character of "the prophet" was jovial. But the bonhommie of the latter was lost to the Mormon system in the acerbatica amd vindictiveness of Brigham Young, and the two, Rigdon and Young -- have given its tone to Mormonism in Utah.

The strongest men are the gentlest. The most virtuous are the most charitable. The best people are the most natural. Society makes us humane. Isolation leads to barbarism. The healthiest people are the most sociable.

Had the Mormon prophet lived to be fifty and eschewed vanity, his more highly toned wife would have saved him and the Mormon Church from the curse and degradation of polygamy. Their son, the present Joseph, possesses the best elements of both his parents and may yet redeem the name of Joseph Smith and (as a religo-sensual craze) the polygamy of Mormondom.


Note 1: The above article was most probably written by James T. Cobb. It seems reasonable to conclude that Cobb was himself much too close to polygamy (and too much impacted personally by that pernicious system), to "see the forest, for the trees," when it came to objectively describing its origins. LDS dispensationalism arises out of the belief that, at different periods of time in history, "the gospel" is retored to its original purity and then is again "lost." Proto-Mormons, like Sidney Rigdon, must have struggled with decisions regarding just which of the many manifestations experienced in "prior dispensations" were to be included in the final (Mormon) scheme of religion. Rigdon's doctrine of an American Zion, where the twelve tribes of the polygamous patriarch Jacob were to be "restored," naturally opened the way for an idealization patriarchal polygamy as a former divine institution. In the Book of Mormon's Book of Jacob, the writer denounces the polygamy of David and Solomon, but holds open an "escape clause" by which the biblical practice can be instituted for patriarchal purposes. That was, perhaps, as much as Rigdon and other early Mormon leaders were willing to acknowledge, regarding the "blessings of Jacob."

Note 2: If this text appars to be incomplete and its thesis not fully developed, it is probably because Cobb's original article was published in two separate parts. See the March 16, 1880 issue of the Tribune for what appears to be its conclusion. There Mr. Cobb traces polygamy to the "sealing power" of the Mormons' top leader -- which Cobb speculates originated as a doctrine of Sidney Rigdon's concoction. Certainly the theological apology for celestial polygamy rests upon the possiblity of a widower being eternally "sealed" to both a deceased first wife as well as to a living second wife. In this religious development, Rigdon appears to have provided priestly justification for a post-mundane continuation of Joseph Smith's secret plural wifery. So long as Joseph was only married "spiritually" to his plural wives, the logical (?) extension of Rigdon's doctrine might allow multiple "spiritual wives" during earthly existence. Smith, according to most reports, paid no attention to such fine points of theology -- and extended Rigdon's doctrine to the sphere of carnal intercourse with his "plurals" well before his passing "beyond the veil."

Note 3: Mr. Cobb, who was not trained in sociology, understandably overlooks the peculiar group dynamics that often come into play in religious cults led by a single, charismatic and despotic "alpha male." In such groups (where the leader speaks in God's place and the members are breaking away from many established cultural norms), it is not unusual for such a male leader to initiate, develop and control diverse intimate relationships with several his most devoted female followers. In polygamic Mormonism, this particular phenomenon was managed by the top leadership and eventually sanctioned by them, amongst the lower churchly ranks, as an integral part of building up an isolated and separatist society. Institutionalized LDS polygamy was a complex manifestation, which indeed may have sprung from Puritanical idealization of "Old Testament virtues" and the bigoted, cultish control exercised by certain religious leaders, who managed a largely ignorant membership, grounded both in traditional New England religion and in New England's hallmark fringe of fanatical non-conformity. See the story of Cochranite polygamy, for a parallel example of this phenomenon.

THE  DANITE  BAND.
_____

Elder Forscutt Details his Experiences With these Murderers.
_____

(Chicago Tribune, February 23d.)
_____

Mr. Mark H. Forscutt, an Elder of the Reorganized Mormon Church, who holds services every Sunday at No. 213 West Madison street, discoursed yesterday morning upon the Danites. He had no doubt, he said, that the subject would be surprising to many of his audience, and might to some of them seem hardly a fit subject for a religious discourse, yet it would be seen that it was really of great importance. It had been said that the Latter-day Saints had bands of men connected with them called "Danites," and during the past week there had been produced in one of the theatres of this city a play purporting to give an insight of the workings of that body. The speaker had heard a great deal of it, and when he went to see it last week the play bill informed him that the piece was the best lecture on Mormonism that could be heard, a statement with which he could not by any means agree. He had been connected with the Church since boyhood, and had been where, it was said, the Danites ruled. While there he knew something of what the world charged against them, -- knew enough to be able to say that their misdeeds, of whose existence he was fully satisfied, were not chargeable to the Church of Latter-day Saints.

In considering the subject it was necessary to go back in history. The speaker described briefly the successive movements of the Mormons up to their expulsion from Nauvoo, at which time, according to the general belief, the entire Church went to Utah. This was a mistake. The Church then numbered 150,000 to 200,000 souls, of whom not more than 20,000 went to Utah. The rest were, and still are, scattered throughout the States and, though they still followed the doctrines of the Church, yet for fear or policy's sake they kept themselves aloof from it. These all hold that such institutions as exist in Utah were not believed in in Nauvoo. The Utah institutions grew up under the leadership of Brigham Young, and are condemned, their followers being simply apostates from the Church, whose constitution they have violated from the beginning. The speaker knew he was expressing their sentiments when he denounced them as wrong and the church as an illegal one.

The speaker was in Missouri at the time of the persecution of the Saints in that State, in consequence of which a band of Minute-Men was organized. Col. Hinkle was authorized by the military authorities of Missouri to organize the Latter-day Saints in defense of the Church and its [associates?]. This was well in itself, but there not wanting those enthusiasts who wanted to go further, until at last the organization for defense grew into one for offense, and thence came the body known as the Danites, so called after Dan, their secret method of evil doing being patterned after the words of the Bible, "Dan shall be a serpent by the way, an adder in the path, that biteth the horse's heels, so that his rider shall fall backward." The Danites had surreptitiously and secretly worked for the destruction of all not in accord with their way of thinking. By the endowment system they were bound by horrible oaths not only to sustain the dynasty of Utah, but also to punish all who held a different opinion, and in carrying out their work they have been guilty of many atrocities and numberless cruel murders. So far, however, from the Latter-day Saints having any complicity in their deeds, they have been the greatest sufferers from them. The speaker himself was, during his residence in Utah, continually in difficulties because he constantly fought the secret band who sought by every means in their power the destruction of himself and family. His house was watched night and day, attempts to poison the family had been made, bullets had buzzed close by him, either the protection of Providence or the poor aim of the assassins alone saving him. After suffering thus he came to the States and continued to declare against the aims and policies of the bands as he had done in Utah.

During the time when Gen. Conner from California was in Utah protecting and anti-Brighamites the latter started a paper called the Vidette. The speaker and Dr. Robinson were connected with its publication and it came to his (the speaker's) ears that they had been doomed to die within a week. He informed Dr. Robinson of the fact, but he refused to take warning. The speaker left for Colorado, and the same evening Dr. Robinson was called from his bed to attend a man who, the visitor said, had a broken limb. The rest of the family begged the doctor not to leave the house, but he insisted that he could not decline to go on such a message. He had got only a few feet from his house when he was knocked down and killed.

In one of the stores of the place, next day some women were heard to engage in conversation upon the Robinson murder, and one of them remarked, "Two more have got to go yet. They other asked, "Is Forscutt one of them?" and when the woman answered in the affirmative she responded, "Thank God, he is out of the way." It was decreed, the speaker said, that he was to go the same way, and assassination was so lightly thought of as to be the subject of every day conversation in the common resorts.

He insisted it was wrong, after they had suffered as they had, that the Latter-day Saints should be charged with the very horrors which they had endured in greater proportion than the rest of the world. The Saints' Church did not teach these evils.

The speaker then referred to the Book of Doctrine and Covenants of Joseph Smith, than which he claimed no book demanded greater purity on the part of those who followed its precepts. The book demands that members should come under the law of the land, and also that they shall deliver unto the law those who have transgressed against it. In proof the the obediencve which the Saints gave to the precept, the speaker cited a case which occured some little time ago in Pittsfield. A man wanted to be baptized in the Saints' Church, and the speaker declined for good reasons. The party succeeded better elsewhere, and shortly afterwards married a well to do widow. It turned out shortly that he was already married, whereupon the Saints gave him up to the law and prosecuted him, and so it has been everywhere, that body invaribly paying that respect and obedience to the law required of them in the Book of Doctrine and Covenants.

The speaker then cited the words of Bishop Lee, the Mormon [---d] and Bill Hickman, both of whom wanted it understood that that they did not believe in Brigham Young, but did believe in Joseph Smith. The latter said with tears in his eyes that if he had never done other than what Smith had taught him he would not have got into his trouble. At Nauvoo Smith might have escaped, and even, if he had chosen, might have vanquished his enemies, but he was prepared to be judged by the law of the land, and [suffered] accordingly.

The speaker then read a letter from William B. Smith, a brother of Joseph stating that there was no resemblance whatever between the doctrine of Joseph Smith and the apostasy of Brigham Young, which he characterized as not only sacrilegious but a libel upon his brother's name.

The Book of Mormon said that no secret oaths or covenants should be allowed to the people, The doctrine was plain, but, notwithstanding this, it is not followed to the letter. People held that the doctrine meant that there should be no secret organization for gain or evil, and in this belief secret bodies were started. The speaker joined one or two covenants when he was in Utah, and, though he had left them, he had never revelaed their secrets. At the same time he felt bound to say that the organizations were not good. They were an outcome of polygamy, and intended to support that evil institution. In contradiction to the theory that Joseph Smith was a polygamist, the speaker stated that Mrs. Smith had herself told him that he was not, and previous to her death had specifically denied that such was the case.

In general defense of the Saints' Church, the speaker stated that the records of the jails and penetentiaries showed that while members of the other congregations had helped to fill them, the Saints had not got a representative there, and this, too, though in point of numbers the Saints fifth among the different denominations. In conclusion, the speaker read the marriage service of the Church, in which contracting parties not only agreed to keep themselves for each other, but from all others, as a proof that the Reorganized Church is opposed to the doctrine and practice of polygamy.


Note 1: The above article gives readers the impression that "the speaker" of the the summarized sermon was Elder Mark Hill Forscutt, and him alone. Forscutt did not emigrate to the United States from England until 1860. He became a Reorganite in 1865, after having spent about four years with the Mormons in Utah. His knowledge of LDS Church history in Missouri, during the 1830s, could have come only from second-hand reports. If he said he was in Missouri, he lied -- but perhaps more than one elder spoke at the meeting and the report was a composite from various accounts. There were many older RLDS members still alive in 1880 who knew perfectly well of the secretive organization and activities of the "Danites" in Missouri -- and their successors at Nauvoo and later in Utah. The RLDS leaders of the nineteenth century were generally reluctant to divulge embarrassing details from the Missouri period in Church history. They evidently preferred that their followers believe the first "Danites" were merely enthusiasts within the Caldwell Co. Militia: saintly "Minute Men" -- who fell into "evil" ways while fighting off the invading Missouri Gentiles. This sanitized view of history ignores altogether the role played by Sidney Rigdon and Joseph Smith, in organizing the "Danites" as an anti-apostate secret police well before any violence broke out between the Far West Mormons and their non-Mormon neighbors. While it might be argued that the Danites were not an official part of the LDS Church, and that President Joseph Smith, Jr. did not attend and preside over each and every one of their secret meetings, the top Mormon leadership's use of such a paramilitary force before, during, and after the 1838 "Momron War" is are undeniable facts. The RLDS "party line" -- professing that the creation and maintenance of the Danites was the work of "the dynasty of Utah" (that is, the "Twelve") is but a partial truth, designed to shield the vulnerable reputation of the "Lord's Anointed," Joseph Smith, Jr. It may be true that most of the Hosea Stouts and Porter Rockwells did go west to Utah, leaving the RLDS relatively free of Danite influence -- but it is just as true that numerous early RLDS members knew that this Mormon secret police force was the creation of Sidney Rigdon and Joseph Smith, Jr.

Note 2: The RLDS Elder calls upon the testimony of William B. Smith and Emma Hale Smith, to confirm the purported purity of Joseph Smith's religious system and of Smith's personal family life. He might just as well have called upon the family of Brigham Young, to prove that Young was a true prophet and faithful promoter of Smith's religion as it was practiced at Nauvoo. To a convert, such as Forscutt, the Smith family affirmations might have sounded believable -- however, those in his Chicago audience who actually knew William Smith, could have been forgiven for just then rolling their eyes and hiding their blushes.

(communicated)

MORMON  DOCTRINE  REVIEWED.
_____

It is a cardinal point in Mormon, as in other theologies, that without repentance, there is no remission of sin. In the Book of Mormon, the argument is that if mercy were not [sic - were?] allowed to rob justice, and to pardon a sinner without repentance, "God would cease to be God." This doctrine is plainly stated in the Book of Mormon, page 322.

According to justice, the plan of redemption could not not be brought about, only on condition of repentance of men in this prohibitionary state, yea, this preparatory state, for except it were for these conditions, mercy could not take effect except it should destroy the work of justice. Now the work of justice could not be destroyed; if so, God would cease to be God.

We are further taught in the Revelation on Celestial Marriage

Verily, verily, I say unto you, if a man marry a wife according to my word, and they are sealed by the Holy Spirit of promise, according to mine appointment, and he or she shall commit any sin or transgression of the new and everlasting covenant whatever, and all manner of blasphemies, and if they commit no murder wherein they shed innocent blood, yet they shall come forth in the first resurrection, and enter into their exaltation; but they shall be destroyed in the flesh, and shall be delivered unto the buffetings of Satan unto the day of redemption, saith the Lord God.

In the Book of Mormon, page 177, we read,

But behold, and fear, and tremble before God, for ye ought to tremble; for the Lord redeemeth none such that rebel against him and die in their sins * * * these are they that have no part in the first resurrection. Therefore had ye not ought to tremble? For salvation cometh to none such; * * * for he cannot deny himself; for he cannot deny justice when it has its claim.

In the revelation on Celestial Marriage, we find this further doctrine

If a man marry a wife by my word, which is my law, and by the new and everlasting covenant, and it is sealed unto them by the Holy Spirit of promise, by him who is anointed, unto whom I have appointed this power and the keys of this Priesthood * * * and if ye abide in my covenant, and commit no murder whereby to shed innocent blood * * * they shall pass by the angels, and the Gods, which are set there, to their exaltation and glory in all things, as hath been sealed upon their heads, which glory shall be a fulness and a continuation of the seeds forever and ever. Then shall they be Gods, because they have no end; therefore shall they be from everlasting to everlasting, because they continue, * * * then shall they be be Gods, because they have all power, and the angels are subject unto them. Verily, verily, I say unto you, except ye abide my law ye cannot attain to this glory. * * * This is eternal lives, to know the only wise and true God, and Jesus Christ, whom he hath sent. I am he. Receive ye, therefore, my law.

The old Serpent shows his brazen crest in that word "wise." Jesus taught us, "This is life eternal, that they might know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent." But according to this Latter day dispensation, "eternal lives," is endless propagation.

Without ever having repented of their sins, then, "If a man marry a wife according to my word, and they are sealed by the Holy Spirit of promise," if they commit any sin whatever -- murder alone excepted, "whereby they shed innocent blood" -- they may come forth in the first resurrection and enter into their exaltation. With their sins unremitted they can enter into their exaltation (according to the teaching of the so-called Revelation on Celestial Marriage) if they have only been "sealed up to this glory" "by him who is anointed, unto whom I have appointed this power and the keys of this priesthood."

If Mormonism should ever decide to abandon the practice of pluralizing it would still hold, in the sealing prerogative of its priesthood, a more than Roman Catholic claim and power of exclusiveness in controlling the marital relations of its devotees. This is shown in some utterances of Joseph Smith in March, 1841, and printed in the Deseret News June 10-17, 1857, as follows:

"I will make every doctrine plain that I present, and it shall stand upon a firm basis, and I am at the defiance of the world, for I will take shelter under the broad cover of the wings of the work in which I am engaged. It matters not to me if all hell boils over; I regard it only as I would the crackling of the thorns under a pot. what you seal on earth, by the keys of Elijah, is sealed in heaven, and this is the power of Elijah. The spirit, power, and calling of Elijah is, that ye have power to hold the key of the revelations, ordinances, oracles, powers and endowments of the fullness of the Melchizedek priesthood, and of the kingdom of God on the earth; and to receive, obtain, and perform all the ordinances belonging to the kingdom of God. Again, the doctrine or sealing power of Elijah is as follows: If you have power to seal on earth and in heaven, then we should be crafty; the first thing you do, go and seal on earth your sons and daughters to yourself, and yourself unto your fathers in eternal glory, and go ahead, and not go back, but use a little craftiness, and seal all you can; and when you get to heaven tell your Father that what you seal on earth should be sealed in heaven, according to his promise. I will walk through the gate of heaven and claim what I seal, and those that follow me and my counsel. The Lord once told me that what I asked for I should have, etc."

At the April conference, 1844 (about ten weeks before he was killed,) the prophet Joseph gave utterance to the following blasphemy (Deseret News, July 15, 1857):

"God made Aaron to be a mouthpiece for the children of Israel, and he will make me be God to you in His stead, and the Elders to be mouth for me, and if you don't like it, you must lump it."

The sealing idea (irrespective of pluralizing), could not have originated from Joseph Smith, but with Rigdon. Of course polygamy was its natural fruit. A careful reading of the so-called revelation of Celestial Marriage shows the two hands (and heads) and the two ideas -- the "celestial" and the patriarchal, which later may be interpreted the carnal and polygamic. We may be sure that Rigdon would never have bestowed upon his prophet the sole keys of this tremendous sealing power; and Smith's claiming them, was undoubtedly the rock of offense upon which the pair split.

Upon comparison it is seen that the promises offered in the so-called revelation on Celestial Marriage are couched in similar terms and evidently come from the same source as the promise of the serpent to our first parents in the Garden:

And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die, for God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then shall your eyes be opened, and ye shall be as God, knowing good from evil.

In a second and greater Fall, it would be strange, indeed, if the Devil should not reveal himself, but in a way so subtle and plausible and cunning as to deceive even the very elect.


Note 1: The above text is the logical conclusion of the more or less unfinished article published in the Tribune on Jan. 25, 1880

Note 2: This article was reprinted in the Albert Lea, MN Freeborn County Standard of Apr. 22, 1880

(communicated)

AN  APOSTATE  BRANCH.
_____

We find in the Saints' Herald (Josephite organ) of the 15th inst., the findings of the Court of Common Pleas, of Lake County, Ohio; Hon. L. J. Sherman, judge, in the suit of the Reorganized Church for the quieting of the title to the Kirtland temple, the substance of which has already reacehd us by telegraph. The parties to the suit were the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, plantiff, against the Church in Utah, John Taylor, president of said Church, and others, defendants. The findings rehearse in some detail the organization of a religious society by Joseph Smith at Palmyra, New York, on April 6th, 1830, under the name of "the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints." The same year this society moved in a body and located at Kirtland. This Church held and believed and was founded upon certain well defined doctrines, which were set forth in the Bible, Book of Mormon and the book of Doctrine and Covenants. On the 11th of February, 1841, William Marks and his wife Rosannah, conveyed by deed to Joseph Smith, as trustee-in-trust for this Church, the lands and tenements described in the petition, upon which lands the Church had erected a temple, and remained in possession and occupancy of the same, until the disorganization of the Church, which event occurred about 1844. The main body of this Church society removed from Kirtland, and in 1844 were located in Nauvoo, Illinois, when Joseph Smith died, and the membership, estimated at 100.000, scattered and located in different States and places, each fragment claiming to be the original and true Church above named. One of these fragments, estimated as 10,000, emoved to Utah Territory, under the leadership of Brigham Young, where it located, and , with accessions since, now constitutes the Church in Utah, under the presidency of John Taylor. After the departure of this Utah contingent, a large number of the officials and members of the original Church, reorganized under the name of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, and on Feb. 5th, 1873, became incorporated under the laws of Illinois, and since that time all other fragments of the original Church (except the Church in Utah) have dissolved, and become largely unincorporated with the Reorganized Church, the plantiff in this action. Then the Court launches into theological jurisprudence, in words and figures to the following effect:

That the said plaintiff, the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints is a religious society, founded and organized upon the same doctrines and tenets, and having the same church organization as the original Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints, organized in 1830, by Joseph Smith, and was organized pursuant to the constitution, laws and usages of said original Church, and has branches located in Illinois, Ohio and other States.

That the Church in Utah, the defandant, of which John Taylor is president, has materially and largely departed from the faith, doctrines, laws, ordinances and usages of said original Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints, and has incorporated into ist system of faith the doctrines of Celestial Marriage and a plurality of wives, and the doctrine of Adam-God worship, contrary to the laws and constitution of said original Church.

And the court do further find that the plaintiff, the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, is the true and lawful continuation of, and successor to the said original Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, organized in 1830, and is entitled in law to all its rights and property.

The further findings of the court (which we give in condensed form,) are that the parties now in possession of the property own it by a pretended title, the legal title vesting in the heirs of Joseph Smith, disceased, in trust for the legal successor to the original Church. "The white haired and learned judge," as the Saints Herald calls him, who delevered the opinion, is brother to the Secretary of the Treasury and general of the army, and has long borne a high reputation as a jurist. This gives weight to the decision, and the Utah Church, if it carries the case on appeal, will find it hard to ovrturn."

The Church organs in Utah have been discretely mum on the issue of this suit. It must be a humiliating set-back to the arrogance of our infallibles, and it is a case where railing will not help them. Their unfailing logic, "It's all a lie," does not apply here with nay pertinency. Now the question is whether the Church property held here in the name of "the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints," can stand an attack from the true and lawful successor to the original organization. We have heard it hinted that the issue will be tried.


Notes: (forthcoming)

(communicated)

BRIGHAMITE  AND  JOSEPHITE.
_____

It is time both parties, Brighamite and Josephite, squarely faced the facts -- time the true character of Joseph Smith, the so-called prophet of the Lord, was known, and if it be really true that he was accustomed to teach and practice one sort of morality publically and privately another, high time it was seen that, for the first decade of Mormonism he was not the real head centre of the concern, but that Sidney Rigdon was, time that the real author of the revelations accredited to the Lord through the instrumentality of His prophet, was known and nailed. For until this is done nothing of a substantial and enduring character in the way of re-organizing and purifying the Latter-day dispensation can be accomplished, and no real program can be made. There is no class of fiction so damaging as pious fiction. Truth asks no concession and makes none, makes no apology and needs none. It disdains to stoop to finesse, which is the essential element of falsehood. It is fully to blind our eyes to the fact that in and through Mormonism there has been an awful betrayal of human confidence. It is not fair, is not just, to place the whole responsibility of this betrayal upon Brigham Young. Let all the doors and windows of the Mormon 'House of the Lord' be thrown open, and let in the fresh air of truth to ventilate it; let all the secrets be told, or it will soon be deserted of the upright in heart and given over to the unclean and those who love deceit. What is wanted is more of Christ and less of any man or book whatever.

And in the matter of preaching Christ the Josephites can not be too warmly commended and encouraged. The main stress of their preaching is Christ. And it goes against a strong and pervasive desire to see them win "on this line" when a syllable is dropped in austere criticism of them or a straw is laid in their way. But it should be borne in mind that Mormonism was not at first the monster of such hideous men as the world sees it, that (like Cardinal Wolsey) it was full of heavenly stuff -- that imposture always creeps before it strikes blatantly forth. Mormonism has been a school of sharp practices from the beginning. But only when flown with insolence and drunk with power was it announced by Brigham that "we" have the greatest and smoothest liars, the greatest experts in all manner of deviltry, although a hint of this is afforded by his master Rigdon when he said at the last conference in Nauvoo, April, 1844,

We gather of all kinds, if we get all Nations, we get all wisdom, all cunning, and every thing else. The sectarians cannot be as wise as we are, for they have only got the plans of man for salvation, but we have got man's plans, the devil's plans and the best of all, we have God's plan.

This "God's plan" is found to be of Sidney Rigdon's own devising. "Josephism" as well as all Mormondom has the ugly fact to face that, had there been no Joseph Smith there would have been no Brigham Young, and had there been no Sidney Rigdon there would have been no prophet Joseph Smith. It, as well as all Mormondom, must face the fact that Mormonism itself is the child of spleen and in turn the parent of intolerance and hate. It will yet be brought to light that the "Inspired Translation and Correction of the Holy Scriptures," which is doubtless the "sealed portion" of the sacred plates from which the Book of Mormon was translated, and which is all in the handwriting of Sidney Rigdon, is chiefly if not exclusively his own handiwork. It will be seen that, as has been pointedly suggested, from the time the Book of Doctrine and Covenants was published, in 1835, there has existed in the "Book of Commandments," published two years before, and really the first edition of the "Book of Doctrine and Covenants," proof, plain and convincing to the meanest understanding, of the fraudulent character of both versions; that the amendments, the [-----ments] and amplifications, being so patent and glaring, the idea that an All wise Being could in 168 pages, 32mo., make so many blunders as have been corrected -- if the alterations can be called corrections -- is in the highest degree preposterous. The Book of Mormon is of the same stamp, only "more so." The key to Mormonism is in a correct estimate of the character of Sidney Rifdon, and in a knowledge of the fact that he and Joseph Smith were secretly co-operating for some years prior to the launching of the Mormon ship, Zion.

Mr. Gallagher lately arraigned Mormonism in four columns in The Tribune. In his discourse at the Institute, on the evening of the day on which Mr. Gallagher's lecture appeared, Elder Blair took up "the Spaulding Story," which Mr. Gallagher briefly touched upon. Possibly

      Where ignorance is bliss, 'tis folly to be wise.

The knowledge of the deep duplicity of which the human heart is capable is apt to make us sadder with that wisdom. Says the sacred penman:

Thus saith the Lord. Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and invoketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the Lord. The heart is deceitful above all things, and desporably wicked, who can know it? I the Lord search the heart, I try the veins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings.

It is certainly an ungracious work to shake the faith in the minds of good people. So let brother Blair and his companion Elders and Saints, and let all good Saints and honest Elders throughout Mormondom e'en "live and learn." But let neither Brighamite nor Josephite, nor any other "ite," lay the flattering unction to their souls that "the baseless Spaulding story has ever been demolished or that it has ever been one whit shaken. Truth by its own weight stands. A good deal has been put forth upon that subject in the columns of The Tribune. It is to be observed that no position therein taken upon the matter of "the Spaulding story" has been overthrown, and considerable fresh light has been shed. Of Utah Mormonism it is its insincerity that is the most exasperating feature of it -- the pretense, the persistent bluff, in the matter of polygamy especially. Utah Mormonism is to all intents and purposes infidel. It is a huge excuse. And brother Gallagher shows himself not so much a careful and scrupulous investigator of Mormonism, as but one more of the thousand and one confusing echoes, when he sagely starts out with, "The fountain of Mormonism was Joseph Smith." Prodigious! Granting Joseph to have been this (human) "fountain" of Mormonism, fairly necessitates a superhuman "fountain" behind him. But when the facts are known that ingenious human brains, with a plentiful supply of curious biblical lore, were secretly at work behind Joseph and through him, putting him forward; that Rigdon, having hit upon and elaborated with the greatest care a string of Biblical passages and out of the way texts which seemed to sustain a novel and unique line of argument, possessed considerable facility in writing, that he was a force among the so-called Campbellites long before he turned his talents in the direction of Mormonism, that he was an unscrupulous innovator of mature years and ripe experience in preaching, of a [quiet?], commanding and popular eloquence when his prophet was in his nonage, that with the Millianrian bee in his bonnet he was led on by a hare-brained fervor and zeal, when it is noted that with all his hardihood of mingled fanaticism and "skull-duggery," he had never the face to deny the part he was often charged with taking in the colossal plagiarism and imposition, but maintained a stolid reticence to the last, that he was in turn the blask sheep of Campbellism and the Black Pope of Mormonism, the knotty problem is at once comprehensible. Mormonism then no longer presents a nodus that requires the lugging in of divinity to account for and unravel.


Notes: (forthcoming)

AN  INTERESTING  DOCUMENT.
________

Articles of Agreement Between Joe Smith,
the Father of Mormonism and Other Persons, in 1825.
________

YELLOWSTONE VALLEY, Mt.
April 12, 1880. EDS. TRIBUNE: Knowing how interested you are in any matter pertaining to the early history of our Church, I enclose a slip cut from the Susquehanna (Pa.) Journal of March 20, which will throw some light on the subject. The Journal is published near the scene of our martyred Prophet's early exploits.
Respectfully yours,
       B. WADE.

_______

The following agreement, the original of which is in possession of a citizen of Thompson township, was discovered by our correspondent, and forwarded to us as a matter of local interest.

The existence of the "buried treasures" referred to was "revealed" to Joe Smith, jr. who with his father, the Prophet at the time resided on what is now known as the McKune farm, about two miles down the river from this place, and upon the strength of which revelation a stock company was organized to dig for the aforesaid treasure. After the company was organized, a second communication was received by Joseph Jr., from the "other world" advising the treasure seekers to suspend operations, as it was necessary for one of the company to die before the treasure could he secured.

Harper, the peddler, who was murdered soon after, near the place where the Catholic cemetery in this borough is now located, was one of the original members of the company, and his death was regarded by the remainder of the band as a Providential occurrence, which the powers had brought about for their special benefit. The death of Harper having removed the only obstacle in the way of success, the surviving members, recommenced operations, and signed an agreement giving the widow Harper the half of one-third of all the treasures secured. The following is the agreement, written by the old humbug, Joseph Smith, himself:

ARTICLES  OF  AGREEMENT.      

We, the undersigned, do firmly agree, and by these present bind ourselves, to fulfill and abide by the hereafter specified articles:

First -- That if anything of value should he obtained at a certain place in Pennsylvania near a William Hales, supposed to be a valuable mine of either gold or silver and also to contain coined money and bars or ingots of gold or silver, and at which several hands have been at work during a considerable part of the past summer, we do agree to have it divided in the following manner, viz: Josiah Stowell, Calvin Stowell and Wm. Hale to take two-thirds, and Charles Newton, Wm. I. Wiley, and the widow Harper to take the other third. And we further agree that Joseph Smith, Sen. and Joseph Smith Jr. shall be considered as having two shares, two elevenths of all the property that may be obtained, and shares to be taken equally from each third.

Second -- And we further agree, that in consideration of the expense and labor to which the following named persons have been at (John F. Shepherd, Elijah Stowell and John Grant) to consider them as equal sharers in the mine after all the coined money and bars or ingot are obtained by the undersigned. Their shares to be taken out from each share; and we further agree to remunerate all the three above named persons in a handsome manner for all their time, expense, and labor which they have been or may be at, until the mine is opened, if anything should be obtained; otherwise they are to lose their time, expense and labor.

Third -- And we further agree that all the expense which has or may accrue until the mine is opened, shall be equally borne by the proprietors of each third and that after the mine is opened the expense shall be equally borne by each of the shares.

Township of Harmony, Pa., Nov. 1, 1825

In presents of:

Isaac Hale         Chas. A. Newton
David Hale        Jos. Smith, Sen.
P. Newton         Isaiah Stowell
         Calvin Stowell
         Jos. Smith, Jr.
         Wm. I. Wiley

The place where treasure was supposed to lie buried was on the place now owned by J. M. Tillman, near the McCune Farm, then the property of William Hale. Excavations were also made on Jacob Skinner's Farm, some of which remain well marked today. It was while pursuing this unsuccessful search for treasures, that the Prophet Smith pretended that he unearthed his famous "tablets."


(Brother Wade may have made a mistake in directing his letter to the proper church journal. If he has, Granny has our permission to copy the above by giving the Tribune proper credit.)


Note 1: "Granny" was the Tribune's nickname for the LDS Church's Deseret Evening News and/or that paper's editors.

Note 2: For more information regarding the context of this reprint from the Susquehanna Journal, see Emily C. Blackman's History of Susquehanna County and Frederic G. Mather's "Early Days of Mormonism."

FALSE  PROPHETS
________

Sermon Preached by the Rev. George E. Jayne
at the M. E. Church, Provo City, Utah,
Sunday Evening, June 20th, 1880.
________

Text -- "Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's
clothing, but inwardly are ravening wolves." - Matt. vii, 15.
________

Christ and his apostles expressed a deep solicitude for the safety and salvation pf coming generations, and left on record warnings of false Christs and false prophets, which would arise and deceive many....

I cannot accept Joseph Smith as a true prophet of God because he tried to impose the Book of Mormon on the world as an inspired book. The facts are these, and there is no doubt concerning them among all anti-Mormons, though the Mormons consider them a base fabrication. The Book of Mormon was a religious novel, written by one of the members of the Spaulding family -- a quondam clergyman -- stolen by Joseph Smith, revised, interpreted and rearranged by Smith and Rigdon to escape detection. When it was published a controversy sprung up regarding its real authorship. Evidence was brought forward by the opponents of Smith to show that with the exception of certain illiterate and ungrammatical interpretations, bearing on religious matters the whole thing was copied nearly verbatum from the religious novel of the before mentioned Solomon Spaulding, (see Library of Universal Knowledge, vol 9, page 772). This very reliable work you will find for sale at the Mormon book store in this city near the Brigham Academy. I saw it there on the shelves a few weeks ago, and the innocent proprietor recommended it to me as the most authentic encyclopedia in use and as being in every way reliable. We believe he told the truth. It is a reprint entire of the last Edinburgh and London editions of Chambers Encyclopedia and [deserves?] a place in every student's library. It is from this reliable work and also the following encyclopedias, Johnson's, Chambers', American, and Appleton's that I have gathered this and other facts contained in this sermon. These standard works are considered trustworthy in all other matters and it is passing strange that they should all agree and [thus?] all be in error on the subject of Mormonism. If we reject such testimony, then we might as well reject all testimony and believe nothing at all....

(under construction

Note: For this same expression of opinion, see old editions of Chambers' Encyclopedia, which say: "Evidence was brought forward by the opponents of Smith to show that with certain interpolations bearing on religious matters, the so-called Book of Mormon was really borrowed or stolen nearly verbatim from a manuscript romance written by a quondam clergyman named Solomon Spaulding, who died in 1816. It is unnecessary to go over the arguments pro and con, suffice it to say, that anti-Mormons generally think them conclusive, while the Saints consider the whole story of Spaulding's romance a scandalous fabrication."

THE  BOOK  OF  MORMON.
________

An Affidavit From the Daughter of
Solomon Spaulding.
________

Regarding the Manuscript Found,
and the Mormon Bible.
________

Another Convincing Proof of the
Book's Fraudulent Character.
________

In the last Scribner there is an interesting paper on "The Book of Mormon," from the pen of Ellen E. Dickensen, a grandneice of Solomon Spaulding, the author of "Manuscript Found," from which the Mormon Bible was copied by that errant rogue and scamp, Jo Smith. In her article Mrs. Dickensen recapilulates the history of the work, as she remembers hearing it from her relatives, and advances one thing which is new, and only one, the affidavit of Mrs. McKinstry, the daughter of Spaulding. The affidavit is given below, and was copied four times before she would subscribe to it, such was her desire that it should be true to a word.

THE  AFFIDAVIT.

(read original article from source)

Note: See also the belated Mormon response to the McKinstry statement, as offered in the Deseret News of  Jan. 3, 1881

MORMON  "1-NESS."
________

The Mormons are a people. That is the main secret. They are not a political body of people; they are not exclusively, a religious body of people. They are a people.

Professing to be Christ's people, and sheep of his pasture, they understand the world of Jesus in the fullest and most literal sense, "except ye are one, ye are not mine."

All, then, who are one with this idea are, so far, one with them.

But this idea, carried into practice involves a "gathering together in one." It involves exclusiveness (real, though it need not be bitter or narrow), from those who hold no such idea, or deride such an idea.

"It must needs be that offences come, but woe be to him by whom they come." Did Christ here speak his own condemnation? Was such unity as he meant an offence, God-ward or man-ward?

Grant the Christians of unity offences, but is it essentially a just ground of offense? Whom does it most offend?

Unity? Can even two ever become one?

Mormons do not claim to be "one" in any dangerous or disloyal sense, in any fanciful, extravagant, or absurd sense. They have entered into no conspiracy against God or against the best interests of humanity. They are not such idiots as to conceive that two human beings can ever become one human being. But yet, the desires, the hopes, the interests, aims and purposes of two persons may surely become identical, may become "one," and what is claimed for two may become practicable for twenty, for a hundred, ten thousand, a million -- may become true -- gloriously true -- of a whole people. Why not?

Whether such unity as Christ meant be practicable or not, whether it be desirable or not, may (if it please you) be questioned. But if it be conceded that such unity as Christ meant would be beneficial -- is desireable -- what possible harm to any can result from the attempt to bring it about?

However feeble and faulty in practical application (as selfishness is the toughest of all "tough customers" to fully extirpate, and "earthen vessels" are not celestial conduits), this would seem really to be the whole gist of the "strange" Mormon argument and doctrine and position in the matter of "1-ness."

We say "would seem to be," for we have been writing of the subject as a good (real good) "Latter-day Saint" might express his views, And thus put, isn't it plausible enough?

Mormon "one-ness" means simply, one-man power. He rules, bogusly, as the vicegerent of God on earth -- absolutely.

A stream, 'tis said, cannot rise higher than its fountain. IF the fountain of Mormonism were in Christ, the stream might rise incalculably. But if this fountain, however hidden and obscured, be in the crazy crotchets and splenetic vanity (aping Christ while none of His) of Sidney Rigdon, however skillfully the thing was contrived, however dextrously the knowledge of the real originating genius of Mormonism has been suppressed, however plausible to many the scheme may appear, it is a broken cistern at best, and the sham and pretense can not "stand forever." Who originated the idea of temple-building in Mormondom? And who is the master, today, in Mormon temples and tabernacles? Why, Sidney Rigdon. And of all people on earth Mormons are best exemplifying the need of that warning, "Except the Lord build the House, they labor in vain that build it." Who instituted "the gathering" -- saying "Lo here is Christ," (in Ohio,) "Lo there is Christ (in Missouri)? Why, Sidney Rigdon. Who instituted "sealing" and the endowment? Why, Sidney Rigdon. And finally, who is father of the brilliant culminating ideas of Mormon "1-ness?" Who made it compulsory, who "breathed forth threatenings and slaughter" for the sake of compassing this "1-ness," and, following out this crazed, this autocratic, this fatal, deadly idea of "1-ness," who (according to Brigham Young, Orson Hyde, and other Mormon leaders) "was the prime cause of our troubles in Missouri,"and "although Brother Joseph tried to restrain him he would take his own course" (vide Times and Seasons, pp. 651 and 667)? Why, "Elder Rigdon." And so, in a very pertinent and added sense, can Mormons confess, "all we like sheep have gone astray"

Now, if the spirit that was in Christ Jesus, or, that is Christ's bud, been in Sidney Rigdon, the real founder and contriver of Mormonism, why deceive at all? Surely one fails to find in Mormonism the simplicity that was in Christ, [aye?], that us His. On the contrary, do we not see in Mormonism endless subterfuge and chicane? Is not the thing "all a muddle?"

"Unity among ourselves" even? Was the same spirit manifest at the recent Conference in the remarks of Moses Thatcher and of old Joseph Young that deformed the utterances of some others?...

Before the Mormons had gone from Ohio to Missouri, who said "Missouri, the land of your inheritance, which is now the land of your enemies?" And this in June, 1831. The Mormon "Lord," the "Lord" of Mormon revelation, is primarily responsible for the sins of "this people." Christ was no sect builder. Sidney Rigdon was, and his "Lord" (if he had one, outside his own addled brains) was a sect builder. His (or their) wonderful "plan of salvation" involved intense "unity" on the one hand, intensest acrimony on the other hand. Think ye well of this, Oh "Latter day Israel."

The Deseret News is right. Government and the world at large insist upon making a "problem" of Mormonism when none exists, or, if it does, 'tis of easiest solution -- when Sidney Rigdon furnisheth the key: Joseph Smith, the prophet, Joseph Smith, the first President of Mormonism, Joseph Smith, the founder of Mormonism. Concede this point, and you concede about everything Mormonism asks of its [enemies?]. Prick that bubble and Mormonism collapses, for Mormonism is nothing if it is not divinely originated through "the prophet Joseph." Humanly speaking, he was incapable; humanly speaking, Rigdon was, on the contrary, quite capable of the whole contrivance.


Notes: (forthcoming)

THE  FATHER  OF  THE
LATTER-DAY  COVENANT.
________

It is not generally known among the Latter-day Saints that the name first given to their organization was "The Church of Christ." This name was continued about four years when, on May 3, 1834, at the instance of Sidney Rigdon, the name was changed to the "Church of Latter-day Saints." The history of Joseph Smith (Mill. Star, vol. xi, p. 65) says at this time the style was changed to "Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints," but this cannot be true, since the "Doctrine and Covenants," published in 1835, has for title page, "Doctrine and Covenants of the Church of [the Latter Day Saints] carefully selected from the revelations of God and compiled by Joseph Smith, jr., Oliver Cowdery, Sidney Rifdon, Frederick G. Williams, presiding elders of said Church, proprietors," etc. No compilation of "Joseph Smith, President," was ever submitted to the Saints, and in 1835 when the Book of Doctrine and Covenants was submitted, it was done by Rigdon and Cowdery, Joseph Smith not being present. "The Prophet" was in Kirtland just before and after this event, but happened not to be "on hand" when the revelations which the Lord had given him were submitted, with much ado, to the Saints for their acceptance.

It was in 1838 that the Mormon organization received its present name, "Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints." Hence all those allusions, in Mormon Church History, which refer to the organization, prior to 1838, under this title, are falsifications.

In 1844-5 Sidney Rigdon re-established, at Pittsburg, his original "Church," first styling it "Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints" and later"Church of Christ." At a Conference held in April, 1845, when he fully reorganized his "Church of Christ" he gave, to the careful student of the great Latter day work, some very importnat clews to the mystery of its origin -- and its originator. In what follows one can clearly discern the abnormal genius out of which Mormonism sprang:

Friday, 9 o'clock a. m., April 11.

Conference met persuant to adjournemnt, President Rigdon read a hymn from page 147, "How often in sweet meditation my mind," which was sung. Prayer by Presidnet Cowles.

The Prsident (Rigdon) said this Conference is drawing to a close, and the most solemn part is now coming, which is that of covenant making. We have covenanted with each other, it is now our duty to covenant with heaven. To complete the victory of this Kingdom we must bind the heavens by a covenant. It is in the power of this KIngdom to bind the heavens. From the earliest period of the history of God's dealing with men, there was one promise handed down from generation to generation, that whenever there were any people found on earth who would obtain and organize the Kingdom of God, God promised to that people that He would bear them off triumphant, with the Kingdom they had organized, and with it give them all things.

In all the past time, God bound men on earth, but now, by virtue of the promises God has made us, respecting His kingdom, we must turn around and bind the heavens, that the promises which God has made concerning his kingdom may be fulfilled upon our heads, inasmuch as we have obtained the power and organized the kingdom of promise. In explanation of the covenant by which we bind the heavens, let me ask a question. Upon what principle did this kingdom come into existence?

Question momentous, elder Sidney. And you the man of all others best qualified to answer. Hear, hear.

It was by one man alone, between him and his God, bowing in a secret place before God, where there was no eye to see him, or ear to hear him, but that of Jehovah's alone, decreeing in his heart, (But Daniel purposed in his his heart,) in the presence of God, and calling upon heaven to witness the decree, that if the kingdom of promise spoken of by Daniel did not come into existence in this generation, it shall not be the fault of him who now presented himself before the heavens in his heart, and ready to do the will of his God, whenever made known, thus binding the heavens to that promise, to set up and organize that kingdom, etc.

According to this covenant, thus made with the heavens, and this bond wherewith the heavens were bound, you are here from almost every part of the United States and Europe, strangers to each other in the flesh, of different religious opinions. each one for himself declaring "the Lord had sent him," many of you not knowing for whatm until you came; and few, if any, understanding the great object for which you were sent. That you may understand why it was the Lord operated upon your minds to come hither, we have given you the account of the foregoing covenant before our God, the result of which is, the organization of the kingdom of promise, of which you, individually, form a part.

Of course Rigdon was not the simpleton to inform his dupes, in so many words, that this was the modus operanda of establishing "the kingdom of promise" fifteen years or so before 1845. Verbum sap. A wink is as good as a nod to a blind horse. He continueth:

Now, brethren, it becomes your privilege to bind the heavens, by another covenant, that this kingdom in your hands may triumph, each one for himself, presenting himself before God with uplifted hands to heaven, declaring in the presence of God, the holy messengers and one another, at the same time decreeing in your hearts before God that if this kingdom does not triumph and prevail, according to the promise made through the prophet Daniel, it shall not be your fault, thus binding the heavens for a fulfillment of the promises made concerning it. After which the covenant was entered into before God, by all standing on their feet, with their hands lifted to heaven, while the President pronounced the covenant which was sealed by the loud amen of every individual.

Here we have, as in a manner, the whole crazy, fanatical "grip," the fierce undying tenacity of the Mormon to his "faith."

But this is only part. From what follows one can see clearly where the great Mormon doctrines of "sealing for eternity," "proxy" baptism for the dead, etc. all came from.

We have another covenant to make, that is solemn, sublime and grand. It is to bind the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the hearts of the children to the fathers that when the Lord comes the whole earth may not be smitten with a curse, and we may secure our line of progenitors and descendants from one end of the line to the other. It is an established principle in the kingdom of heaven that those whom God has chosen to be kings and priests unto himself in his kingdom have the right before God to bind the heavens in solemn covenant, to perfect their own; and without which their salvation never could be perfected.

In order to make this covenant, each one for himself must stand before God, with his hands lifted to heaven, and in the presence of God, as a king and a priest unto God, express before the heavens his will and his desire, in relation to his fathers, and his and their descendants, and ask God to seal in the heavens this promise and this blessing, to be fulfilled upon their heads, when the redemption of the promised possession shall come, thus binding the hearts of the children to the fathers, by which covenant we bind heaven and earth together, for unto this end was the dispensation of the fullness of times [is] the same as the dispensation of the kingdom spoken of by Daniel, which dispensation God, in his mercy, has been pleased to give unto us, and we, under his direction, have now organized it.

There are, to day, in houses and streets and stores of Salt Lake City not a few of these "kings and priests unto God" who owe the fact that they are such to the crotchets of this man Sidney and to nothing else. Rigdon did not regard himself in the light of anti-Christ. By no means. On the contrary, he was quasi Christ, a sort of ad interim Christ; he was the very "messenger of the covenant" spoken of in Malachi. When Christ came he was ready to yield up the Kingdom he had built up for him to Christ, but to none other. Who was Joe Smith, pray, or Brigham Young? Mere pupets in his hands, who without Rigdon, would have been probably alive and "peeping," and painting in some sequestered vale of life to this day.

The President then said, I am determined, when we come to the end of our consecrations, to present the kingdom to the heavens spotless before God, and say, Father receive it, and bear it off triumphantly, for it is thine. (Had not Rigdon the crazy notion in his muddle that he was a sort of Christ? There have been others, but none with so much method in his madness as the founder of Mormonism). We have moved cautiously since we commenced. Brethren, let me [atone] to-day. Let me go forward as the Lord directs, and no evil spirit shall have dominion over us, or prevent us from accomplishing the great object before us. I have confidence in you, brethren, that you will do so. Be patient, until we get all the machinery prepared and put together, every wheel in its place, with all its parts oiled, and then we (we!) will set it in motion, and God will make it roll through the earth in majesty and in great power, until the glory thereof shall fill the whole earth.

"We" set Mormonism agog in 1830. God never did.


Note: The above article has all the earmarks of having been crafted by James T. Cobb, Esq. If so, it was evidently one of his final contributions to the Tribune on the subject of Mormon origins.

AN  UNHISTORICAL  ROMANCE.
________

Our evening contemporary, editorially comments on the so called new discoveries in Central America, points to the Rev. Spaulding's stupid romance (worked over into the Book of Mormon by Joseph Smith) as containing the true history of this continent, prior to Columbus, and claims that the ruins of Central America, explored and to be explored, confirm it as such. It is humiliating to have to treat seriously such a claim, made, we must hold, only to impose on the ignorant constituency of the News, and, of course, with no foundation in fact. We never have read the Book of Mormon -- God forbid we ever should. There are too many good and true books, and life is too short to be filled, even in part, with the work of charlatans and mountebanks. But we understand it derives the peoples of this continent from the "Lost Tribes." Such an idea was quite prevalent half a century ago, and books to establish it were written by others than Mr. Spaulding. He only took what, with some, was a hobby and wove it into his romance. All of the great men who have explored that country, or who have made the whole subject a study, are agreed that the aborigines of America, North and South, so-called, entered it from Asia before mankind had domesticated any animals or grains or fruits, and probably before man had acquired language. This removes the event back beyond the earliest dawn of written history, and leaves it to be certified to by that history preserved in the crust of the earth itself, in the remains of man and of animals and of man's workmanship found in the caves and river gravels; in the distribution of the races of man and the fauna and flora; in the relations of oceans and continents, and the relative levels of the sea and shore. This kind of history does, in the opinion of all learned investigators, certify first, that the Americans entered the New from the Old World freom the northwest, secondly, that they are a branch of the Yellow Race, thirdly, that their origin was one, as proved by the construction of their languages nd dialects and by many other things; fourthly, that their civilizations, such as they were, were one in kind, and different from Old World civilizations in toto, showing that the latter was acquired after the migration, and differing brtween the Iroquois, the Aztec, the Peruvians, the Assiniboine, and the Eskimo, only in degree, and that owing to differences in climate, habitat, situation and surroundings, and fifthly, that, consequently, there was never any other civilization on this continent save that of the Indians whom Cortez conquered and the Spaniards all but destroyed. It was indigenous, entirely so. What has M. Charnay discovered, now? Simply a pueblo, a house with rooms and pottery in it, such as may be seen in New Mexico with the Indians living in it who built it. There isn't the slightest probability that anything will ever be discovered on this continent to change the well settled opinion of scientific men, travelers, investigators and explorers, as to the origin and nature of the New World civilization.


Note: The writer of the above article would have done well to have at least consulted with a person who had read the Book of Mormon -- if for no other reason than to ascertain just which Old World peoples it alleges migrated to the Americas. Had he done that much, the writer might have understood that the Book of Mormon does not claim that all of the "lost tribes" of Israel came to the New World, or that even a substantial number of them ever made such a journey. Following the extinction of the Jaredites, the Americans remaining in the New World were said to be an unspecified combination of Israelites, including representatives from the tribe of Joseph, Judahites from Jerusalem, etc. Hardly the "lost tribes," or even a tiny fraction of their kinsmen. In fact, in 1857 the LDS Millennial Star published a doctrinal article refuting the Solomon Spalding authorship claims for the Book of Mormon, basing its argument primarily upon old testimony to the effect that Spalding wrote his story about these same "lost tribes," while the Book of Mormon relates an entirely different history.

THE  MORMON  JEREMIAH.
________

The Deseret News (semi weekly) Dec. 11, contains a "discourse by Elder Wilford Woodruff, delivered July 4, 1880." The discourse was not a very long one, for Elder Woodruff, occupying only two columns and a half... This discourse of Woodruff's was delivered at a priesthood meeting of the elders of Israel and those bearing the priesthood.

"Many a time," says the elder, "in my reflections I have wished I could fully comprehend the responsibility I am under to God, and the responsibility every man is under who bears the priesthood in this generation."...

Without multiplying words, the points here to be noted and settled are (imprimis) as to this "holy and everlasting priesthood," which Mormon elders claim and affect to hold, which some really fancy they do hold, no doubt, and Elder Woodruff, we will believe, is one of the last....

sons and daughters of the "Elders of Israel"... should inform themsleves all they can about this so-called "holy and everlasting priesthood," not by praying themselves into a fog or a maze concerning it, they should seek to disabuse their minds of all preconception or superstition concerning it, and trace it back to its origin, the real origin of Mormonism. They will find that it was not given miraculously at all, in the first place; but that it was an evolution from the brain of Sidney Rigdon. If they pursue this inquiry with a candid, fearless mind, desiring only to get at the facts in the case, they will as surely find this statement to be the simple truth, and susceptible of proof, convincing and overwhelming, as that they themselves are living beings. A full and correct understanding how this wicked piece of priesthood came about, and who is really to be held responsible for it, would materially lighten the weight of responsibility Elder Woodruff feels himself to be staggering under.

It has been on several occasions heretofore pointed out, in these columns, that Joseph Smith was not the person who "laid the foundation of this work," but that Sidney Rigdon was; this, too, is susceptible of complete demonstration. "We have borne our testimony" -- albeit in the most readable and not to be read Tribune, and what is better, backed up that testimony with any amount of the hardest kind of facts, which no Mormon elder has had the temerity to try to controvent -- "and when the judgments of God come, men cannot say they have not been warned" and informed...

Who first drew upon his imagination for the fact, spoken of by Elder Woodruff as if it were gospel truth, that Enoch was taken up to heaven with his city? In that precise shape the idea was evoluted by the brain of Rigdon, who, having created an imaginary sanctified city of Enoch, dubbed it Zion, but he got the suggestions, the keys to this, and a great deal besides, (elixer of moonshine) which we find in his revelations given in the Book of Doctrine and Covenants, from that curious apocryphal Book of Enoch, which first came out (in English) in 1821. This work that Saints will see Rigdon rtefers to in his "Section 8," Book of Doctrine and Covenants, at the close of that wonderful spurt on "the order of this priesthood," telling how certain onces were ordained under the hands of Adam. "These things were all written," says Rigdon, "in the Book of Enoch, and are to be testified of in due time,"

Well, the "due time" must surely have arrived, for these and kindred pretensions and fabrications are being "testified of" truthfully at last by one who is not afraid to proclaim the facts, cut where they may, content with the great John Milton, "fit audience to find, though few." That genius is now more potently at work than it ever has been, and its inevitable result will finally be isolation indeed...

What a world of unnecessary responsibility Elder Woodruff, and others who bear the holy priesthood, might save themselves if they only would, even at the eleventh hour, use their common sense and resolve to overehaul and squarely face the facts of this huge Mormon imposition. Their premises are [faint] and unsubstantial. That's what's the matter. Elder Woodruff, Jeremiah though he be, is a Yankee of the Yankees, and must at bottom have "gumption" and motehr wit sufficient to assure him, by candidly putting this and that together, that Mormonism (so far as his relation thereto) is a transcendent mistake.   AJAX.


Notes: (forthcoming)

"THIS  STUPID  SPAULDING  STORY."
_______

Whenever the organs of Mormonism refer to the Spalulding story in connection with the Book of Mormon, their reluctance to ventilate the subject is very evident. They deign to refer to the unsavory topic only by particular request, the doubters and curious [about?] this exploded Spaulding story, even in the Mormon fold, are not yet all dead, or quite converted, it would seem. "Our apology to our readers for alluding at any length to this dead and almost forgotten issue." "All the absurd accusations and remarks which have emanated from our enemies, from the pulpit and the press, in regard to this ridiculous Spaulding matter." "No foundation except in the bowels of hell, for this stupid Spaulding story," etc. Such is the unvarrying temper in which this much too [delicate] and difficult and not dangerous subject is handled by them. It is sought to be instilled into the minds of young Utah that tehre is nothing in it and very little to it, that the whole absurd and wicked story was promptly met and fully refuted many years ago at the time of its invention.

Now the fact of the matter is, "this stupid Spaulding story" never has been squarely met, but that it has been persistently, unscrupulously and most cunningly dodged by those who have best known its crusging and fatal force. It is said and it is commonly understood by Mormons, that Sidney Rigdon did meet, deny and utterly refute this story, or if he did not completely refute, that Parley Pratt put the final extinguisher upon it. The careful and candid investigator will find, however, that Mormons have never met the charge; that persons just named did not meet the charge and answer it, but simply succeeded in throwing dust and dirt, and in creating a diversion from it. The stupid story, the wicked story, never can be met and refuted, because it is the truth. If the Deseret News, or if any Mormon preacher or writer, whoever they are, fancy themselves in possession of papers sufficient to refute this story, they either egregiously mistake, or they are wilfully deceiving themselves and others.

Said Apostle Wilford Woodruff, 12th December, 1880, (See Deseret News 22d February, 1881):

"There has been a great deal said by our enemies since the organization of this church concerning Joseph Smith; concerning the Book of Mormon having been written by Spaulding as a novel; and of this work being a deception. * * * Let any man take the Book of Mormon and read it through from beginning to end -- read that history, etc. * * * and let them ask themselves if they suppose that Solomon Spaulding could sit down in a corner and write a novel covering these principles? No; they know better. Any reflecting mind on earth knows very well that the Book of Mormon never originated from a source of that kind, any more than they can accuse the Bible of having been brought forth by the same cause. If one originated from God, the other did.

"It is rather a wonder to the world that an illiterate boy like Joseph Smith, if he was not taught by the God of Israel and by the spirit of revelation, could possess the power to bring forth such principles as are recorded in the Book of Mormon and in the Book of Doctrine and Covenants and to organize a system of government, a system of religion, upon the face of the earth, that was far beyond all the combined power of the whole Christian world. You may take all the learned men of the earth, all the doctors of divinity, with all the knowledge that they possess, put them all together, and they had not the power to oeganize such a church as has been organized by Joseph Smith. * * * There is no language I ever read in any record given to the human family, that will compare with the sublimity and power of tehse revelations, given through that boy, Joseph Smith."

Apostle Wilford Woodruff is a man of advanced years. He appears thoroughly sincere. Is it possible he has been fooled? Let us see.

The extract just made from his discourse covers, pretty well, the Mormon claim. In true Mormon fashion it darkens counsel in a haze of contraties. At first, that an illiterate youth like Joe Smith should have accomplished so much. Surely this is, as Apostle Woodruff may justly hold, "rather a wonder," were there no sequel at the heels of all this admiration -- utterly ignoring the real, though secret, founder and shaper of the Mormon scheme, the not illiterate, the "heady," self-opinionated, splemetic, envious, unscrupulous, pettifogging fanatic and master zealot concealed in the background and behind the scenes, Sidney Rigdon. But when this secret plotter is discovered -- a person exceptionally versed in the letter of the Bible -- the marvel concerning the illiterate Joe quickly melts in air. Joe was but the target and figure head. Sir Oraclke, yes; but only in name and pretense, as this was part of the programme.

De gustibus non est disputandum. That Apostle Woodruff or others sgould find unapproached sublimity and power in the Mormon revelations -- changed materially from teh way in which they were first put forth, as taste improved or exigency demanded, although the average Mormon is not aware of this interesting fact -- well, there's no accounting for tastes, as the _____ almost any Sam Wellerism may finish this sentence.

But further, as to Solomon Spaulding, a la Little Jack Horner, sitting in a corner, etc. The assertion is, and there is evidence enough to substantiate it, that Sidney Rigdon revised and to a considerable extent rewrote the "Manuscript Found" of Solomon Spaulding, expanding and converting it from a unique and harmless religio-historical romance to a blasphemous and tedious quasi Bible, to be received as of equal validity with veritable history and of equal authority with Holy Writ.

Woodruff's appeal to "any reflecting mind on earth" is not happy. The Book of Mormon is one of those dreadful books that must be read and inwardly digested, if at all, as a religious duty or as a critical study -- a very desert of Sahara of a book, the oases of relief and satisfaction few and far between. "Young Utah" can only take the voluminious bosh in broken doses, and then only as sugared and spiced for them in the columns of the Juvenile Instructor. But Spaulding should have the credit for whatever of interest is to be found in the book -- for the oases, though not for the pitfalls. Spaulding was not the man to blasphemously represent the Savior and "His ministrations upon the land." Pratt and Woodruff, and their fellow defenders of the divine authenticity of this Mormon Bible (justly called so) may give either Rigdon or Joe Smith, or their special and specious Mormon deity full credit for this piece of blasphemous pretense, so they do exonerate the dacetious but truth loving and God respecting Spaulding. And it is just at this point that the Book of Mormon reaches its climax.

It has never been held that the Book of Mormon and the Manuscript Found of Spaulding were identical in every detail the one with the other. It is maintained, and can be controverted, that many of the principal names and leading incidents, as well as a great amount of the subject matter being identical, offered conclusive evidence, to any unbiased mind, of the plagerism, and this substantial identity between the two works is far too well and solidly authenticated to be "whistled down the mind" by persistently dwelling upon the differences or minor points, or by any amount of "testimony of the spirit" (the Mormon strong hold in this as in all other matters of their faith) that the utterly preposterous claims of the pseudo-Bible can impress any reasonable, sensible mind.

Spaulding was not (from all accounts) a man to make a corner on the religious sentiments of his time, however erroneous he may have [calculated] them. Nor did he get up his work, save by compulsion, in a corner at all. But this whole iniquitous scheme of Mormonism was done in a corner -- is always operating in a corner -- binding down the souls and bodies of foolish men and women in a corner, and this is indeed its chief and patent condemnation, arousing at the very first blush, the suspicions and hostile thoughts of any reflecting mind. Secrecy is the great bane of the body politic, of family and neighborly life -- of every human breast. Christ's Gospel is open -- is free.   VINDEX.


Note 1: See also the "Vindex" letter to the editor in the Tribune's issue of Apr. 7, 1881

Note 2: The writer of the above article seems to have made little effort to study the various Mormon responses to proponents of the Solomon Spalding claims for Book of Mormon authorship. Elder Benjamin Winchester's 1840 tract offers a substantial, if not especially convincing, LDS refutation of at least a portion of those claims -- as does that pamphlet's successors of 1841 and 1843. Similar, but less extensive, LDS responses were published through the course of many years, culminating in post-1881 contributions by Edmund Kelley, Joseph Smith III, George Reynolds, Joseph F. Smith and B. H. Roberts. When early Mormon "organs" spoke of the Spalding claims as having been "exploded," they were, of course, speaking of these sorts of in-house publications intended for the Mormon audience. Not until the final years of the nineteenth century did Mormon writers seriously believe that various published refutations had truly "exploded" the Spalding claims in the opinion of non-Mormons.

Note 3: While it is generally conceded that it is a very difficult thing to "prove a negative," it is nevertheless a striking fact that none of the early, topmost Mormon leaders ever attempted to prove the Spalding claims false. Sidney Rigdon penned a limited and generally ineffectual response to a small portion of those claims in 1839. His small contribution was followed by some media manipulations by Parley P. Pratt and other Mormon leaders, culminating in the 1840 publication of Winchester's pamphlet. But none of this -- not even all of this put together -- constituted a reasonable and methodical Latter Day Saint response to (or explosion of) the threatening alternative authorship claims. In 1840, Joseph Smith, Jr. visited in the Washington, D. C., and his personal physician later stated that Smith then pronounced an effective curse upon the life of a prominent local minister who was advocating the Spalding authorship claims (saying that the Book of Mormon "was nothing but an irreligious romance, and that Smith had obtained it from the widow of one Spaulding"). If this story is a true one, it relates the only known response from Smith in the matter -- though Parley P. Pratt gave a fictional Lucifer and a fictional Joseph Smith scripted lines regarding such "silly fabrications as the Spaulding Story" in Pratt's equally silly 1845 fabrication, entitled "A Dialogue Between Joe Smith & the Devil!" Sidney Rigdon, through the Mormon "organ" in Pittsburgh, promised to refute the "error relative to the origin of the Book of Mormon as being but the product of one 'Solomon Spaulding'" in June of 1844. Unfortunately, other pressing business interferred with Rigdon's scheduled refutation and the world was left unblest by his hopeful explanations. In 1901, the soon-to-be President of the Mormon Church seemingly put the issue beyond all disputation, when he pronounced the Spalding authorship claims to be "the deep-laid schemes of wicked men, inspired by the great enemy of all truth, in their vain attempts to overthrow the work of God." These "wicked men" (the earliest proponents of and witnesses for the Spalding claims) used "slanderous and villainous methods of compassing their pernicious ends." So, according to this ordained latter day prophet, seer, revelator and translator (not to mention nephew of the very founder of the LDS Church), there were "downright falsehoods" in the "affidavits" given by the Spalding claims witnesses -- those "determined enemies of the Book of Mormon," who were ever ready "to bolster up their pet theories and deep-laid schemes to deceive the world" with any change or development that those alternative authorship claims might ever seem to require. Well then -- if the Spalding claims witnesses were such, "wicked men" and minions of the Devil himself (knowingly or unknowingly), it makes perfect sense that the supreme leaders of the LDS Church never endeavored to interview them, investigate their testimony, or publish to the world the results of any such impartial investigation in an objective report of their own.

MORMON  INDEBTEDNESS.
________

Baptism for Remission of Sins First Preached by the Campbellites.
_______

"We did not receive any doctrine which we believe in, nor ordinance that has ever been taught, nor any principle pertaining to the salvation or exaltation of the human family, from men, nor from any system of divinity or theology. For everything we know we are indebted to the revelations of Jesus Christ made unto us. Now is this the Church of man? I do not think it is."

The above extract is from remarks made recently by John Taylor, President of Mormonism, published in the Deseret News of March 19, 1881.

"Now is this the Church of man? I do not think it is." This may be fairly taken as Mr. Taylor's ironical and sarcastical way of putting the matter. He surely knows Mormonism is not the Church of man, only he may be tired of reiterating that, and hence, (with a wink to the initiated) "I do not think it is."

Baptism for the remission of sins is a cardinal principle, doctrine and ordinance, lying at the very basis of Mormonism. It is, however, nowhere [sic] taught or even referred to in the suppletory Mormon bible -- the Book of Mormon. In "His ministrations upon this land," an account of which is given in the Book of Mormon, the American Jesus nowhere commands his American disciples to be baptized or to baptize others for the remission of sins.

To the so-called Campbellite and Irvingite systems of divinity or theology Mormonism is much more largely indebted than its dupes and unread, simple minded adherents have any idea of. It is not generally known among Mormons that the Disciples, (Campbellites,) unlike ordinary sect founders, announced the ushering in and establishment of Christ's kingdom on earth. And this is where the Mormon Kiungdom idea originated. Ridiculously wrested as the idea was by Sidney Rigdon to suit his idiosyncrasies and hobbies of a literal kingdom, with one man, (himself secretly) at the head of it, representing and inspiring, in loco Dei, until Christ should come, still the conception in its germ is to be found among the Campbellite disciples long before Mormonism was heard of.

President Garfield, himself a born Disciple, (Campbellite,) must know the utter fraud and fungus upon his own religion Mormonism is. The President's religion -- I should say, speaking in general terms, the Disciples' religion -- had the Bible alone for its base. Belonging to the town of Mentor, Ohio, where in 1830 the sham conversion of Rigdon to Mormonism occurred, although the President belongs to a younger generation, he, with the Clapps, the Haydens and others from that quarter of Ohio, known as the Western Reserve, must be exceptionally well informed respecting Mormonism and, despite his little lapse or, possibly, complaisence in referring in his inaugural to the Mormon institution as "the Mormon Church," the President knows that there is no such thing in the book as the Mormon Church, but that the concern thus designated is a most barefaced and outrageous imposition. Church indeed! Charlatanry never yet founded a church. "Tis a contradiction in terms.

The Reformation (or, more properly, Restoration) of the Disciples, as an organic movement, may be dated from the appointment, in the fall of 1827, of Walter Scott as its Evangelist.

At this Conference Jacob Osborne was moderator and John Rudolph clerk. Mr. Rudolph is the father-in-law of President Garfield. At this great conference of Campbellites convened in New Lisbon, Columbiana county, Ohio, August 23d, 1827 (the Mormon claim is that Joe Smith received from "the angel" his sacred plates, from which he translated the Book of Mormon, Sept. 23d, 1827), Sidney Rigdon was present and took part in the proceedings of the Disciples Conference, doubtless fully expecting that he himself would be set apart as its Evangelist. Rigdon was at that time living in Mentor, Ohio, close to Kirtland, having recently left the little town of Bainbridge, Ohio, where (from information for which the present writer is indebted to the neice of Mrs. Rigdon, who lived under the Rigdon roof at that time) greatly to the concern of Mrs. R. for her husband's health, Mr. Rigdon was for some months secretly and [seduiously?] engaged over a mysteriously and carefully guarded manuscript of a very questionable character, which manuscript is known to have been in Rigdon's possession in the year 1823 -- the annus mirabilis in Mormon history -- as it was shown by Rigdon at that time to Rev. John Winter (father-in-law of Justice Miller of the United States Supreme Court) and then described by Rigdon to his visitor, Mr. Winter, as "a Biblical romance that had been brought by a clergyman, whose health had failed, to a Pittsburg printer for publication."

But, in order to show conclusively and beyond cavil, to the misguided and imposed upon Mormon that this doctrine -- baptism for the remission of sins -- was no matter of special "revelation" whether to a Mormon or to any one else, but that it was gradually evolved by dint of critical and scholarly investigation, some gleanings may be given from the writings, personal and general, of that dear saint in glory now, who was the Disciples' historian, and who, with his brother, founded the Hiram Eclectic Institute, the Presidency of which Garfield left to go into the war, in a letter of the 3rd of April, 1879, Mr. Hayden writes:

"Mr. Campbell never learned the doctrine of baptism for the remission of sins from the Baptists, as I understand President J. Smith, (the 'Josephite President,) to say. He got a help toward it in a work by A. McLean, of Scotland, in a treatise, titled 'The Great Commission,' but he laid fully hold of it only from an extended and critical study of the New Testament, He was long coming to it. In his great discussion, in 1823, with W. L. McCalla, of Kentucky, he used the doctrine in an argumentative way against his opponent. Sidney Rigdon attended that most instructive debate. From that time the doctrine was occasionally the subject of essay in Mr. Campbell's periodical, the Christian Baptist, afterward the Millennial Harbinger. But in 1827 it was practically put forth and used in conversions, and set this whole land ablaze."

Rigdon's defection from the Baptist society occurred in 18[23]. On page 141 of his history, Mr. Hayden says

"Perhaps Bro. Osborne, more than any other man, prepared the way for the more complete ministration of the gospel which was soon to surprise the churches, and reform their modes of speech and action. He led on biblical investigations quite regardless of the dogmata of creeds and conventional forms of speech. He saw clearly the need of an extensive and thorough revision and correction of the terms and phrases, hackneyed and human, in which people were accustomed to talk of conversion and its kindred themes, and the substitution for them of the more appropriate and divinely authorized language of the Holy Spirit. In all this he was only abreast, scarcely ahead, of many others."

At a meeting between Osborne, and Scott, and Bentley in the fall of 1827 (Hayden's history, p. 69)

"Osborne, turning to Scott, asked him 'if he had ever thought that baptism in the name of the Lord was for the remission of sins?' * * * adding, 'it is certainly established for that purpose.'"

"A little later Scott said to Osborne, 'You are the boldest man I ever saw! Don't you think so, Bro. Bentley?' (Bentley was Rigdon's brother-in-law) 'Why he said in his sermon that no one had a right to expect the Holy Spirit till after baptism.'" -- (page 70)

In the winter of 1827-8 Brother Scott opened

THE  PLEA  OF  THE  ANCIENT  GOSPEL.

"He contended for the restoration of the true, original Apostolic order, which would restore to the Church the ancient gospel as preached by the Apostles. In powers of analysis and combination Scott has been rarely equaled. Under his classification the great elements of the gospel bearing on the conversion of sinners, assumed the following definite, rational, and scriptural order: 1, faith, 2, repentance, 3, baptism, 4, remission of sins, 5, the holy spirit; 6, eternal life, through a patient continuance in well doing. * * * The Key of Knowledge was now in his possession. * * * The whole scripture sorted itself into a plain and intelligible system in illustration and proof of this elementary order of the gospel. The darkened cloud withdrew. A new era for the gospel had dawned."

Mr. Hayden says: "In 1827 baptism for the remission of sins was practically put forth and used in conversions, and set the whole land ablaze." No words I have power to put together and employ can adequately measure the awful, the stupendous iniquity this man Rigdon has, under the guidance of wicked spirits, and still all in the economy of Divine Providence, been instrumental in working out. Lying in the name of the Lord -- can anything go beyond that in enormity? Is not murder itself involved in it? Has not murder, nay massacre, been the fruit, the natural, the inevitable fruit of that first taking the name of God in vain? Ah, young Utah, think of these things and lay them well to heart. So far as finite vision or judgment can reveal, so far as one may measure, not judge, between man and man (only He who sees everything can judge righteously of aught) the wrong doing of Joseph Smith sinks almost into insignificence alongside the crazed, colossal iniquity of Sidney Rigdon. Try the spirits. Yes, never was it more imperatively incumbent to try the spirits than at this very hour. 'Tis a master spirit of delusion, this Mormon master spirit. And yet, for all that, a child may master it. Resist the devil and he will flee from you, but yield to him a hair's breadth and, a million to one, he will get you in his fatal, benumbing clutch. The Book of Mormon -- that's the first hair's breadth in this Satanic delusion. Find out with your own natural, God given powers all you possibly can about that wretched book and its real origin, counting no fact valuless, no way to the exact truth laborious, and if then you are not satisfied in your inmost soul that that book is fraud, if you still have any feeling of doubt concerning its truth or falsity, then it may become a proper subject of petition; then if you find that you still "lack wisdom" in the matter ask God to enlighten the eyes of your understanding concerning it. You will get an answer to prayer then, and a truthful one. But most Mormons have neglected to take this all essential first step, (as it was fully calculated they would,) and the consequence has been, a spirit, whose power is not to be underrated nor despised, but borne testimony, in thousands upon thousands of cases, that a palpable lie is Heaven's own truth. Thus this poor infatuated people have been led deeper and deeper into the vortex of folly and delusion and sin. The spirit of truth never yet bore testimony to one single soul that the Book of Mormon is what it claims to be....

It only required some Rigdon (the Disciples' Judas and Janus) to claim special divine authority and commission to baptize. This was done. Mormonism is the result. "No counterfeit," says Mr. Hayden, "ever showed more clearly a corrupted copy."

Is to-day the 7th of April, 1881? That is no surer than that authoritative Mormonism is a bogus thing.

This is a sweeping assertion, and it is meant to be. The qualifying word, "authoritative," is not loosely but designedly here placed before "Mormonism," since, while the possession of spiritual mediumship, with all that term implies, may be conceded -- a fatal dowry -- to Joseph Smith, extenuating and in some sort accounting for him and his vagaries, in view of all the well known and compromising facts of his career, in which the dupe and the charlatan are both palpably to be seen, neither he nor his sayings and doings can, by any impartial jusgment, be received as authoritative. And it is of prime importance to every thoughtful and conscientious Mormon man and woman to separate the strange youth Joe -- the visionary spiritual medium, and eventually the "Prophet Joseph" -- (Rigdon's "Prophet") from the conscious and responsible impostor. This is a work of no slight difficulty, but it can be done and it will be done. A long step was taken in this direction by the "New Movement" of Godbe and Harrison some years ago (Their "coming man," by the bye, never came. He died near Pittsburgh, 1876). But there must be no more blinking of ugly and patent facts. What is demanded is the exact truth, the round unvarnished facts so far as these can now be dragged to light, with malice toward none, living or dead, but with charity to all stat justitia, ---- ------

Once [you] get the clew of this Mormon labyrinth in the concealed hand of Sidney Rigdon and the whole mystery is as plain as A. B. C., and it is almost incredible that old Mormons should not have discovered it years and years ago. But "judge not." It is possible that you are so infatuated with it, so fatally involved in it, that you do not know Mormonism to be a fraud, John Taylor? And yet hundreds, perhaps thousands, of persons who are but born idiots, are looking up to you for spiritual light and guidance, temporal and spiritual, yourself by no means a born idiot.   VINDEX.


Note: The above anonymous correspondent contributed a number of similar letters to the Tribune editors during the early 1880s. His familiarity with both the situation in Utah and the early history of the LDS movement, suggests that he was a serious, albeit it religiously zealous, student and critic of Mormonism. The correspondent's reference to his being "indebted to the neice of Mrs. Rigdon" for certain historical information, links him in some way with the 1879 statement of Mrs. Amos Dunlap, as first published on page 434 of Boyd Crumrine's 1882 History of Washington County, Pennsylvania -- in Rev. Robert Patterson, Jr's. section on "Religious History." Evidently the Tribune's anonymous contributor was also in contact with Pittsburgh's Rev. Patterson at an early date.

A  MISSION  AND  A  GRIEVANCE.
________

The Bad Position of Those Who Have Both -- Sidney Rigdon the [Brain].
________

Eds. Tribune. The Mormons have two spurs to prick the sides of their intent -- a Mission and a Grievance. Fortunate Mormons. They believe God gave them the first and the United States the last. Wofully deceived Mormons. As their mission was given to Mormons by Sidney Rigdon, so, likewise, indirectly and directly too, is the whole sum of their grievence to be fairly traced to him. He commanded "Latter day Israel" to gather out from the four quarters of the earth; and they gathered, and are still gathering. He commanded temples to be erected. It was done, and is yet doing. ("Some one has evidently got Sidney Rigdon on their brain -- badly." Some one? Some thousands have S. R. dreadfully on the brain, if they but knew it.)

Said George Q. Cannon at the Mormon Tabernacle Sunday, July 3:

"President Garfield knows betterconcerning us than any other man in public life; he was brought up in Ohio, near where our people had lived, in early days, in the days of his childhood. He was familiar with men who had been members of our church, and I believe was connected remotely by marriage with some of our people. [Yes. John Boynton, probably; an early Mormon who got his eyes open to see the absolute fraud Mormonism was and to detect Rigdon and Smith through all their disguises and to track them through all their doublings,] and while President Garfield has no sympathy with some of our doctrines, nevertheless he had opportunities of knowing many things concerning us that others do not know. He has visited this city twice, etc."

President Garfield was born in Mentor, Ohio, just about the time Rigdon was going through the shameless farce of being converted to Mormonism. Cannon would have it appear that President Garfield, while having no sympathy with some of our doctrines (meaning of course polygamy) yet he has sympathy with other [ones]. President Garfield is a man of immense geniality and cordiality toward persons -- a whole-souled, high-souled sympathizer with persons, especially if they are in trouble, but -- clear the track! He has no sympathy with fraud. And President Garfield knows the fraud Mormonism is, just as well as Hon. A. G. Riddle, of Washington, knows it, or as this present writer knows it, and we may be sure he will govern and shape his executive contact and action respecting the Mormons in accordance with the intimate personal familiarity with the case. May he live and may God bless him.

The Tribune never said a truer thing than what it said but a few days since. 'Tis the very institution of Mormonism that is to blame; an institution that cannot help betraying its hatred of all other institutions, because this is the very essence of its nature and being, and the institution has such hold of Mormons that they must be its slaves. It is an institution that makes a man, if not a fiend outright, less a man than he naturally is. (What can be more demoralizing than causeless and persistent hatred?) The enmity between Mormonism and mankind is claimed, we know, as the necessary and customary enmity between a good God and his bad children; but how if, as appears in this case, the children are far less malignant and devilish than the God? These are your sentiments and reflections. They are mine. They are truth's.

Now the one thing supremely needful is to get clearly down to the personality of this vindictive, unscrupulous, malignant, and crazy Mormon deity. And if no one else sees with entire clearness the personality of this Mormon God, I see it, and it is none other than Sidney Rigdon. Let fools and knaves -- but O pity, pity for the single-hearted, the honest! -- continue to be led by him, through his specious and damnable revelations, to their final, their certain ruin and discomfiture, if they will, if they must. Over and above (and yet through) the Government of these United States the very genius of justice and truth has a controversy with the stalwart and heaven daring Fraud. The mills of the gods grind slowly but they grind exceedingly fine.    VINDEX.
    SALT LAKE CITY, July 9, 1881.


Notes: (forthcoming)