his neighbors by reading to them his manuscript, and availed himself of their observations in making emendations and additions. He labored upon it for about three years, at the end of which, in 1812, he removed to Pittsburg, Pa., where he became intimate with a printer by the name of Patterson, in whose hands he placed the manuscript, with the design of having it published, and with him it remained a number of years.

Sidney Rigdon, a man of some versatility—a kind of religious Ishmaelite—sometimes a Campbellite preacher, and sometimes a printer, and at all times fond of technical disputations in theology-was at this time in the employment of Patterson, and became so much interested in the "Manuscript Found" as to copy it, "as he himself has frequently stated."

No satisfactory contract appears to have been made for the printing; at least, it was delayed, for some reason or other, until Spaulding found it necessary to remove from Pittsburg to Amity, in Washington county, New York, where he died in 1816. What subsequently became of the original manuscript does not very distinctly appear, owing to the death of Spaulding, and also that of Patterson in 1826. According to a statement of Mrs. Spaulding, made in 1839, it was taken from Pittsburg by her husband, and after his death remained in her hands, with other of his papers, in a trunk. She subsequently remarried, and this trunk, with the manuscript, was left in Otsego county; but on search being made, in or about the year 1839, by some persons interested in exposing the pretensions of Joseph Smith, Jr., then attracting some attention, the important document was not to be found.

In the year 1815, the father of Joseph Smith, Jr., removed with his family of boys from the county of Windsor, Vermont, to Palmyra, New York, from which he subsequently removed to Manchester, in the county of Ontario, remaining in both places about eleven years. He was a laboring man, and professed to be a farmer, but he manufactured and peddled baskets and wooden bowls, and, withal, his employments appear to have been of a miscellaneous character, not very consistent with regular industry. The members of the family were held in light estimation by their neighbors, some of whom subsequently described them as "notorious for breach of contracts and the repudiation of their honest debts."

Joseph, Jr., was ten years old when the family first settled in Palmyra, and, as represented by those hostile to his subsequent pretensions, he grew up among bad associates, totally averse to any thing in the shape of regular industry, and a ready adept in the art of "living by one's wits." His physiognomy indicated sensuality and cunning, in which latter trait his mind was unusually versatile. He affected great mystery in his movements; pretended to the gift of discovering hidden treasures, and the possession of seer-stones by which they could be found; traveled about the country, appearing and disappearing in a mysterious manner; possessed a plausible and wordy jargon, by which many minds are easily captivated; and, in various ways, cheated and robbed sundry simpletons, who were persuaded to credit his pretensions. Nor did he confine his attention to any single branch of the business of deception, but allowed himself to be drawn into the

vortex of a pseudo-religious revival, and became quite as wordy in the vocabulary of hypocritical cant.

On the other hand, his subsequent followers allege, that, though of very humble origin, and of extremely limited education, he was of retired habits, and religiously disposed; that, as early as fifteen years of age, "he began seriously to reflect upon the necessity of being prepared for a future state of existence, spending much of his time in prayer and other acts of devotion." They do not deny that he may, in common parlance, have been a "money-digger;" but claim that, whatever had been the character of his occupations, or the method of their performance, he was afterward rendered pure by the forgiveness of his sins. Which is the true and which the false construction of the early character of this remarkable man, depends, of course, upon the evidence furnished by his subsequent career.

During Smith's searching operations for the discovery of hidden treasures, it is more than probable that he exhumed one or more of those curious glyphs which now figure so largely in the list of American antiquities. These consist of metallic plates, covered with hieroglyphical characters. Professor Rafinesque, in his Asiatic Journal for 1832, describes similar plates found by him in Mexico as being "written from top to bottom, like the Chinese, or from side to side indifferently, like the Egyptian and the Demotic Libyan.” A number of these remains were found in 1843, near Kinderhook, Pike county, Illinois, and described as "six plates of brass of a bell shape, each having a hole near the small end, and a ring through all, and clasped with

two clasps. The ring and clasps appeared to be iron, very much oxydated. The plates first appeared to be copper, and had the appearance of being covered with characters. A subsequent cleansing by sulphuric acid brought out the characters distinctly." It seems to be strongly confirmed that Smith discovered one of these singular specimens of American antiquity, in the fact that, soon after the alleged discovery of the golden Bible, he sent Martin Harris to Professor Anthon with characters which, according to the professor's description, are identical with those which appear upon them.

In the course of his wanderings, Smith met with, and formed the acquaintance of, Sidney Rigdon. According to that view of the case which proceeds upon the hypothesis that he was an impostor, it would not be unreasonable to believe that these two men together conceived the idea of starting a system of religious imposture upon a scale commensurate with the popular credulity. Conjointly they possessed, in mercantile phrase, the requisite capital for such an adventure. Smith had cunning, plausible volubility, seer stones, mysterious antiquities, and, withal, the prestige of success; Sidney was versed in the "lights and shadows" of religious verbiage, had some literary pretensions, was a printer, and, above all, had a copy of Spaulding's book. Which started the bright idea of the Golden Bible is not known, though in all likelihood the credit is due to Smith, as he ever after maintained the ascendency in the new hierarchy. After the plan had assumed a definite form and shape in the minds of the originators, it was easy for Joseph, in his perambulations, to

trace out and secure the original manuscript of Spaulding, to guard the intended scheme from exposure, and the lapse of time and death of many of the parties seemed to make it safe to dispense with any alteration of names in the new Bible. To Smith was reserved the honor of making the first open demonstration, because success in deception had rendered him bold and skillful. Sidney was not to come in until some time afterward, and then ostensibly as a convert to the new religion; this would give time to see what kind of an earthquake the mixture of iron filings and sulphur was likely to produce, and his conversion would help to increase the commotion. Accordingly, we find him striking his colors to the first broadside of Parley P. Pratt, one of the earliest Mormon preachers. All things being in readiness, Smith, in due season, emerged from the chrysalis of a money-digger to the butterfly of a prophet and herald of a new dispensation. A portion of mankind have been looking for the last days for the past eighteen hundred years, and at the period in question were ready to run into Millerism or any other ism whereby their notions could be accommodated in this respect. A prophet, therefore, who could superadd to the discovery of a golden Bible a proclamation of the speedy destruction of all mundane things, a power of attorney for the restoration of an authorized priesthood and the gathering of the Saints, and make a formidable display of miraculous powers, was the most acceptable gift which could be made to popular superstition. Here, then, would seem to have been combined the elements of an imposture which has since branched out and gathered strength, until it has