Signature Books

Quest for Refuge:
The Mormon Flight from American Pluralism

Marvin S. Hill

Signature Books; Salt Lake City, Utah
© 1989 by Signature Books.

Table of Contents:

2.


"A Principle Means in the Hands of God"

While translating the Book of Mormon, Joseph Smith and his new wife, Emma, were completely destitute, living on handouts from sympathetic neighbors like Joseph Knight, Martin Harris, and others.1 Lucy and Joseph Smith, Sr., who had lost their farm in 1825, were also in economic straits.2 Joseph the prophet hoped that the publication of the Book of Mormon would provide the income his family so desperately needed.

When Martin Harris, however, lost the first 116 pages of the translation in 1828, Joseph was in total despair. Emma, sick and pregnant, had just lost her baby. Joseph wondered if he dared tell his still grieving wife of the loss of the manuscript.3 After several months Joseph again began to translate and prospects brightened. Joseph Capron wrote that Smith hoped his volume would "relieve the family from all pecuniary embarrassment."4 There is evidence from Mormon sources to confirm Capron's recollections. Smith himself admitted in his unpublished history that "he sought the plates to obtain riches."5 Hyrum Smith wrote to his grandfather, Asael, that he believed that service to the Lord would bring the family their long-awaited prosperity.6 In October 1829, Joseph wrote excitedly to Oliver [p.20] Cowdery that Josiah Stowell had a chance to obtain five or six hundred dollars and that he was going to buy copies of the Book of Mormon.7 Lucy Mack Smith said that when it was finally published in March 1830 the family had to sell copies of the book to buy food.8

The economic situation of the Smith families was so desperate at this time that Joseph tried to sell the copyright of the Book of Mormon. Hiram Page wrote with bitterness years later that the prophet heard he could sell the copyright of any useful book in Canada and that he then received a revelation that "this would be a good opportunity to get a handsome sum." Page explained that once expenses were met the profits were to be "for the exclusive benefit of the Smith family and was to be at the disposal of Joseph." Page indicated that they hoped to get $8,000 for the copyright and that they traveled to Canada covertly to prevent Martin Harris from sharing in the dividend. Smith evidently believed that Harris was well enough off while his own family was destitute. When Page, Cowdery, and Knight arrived at Kingston, Ontario, they found no buyer. Page concluded that some revelations were not beneficial.9 Martin Harris apparently learned of what was done, and Joseph guaranteed him in writing that he would share in any profits made from the subsequent sales of the book.10 In the spring of 1830 Harris walked the streets of Palmyra, trying to sell as many copies of the new scripture as he could. Shortly after Joseph Smith and Jesse Knight saw him in the road with books in his hand, he told them "the books will not sell for nobody wants them."11

A failure financially, the Book of Mormon was nonetheless the catalyst which placed Joseph Smith at the head of a revitalized religious movement with certain roots in magic. A. W. Benton reported that as early as 1826 Smith had several followers in Chenango County with money digging interests,12 while David Whitmer said that Smith had established a fully functioning church by 1899 before the Book of Mormon was published.13

In any case, there was certainly more continuity between the money-digging religious culture and the early Mormon movement than some historians have recognized.14 Joseph Smith began receiving revelations as a prophet in 1823,15 and thus began assuming the role central to his religious movement long before he abandoned his money digging in 1827.

Unlike church leaders today, Smith had no model established for him as prophet and seer in a church, except what he had learned [p.21] as a village seer. At times afterward he showed a degree of uncertainty as to the proper limits of his role.16 Yet his experience with magic provided some guidelines. The traditional magician in Europe and America searched for buried treasure, healed the sick, interpreted dreams, forecast the future, and translated ancient hieroglyphics.17 Joseph carried these functions with him into his role as church prophet. His primary innovation came in publishing his revelations as scripture.

The Book of Mormon was a history of ancient America, but its primary purpose was to warn Americans in the 1830s. Its message appealed to common men with sectarian or money-digging backgrounds. It was a jeremiad addressed to the American Indians, part of the House of Israel, and affirmed that these chosen people were to take part in the building of the New Jerusalem in preparation for the coming Millennium.18 It warned that"many churches [were] built up which causeth envyings, and strife and malice, and it denounced the self-serving professional clergy who were to blame.19 It warned against contentions that tore society asunder, where people are "distinguished by ranks, according to their riches and their chances for learning."20 It testified to the unchurched and disbelieving that Jesus is the Messiah soon to return to earth. It informed Americans that the best way to prepare for these momentous events is to accept the modern day prophet who voiced these warnings.21 It reminded Americans that the ancient inhabitants of the promised land had destroyed themselves through love of worldly things and disregard for the message of the prophets.

Theologically the Book of Mormon was a mediating text standing between orthodox Calvinists and emerging Arminians. Its mediatory tendencies are best illustrated in a passage where the prophet Lehi tells his son Joseph that the Book of Mormon along with the Bible "shall grow together, unto the confounding of false doctrine and laying down of contentions, and establishing peace among the fruit of thy loins." The scripture was to provide a second witness to a disbelieving world. Nephi was told by an angel that his records "shall establish the truth of the first, which is of the Twelve Apostles of the Lamb, [the New Testament] and shall make known the plain and precious things which have been taken away from them; and shall make known to all kindreds, tongues, and people, that the Lamb of God is the Eternal Father and Saviour of the world."22 [p.22]

Mediation seems evident in the ambivalent position on the trinity. George Arbaugh maintained that the Book of Mormon is Unitarian, with a "monism which completely identified the persons of the Trinity with one another."23 It is true that some passages blur the distinctions between the Father and the Son, but in other passages the distinction seems clear,24 and the Holy Ghost appears to be distinct as well.25 Rather than being Unitarian, the text may simply be ambiguous.

Another category where the treatment seems mediatory is the scripture's view of man and mortality. At one point the text sounds Calvinistic. The prophet Helaman laments: "O how foolish, and how vain, and how evil, and devilish and how quick to do iniquity, and how slow to do good, are the children of men.… O how great is the nothingness of the children of men; yea, even they are less than the dust of the earth."26 According to the Book of Mormon salvation comes only through grace. Nephi admonishes the people to "reconcile yourselves to the will of God, that it is only in and through the grace of God that ye are saved."27 In another passage an apostate, Korihor, attacks the idea of the Fall and that the children are guilty of the transgression of their parents, making it apparent that the true faith includes this doctrine.28

Despite their sinfulness, men and women are capable of faith and repentance and have the will to believe.29 Ultimately, they are to be rewarded according to their works.30 No coercion will be employed if they choose not to believe,31 but they are doomed to everlasting torment.32 Thus sociologist Thomas F. O'Dea exaggerated in concluding that the Book of Mormon is Arminian throughout.33 Passages which are strongly anti-Universalist suggest once again the Calvinistic inclinations in the text,34 while others speak against the doctrine of election.35 Mediation rather than Arminianism seems evident here.

The scripture warns Americans in the 1830s of their peril. During his post-resurrection visit to America, Jesus tells the Nephites that the Indians may be set loose against the wicked:

But if they will repent, and hearken unto my words, and harden not their hearts, I will establish my church among them…and they [the Gentiles] shall assist my people, the remant [sic] of Jacob; and also, as many of the house of Israel as shall come, that they may build a city, which shall be called the New Jerusalem; and then shall they assist my people that they may be gathered in, which are scattered upon all the face of the land, [p.23] in unto the New Jerusalem. And then shall the power of heaven come down among them; and I shall be in their midst.36

Like an angelic trumpet the Book of Mormon called the nation to repentance for the time was short. The elect must heed the solemn sound and gather to the holy city. The sword of judgment hung heavily over the land and soon only those within the confines of the city would be safe.

Those who found that the Book of Mormon spoke to their hopes and fears remembered long afterward the shattering impact it had upon their lives. Apostle Parley P. Pratt was converted by reading the book before even meeting a Mormon. He recalled that it was "the principle means, in the hands of God, of directing the entire course of my future life." It was first given to him by a Baptist deacon, and he "read it all day; eating was a burden,… [he] preferred reading to sleep." As he read "the spirit of the Lord was upon me and I knew and comprehended that the book was true."37 Sidney Rigdon's son recalled that his father also "got so engaged in [the book] that it was hard for him to quit long enough to eat his meals. He read it both day and night."38 William W. Phelps, who became the church's first newspaper editor, said the book "produces an earthquake in this generation. It explains the Bible; it opens the vision of the prophets; it unravels the mystery who first settled this country, and it shows the old paths wherein if a man walk he shall live."39 More pointedly, Brigham Young reported that the Book of Mormon and the Bible "will save you and me and the whole world."40

Of course, not everyone reacted positively to the new scripture. Those who rejected it saw it as the work of an impish and impious youth, Joseph Smith.41 However, when the Mormons moved to Ohio in early 1831, adding hundreds to church rolls, some began to take the work more seriously. Alexander Campbell wrote the first major critique of the book in the fall of 1831,42 when the Saints were making inroads into his and other congregations in and around Kirtland, Ohio.43 He declared that the work contradicted the Bible and that it was written by Joseph Smith.44 Despite this Mormonism spread,45 and Campbellites and other denominations became increasingly alarmed.46

In this context a new theory as to the origin of the Book of Mormon emerged, the so-called Spaulding theory. Just how this theory first took shape is uncertain.47 Mormons charged that it originated with Philastus Hurlbut, a Mormon apostate who collaborated with [p.24] Eber D. Howe, editor of Ohio's Painesville Telegraph, to produce in 1834 the influential expose, Mormonism Unvailed. Hurlbut collected important documents for Howe, who authored the bulk of the text. Some Mormons have contended that Hurlbut actually wrote the book but that Howe's name appears on the cover due to Hurlbut's unsavory reputation. This greatly exaggerates Hurlbut's role, however.48 There is no doubt that Hurlbut went to New York in 1833 to learn about the origins of Mormonism49 and that he received funding from several people in New Salem (Conneaut), Ohio, and elsewhere.50 In any case, Mormonism Unvailed succeeded in establishing the Spaulding theory as the most widely accepted explanation of the origin of the Book of Mormon among non-Mormon writers. In fact, by 1914 one such writer termed it "the impregnable rock upon which the anti-Mormon forces have taken their stand."51

According to the theory, Joseph Smith was far too ignorant to write a volume as intricate and scriptural as the Book of Mormon, and was assisted by someone better prepared.52 The logical choice at the time seemed to be Sidney Rigdon, a former Baptist preacher who had joined the Campbellites but disagreed with Alexander Campbell over such matters as the gathering of Israel, latter-day miracles, the Millennium,53 and the desirability of having all property held in common among modern Christians.54 In the view of some writers, eventually including Campbell himself,55 Rigdon conspired with Joseph Smith to write the text and launch his own religious movement.56 It was said that the ideas which went into the narrative had come from a novel written by Solomon Spaulding, a would-be author who wrote the "Manuscript Found," which allegedly told of the immigration to America of early Israelitish tribes.57 To this romantic base Rigdon was said to have added doctrinal and other religious material. Thus alleged similarities between Campbellite and Mormon doctrine could be accounted for.58

Despite able criticism of the Spaulding theory in 1902, 1931, 1945, and 1977,59 the theory still retains a few adherents, although Fawn M. Brodie dealt it a heavy blow in 1945 in her biography of the Mormon prophet. She argued that the Book of Mormon was written by Joseph Smith himself, unaided, except that he borrowed ideas from Ethan Smith's View of the Hebrews, a religious text written in the early 1890s which argued that the American Indians were the lost tribes of Israel.60 Although Brodie has had her critics,61 her version of the origin of the Book of Mormon has remained the most widely accepted one in non-Mormon scholarly circles during the past forty-four years.

[p.25] Whatever the origins of the Book of Mormon, when it was translated, probably in June 1829, newspaper editors in Vermont, New York, and Ohio began to take notice of the book,62 and the curiosity of many was aroused.63 Inquiries led to converts in Palmyra (although not many) and in southern New York, and the prophet had to give more thought to the organization of a church. These concerns were reflected in the revelations which he continued to receive.64 Six elders were ordained in June 1830,65 and a revelation to David Whitmer and Oliver Cowdery commanded the choosing of twelve disciples.66 Under what priesthood authority this was done is still a subject of controversy.

Church tradition holds that Aaronic and Melchizedek priesthoods were conferred on Smith in 1829, a year before the church was formally organized. Conflict regarding the time sequence largely revolves around the higher or Melchizedek Priesthood. Some years ago historian Kent Fielding argued that the higher priesthood was not conferred on the elders until a conference in Ohio in June 1831.67 Considerable testimony supports this view. Several men prominent in the early church stated that this priesthood was not introduced until that time, among them David Whitmer, Oliver Cowdery, John Whitmer, William E. McLellin, John Corrill, J. C. Brewster, the prophet's brother, William, and Brigham Young.68 Even those who compiled the official history after the prophet's death quoted him as saying that in 1831 the "authority of the Melchizedek Priesthood was manifest and conferred for the first time upon several of the elders."69 None of Joseph Smith's contemporaries indicate that the higher priesthood was restored in 1829.

Parley P. Pratt, who joined the Mormons in 1830, affirmed what he believed on the matter very emphatically. He wrote that at the conference in June 1831 "several were selected by revelation, through President Joseph Smith, and ordained to the high priesthood after the holy order of the Son of God; which is after the order of Melchizedek. This is the first occasion in which this priesthood had been revealed and conferred upon the Elders in this dispensation." Pratt said, "The office of the Elder is the same in a certain degree, but not in the fullness." Pratt had been an elder for nine months prior to the conference of 1831.70 David Whitmer insisted that the idea of a higher priesthood was an afterthought, which had come from Sidney Rigdon.71 William Smith said that in Ohio "Elders, Priests, Teachers and Deacons received some general instructions from the Church concerning the Priesthood of Melchizedek, to which [p.26] they had not as yet been ordained for they had not attained to all the power of their ministry."72 Brigham Young explained the circumstances of the bestowal of the higher priesthood in detail at a meeting in Utah. He said that when Joseph received this priesthood "he received…[a] revelation, Peter, James and John came to him in Kirtland" in 1831.73

B. H. Roberts argued at the turn of the century that the problem was one of terminology, that Joseph and others spoke of the office of high priest when they talked about the high priesthood being restored in 1831.74 Roberts is correct that there was initial confusion concerning the office and its relationship to other offices such as that of the seventy. But this contention hardly accounts for the very explicit statements of Brigham Young and others that the priesthood itself was restored in 1831.

Despite such testimony, it is possible that the "lesser" or Aaronic priesthood was conferred in 1829 and that the position of elder was initially included under this authority.75 Oliver Cowdery wrote in the Messenger and Advocate in 1834 that the "angel of God" had appeared in 1829 and that "we received under his hand the holy Priesthood."76 This phraseology suggests the lesser priesthood.

However, the Book of Mormon, which Joseph Smith with Cowdery's assistance was translating at this time, mentions no priesthood while recounting the ordaining of teachers and priests by the twelve disciples.77 The scripture does speak of priesthood elsewhere, however, explaining that the "high priesthood…[was] after the order of his son, which order was from the foundation of the world." This priesthood is mentioned briefly during the administration of the prophet Alma, some eighty years before the birth of Jesus.78 As David Whitmer contended, nothing is said of it after the appearance of Jesus to the Nephites.79

Whatever the status of priesthood in the first year or so of church organization, great stress was placed on the idea that special authority had been given the new dispensation. E. D. Howe, writing in the Painesville Telegraph reported that when Oliver Cowdery first visited Ohio in November 1830 he proclaimed that "he and his associates are the only persons on earth who are qualified to administer in his name."80 If ideas and institutional procedures which eventually assumed central importance in the tradition were not firmly established in the first months, this may only suggest that this was a religious movement that was first experienced and then afterward reflected upon and systematized.

[p.27] It was in keeping with the primitive gospel ideals of early Mormonism81 that laymen were called to preach and administer the ordinances of the new church. Frequently they were converted and baptized one day and sent out as missionaries the next, returning to their families and friends to spread the good news.82 By April 1830, when the church was officially organized, there were already between thirty to seventy members,83 and meetings were being held at several locations.84 To govern the new church officers were given New Testament titles.85 Joseph Smith was designated the "first elder," perhaps indicating his preeminence over the whole church.86 Later he was named "seer, translator, a prophet, and an apostle of Jesus Christ."87 Oliver Cowdery was termed "second elder" and an apostle.88

Joseph and Oliver were commanded to "ordain other elders, priests, teachers, and deacons" and to "administer bread and wine" and to "teach, expound, exhort, baptize…and to take the lead in all meetings."89 The elders in the local branches were to take charge of their meetings. The priests were to preach, exhort, baptize, administer the sacrament, and visit the homes of members. Teachers were to "watch the church always and be with them and strengthen them and see that there is no iniquity in the church."90 Teachers and elders were to hold periodic conferences.91 No one was to be baptized who did not understand the principles of the gospel.92

Between April 1830 and January 1831 when the Saints left New York for Ohio the church grew slowly but encountered increasing opposition among Gentiles.93 In September Joseph Smith was brought to trial for disturbing the peace, and his father was jailed for thirty days for failing to pay a small debt.94 With outside pressure mounting, the Saints were told by revelation that the time of the Second Coming was near and that they must gather and make ready.95

Joseph Smith was ordained "prophet and seer" in April 1830,96 but in July Oliver Cowdery and the Whitmers objected to one of his revelations.97 As the months passed more of the Saints were on the verge of open rebellion. Opposition to Joseph came from the followers of Hyrum Page, who had a peepstone and had received a handful of revelations of his own.98 About this time, Smith had ceased to rely heavily upon his own seerstone for inspiration, and the change was disturbing to Cowdery and the Whitmers.99 They expressed their disenchantment by meeting secretly with Page,100 and Cowdery began to write down Page's and possibly his own revelations.101 It required a divine rebuke through Joseph Smith to remind these [p.28] elders that only he was to receive revelations for the church.102 The Page affair marked an initial turning point for Joseph Smith, as he discontinued some aspects of his role as magician and discountenanced it to some degree for his church members. There was to be but one seer governing the church.

During this crisis the Saints were reminded that they must gather to escape the judgments.103 In September 1830 four missionaries, including the reconciled Cowdery, were sent to the Indian tribes in the western part of Missouri to gather this branch of Israel and to solicit their help in building the Holy City.104 The Saints were told that they would soon have a land of inheritance in the West.105 They were instructed to flee to Ohio,106 where they would receive the laws of the kingdom and become a "righteous people, without spot and blameless."107 They were informed that in the promised land their property would be gathered into the "bosom of the church."108 The office of bishop was established to administer what would be designated the "law of consecration"109—the basis for the communal order which would exist in the kingdom of God on earth.

The message which the Mormon missionaries now preached with a sense of urgency—door to door, street corner to street corner, assembly hall to assembly hall, in the towns and cities of the eastern half of the United States—was revolutionary.110 Orson Pratt, an apostle, affirmed that the people should "utterly reject both the Popish and Protestant ministry, together with all the churches which have been built up by them or that sprung up from them, as being entirely destitute of authority."111 This affirmation thus challenged some of the basic assumptions of American religious pluralism.112 In self defense the other churches fought back. Both the prophet and his mother recount vigorous opposition from ministers of other denominations between 1827 and 1831. One of the occasions they describe involved Joseph's trial for "being a disorderly person," for "setting the country in an uproar by preaching the Book of Mormon."113 A letter from a resident of South Bainbridge in 1831 confirms Smith's charge that religious intolerance was involved. "A. W. B." explained to the editors of the Evangelical Magazine and Gospel Advocate:

In order to check the progress of delusion, and open the eyes and understandings of those who blindly followed him.…he was again arraigned before a bar of Justice, during the last summer, to answer to a charge of misdemeanor. This trial lead to an [p.29] investigation of his character and conduct, which clearly evinced to the unprejudiced, whence the spirit came which dictated his inspirations. During the trial it was shown that the Book of Mormon was brought to light by the same magic power by which he pretended to tell fortunes, discover hidden treasures, &c.114

The trial was remembered long afterward by John S. Reid, a friend of Joseph Knight. Reid served as Smith's lawyer during the hearing and said the trial was brought on by sectarians who "uniting their efforts, roared against him." Reid recalled that "their cry of 'False Prophet! False Prophet!' was sounded from village to village, and every foul epithet that malice and wicked ingenuity could invent were heaped upon him."115

This antagonism to the prophet and his movement was thus sectarian in nature, but there was opposition from other sources as well. Many people whether members of other denominations or not were indignant at the charge that they were among the damned unless they joined with the new movement. When Sidney Rigdon came to Waterloo, New York, in December 1830 he pronounced judgments against the Gentiles in the city. According to a correspondent of the Palmyra Register, Rigdon delivered a discourse at the courthouse, "wherein he depicted in strong language, the want of charity and brotherly love among the prevailing sects and denominations.… After denouncing dreadful vengeance on the whole state of New York, and this village in particular, and recommending to all such as wish to flee from 'the wrath to come,' to follow him beyond the 'western waters,' he took his leave."116

Previous to this, Hyrum Smith, the prophet's older brother, warned of judgments against those who opposed the Book of Mormon. An outraged citizen voiced his indignation to the Palmyra Reflector: "Please advise hyrum smith and some of his ill-bred associates, not to be quite so impertinent, when decent people denounce the imposition of the "GOLD bible," the anathemas of such ignorant wretches, although not feared are not quite so well relished by some people—apostles should keep cool."117 The Mormons irritated, among others, Obadiah Dogberry with their jeremiads. He protested that Joseph Smith and his followers "go from place to place disturbing, to a greater or lesser degree, the peace of the community—denouncing dire damnation on such as may hold approbation from the world's most ridiculous impostures."118 [p.30]

Another Mormon custom during this early period which won them no favor was the holding of secret meetings.119 Sidney Rigdon explained that it was due to fear of persecution that the Saints met in seclusion.

We knew the whole world would laugh at us, so we concealed ourselves; and there was much excitement about our meetings, charging us with designs against the government, and with laying plans to get money &c, which never existed in the heads of any one else, and if we talked in public, we should have been ridiculed more than we were, the world being entirely ignorant of the testimony of the prophets.…So we were obliged to retire to our secret chambers, and commune ourself with God.

Rigdon felt bolder in Nauvoo, Illinois, in 1844 than he did in New York in 1830 and described why the secret meetings were necessary.

The time is now come to tell why we held secret meetings. We were maturing plans fourteen years ago which we can now tell; were we maturing plans to corrupt the world, to destroy the peace of society? Let fourteen years of the experience of the church tell the story. The church would have never been here, if we had not done as we did in secret. The cry of false prophet, and imposter rolled upon us…There was no evil concocted when we first held secret meetings.120

The Mormons were planning no coup d'etat to seize the reins of government, but already they were set upon separating themselves from American society and awaiting the destruction of all governments that would precede their own rise to power.

Notes:

1.Joseph Knight wrote that "when he Began to translate he was poor and was put to it for provisions.…: He and his wife Came up to see me the first of the winter 1828 and told me his Case. But I was not in easy Circumstances and did not know what it mite amount to my wife and family all against me about helping him. But I let him have some little provisions and some few things out of the Store apair of shoes and three Dollars" (Dean C. Jessee, ed., "Joseph Knight's Recollections of Early Mormon History," Brigham Young University Studies 17 [Autumn 1976]: 35//36). Knight speaks of Smith's poverty throughout the translation time.

2. Bushman, 66-68.

3. LMSms.

4. Eber D. Howe, Mormonism Unvailed (Painesville, OH: the Author, 1834), 260.

5. See Faulring, 5-7, for Joseph Smith's 1832 dictated history. Oliver Cowdery repeated much of the same attitude on Joseph's part in a letter to W. W. Phelps in 1834 (Latter-day Saints Messenger and Advocate 2 [Oct. 1835]: 197).

6. Jesse Smith to Hyrum Smith, 17 June 1829, in Joseph Smith's Kirtland Letter Book, LDSCA.

7. Letter dated 22 Oct. 1829 from Harmony, Pennsylvania, in Kirtland Letter Book.

8. Lucy Smith recalled this during a conference in Nauvoo, Illinois, 7 Oct. 1845 (see the minutes in LDSCA).

9. Hiram Page's letter, dated 2 Feb. 1848, to brother "William" (probably William E. McLellin), is in RLDSCA. David Whitmer, a witness to the Book of Mormon plates, also recalled the attempt to sell the copyright in his An Address to All Believers in Christ, by A Witness to the Divine Authenticity of The Book of Mormon (Richmond, 1887), 30.

10. The agreement to allow Martin Harris to sell copies of the Book of Mormon until he was repaid his $3,000 loan is dated Manchester, 16 Jan. 1830, and is in LDSCA.

11. Jessee, "Joseph Knight's Recollections," 37.

12. Evangelical Magazine and Gospel Advocate 2 (9 April 1931).

13. Whitmer, 31-32.

14. Brodie (p. 33) argued that Smith outgrew money digging to assume his prophetic role. Bushman (p. 76) contends that Joseph gave up money digging as early as 1826.

15. The 1832 account of the first vision makes it clear that this was a personal vision reassuring Smith of his acceptance with God and included no call to the ministry at this time.

16. Smith's later polygamous proposals to other men's wives (especially those he did not want) could be a type of this role testing. James Monroe recounted (in an account located in the library of the Utah State Historical Society, Salt Lake City) that Smith once came into his Nauvoo store, where the diminutive Monroe was clerking, put his large leg on Monroe's shoulder, and commented, "You are stouter than I thought." He then wrestled with Monroe and broke Monroe's leg. Smith often tested how much his loyal followers would take.

17. Keith Thomas, Religion and the Decline of Magic (London: Weidenfield and Nicolson, 1971), 117-30, 151-73, 200-13, 224-45, 643-66; compare Jon Butler, "Magic, Astrology, and the Early American Religious Heritage, 1600-1760," American Historical Review 84 (April 1979): 317-46.

18. BM, title page and 497.

19. Ibid., 108, 113.

20. Ibid., 466, 478.

21. Ibid., 32, 67, 104-105.

22. Ibid., 32, 67. Martin Harris, one of the three witnesses to the Book of Mormon plates, told John A. Clark that the scripture would "settle all religious controversies and speedily bring on the millennium. (See Clark, Gleanings by the Way [Philadelphia: Simon Brothers, 1842], 223-24). Compare Pomeroy Tucker, Origin, Rise and Progress of Mormonism (New York: D. Appleton & Co., 1857), 78, who heard Sidney Rigdon emphasize in a sermon in Palmyra the common purposes of the Bible and Book of Mormon.

23. George A. Arbaugh, "Evolution of Mormon Doctrine," Church History 9 (June 1940): 169.

24. BM, 25, 80, 160, 186, 453, but compare passages in the Book of Ether where Jesus on the eve of mortality appears to the brother of Jared (p. 544). Notice also that after Jesus ministers to the Nephites he then mentions his ascension to "my father" (pp. 22, 476-510, especially 485).

25. See ibid., 23 and 586 where Jesus, the Father, and the Holy Ghost seem to be different persons. It is significant that Joseph Smith later revised several of these passages to conform to his developing tri-theism.

26. Ibid., 439-40.

27. Ibid., 85.

28. Ibid., 306.

29. Ibid., 315. Alma says, "But behold, if ye will awake and arouse your facilities, even to an experiment upon my words, and exercise a particle of faith; yea, even if ye can no more than desire to believe."

30. Ibid., 38.

31. Ibid., 108.

32. Ibid., 32, 159, 162.

33. Thomas F. O'Dea, The Mormons (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1957).

34. BM, 221-22. The apostate Nehor preaches that all humanity will be saved.

35. Ibid., 311. The apostate Zoramites preach that God "hast elected us to be thy holy children" but are discredited for this.

36. Ibid., 501. That the Book of Mormon was not merely a history of the Nephites and Lamanites but a warning to contemporary Americans is plain in many passages (see ibid., 60//61, 75, 107-110, 527-28, 535-38).

37. Parley P. Pratt, Autobiography of Parley Parker Pratt (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1961), 37.

38. "Lecture written by John M. Rigdon on the Early History of the Mormon Church," Special Collections, Harold B. Lee Library, Brigham Young University.

39. W. W. Phelps to William Smith, 25 Dec. 1844, in Times and Seasons 5 (1 Jan. 1845): 757.

40. JD 4:77.

41. Obadiah Dogberry (Abner Cole) took this view, publishing a caricature of the Mormon scripture called the "Book of Pukei," in the Palmyra Reflector, l2 June 1830, 36-37, and 7 July 1830, 60.

42. This appeared under the title "Delusions" in the Painesville Telegraph, 8 March 1831, 1-2, and "Internal Evidences," 15 March 1831, 1-2. Campbell also published this attack in his Millennial Harbinger, Feb. 1831, and as a brochure in 1832. See Brodie, 471.

43. Amos Hayden, Early History of the Disciples in the Western Reserve (Cincinnati: Chase and Hall, 1876), 215-250, and James Harrison Kennedy, Early Days of Mormonism (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1881), 980-91. Campbell gave as his reason for writing "Delusions" that "several hundred persons of different denominations believed" the Book of Mormon (see Painesville Telegraph, 8 March 1831, 2).

44. Painesville Telegraph, 15 March 1831, 1.

45. The compilers of JH estimate that there were approximately 1,500 Mormons in Ohio as of 31 December 1831.

46. Kennedy, 90-91. Kennedy reports that the Campbellites took the lead in opposing the spread of Mormonism but that other denominations joined in. He indicates that it was Sidney Rigdon's "former high standing" in the Campbellite church which caused Alexander Campbell to come to Ohio for twenty-two days and oppose "the new creed." Possibly, too, the similarity in doctrine made the two denominations natural rivals.

47. Benjamin Winchester, a Mormon missionary in Pennsylvania when Hurlbut first traveled through, claimed that Hurlbut learned about Spaulding in Pennsylvania in a place called Jackson Settlement (see Winchester's The Origin of the Spaulding Story Concerning the Manuscript Found [Philadelphia: Brown, Bicking & Guilbert, 1840], 8-11). However, Charles Shook (The True Origin of the Book of Mormon [Cincinnati: Standard Publishing Co., 1914], 64), maintained that the residents of Conneaut (New Salem), Ohio, recognized the similarities between the two works as early as 1832 when Mormon missionaries first visited the region. This is countered by Orson Hyde, a missionary who traveled through Conneaut in 1832, converting some of Spaulding's neighbors. Hyde insisted that none "intimated to me that there was any similarity between the Book of Mormon and Mr. Spaulding's Romance." Hyde acknowledged that these neighbors had frequently heard the manuscript read aloud. Hyde's observations appear in Benjamin Winchester's Plain Facts Showing the Origin of the SpauIding Story. Concerning the Manuscript Found, and its Being Transformed in the Book of Mormon (Bedford, England: George J. Adams, 1841), 25. Joseph E. Johnson, a Mormon in Kirtland at the time, declared that the charge that the Spaulding manuscript had been the source of the Book of Mormon was made before Hurlbut went east to collect testimony (see Thomas Gregg, The Prophet of Palmyra [New York: John B. Allen, 1890], 428).

48. George A. Smith, Joseph Smith's cousin, said that Hurlbut had threatened that he would "wash his hands" in the prophet's blood and that the court proceedings which resulted from his threats discredited him in Ohio and caused Howe to assume authorship of the book (see "Historical Discourse," in JD n:8).

49. See Chardon Spectator and Geauga Gazette, 18 Jan. 1834, 2, which reports that Hurlbut searched in New York "on behalf of his fellow townsmen" (the article originally appeared in the Wayne Sentinel). Compare the Cleveland Herald, 22 March 1834, 2, where it is affirmed that Hurlbut was sent from Kirtland by a committee appointed during a "public meeting." Howe himself writes that he undertook the book after being solicited by "a great number of friends" (see the "advertisement" in front of the book).

50. This is suggested by Shook who alleges that the parallels between the two were discovered "in a meeting in Conneaut in 1832 or 1833 where a woman preacher read some of it" (p. 64).

51. Ibid., ix. On the all-but-universal acceptance of the theory until the turn of the century or a little after, see Lester E. Bush, Jr., "The Spaulding Theory Then and Now," Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought 10 ((Autumn 1977): 40-69.

52. William Alexander Linn, The Story of the Mormons (New York: Russell and Russell, 1963), 50.

53. See Daryl Chase, "Sidney Rigdon—Early Mormon," M.A. thesis, University of Chicago Divinity School, 1931, 36-37; compare "Faith of the Church of Christ in These Last Days," The Evening and the Morning Star 1 (April 1834): 290.

54. Ibid., 27, and compare Hayden, 299.

55. Campbell had changed his mind as to the authorship of the Book of Mormon. See Millennial Harbinger, 3rd Series, 1 (Jan. 1844): 38, and 4th Series, 6 (Dec. 1856): also Painesville Telegraph, 15 Mar. 1831, 1.

56. Linn, 62.

57. The Manuscript Found was later located in Hawaii but bore little resemblance to the Book of Mormon. Some witnesses claimed that Spaulding had written another work closer to the Book of Mormon, but this manuscript, it if exists, has never been found. For a thorough critique of the argument, see Bush, 53-61.

58. Compare Millennial Harbinger, 3rd Series, 1:38; and Linn, 63.

59. Isaac Woodbridge Riley, The Founder of Mormonism (New York: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1902), 369-95; Chase, 39-70; Brodie, 419-433; and Bush.

60. Brodie, 46-48.

61. See my "Secular or Sectarian History?: A Critique of No Man Knows My History," Church History 43 (March 1974): 78-96.

62. Among those newspapers editorializing on the Book of Mormon are the Rochester Daily Advertizer, 2 April 1830; The Gem (Rochester), 15 May 1830; The Chenango Republican (Oxford), 19 May 1830; the Ohio Star (Ravenna), 9 Dec. 1830. The Painesville Telegraph, which was to become a focal point of anti-Mormonism in Ohio, carried a piece on the book as early as 16 November 1830.

63. No contemporary caught the excitement in some circles better than Lucius Fenn, who wrote of the forthcoming book in February 1830 from Covert, New York, some fifty miles from Palmyra. Fenn observed, "There is something that has taken place lately that is mysterious to us…there has been a bible found.…It speaks of the millennium day and night and tells when it is going to take place" (in William Mulder and A. Russell Mortensen, eds, Among the Mormons [New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1958], 38).

64. Until June the revelations, later published in DC, had dealt entirely with the translation of the Book of Mormon.

65. Whitmer, 32.

66. BC, 34-39. The revelation was given to Oliver Cowdery and David Whitmer in June and is now DC 18. In the Book of Commandments the twelve were designated "disciples" as they had been in the Book of Mormon. Later editions, however, termed the twelve "apostles." See BM, 477-85, especially 485, and compare BC, 34, and DC (1835 edition), 172.

67. R. Kent Fielding, "The Growth of the Mormon Church in Kirtland, Ohio," Ph.D. diss., University of Indiana, 1957, 111-13. More recently, Mormon historian Richard Bushman (p. 240-55) acknowledged that the restoration of higher priesthood probably did not occur until two months after the church was organized.

68. Whitmer, 36, 64. Whitmer was wrong about the Book of Mormon not mentioning high priests. He was also inconsistent, ordaining high priests himself in the reorganization he planned with William E. McLellin in 1847 (see his letter to Oliver Cowdery, 8 Sept. 1847, in The Ensign of Liberty of the Church of Christ 1 [May 1848]: 83). Cowdery's views may be contained in Defence in a Rehearsal of My Grounds for Separating Myself from the Latter Day Saints (Norton, OH: Pressley's Job Office, 1839), 4 (although Richard L. Anderson, a professor of religion at Brigham Young University, questions the authenticity of this source, contending that there was no press in Norton in 1839). "The Book of John Whitmer," 8-9, copy in LDSCA. For McLellin's position, see LDSMS 40 (Dec. 1878): 770. John Corrill, A Brief History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Including Their Doctrine and Discipline (St. Louis: by the author, 1839), 18. Brewster's views are found in The Olive Branch 2 (Dec. 1849): 89-91. See also William Smith on Mormonism (Lamoni, IA: Herald Steam Book & Job Office, 1883), 20, and JD 9:89 for Brigham Young's address of 7 May 1861.

69. HC 1:175-76. Church historian John Whitmer wrote that at that time Joseph Smith "laid his hands upon Lyman Wight and ordained him to the high priesthood after the holy order of God" ("Book of John Whitmer," 8-9).

70. P. Pratt, 42, 68.

71. Whitmer, 64.

72. William Smith on Mormonism, 20.

73. JD 9:89.

74. HC 1:176n (the note was written by B. H. Roberts). Also see Bushman, 241.

75. Dan Vogel, Religious Seekers and the Advent of Mormonism (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1988).

76. 1 (Oct. 1834): 15.

77. BM, 575. Compare Moroni 3 in current LDS editions.

78. Ibid., 258-60. Compare Alma 13 in current LDS editions.

79. Whitmer, 66.

80. Painesville Telegraph, 7 Dec. 1830, 3.

81. I have elaborated on the primitive gospel movement in America and its impact on early Mormonism in "Christian Primitivism in the Origin and Development of the Mormon Kingdom," Ph.D. diss., University of Chicago, 1968.

82. Wesley P. Lloyd, a Mormon, wrote with some insight about the strengths and weaknesses of lay leadership in the Mormon church in "The Rise and Development of Lay Leadership in the Latter-day Saint Movement," Ph.D. diss., University of Chicago Divinity School, 1937. Significantly, Lloyd begins his chapter on "General Historical Background" with a description of "Lay Leadership in the Early Christian Church" (see pp. 6-8).

83. There is a difference of opinion on this. Compare David Whitmer's estimate of between sixty and seventy members (pp. 32//33) with the assessment of thirty made by Joseph Smith and supported by B. H. Roberts (HC 1:76-77, 84). Whitmer insists that the church was fully organized by the fall of 1829.

84. Whitmer, 33, writes that there was a branch at Fayette, one in Manchester, and one at Colesville. Later there may also have been one at Waterloo (see LMSms). Apparently, the Mormons had little success in Palmyra (see Brodie, 87, but compare LMSms, and Tucker, 79).

85. Smith said the church organization was formed "according to the order of the Church as recorded in the New Testament" (HC 1:79).

86. See BC, 48. This compares with DC 20:2.

87. BC, 45. Here Oliver Cowdery was told to ordain Smith a "prophet and seer" and that the church was to "give heed unto all his words and commandments."

88. Ibid., 48. Compare DC 20. The wording has been altered in the more recent version to make it clear that Smith was the first elder and Cowdery the second. But this comes through well enough in the original. See also Cowdery, 1.

89. BC, 51. Compare DC 20:39-44.

90. BC, 51-52, and HC 1:67-68.

91. HC 1:68. Compare BC, 54.

92. HC 1:69. Compare BC, 53. The convert had to be of the "age of accountability" and capable of repentance.

93. As indicated by Pearson H. Corbett in Hyrum Smith, Patriarch (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co, 1963), 75-78, thirty-two new members joined the Fayette branch from June to October 1830; a total of approximately 250 joined the church during the last nine months of 1830.

94. LMSms.

95. BC, 73, 75, 81, 82.

96. Ibid., 45. David Whitmer, Oliver Cowdery, and Hiram Page, one of the eight witnesses of the Book of Mormon, disapproved of this move (see Whitmer, 32-34, 45-48; Cowdery, 1; and The Olive Branch 2 [Aug. 1849]: 28).

97. They held that it contradicted the Book of Mormon. The revelation treated the sequence involved in repentance, baptism, and the forgiveness of sins. Cowdery believed that the church was claiming too much of the latter power, labeling this "priestcraft." See HC 1:104-105, and compare BM, 119, and BC, 51. Compare also Arbaugh, 60.

98. Newell Knight described these events in "Journal of Newell Knight," Scraps of Biography, Tenth Boob of the Faith Promoting Series (Salt Lake City, 1883), 64-65. Compare the recollections of Ezra Booth in the Painesville Telegraph, 20 Dec. 1831, who reports that Page's revelations were widely believed until Joseph's revelation condemned him. In 1953, official Mormon historian Joseph Fielding Smith wrote that "among other things [Page] claimed to have received a revelation making known the place where the City of Zion would be built" (Church History and Modern Revelation [Salt Lake City: Council of the Twelve Apostles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1953], 1:134-35).

99. According to David Whitmer, Smith gave up the seer stone after the Book of Mormon was translated. Whitmer believed that Joseph led the Saints astray afterward (p. 32).

100. Compare RLDS Saints' Herald 34 (5 Feb. 1887), where Whitmer denied that secret meetings were held "in any house."

101. Oliver may indeed have received some revelations of his own at this time. In BC, 67, he was told "thou shalt not write by way of commandment but by wisdom." Ezra Booth indicated that Cowdery received some of the revelations. Booth's eighth letter, dated 20 Nov. 1831, appeared in the Painesville Telegraph, 20 Dec. 1831, 2-3. A revelation in Cowdery's hand, dating from 1829, some of which Booth quotes, is located in LDSCA.

102. God told Cowdery "no one shall receive revelations in this church excepting my servant Joseph" (BC, 67).

103. Ibid., 61. The gathering in New York into small communities may have come as a defensive measure as a result of persecution. See LMSms and notice that Hiram Page complained later that the gathering, "is sowing the seeds of discord." He does not say whether he opposed the gathering this early. Page's letter to J. C. Brewster, written in June 1849, appears in The Olive Branch 2 (Aug. 1849):28.

104. In his Autobiography (p. 55) Parley Pratt wrote that he told the Indians they would be restored to all their "rights and privileges" if they accepted the Book of Mormon. This no doubt referred to a restoration of their lands which Andrew Jackson had taken from them.

105. BC, 82.

106. Ibid., 80, 83. These revelations on going to Ohio were given after Rigdon joined the church and came east in December to visit Smith. Rigdon was told in a revelation that the Lord had chosen "the weak things of the world, those who are unlearned and despised, to thrash the nations by the power of my spirit.…and their enemies shall be under their feet and I will let the sword fall in their behalf" (ibid., 77).

107. Ibid., 83. The Saints were promised "ye shall have no king nor ruler, for I will be your king.…and ye shall have no laws, when I come, for I am your lawgiver" (ibid., 80).

108. Ibid., 83-84. Compare page 82 where the Saints were told that every man must "esteem his brother as himself," for "what man among you, having twelve sons…and he saith unto one be thou clothed in rags." The Law of Consecration which established communitarianism among the Mormons was not given until a month after this.

109. Ibid., 83.

110. See Whitney R. Cross, The Burned-over District: The Social and Intellectual History of Enthusiastic Religion in Western New York, 1800-1850 (New York: Cornell University Press, 1950), 146-50, who views early Mormonism as an eastern, not western, movement.

The Mormon elders had been cautioned by God to tarry until the Book of Mormon was translated before taking the gospel to distant cities (BC, 29-30; this is section 20 in more recent editions). John Corrill, who joined the church in January 1831, tells of the dramatic announcement of a new revelation by the first missionaries (see Cotrill, 10, and compare Orson Pratt, "Divine Authority, or the Question Was Joseph Smith Sent of God?" Series of Pamphlets, 4-6). Also see P. Pratt, 84-89.

A typical, if unusually talented, convert was Sidney Rigdon. Hayden, 186, recalled Rigdon's enthusiasm for the Millennium while still a Campbellite. Alexander Campbell said that Rigdon told him that "were Joseph to be proved a liar, or say himself that he never found the Book of Mormon as he reported, still he would believe it, and believe that all who did not believe shall be damned" (Millennial Harbinger 2 [4 July 1831]: 331).

111. Orson Pratt, "Divine Authenticity of the Book of Mormon," LDSMS 12 (Dec. 1850): 318-82. This series of articles by Pratt appears at the back of vol. 12 as a separate brochure. I have continued the paging of the Star, however, so that the exact pages can be found quickly.

112. Winthrop H. Hudson discussed with insight the basic assumptions American pluralism imposed. He sees the notion that God's truth could only be adequately manifest through many different church doctrines and organizations as basic to American thinking and maintains that the con. cept was hammered out during the Puritan revolution in England and transported to the United States. The "theory," if it were that formal, was hardly articulated so clearly by most Americans but came more in the nature of a tacit understanding or compromise. Nonetheless, support for the existing variety of denominations was overwhelming, and the Mormons could win no favor for themselves by staunchly insisting that theirs was the only road to Jesus Christ's kingdom. See American Protestantism (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1961), 37-48, but compare Perry Miller, "The Contribution of the Protestant Church to Religious Liberty in America," Church History 4 (March 1935), 57-66, and Sidney E. Mead, in Church History 25:317,334-35.

113. See HC 1:9, 18-19, 43-44, 59, 84, 86-96, 108. Compare LMSms. Some of these situations occurred in Pennsylvania but during the years indicated. Compare "Journal of Newell Knight," 53, for confirmation of one incident in which opposition to Mormon baptisms led to the tearing down of a dam that had been constructed for that purpose. HC 1:88 records the charges against Smith. Compare "Journal of Newell Knight," 55.

114. Evangelical Magazine and Gospel Advocate 2 (April 1831).

115. HC 6:393. Reid told this story in 1844.

116. Palmyra Reflector, 1 Feb. 1831, 95.

117. Ibid., 19 April 1830, 130.

118. Ibid., 30 June 1830, 53. Compare also "Book of John Whitmer," 2, where Whitmer reports a prophecy by Smith made at this time that God would soon destroy this generation. See also JH, 21 Aug. 1830, where Newell Knight heard Smith prophesy that the wrath of God would overtake their persecutors.

119. Smith acknowledged that "the first public discourse delivered by any Mormon came on April 11, 1830 and was given by Oliver Cowdery" (HC 1:81). "A. W. B." charged that Smith met secretly in South Bainbridge with his followers (Evangelical Magazine and Gospel Advocate 2 [9 April 1831]). These meetings may have been held before 1830. John Whitmer confirms the secret meetings. He indicates that while in the church's "infancy" the "disciples used to exclude unbelievers, which caused some to marvel, and converse about this matter because of the things that were written in the Book of Mormon" (see "Book of John Whitmer," 6).

120. The Prophet, 8 June 1844, 2.

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