CHAPTER III.

HISTORY OF MORMONISM.

Theories in regard to Origin of Indians.-Solomon Spaulding.-His Manuscript Found."-Sidney Rigdon.-Joseph Smith, Jr.-His Parentage and early Habits.-Discovers some curious Antiquities. -Golden Bible discovered and translated.-Characters submitted to Professor Anthon.-His Letter.

THE antiquities of the Old World-its pyramids, ruined cities, dilapidated baronial castles, broken shafts and columns-are, with few exceptions, of well-known historical periods. They serve to illustrate the various phases, from barbarism to civilization, through which mankind from distant eras have passed; and there is enough of obscurity and myth in their history to render their study interesting to the antiquary.

The case is entirely different with the New World. Its history, anterior to the discovery of Columbus, is involved in a mystery more impenetrable than the past physical changes of the globe. The latter are measurably illustrated by the various formations which compose the earth's crust, and the fossil remains which lie imbedded in its strata, while the former is lost in the confused, absurd, and contradictory traditions of its barbarous native population. There are the remains of ruined cities in the neighborhood of the Isthmus of Panama; but, if we are to credit the earlier discoverers of America, these cities are comparatively of modern origin. There are also hieroglyphics, glyphs,

C

mounds, obscure traces of fortifications, &c., all exhibiting the existence of a people but little in advance of the barbarous and semi-barbarous tribes and nations found by the original discoverers. Where these people came from-how many states and nations had existed among them-through what changes, revolutionary or otherwise, they had passed, are things involved in obscurity, to penetrate which the ingenuity and imagination of many persons have been exercised from the time of Columbus to the present. A favorite theory, in support of which much learning and acuteness have been manifested, has been to people the North American Continent from the wandering tribes of Israel.

In or about the year 1809, a man by the name of Solomon Spaulding, a graduate of Dartmouth College, removed from Cherry Valley, in the State of New York, to New Salem (Conneaught), Ashtabula county, Ohio. At one period of his life he was a clergyman, but seems to have laid aside that profession for secular business, in which he failed, and his bankruptcy was the immediate motive of his removal to Ohio.

New Salem, or Conneaught, as it is sometimes called, is rich in American antiquities-mounds, fortifications, and sundry relics of a past race, in which Spaulding, who was a man of learning and imagination, took an unusual interest. He adopted the theory which peoples America from the Israelites, and readily conceived and carried out the idea of writing a fictitious history of this ancient race, influenced partly by his literary tastes, and partly by the hope of making money by the sale of the book. His work was styled the

"Manuscript Found," and purported to be the translation of an ancient manuscript found by him; and to make the story as consistent as possible, he endeavored to imitate the style of the Scriptures, in which he was aided by his previous biblical studies. He describes the departure of a family of Jews—the father, Lehi, and four sons, Laman, Lemuel, Sam, and Nephi, with their wives-from Jerusalem into the wilderness, in the reign of Zedekiah, and, after various wanderings, their voyage to the Western Continent, under the leadership of Nephi, one of the brothers. On their journey and voyage they became distracted by dissensions, which in America resulted in their division into hostile tribes, which branched out and populated the country, built up large cities, engaged in fierce wars, and underwent various changes and revolutions. Laman appears to have been the focus of disaffection in this imaginary family, and his descendants became a very powerful nation or tribe, under the name of Lamanites, engaging frequently in wars, and destroying the country and cities of the more peaceable Nephites. The frequency of these wars eventually broke up and destroyed the regular avocations of peace; the people became barbarized, and split up into predatory bands, plundering and murdering each other, until, in fine, they degenerated into the vagabond Indians of the American Continent. Besides the names already mentioned, the names of Mormon, Moroni, Mosiah, Helaman, and others, frequently occur in the book, and represent the heroes, prophets, and great men who figured in this drama. As Spaulding progressed with his work, he was in the habit of amusing himself and sundry of

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