Mormon History
The Unveiling of Moroni - 1899
The Fort Wayne Weekly Sentinel – December 27, 1899
ORIGIN OF MORMONISM.
Interest in Mormonism has been revived and
stimulated throughout the country by the prominence the Roberts case has been
given in national affairs, and the origin of the sect established by Joseph
Smith has peculiar interest now. Rev. W. A. Stanton, D.D., of Pittsburg, Pa.,
in a recent issue of The Standard, sets forth a very interesting account of
it and throws some light on some points hitherto not commonly known.
Two movements in the second quarter of the Nineteenth century, each of which was
claimed by its leader to be a reformation of religion, have an important place
in American religious history, writes Dr. Stanton. The first was the beginning
and rise of Mormonism under the manipulations of Joseph Smith and Sidney Rigdon.
The second was the development of modern spiritualism, or "spiritism," beginning
with the "rappings" of the Fox sisters in Western New York. The first
reformation had close connection with Baptist history in and about Pittsburg,
Pa. Having been pastor of a Baptist church in Pittsburg for about ten years,
with excellent opportunities for investigations, I propose to tell what I have
learned as to the relation of Sidney Rigdon to the Book of Mormon. Of course,
this story will be denied by Mormons and their friends; within twelve hours of
this writing I have been visited by two Mormon officials and treated to a
strenuous and indignant denial; but denial is not proof. I submit the plain,
unvarnished facts to the public, and abide by its verdict.
RIGDON'S BEGINNINGS.
He was born February 18,
1793, on a farm near the hamlet of Library, a few miles south of Pittsburg.
Elder David Phillips baptized him into the membership of the Peter's Creek
Baptist church, at Library, May 31, 1817. Alexander Campbell had supplied the
pulpit at times, and it was largely through his influence that Rigdon was
called. He had almost supplanted his faithful pastor at Peter's Creek by his
forwardness and ambition. Elder Phillips said, "As long as Rigdon lives he will
be a curse to the Church of Christ." Rev. Samuel Williams was a successor to
Rigdon in the Pittsburg pastorate. From a sermon of Williams on Mormonism
I quote: "There was so much of the miraculous about Rigdon's conversion at
Library, and so much parade about his profession, that the pious and discerning
pastor entertained serous doubts at the time in regard to the genuineness of the
work." Rigdon afterwards confessed to a deacon of the Pittsburg church that he
"made up his experience in order to get into the church."
He came to Pottsburg direct from Warren, Ohio. Rigdon began to preach views not
consonant with the doctrine of the church. A church council being called,
finally
rendered a verdict finding Rigdon guilty of "holding and teaching many
abominable heresies." He was thereupon deposed from the ministry and excluded
from the church. In August, 1827, Rigdon was in attendance at the Mahoning
association in New Lisbon, Ohio, and by courtesy of the association preached a
sermon on the evening of August 27. Just thirty days after that sermon Joseph
Smith proclaimed his finding of "The Golden Bible," better known as the Book of
Mormon, at the little village of Manchester, six miles from Palmyra, New York.
Rigdon soon went hither, professed immediate conversion to the "find," and
straightway preached the
first Mormon sermon. It was preached in Palmyra and showed a remarkable
amount of information for a new convert. It was said that he seemed to know more
about it than Smith himself. Abundant reason for this will soon be shown. Smith
claimed to have been directed by an angel to the burial place of a stone box in
which was a volume six inches thick and composed of thin gold leaves, eight by
seven inches, fastened together by three gold rings. The writing on them was
called "Reformed Egyptian." There was also a pair of "supernatural spectacles;"
two crystals, that Smith called "Urim and Thummim," were set in a silver bow.
When Smith put these on he claimed to be able to translate the reformed Egyptian
language. I have heard
my father-in-law, then nineteen years old and still living, who knew Smith,
say he was scarcely able [to read or write plain English]. It probably will
never be known why Rigdon did not take first place in Mormonism. It is certain
that Smith developed better qualities of leadership, and it is probable [sic -
missing word?] characterized him as a quick-witted, lazy, superstitious fellow
who spent his time in digging for treasures and locating springs for wells with
a divining rod. He was just the man for Rigdon to attempt to use as a tool,
although in the long run he proved too shrewd for his [master]. He [said?] that
Rigdon never dared offend Smith for fear of exposure as to their secret.
Neither Smith nor Rigdon had money to publish this "Golden Bible." They
succeeded in interesting a well-to-do farmer named Martin Harris, who furnished
the means. Oliver Cowdery was employed as an amanuensis. He wrote what what
Smith dictated to him from the farther side of the concealing curtain. In 1830
the book was printed, and with it a sworn statement by Cowdery, Harris and a
David Whitmer, that an angel of God had shown them the plates of which the book
purported to be a translation. Some years later these three men renounced
Mormonism and declared said sworn statement false. I recently opened the Book of
Mormon that lay upon the pulpit in the Mormon Tabernacle at Salt Lake City. Upon
its page was this sworn statement by these three men, but their renunciation was
not there. The Mormons explain the disappearance of the "golden leaves" by
assuming that an angel took them away. As a matter of fact we have only Joseph
Smith's word for it, aside from the above statement, that they ever existed. In
spite of this a leading Mormon told me, as he and I stood by Brigham Young's
grave a few weeks ago, that they had two Bibles of equal authority. One
contained the Old and New Testament, the other is the Book of Mormon.
Sidney Rigdon was Joseph Smith's angel.
Now we return to Pittsburg. In 1761, Solomon Spaulding was born in Ashford,
Conn., and was graduated from Dartmouth College in 1785. Latyer in life he lived
in New Salem and Conneaut, Ohio. There he wrote a manuscript which he called
"The Manuscript Found." He read it to numerous of his relatives and friends. Its
leading characters bore such names as Mormon, Maroni, Lamanite and Nephi. It
divided the population of this continent into two classes, the righteous and the
idolatrous, and told an imaginary story of discovery of their history as
recorded on a manuscript that was centuries ago concealed in the earth. It was
full of wars and rumors of wars and presented a record of the preaching of
Christianity in America during the first century after Christ. Mr. Spaulding
being a minister and familiar with Bible history, made his romance correspond
closely to the biblical records as their sequel. In 1812 he moved to Pittsburg.
Robert Patterson had a printing establishment here, his foreman was Silas Engles.
Spaulding desired Patterson to publish his work, but was unable to guarantee the
expenses if the book should prove a failure. Patterson testified that he saw
said manuscript and told Engles to print it if Spaulding furnished security for
expenses. He farther testified that Spaulding was unable to do so and that he
supposed that Engles returned the manuscript to its author. As a matter of fact,
Spaulding moved to Amity, Washington ounty, Pa., in 1814, and died there in
1816. Joseph Miller, of Amity, was an intimate friend of Spaulding; he heard him
read much of his manuscript and testified (see Pittsburgh Telegraph
in 1879) to Spaulding's telling him that while he was writing a preface for
the book the manuscript was spirited away, that a Sidney Rigdon was suspected of
taking it. Miller also said that when he read the Book of Mormon he at once
recognized Spaulding's story.
Redick McKee, of Washington county, bears the same testimony and says that
Rigdon was employed in Patterson's office. Some of Rigdon's friends deny that he
was employed there, but
Mrs. R. J. Eichbaum, who died in Pittsburg in 1882, was clerk in the
Pittsburg postoffice from [1811] to 1816, her father being postmaster. She gave
testimony to the intimacy between Rigdon and Lamdin, their coming to the office
together, and Engles' telling her that "Rigdon was always hanging about the
printing office." It is also a matter of fact that Lamdin became Patterson's
business partner in 1818. Spaulding's widow testified that Rigdon was connected
with the office in some way. It seems evident that Rigdon was about the office,
to say the least. Six years later he returned to Pittsburg as the pastor of the
Baptist church. Patterson had died in 1814 [sic]; Lamdin died in 1815; Engles in
1827. Rigdon's pastorate was while both were yet alive and he was intimate with
both.
Rev. John Winter, M. D., known to many in western Pennsylvania, testified that
he was in Rigdon's study in Pittsburg in the winter of 1822-3, that Rigdon took
from his desk a large manuscript and said in substance: "A Presbyterian
minister, whose health failed, brought this to the printer to see if it would
pay to publish it. It is a romance of the Bible." Rev. A. J. Bonsall, now pastor
of the Baptist church in Rochester, Pa., tells me that Dr. Winter, who was his
step-father, often referred to this incident, saying that the manuscript
purported to be a history of the American Indian, and that Rigdon said he got it
from the printers.
Mrs. Mary W. Irvine, of Sharon, Pa., Dr. Winter's daughter, says: "I have
frequently heard my father speak of Rigdon's having Spaulding's manuscript, that
he said he got it from the printer to read as a curiosity. As such he showed it
to my father and then seemed to have no intention of using it as he evidently
afterwards did. Father always said that Rigdon helped Smith in his scheme by
revising and transforming this manuscript into the Mormon Bible."
As late as 1879 a
Mrs. Amos Dunlop, of Warren, Ohio, wrote of having visited the Rigdons when
she was young and of his taking a manuscript from his trunk and becoming greatly
absorbed in it. His wife threatened to burn it, but he said, "No, indeed, you
will not; this will be a great thing some day."
In 1820 the Widow Spaulding married Mr. Davidson, of Hartwick, Otsego County,
New York; in
May, 1839, the Boston Recorder published a statement from her made to and
recorded by Rev. D. R. Austin, of Monson, Mass., to the effect that a Mormon
preacher took a copy of the Mormon Bible to New Salem, Ohio, where her husband
had lived and written much of his manuscript, and read from it at a public
meeting. She said that many of the older people immediately recognized it as her
husband's romance and that his brother, John Spaulding, arose then and there and
protested against such a use of his late brother's writings. Rigdon wrote to the
Boston Recorder [sic] an emphatic and
coarse denial of this fact and said that he had never heard of such a man as
Spaulding.
The reader may judge, after what has been said, whether he ever had. In
August, 1880, Scribner's Monthly published some testimony from Solomon
Spaulding's daughter, Mrs. M. S. McKinstry, of Washington, D. C. She certifies
to the same facts and bears testimony to the parallelism between the Book of
Mormon and her father's romance. Mrs. President Garfield's father,
Mr. Z. Rudolph, knew Rigdon well and says that "during the winter previous
to the appearance of the Mormon Bible Rigdon spent weeks away from home, gone no
one knew where; when he returned he seemed very much preoccupied, talked in a
dreamy, imaginative way, and puzzled his listeners. His joining the Mormons so
quickly made his neighbors sure that he was in the secret of the authorship of
the Book of Mormon." The book was printed in the office of the Wayne
Sentinel, Palmyra, N. Y. The editor was Pomeroy Tucker.
In 1867 he printed a book, "Origin and Progress of Mormonism." In it he says
that during the summer of 1827 (the "Leaves of Gold" were found in September,
1827) a stranger made several visits at Smith's
home. He was afterward recognized as Rigdon, who afterward preached the
first Mormon sermon at Palmyra. This statement is corroborated by
Mrs. Dr. Horace Eaton, who lived in Palmyra for more than thirty years. Not
to weary patience, let me say that testimony has been secured from many others.
As early as 1835
Mr. E. D. Howe, of Painesville, Ohio, printed the full testimony of eight
reliable witnesses, such persons as John Spaulding and his wife, Martha, Henry
Lake, a former business associate of Solomon Spaulding, Oliver Smith, Aaron
Wright, and Nahum Howard, all of Conneaut, Ohio, all of whom certified that the
Book of Mormon and Spaulding's romance were in substance identical. Finally,
Rigdon's brother-in-law, Rev. Adam Bently, and Alexander Campbell both testify
("The Millennial Harbinger,"
1844) that as much as two years beore the Mormon Bible made its appearance
Rigdon told them that "such a book was coming out, the manuscript of which had
been found engraved on gold plates." In spite of this, Rigdon claimed that he
first heard of the Book of Mormon from parley P. Pratt in August, 1830. In light
of this evidence, whence think ye came the Book of Mormon, and what is its claim
to divine authority? Was not Rigdon Joseph Smith's angel?
Note: The above text contains some lines out of order and some incomplete
sentences resulting from dropped words. Unfortunately only a partial clipping of
the original Chicago article has so far been transcribed and it does not agree
in every particular with the Fort Wayne reprint -- therefore the full and exact
text remains uncertain. For more information of Rev. William A. Stanton and his
views concerning Sidney Rigdon being "Joseph Smith's Angel" see a report of
one of his sermons as published in an early July, 1899 issue of the
Pittsburgh Post. Stanton's Chicago Standard article on Rigdon as the
"angel" was recapitulated in Edgar E. Folk's 1900 book, The Mormon Monster,
and as "Sidney Rigdon was Joseph Smith's 'Angel'" in Stanton's own c. 1907 book,
Three Important Movements, (Philadelphia: Am. Bap. Pub. Soc., pp. 36-41).
Stanton's book was also noticed in the RLDS
Saints' Herald soon after its publication (see the Aug. 20, 1913 issue
for a passing mention, and the Oct 29, 1913 issue for a substantial review).