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THE ORIGINAL PROPHET.
BY A VISITOR TO SALT LAKE CITY.
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Among the Mormons commonly, three things only are stated of the founder of their faith -- that an angel appeared to him, that
he translated the Book of Mormon by Divine inspiration, and that he sealed his testimony by a martyr's death. And the better
informed among them, and even their teachers and apostles, the personal friends of Joseph Smith in old days, have little more
to say. I was surprised at the scantiness of the information to be obtained. Mormons of standing like Orson Pratt, John Taylor,
Squire Wells, and Miss Snow seemed perfectly willing to tell me all they could recollect about the prophet, but almost all
particulars of his method of life, his ways of speaking and acting, had apparently faded from memory, too indistinctive to have
left a deep trace. No one could recollect of him those small personal incidents, or characteristic habits, or striking pieces
of expression, which are usually treasured so carefully of noted personages. Nor have I succeeded in finding many such particulars
in print. It is possible that the Mormons dimly suspect that the less precise their knowledge of the prophet, the more profound
their veneration is likely to be.
The accounts of Joseph Smith given by anti-Mormons are similarly barren of such pieces of personal information as might serve
to reveal his inner character, and are besides written commonly with a rancour so intense as to impair their authority as
statements of fact.
The prophet has left behind a voluminous autobiography; but, to one's disappointment, it is found to consist almost exclusively
of a mass of verbose revelations republished in the authoritative Book of Doctrine and Covenants, and forming, with the
exception of the Book of Mormon, the most puerile and tedious reading in the world.
I suggested to a number of the leading saints that anecdotes and matters of interest connected with the prophet should be
searched for and placed on record before tho generation that knew him has passed away. On one of these occasions the Church
librarian at Salt Lake City seconded myproposal earnestly.
'But what is the use of it, brother Campbell,' Apostle Orson Pratt replied solemnly, 'since we shall have brother Joseph
among us again soon?'
The example of the Evangelists was urged by some one present. They had been told that some among them 'should not see death'
before the Saviour reappeared, yet this did not deter them from writing the Gospels.
'It does not follow that because they were mistaken we shall be also,' was the answer. 'No: brother Joseph will be amongst us
again, at least in our children's time.'
There was a general agreement in the descriptions given me of Joseph Smith's personal appearance. He seems to have been a large
man, well made, of an unusually muscular development. As a young man he was the great wrestler of the district; and he was
fond of showing his strength after he rose to his sacred dignity. His complexion was singularly transparent, his eyes large
and full, and very penetrating. When excited in conversation or in preaching his face became 'illuminated,' as Apostle Q.
Cannon expressed it,
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and he would say things 'of astonishing depth.' Ordinarily his talk was quiet and commonplace. His manner was generally sedate,
but at times he would grow 'buoyant and playful as a child.' It is said that he used sometimes to get excited with drink. It
is not denied that he had a strongly sensual temperament. No one who had personally known him would allow to me that he had
a specially religious or nervous organisation. His was no brain 'turned by rapt and melancholy musings.' He was no religious
fanatic, they insisted. 'All was calm conviction and assurance.'
In Mr. J. H. Beadle's Life in Utah, published in Philadelphia, 1870, one of the most moderate anti-Mormon publications, I find
the following characteristic description of the prophet: 'He was full of levity, even to boyish romping, dressed like a dandy,
and at times drank like a sailor, and swore like a pirate. He could, as occasion required, be exceedingly meek in his deportment,
and then again rough and boisterous as a highway robber; being always able to satisfy his followers of the propriety of his
conduct. He always quailed before power, and was arrogant to weakness. At times he could put on the air of a penitent, as if
feeling the deepest humiliation for his sins, and suffering unutterable anguish, and indulging in the most gloomy forebodings
of eternal woe. At such times he would call for the prayers of his brethren in his behalf with a wild and fearful energy and
earnestness. He was full six feet high, strongly built, and uncommonly well muscled. No doubt he was as much indebted for his
influence over an ignorant people to the superiority of his physical vigour as to his greater cunning and intellect.'
A large oil-painting of the prophet is carefully preserved in Brigham Young's reception-room at Salt Lake. No malicious report
of his enemies is so damning to Joseph Smith's character as that portrait. The face is large; the eyes big, watery, and
prominent; the cheeks puffy; the upper lip long, the lips thick and sensual. The chin is small; the cheek-bones are unpleasantly
prominent; the forehead recedes in a fashion scarcely human. The prophet has long brown hair, straight, and lumped at the ears.
He wears a high collar with a redundant white neck-cloth. The whole appearance of the head, bulky, awkward, ill-set, with bulbous
eyes, and the horridly receding forehead, is abnormal, and repulsive in the extreme. A conviction seizes irresistibly on the
spectator that it must be the head of a criminal or of an idiot. No believer in the prophet should be suffered to see that painting.
[ added graphic -- not in original 1873 article ]
To avoid a conflict of claims among the cities of America to tin honour of having produced the modern prophet, he is careful
to give us in his autobiography full information. 'I was born,' he writes. 'in the year of Our Lord one thousand eight hundred
and five, on the twenty-third of December, in the town of Sharon, Windsor County. State of Vermont.' Like many another man who
has risen to greatness by unaided genius, Joseph Smith came of mean parentage. 'As my father's worldly circumstances were very
limited,' he tells us, 'we were under the necessity of labouring with our hands, hiring by day's work and otherwise, as we could
get opportunity.' The lowly origin of the regenerator of modern society naturally excites the fervour of the Mormon muse. In her
Fragments of an Epic, Miss Snow rapturously exclaims:
Was he an earthly prince -- of royal blood?
Had he been bred in courts, or dandled on
The lap of luxury? Or was
His name emblazoned on the spire of Fame?
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Oh, no! He was not of a kingly race,
Nor could he be denominated great
If balanced in the scale of worldly rank.
Scarcely perhaps -- especially if the commonly repeated accounts of the family are to be credited. An affidavit of eleven of
their neighbours, taken in November 1833, stigmatises the Smith family as 'a lazy, indolent set of men,' 'intemperate,'
their word not to be depended on. 'They avoided honest labour,' the New American Cyclopaedia, says, 'and occupied themselves
chiefly in digging for hidden treasures and in similar visionary pursuits. They were intemperate and untruthful, and were
commonly suspected of sheep-stealing and other offences. Upwards of sixty of the most respectable citizens of Wayne County
testified in 1833, under oath, that the Smith family were of immoral, false, and fraudulent character, and that Joseph was
the worst of them.'
The history of the migrations of the family has been preserved both in prose and in stately verse:
Vermont, a land much fam'd for hills and snows,
And blooming cheeks, may boast the honour of
The prophet's birth-place.
Ere ten summers' suns
Had bound their wreath upon his youthful brow,
His father with his family removed;
And in New York, Ontario County, since
Called Wayne, selected them a residence:
First in Palmyra, then in Manchester.
It was in the last-named spot that the youth received his call to become a 'revelator' of sacred mysteries. Mormonism springs
from a Methodist revival.
'Some time in the second year after our removal to Manchester,' Joseph Smith writes, 'there was in the place where we lived
an unusual excitement on the subject of religion. It commenced with the Methodists, but soon became general among all the
sects in that region of country....
'I was at this time in my fifteenth year. My father's family were proselyted to the Presbyterian faith.'
'During this time of great excitement my mind was called up to serious reflection and great uneasiness.... La process of time
my mind became somewhat partial to the Methodist sect; but so great was the confusion and strife among the different
denominations,' that it was not possible to 'come to any certain conclusion who were right, and who were wrong.'
He narrates that in his perplexity a great effect was produced on his mind by the passage in the Epistle of James, 'If any
man lack wisdom, let him ask of God.' 'I reflected on it again and again,' he says, 'knowing that if any person needed wisdom
from God, I did.'
He retired to the woods; 'it was on the morning of a beautiful clear day, early in the spring of 1820.' A vision appeared to
him: 'I saw a pillar of light exactly over my head, above the brightness of the sun, which descended gradually till it fell
upon me.' Then straightway he 'saw two personages, whose brightness and glory defy all description, standing above' him in the
air. One of these told him plumply that he was to join none of the churches, 'for they were all wrong; that all their creeds
were an abomination in his sight, and that those professors were all corrupt.'
The boy communicated his vision to some Methodist preachers and 'professors.' They took the matter seriously, and argued
against his assertions. From that moment his destiny in life as a 'revelator' was fixed. He expresses very naively the effect
produced on his boyish vanity: 'It caused me serious reflection then, and often has since, how very strange it was that an
obscure boy, of a little over fourteen years of age, and one, too, who was doomed to the necessity of obtaining a scanty
maintenance by his daily labour, should be thought a character
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of sufficient importance to attract the attention of the great ones of the most populous sects of the day, so as to create
in them a spirit of the hottest persecution and reviling.'
The spectacle of the boy, exposed to the long arguments of the Methodist local preachers and the unbelieving ridicule of
his companions, moves deeply the compassion of Miss Snow's great-souled muse:
An awful avalanche
Of persecution fell upon him, hurl'd
By the rude blast of cleric influence!
Contempt, reproach, and ridicule were poured
Like thunderbolts, in black profusion, o'er
His youthful head.
More than three years, however, passed before the proved possibility of his becoming a religious seer issued in any definite
plan. During this interval he appears from his own confession to have abandoned himself freely to a variety of youthful vices.
'I was left to all kinds of temptation,' he writes;' and mingling with all kinds of society, I frequently fell into many
foolish errors, and displayed the weakness of youth, and the corruption of human nature; which, I am sorry to say, led me
into divers temptations, to the gratification of many appetites offensive in the sight of God.'
I have italicised some of the expressions in this confession for a special reason. In the copy of the Autobiography in the
Historian's Office, Salt Lake, from which I made these extracts, the words I have thus marked are crossed through with ink.
It will be perceived that if the passage be reprinted as thus trimmed, the sense will be much modified. This is but a
trivial example of the way in which piety will lend itself to fraud for the honour of religion, and is scarcely perhaps
worth mentioning. If Mormonism lives, as it promises to do, the process of purifying and exalting the prophet's character
will no doubt be carried to great lengths.
Joseph Smith states that throughout these three years of gaiety and self-indulgence he was 'all the time suffering severe
persecution at the hands of all classes of men,' because, he writes, 'I continued to affirm that I had seen a vision.'
If neither the prophet's memory nor imagination makes a slip here, he must at this time already hare learnt the lesson
that immorality of life could subsist with exceptional religious pretensions.
In September, 1823, Joseph had his second vision. 'A personage appeared at my bed-side,' he says, 'standing in the air....
His whole person was glorious beyond description, and his countenance truly like lightning.' This was none other but Nephi,
the inspired writer of the early part of the Book of Mormon, who had descended to earth to bring the young man the nattering
intelligence that his name 'should be had for good and evil among all nations,' and that there existed a book 'written upon
gold plates,' containing 'the fulness of the everlasting gospel,' which Joseph would be permitted to translate by means of
Urim and Thummim, two stones set in silver like vast spectacles, when the fulness of the appointed time was come.
The vision was repeated three times, and he was told to visit yearly a certain hill, 'convenient to the village of Manchester,'
until the plates should be given him. On September 22, 1827, 'the name heavenly messenger delivered them up' to him. During
these three years young Smith does not appear to have risen in the public estimation. He is represented as being an idler
and vagabond, with a sincere dislike of honest work, and a considerable talent for imposition, cultivated by pretences of
the discovery of gold, hidden treasure, and springs of salt and of oil. These charges appear to have been made out
conclusively
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against the young man before various justices, according to a number of 'proceedings' which have since been collected and
published.
During my stay in Salt Lake permission was courteously accorded me to copy out a set of such judicial proceedings not hitherto
published. I cannot doubt their genuineness. The original papers were lent me by a lady of well-known position, in whose
family they had been preserved since the date of the transactions. I reproduce them here, partly to fulfil a duty of assisting
to preserve a piece of information about the prophet, and partly because, while the charges are less vehement than some I
might have chosen, the proceedings are happily lightened by a touch of the ludicrous.
STATE OF NEW YORK v. JOSEPH SMITH.
Warrant issued upon written complaint upon oath of Peter G. Bridgeman, who informed that one Joseph Smith of Bainbridge was
a disorderly person and an impostor.
Prisoner brought before Court March 20, 1826. Prisoner examined: says that he came from the town of Palmyra, and had been at
the house of Josiah Stowel in Bainbridge most of time since; had small part of time been employed in looking for mines, but
the major part had been employed by said Stowel on his farm, and going to school. That he had a certain stone which he had
occasionally looked at to determine where hidden treasures in the bowels of the earth were; that he professed to tell in this
manner where gold mines were a distance under ground, and had looked for Mr. Stowel several times, and had informed him where
he could find these treasures, and Mr. Stowel had been engaged in digging for them. That at Palmyra he pretended to tell by
looking at this stone where coined money was buried in Pennsylvania, and while at Palmyra had frequently ascertained in that
way where lost property was of various kinds; that he had occasionally been in the habit of looking through this stone to
find lost property for three years, but of late had pretty much given it up on account of its injuring his health, especially
his eyes, making them sore; that he did not solicit business of this kind, and had always rather declined having anything to
do with this business.
Josiah Stowel sworn: says that prisoner had been at his house something like five months; had been employed by him to work
on farm part of time; that he pretended to have skill of telling where hidden treasures in the earth were by means of looking
through a certain stone; that prisoner had looked for him sometimes; once to tell him about money buried in Bend Mountain
in Pennsylvania, once for gold on Monument Hill, and once for a salt spring; and that he positively knew that the prisoner
could tell, and did possess the art of seeing those valuable treasures through the medium of said stone; that he found the
[word illegible - digging part?] at Bend and Monument Hill as prisoner represented it; 'that prisoner had looked through
said stone for Deacon Attleton for a mine, did not exactly find it, but got a p-- [word unfinished - piece?] of ore which
resembled gold, he thinks; that prisoner had told by means of this stone where a Mr. Bacon had buried money; that he and
prisoner had been in search of it; that prisoner had said it was in a certain root of a stump five feet from surface of the
earth, and with it would be found a tail feather; that said Stowel and prisoner thereupon commenced digging, found a tail
feather, but money was gone; that he supposed the money moved down. That prisoner did offer his services; that he never
deceived him; that prisoner looked through stone and described Josiah Stowel's house and outhouses, while at Palmyra at
Simpson Stowel's, correctly; that he had told about a painted tree, with a man's head painted upon it, by means of said
stone. That he had been in company with prisoner digging for gold, and had the most implicit faith in prisoner's skill.
Arad Stowel sworn: says that he went to see whether prisoner could convince him that he possessed the skill he professed to
have, upon which prisoner laid a book upon a white cloth, and proposed looking through another stone which was white and
transparent, hold the stone to the candle, turn his head to book, and read. The deception appeared so palpable that witness
went on disgusted.
McMaster sworn: says he went with Arad Stowel, and likewise came away disgusted. Prisoner pretended to him that he could
discover objects at a distance by holding this white stone to the sun or candle; that prisoner rather declined looking into
a hat at his dark coloured stone, as he said that it hurt his eyes.
Jonathan Thompson says that prisoner was requested to look for chest of money; did look, and pretended to know where it was;
and that prisoner, Thompson, and
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Yeomans went in search of it; that Smith arrived at spot first; was at night; that Smith looked in hat while there, and
when very dark, and told how the chest was situated. After digging several feet, struck upon something sounding like a board
or plank. Prisoner would not look again, pretending that he was alarmed on account of the circumstances relating to the
trunk being buried, [which] came all fresh to his mind. That the last time he looked he discovered distinctly the two Indians
who buried the trunk, that a quarrel ensued between them, and that one of said Indians was killed by the other, and thrown
into the hole beside the trunk, to guard it, as he supposed. Thompson says that he believes in the prisoner's professed skill;
that the board which he struck his spade upon was probably the chest, but on account of an enchantment the trunk kept settling;
away from under them when digging; that notwithstanding they continued constantly removing the dirt, yet the trunk kept about
the same distance from them. Says prisoner said that it appeared to him that salt might be found at Bainbridge, and that he
is certain that prisoner can divine things by means of said stone. That as evidence of the fact prisoner looked into his hat
to tell him about some money witness lost sixteen years ago. and that he desoribed the man that witness supposed had taken it,
and tho disposition of the money:
And therefore the Court find the Defendant guilty. Costs: Warrant, 19c. Complaint upon oath, 25 1/2c. Seven witnesses, 87 1/2c.
Recognisances, 25c. Mittimus, 19c. Recognisances of witnesses, 75c. Subpoena, 18c. -- $2.68.
It was among an ignorant and credulous people of this kind, capable of believing in the necromantic virtues of a big stone
held in a hat, and of treasure descending perpetually under the spades of the searchers by enchantment, a people already
prepared for any bold superstition by previous indulgence in a variety of religious extravagances, that Joseph Smith found
his early coadjutors and his first converts.
The work of translating the mysteriously-given golden plates lasted two full years. The first edition of the Book of Mormon
was published in 1830. During this period a number of contemptible quarrels occurred between the prophet and his helpers, which
were all decided in the prophet's favour by verbose tautological revelations of unendurable wearisomeness. The picture given us
of the prophet at work is characteristic of the whole business. He would sit behind a blanket hung across the room to screen the
sacred plates from mortal eyes, and read aloud slowly his translation, made by the aid of the big spectacles, to a friend who
wrote it down. Mr. Orson Pratt told me that 'brother Joseph' ceased to use the Urim and Thummim, however, 'when he became
thoroughly embued with the spirit of revelation.'
Martin Harris, afterwards an apostate, was the first transcriber; through his treachery, or that of his wife, or possibly
from a desire on their part to put the prophet's pretensions to a test, the new religion came near to perishing in the birth.
The earlier portion of the manuscript work was secreted by one or other of the couple. The 'Revelations ' to Joseph Smith on
this matter are extremely trying to the patience of a reader. A fragment from the mass will serve as a sample of the character
and style of these compositions, and will show how the prophet escaped from, his perplexity.
From the 'Revelation,' May 1829.
Behold. I say unto you, that you shall not translate again those words which have gone forth out of your hands;
for behold they shall not accomplish their evil designs in lying against those words. For behold, if you shall
bring forth the same words, they will say that you have lied; that you have protended to translate, but that
you have contradicted yourself; and behold, they will publish this, and Satan will harden the hearts of the
people, to stir them up to anger against you. that they will not believe my words. Thus Satan thinketh to
overpower your testimony in this generation; but behold, here is wisdom; and because I show unto you wisdom,
and give you commandments concerning these things what you shall do, show it not unto the world until you have
accomplished the work of translation....
And now verily I say unto you, that an
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account of those things that you have Written, which have gone out of your hands, are engraven upon the plates
of Nephi; yea and you remember it was said in those writings that a more particular account was given of these
things upon the plates of Nephi.
And now, because the account which is emgraven upon the plates of Nephi is more particular concerning the things
which in my wisdom I would bring to the knowledge of the people in this account, therefore you shall translate the
engravings which are on the plates of Nephi down even till you come to the reign of King Benjamin, or until you
come to that which you have translated, which you have retained; and behold, you shall publish it as the record of
Nephi, and thus will I confound those who have altered my words. I will not suffer that they shall destroy my work;
yea, I will show unto them that my wisdom is greater than the cunning of the devil.
The result of the unbelief of Martin Harris has been to inflict on the faithful Mormon a still more unconscionable quantity
of matter in his sacred book than was originally intended.
With his second amanuensis, Oliver Cowdery, who also finally apostatised, Joseph Smith had likewise much difficulty. On the
whole, however, this man proved for a long time sufficiently submissive, and was rewarded by receiving, through the prophet,
a number of verbose revelations of the usual tedious character.
It was this man who enjoined the remarkable honour of being associated with Joseph Smith in receiving back to earth the
long-lost powers of the apostolic priesthood. On May 15, 1829, in a certain spot in the woods, no less a personage than John
the Baptist appeared to these two favoured mortals, placing his hands on them, and ordaining them with these words: 'Unto
you, my fellow-servants, in the name of the Messiah, I confer the Priesthood of Aaron, which holds the keys of the ministering
of angels, and of the gospel of repentance, and of baptism by immersion for tie remission of sins.'
Whereupon the two went straightway to water and baptised each other, and immediately 'experienced great and glorious
blessings,' and 'standing up, prophesied concerning the rise of the church, and many other things.'
A number of Smiths and others were shortly afterwards baptised, and a small church was already in existence when the new
sacred book appeared in print.
The Golden Bible, as this book was called at first, contains an account of the early peopling of the American continent by a
colony of Jews; the history of the faithful Nephites; their wars with the Lamanites, a people condemned for their sins to wear
red skins, and 'become an idle people, full of mischief and subtlety,' the American Indians of our day; the visit of Christ
to the Nephites after the resurrection, and the establishment among them of Christianity; the destruction of the Nephites by
the heathen Lamanites; the hiding away of the historical plates on the hill Cumorah, where the final stand of the Christian
forces was made, and where they were found fourteen centuries after by Joseph Smith. No fuller account of the book is necessary:
it can be obtained at a small cost through any bookseller.
This poor performance, a dull and verbose imitation of the English version of the Old Testament, can scarcely bo considered
in its conception and execution beyond the capacity of the money-digger and his little clique of helpers. Yet it seems that
so much honour is not rightly their due. The real origin of the book appears to be one of the most singular incidents ever
connected with the rise of a new faith. The Mormon Bible turns out, apparently, to be a modified and diluted version of a poor
historical romance, that could never find a publisher.
It seems that one Solomon Spalding,
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a graduate of Dartford [sic], an unsuccessful preacher, and then a failing tradesman, a writer of unread novels, conceived the
idea of writing a romance based on a notion, then somewhat popular in the States,'that the red men were the descendants of the
much-abused lost tribes of Israel. The work was completed, and, under the title of The Manuscript Found, vainly offered for
publication. The widow of Solomon Spalding declares that the MSS. were placed in a printing office with which Sidney Rigdon was
connected. Mr. Patterson, the printer, died in 1826; the MSS. were never recovered. 'Mr. Spalding had another copy,' Mr. Beadle
says in his book already quoted; 'but in the year 1825, while residing in Ontario County, N.Y., next door to a man named
Stroude [sic], for whom Joe Smith was then digging a well, that copy also was lost. She thinks it was stolen from her trunk.
Depositions are given in the New American Cyelopaedia, and in various other works, of a number of persons to whom Spalding had
read parts of his romance, who testify to a general resemblance in the plot and style of the history, and in the names employed,
with those of the Book of Mormon.
In their turn the Spalding party are accused by the Mormons of having invented this story to cast reproach on a holy work. It
is a singular quarrel. I am not aware that any impartial and adequate examination of the alleged facts has yet been made, but
this should be done. Failing this, the Mormons or their enemies must bear the stigma of perpetrating a gross imposition,
according to our estimate of the moral worth of each party, and of the probabilities of the case.
It has been suggested that the original intention of Joseph Smith and his assistants in the enterprise was simply to publish
the altered romance as a commercial speculation, and that they were unfeignedly astonished themselves to find that people were
ready to believe in their talked of Golden Bible. Even if this were the fact, it would scarcely add to the strangeness of
the origin of this new religion. It is scarcely to be doubted, however, that Joseph Smith's earlier experiences had prepared
him to play the bolder part of an inspired prophet.
The new church, established in 1830, increased rapidly in numbers. Tedious revelations, to the Whitmers, Pratts, Sidney Rigdon,
and others, thicken. The first Latter-day miracle was performed by Joseph Smith on a man possessed by an unclean spirit. 'I
rebuked the devil,' the prophet writes, 'and commanded him in the name of Jesus Christ to depart from him; when, immediately,
Newel spoke out and said that he saw the devil leave him, and vanish from his sight.'
In 1831, by a revelation through Joseph Smith in Kirtland, Ohio, where there existed a flourishing Mormon Church, the mass of
the converts were required to go forth through the land by twos, lifting up their voice as the voice of a trump, declaring
the word like unto angels of God, preaching the Gospel of immersion in water for the remission of sins. In this particularly
long and tedious commission, the following injunction occurs: 'Thou shalt love thy wife with all thy heart, and shalt cleave
unto her and none else.' The idea of plural marriage had not yet dawned on the minds of the leaders.
In June this year a conference of priests and elders was held in Kirtland, when 'the Lord displayed his power in a manner
that could not be mistaken. The Man of Sin was revealed, and the authority of the Melchisedec Priesthood was manifested, and
conferred for the first time upon several of the elders.'
The preachers were started again on their mission by a revelation,
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while Joseph Smith, with a small party, set ont in search of a suitable spot for founding a Mormon city. The place was found
beyond St. Louis, on the limits of the prairie. 'This is the land of promise,' said a revelation, 'and the place for the city
of Zion. And thus saith the Lord your God: if you will receive wisdom, here is wisdom. Behold the place which is now called
Independence is the centre place, and the spot for the temple is lying westward; wherefore it is wisdom that the land should
be purchased by the Saints.'
A prosperous settlement was made here by the Mormons in the following year, 1832. The prophet about this time met with a
gross indignity: he was tarred and feathered by a mob, on some charges of fraudulent dealing, but really through excited
religious feeling. At a conference held in the beginning of 1833 the prophet began to speak in an unknown tongue, and was
quickly followed in this miraculous manifestation by many other saints. He then proceeded to wash the feet of some of his
followers, 'wiping them,' he writes, 'with the towel with which I was girded.' In February he 'received' the celebrated Word
of Wisdom, advising, but not enjoining, an abstinence from wine, strong drinks, and tobacco.
The first expulsion of Mormons took place at the close of 1833. The ordinary settlers in Missouri appear to have disliked
extremely their new neighbours, who came in ever-increasing numbers to establish 'Zion.' In a published address they made the
formal statement that most of the saints were 'characterised by the profoundest ignorance, the grossest superstition, and the
most abject poverty.' They expressed their fear of being 'cut off' by this people, and having their 'lands appropriated.'
They said that with the increasing immigration the civil power would soon be in the hands of the Mormons, and that then
existence in the place would be intolerable. In the strongest language they begged the Mormon leaders to stop the coming of
their people, and to remove the settlement. It is further commonly reported that the people of Jackson County offered to buy
the lands and improvements of the Mormons at valuation, 'with an hundred per cent, added thereon.'
The Mormons, not yet aware of the strength of the enmity felt against them, refused to leave; upon which mobs assembled and
clamoured, destroyed the Star printing office, and afterwards a number of dwellings, and in November effected the expulsion
of the obdurate saints.
During several years the Mormons made settlements in various parts of Ohio and Missouri, but none of these were permanent.
Everywhere they managed to excite the strongest religious or political ill-will. Outrages were committed on both sides.
Joseph Smith and other of the leaders were charged with treason, felony, and other offences. Smith broke from gaol. The
Mormons armed against the State militia, but were overwhelmed. Expelled finally from Missouri, they found refuge in Illinois,
then a scarcely-broken prairie wilderness. Here they received a friendly welcome as an unjustly persecuted people.
In the summer of 1839 Nauvoo rose 'as if by magic' in the new State. The name signifies 'in the Reformed Egyptian' The
Beautiful. The scattered Mormons rapidly assembled here. The site of the city was determined by revelation, and happened
to fall within the limits of a large tract of land of which Joseph Smith had become possessed. The city obtained a charter.
Joseph Smith controlled
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The Original Prophet.
[February
all votes, and was elected mayor, a chief justice of the municipal court, and lieutenant-general of the Mormon militia, termed
the Nauvoo Legion. When the young boy began looking into the 'dark-coloured stone' in his hat, it is probable that he saw in
the future no vision of dignities awaiting him like these.
From the founding of Nauvoo, or perhaps earlier, Smith had entered into equivocal relations with various female saints. His
wife became violently jealous. Upon which, in July 1843. the celebrated Revelation on Celestial Marriage was communicated
in confidence by the prophet to a number of the leaders in the church. In this composition the examples of Abraham and the
patriarchs, of David and Solomon, are cited in favour of the practice of polygamy; Joseph Smith is justified in his past
course, and his wife is commanded to yield acquiescence. 'Let mine handmaid, Emma Smith,' says the revelation, 'receive all
those that have been given unto my servant Joseph, and who are virtuous and pure before me. And I command mine handmaid,
Emma Smith, to abide and cleave unto my servant Joseph, and no one else. But if she will not abide this commandment, she
shall be destroyed, saith the Lord.... And again, Verily, I say, let mine handmaid forgive my servant Joseph his trespasses...
and I, the Lord thy God, will bless her, and multiply her, and make her heart to rejoice.'
It would be interesting to discover, were it possible, to what extent Mormonism owed its early success to its professions
of exceptional purity, and its promise of a moral as well as a religious reformation. It seems certain that it was esteemed
too dangerous a course to let the saints generally know that plural marriage was to be allowed in the church. The new revelation,
however, soon began to be talked of, and caused great scandal and disturbance both within and without the Mormon body.
It appears that a number of women solicited by Joseph Smith, Sidney Rigdon, and others, to enter' Celestial ;Marriage,'
complained to their husbands, many of whom were Mormons. A Dr. Foster, with one William Law and others, who held themselves
injured, hereupon began to publish in Nauvoo itself, in May 1844, a newspaper, The Expositor, to expose the Mormon leaders.
In the first number the affidavits of sixteen women were given, testifying to the dishonourable proposals made to them. A
tumult arose. A body of Mormons sacked the Expositor office. Foster and Law got away to Carthage, a town eighteen miles distant,
and obtained warrants against their injurers. Joseph Smith refused to obey the summons, and the constable who served it was
driven from Nlvuvoo. The State Militia was called out on one side, the Nauvoo Legion on the other. Governor Ford hastened
to the scene. Seeing the excitement of the Carthage people, he addressed them on the necessity of employing only legal
measures. 'The officers and men,' he says, 'unanimously voted, with acclamation, to sustain me in a strictly legal course.'
He therefore held himself justified in promising the Mormons protection from violence. He proceeded to Nanvoo and found it
'one great military camp.' The Mormons, trusting to the Governor's promises of security, surrendered to him three cannon
and two hundred and fifty stand of small arms. A number of the leaders entered into recognisances to appear for trial, but
Joseph Smith and his brother Hyrum were detained in Carthage Gaol on a second charge of treason. Their end had come.
The bitter quarrel between the Mormons and their enemies was intensified by political jealousies.
1873]
The Original Prophet.
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The Mormons, always voting solidly at the dictation of their leaders, exercised an influence disproportiobed to their numbers.
Joseph Smith, intoxicated by a success heyond his wildest imagination, conceived the ambition of becoming the ruler of the
United States, if indeed his vanity did not aspire still further. In the spring of 1844 he striously proposed himself as a
candidate for the Presidency at the approaching election. The Mormons commenced a most vigorous canvass. Their opponents
became more incensed against them than ever. The celestial marriage scandals occurred at the moment to inflame the passions
of the Gentile mob to madness. The Mormons deny that the specific charges of Dr. Foster were sustainable. But the revelation
itself affords proof that irregularities had occurred, and were to be justified in the new faith.
On the two Smiths being committed to Carthage Gaol a guard was stationed over them for protection. The precaution was necessary,
but the guard was insufficient. A mob of one or two hundred men well armed assembled in the evening of June 27, 1844, broke
open the gaol, and shot down the two prisoners. John Taylor and Willard Richards, who were in the room at the time, managed
to escape. The strange farce had ended in tragedy.
A just and adequate criticism of the character of this extraordinary adventurer remains to be written. He appears to have had
one of those energetic natures by which ordinary people are irresistibly attracted and held in willing bondage. Men and women
everywhere became his fast friends and his obedient disciples. He must have had, too, an immense power of will, and a wonderful
capacity of self-assertion, to have advanced and maintained unflinchingly his preposterous pretensions.
As yet the Mormons are not all convinced that the founder of their religion was a man of blameless character and unsullied life.
Brigham Young is reported to have made an admission to the contrary in the following significant language:
'That the prophet was of mean birth, that he was wild, intemperate, even dishonest and tricky in his youth, is
nothing against his mission. God can and does make use of the vilest instruments. Joseph has brought forth a
religion which will save us if we abide by it. Bring anything against that if you can. I care not if he gamble,
lie, swear -- got drunk every day of his life, sleep with his neighbour's wife every night -- for I embrace
no man in my faith. The religion is all in all.'
But the ecclesiastical or mythical judgment of the prophet's character pronounces it great and pure. To the Mormon church of
the future he will be the inspired teacher, the exalted martyr, the pure and holy founder of a new Divine revelation. The
last section of the authoritative Book of Doctrine and Covenants speaks of him in the following terms:
Joseph Smith, the prophet and seer of the Lord, has done more, save Jesus only, for the salvation
of men in this world than any other man that ever lived in it.... He lived great, and he died great
in the eyes of God and his people, and like most of the Lord's anointed in ancient times, has
sealed his mission and his work with his own blood, and so has his brother Hyrum.... They lived
for glory; they died for glory; and glory is their eternal reward, prom ago to age shall their
names go down to posterity as gems for the sanctified.
On this, one would think, somewhat shaky basis, a human community, famous out of all proportion to its numerical force,
has managed and does manage to exist. C.M.
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