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Show 476 A!ormonism, and the Jlformons. (AUGUST, the printing eslab!ishment. At length 1he ma~u- ~ having been obtained immediat~ly u~dcr her own script was reLUrned _to the aut_hnr; and soon a~1cr obscn·ation, aroused her from th1s. bel~ef. we renw\·ed to Amity, Waslungton county, I a., But let us fulluw the '·l\ranuscn pt E ound." At '?·he~e ~l r. S. died, in 18 16. The rnanuscripttheu the time it was left in Mr. Patterson's oflice, in Pitts-leU mto my hands, and was preser\'t>d carefully. . . . It has been frequently ex:.~ mined hy my dnughter, lmrg, Sidney _rhgd~•n was e~npl:1yed there as_ a p~1tnr. lrs. ~I"Km ist ry, t•f 1\bsun, ~lass;u;husens, wit\1 ter. It rematned 111 the ofhce 'fur a long tune - whom 1 nuw reside, and hy other friends." was at nil times accessible to Higdon: and arc we After the i\lormon sect had gained a slight foot· not justified in believin~ that he then made a copy hold, and had sent abroad through the l::tnd preach- of ll without the kno\\ ledge uf the author 1 Sumecrs for the purpose of making- proselytes to the time about the year 1828, Rigdon made his apnflw faith, a woman of th:ll sect held a meeting in pea ranee in Palmyra, where he worl\eG at his trac~e; New Salem, at which she reaJ numerous passages and ncar the clusc. of that year, if our recollecuon from the "Boo!.: of Mormon," which were imme· fierves us, some ilnle talk Uegan to s~.rend _abroad diately rel'orrnized by the older inhaUit:lllts of the in regard to snnw mysterious "plates whiCh .~•a.d place. and ~mung Olhers, by the brother or Mr. been found near that place. These "plat_cs, It Spaulding, as parts of the ,, Manuscript Fuund." was sai~l: had ~CCII dis_c~v.ered by Jo~eph s:~nh, J~., Mrs. Da\•ison's narrati\·e procerds: !tnt, as 0. I ratt, :\luus.cr of the Gospel. says, 10 the'' siJe of a hinh hill" ne:tr " the rail ro:Hl as you "The excitel!'cnt. in Kew Salem. became so g-o from Palmna.,to CananJaig-ua," (whe re, by the ~~~~=~·~~~1p~!~~as\'::~al;{1~1t'~~~r::a~ln: ;fe~:.~;i~,n~~~b~~: way, ther~ w:~s not then, nor i~ tb,ere now :t raii- LO repair to tlli.ii place, and obtain from me the ori- ro_ad,) but 111 the bank uf the Enr ~anal.' about two ginalmanuscript ofMr.SpauldinJ!, ~~~r the purpose m1lrs from Palmyra. The pecultar 11me of the of cumparing it wiLh the J\-lormon B1ble, to salisfy "discovery" of these important records, sus1ains their Ol~'n mutds, and to pre\:ent tl~e_ir_ friends from the charge that Higrlon took \dth him to Palmyra emhracwg an error so delustl'e. l l~ts w:ts Jn t_hc the copy of the " !\lanuscripl Fuund," which he i'r:a:u:1~,~~-~\lld~:·CJ,~~~~tl~~;\1~;1;~~:;,~s~·;:~t~~~~r:e~ ·~; had made in Pittsburg some twelve or fourtof'n r.Jessrs. ll ~n ry Lake, Aa.rnn Wright, and Olhers, yearspreYious: and finding in Palmyra a congenial wi1h all uf whom I was acquainted, as they were spirit fur humiJugging the world, in a. man far betmy old neighht~rs when I resided in New Salem. tcr endO\\·cd than hitnself, tn 2ive to the manuscript ~,,:;~ ~~r~et:l~~~.:~~.ct~~~d ,R~~~:: t~!t 1111~:b~e~~ ~~~~e~ th_e neeess:ny _dressing tu n~a~e iL play its pa~t of his \\~ork. Ti1e air of antiCJuity, which was ll"llh succ·ess 111 the scheme of frat~d, he tl_1ere dtthrown about tile composition, doubtless sug_!!estcd vulg-ed the matter, and, unJer the unpress10n that the idea. of CIHI\'etting- iL Lo purposes of delusion. a handsome speculation might be realized out of Thus a historical romance, with the ad1lttion of a the puhlieation of the work, he, and his associate, few pious expressions and extracts from the sacred addressed themsel.,.es seriously to the furtherance Seriptures. has been construed into a new B1ble, of the scheme. The first thinrr necessarv was to ~:~i~~al;~e~i~f::~~ a 1c~~J:a~~,.;1~ S~eo~n~~:::~~dbr~:f obtain an accomplice, who ~~u~tld a.et as lhe Pro· narration. !hat tltis wnrk of deep deception and phet-the finder of the '' plates''-the founder of ~- ickedness may be searched to the foundation, and the new sect ;-aud the more ignorant and boorish liS au1_hor exposed to the contempt and execration he might be, the better, so that he were g-ifted with he so JUStly desen•es. lVIATILD.-\ DAVISON." some degree of shrewdness and low cunning-the actors "behind the scene" would furnish all other The abo1•e narrarive is accompanied by a. state· thing-s necessary. Such a character, Rigdon's acment sigued by the Rev. Dr. A. E ly, pastor of the eomplice knew he would have in Joe Smith, one Congregational Church in Mason, and D. R. of a family of three or four who 1 hen li\'ed in F armAustin, principal of the 1\h son Academy, who as· ingtnn. near Palroyra, and who all belonged to that scrt that Mrs. Davison is a woman of irreproaeh- lowestclassofmankind found CH'rywhere, as hangable character and a. humble christian; and her tes- ers-on at groccrit:s, "spunging'' for their liquor, timony is worthy of impliC'it confidence. "Should and doing small jnbs for the privilege of getting an.v one he lead to wonder why 1hesc facts were drunk. Joe w:~s a drunkard-low in means-and, withheld from the world for the nine years which of course, ready to embrace auy opportunity which intcn·ened from the first publication of the Mormon ofJtneJ him the chance of enlarging the quanti ty of Bible and their beiug maJe public by Mrs. D., we liquor he imbibed. The accomplices did not miscan only surmise, in answer, th:ll she did not look take their man. Joe was really cunning, and pos· upnn the mo,·emcut as one calculated to have a sessed one of those peculiar minds which enlarge very long cxistenC"e; and, gi.,.ing too much credit in cunuing ness as their field of operation expaurls, to the good sense of the \\"Orld, did not think such but ne\'er increase in any of the higher and nobler a palpable imposition could Jra.w after it many fol- faculties. lowers :- and, indeed, as she states in the opening This tool-this "man of straw," who was to be of her narrative, nothing but the f<tct of eon\'erls sel up as the leader, but behind whom Rigdon was 18<15.] Mormo11ism, a11d !he llformons. 477 intending to act as the real " Prophet"-bcing ob- prime-movers were known; and, consequently, tained anJ instructed in the part he w:t::s to sus1ain having taken there the first steps towards making in the drama, the n{'Xt step in the chain of opera- it what it has since beeome, and having puhlisheJ lions was, to spread abroad n1ore fully the trumped !\lr. Spau'{ing's "Manuscript Found" for their up particulars of the discovery of t he "plates," ''Golder ~ible," they remoYcd from Manchester, and to announce to the public tl·,e fact that Joe in 1831 , to find the spot on which '''•lS destined to Smith was engaged in making a translation of the be built the final "city of refuge" for the C::hrismysterious characters engra.,.ed thereon; which tianity of all the world-which important duty, translation, it was said, would he gi1•en to the they daimed, had been de\·oiYed upon them by the world as soon as that labor was accomplished. Lord. After wandering" many days," Jue Smith, This was in 11::129. The maltcr was talked of, and by divine revelation. as he asserted, a8certained the principles of the new sect were pretty fully that Kirtland, now in Lake r.ounty, Ohio, was explained, Juring that ye:t.r-and some few follow- where the Lord intended the Temple to be built; ers were obtained, consisting entirely of two and thitherwards they turned their steps, and •' tar· classes C•f the community :-those who were igno· ried not" until they reached their final place of rant and vicious, at1d had nothing to lose by such rest, as the deluded followers supposed. a course-and those who were dishonest, and Here, at this" \Vestern boundary of the Prothought they saw in the new scheme an opportunity mised Land,'' as Joe Smith designated it, the rnemto aggrandize themselves at the expense of the bers of the since notorious i\'lnrrnon church conless acute of t h~.:ir fellow-men. Among those who gregated, to the number of about two hundred, and had nothing to lose, whelher of character or wealth, here was their first seulcment. A Temple was stood promint'nt the '' witne!'ses" who testify to buih-:t. society organized,-and one of the first havi ng seen the "plates," \'iz : Cowdery. the acts of the ledders was the assumption of the bankSmiths, the Whitmers, etc. They were all men of ing privilege and the establishment of a bank. low repute-not one of them, as far as our recol- This privilege they exercised to the utmost extent, lection now sene:t us, enjoying the respect of his and" Kirtland money" was as plenty in the \Vest neighbors. Uut, let that pass: we wish to trace at that time as ha\·e heen the issues of simi lar the progress of eYents. In the Spring of 1830- equally wc\1.founded institntions since that period. Higdon, in the meantime, having fuuud it con\"e· But there is a day of" breaking up" for all wordly nient tn become a conl'ert, as he pretended, to the malters- and the Kirtland bank did not proYe an new faith-the church of the '' Later Day Saints," exception to the general rule. The public wanted as they, with peculiar modesty, called themselves, money for the Uills, and-the bank failed. \Vhen was organized io Manchester, under the auspices this catastrophe occurred, J oe Smith fonunately of Joe Smith, and immediately afterward an edi- discovered that he had made a slight mistake in tion of twelve hundred copies, as we were inform- the location of the Kew Jerusalem-that the ed, of the" Book of J\lormon" was printed in Pal- "\Vestern boundary'' was sti\1 farther \Vest; and, myra-a. copy of which original edition is now consequently, a remo\'al was determined upon. layiug hefure us, hearing the follow ing imprint: But we did not intend to furnish, in this article, ''Palmyra: printed by E. ll. Grandin, for the a history of the movements of the Mormons: our author: 1830." intention was merely to show what was the origin Hore, then, the church was under way,-and of the "Gulden Bible." Had we not alrcatly the peculiar tenets by wltich tile members were w:~.steJ too much paper upon the subject, we might bound one to anothe r, and which were expressly possihly be induced to say something about the calculated and intended to operate in such way as "mysterious characters" wl1ich Dr. Harris forto draw to one spot all, or nearly all. who became warded to Professor Anthon, (and which mystebclievers in the faith, undou btedly suggested to the rinus chanctcrs, we presume, are to be found in minds of many then, that, \'iewed in a " wordly" repeated instances among the publish~d antiquities light, it miJ!Ilt possibly pro1•e a good mone}•-moYe- of the Mississippi Valley, and entirely witl1 in the ment. Under such an influence, some three or reach of Dr. 11.,)-and add a word ~bout the plates fuur men, of Canandaigua and Palmyr:.L, of Sf'em- fOund at Kinderhook, in Illinois, by-whom1 Queering respectability-that is, men who ne\'er infringed ly enough, by members of the Mormon sect! \Ve the laws of the land so palpably as to inrur their will let all these things go for what they are worth; penalties, and who were careful never openly to and, returning once more to the point from whence outrage the mor"al laws, not from any love of mor- we started, we cannot but express onr astonisha ls, but from a fear of the wor\d-!'ome three or ment tha.t this statement in regard to J\lr. Spaulfour men, we say, of such characters, joined the ding's work has ne\'er attracted the attention of church ; and their outward respectabil ity did more SiJoey Higdon, or sume other leaders of the Morfor it in that region, than all the mummery of J oe mons. It has been made public fo~ some years, Smith and S idney Rigdon combined. Dute,•en these and notwithstanding it bold!}' presumes to upset the could nut make it succeed where the appare nt, very foundat ion of their creed, they haYc quietly |