Charles A. Shook's 1914 book

SPALDING STUDIES LIBRARY -- SPECIAL COLLECTIONS

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Charles A. Shook
(1876-1939)
True Origin of Book of Mormon
(Cincinnati: Standard Pub. Co., 1914)

Part Two of Two Parts

Cover Contents

Part 1: Chapters I-III

Part 2: Chapters IV-V VI-VII VIII-IX X-XI

Transcriber's Comments

See also Shook's 1910 books: Cumorah Revisited True Origin of Mormon Polygamy

return to page 61

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CHAPTER IV.

The Life of Solomon Spaulding -- Spaulding's Roman Story --The Fairchild-Rice-Smith Correspondence -- A Mormon Lie Nailed.

Solomon Spaulding was born at Ashford, Connecticut, in 1761; graduated from Dartmouth College in 1785, and completed his course in theology in 1787. After this he preached for a time, but finally became an infidel, ¹ quit preaching and engaged in the mercantile business ² in Cherry Valley, New York, where he failed financially in 1807. In 1809, with a business partner, Henry Lake, he built a forge at Conneaut, or New Salem, Ohio, where he again failed in 1812. The same year he removed to Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, where he lived two years, removing, at the expiration of this time, to the town of Amity, in the same State, where he made his home up to the time of his death in 1816.

SPAULDING'S ROMAN STORY.

It was while living at Conneaut that Spaulding became interested in the aboriginal works of the country and began to write romances based upon them. The first of these, which is variously known as his "Manuscript No. I" "Manuscript Story -- Conneaut Creek," "Honolulu Manuscript" and "Roman Story," he began in the year 1809. ³ This manuscript gives an account of

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¹ The proof of this is the fragment of a letter attached to his "Manuscript Story."

² Mrs. Dickinson says that Spaulding was principal of an academy at Cherry Valley, New York. ("New Light on Mormonism," p 13.) His brother John says, however, that he went into the mercantile business in that place with his brother Josiah.

³ Some say in the year 1808.

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a party of Romans who, in the time of Constantine, in a voyage to Britain, were driven from their course by contrary winds and were thrown upon our Atlantic coast. Making their way inland, they came in contact with two native tribes, the Sciotans and Kentucks, who are described as living, respectively, north and south of the Ohio River. This story is the purported history of these aboriginal tribes, giving an account of their customs, habits, manner of government and wars. Its author was a Roman by the name of Fabius, who is represented as writing it on twenty-eight rolls of parchment in the Latin language and afterward depositing it in an artificial cave near Conneaut, where Spaulding claims that he discovered it. It was never finished, for it ends abruptly. Spaulding gave as his reason for throwing it aside that he wished to go further back in his dates and write in the old Scriptural style, that his story might appear more ancient -- a wish that was afterwards accomplished in his "Manuscript Found," from which, it is claimed, the Book of Mormon has been revamped.

After Spaulding's death, his widow removed to the home of her brother, W. H. Sabine, of Onondaga Valley, New York. Among the things that she carried with her was an old, "hair-covered trunk" which contained the sermons, essays and a "single manuscript" of her deceased husband. In 1820, Mrs. Spaulding married a Mr. Davison, of Hartwick, New York, and took the trunk to that place with her. Her daughter, Matilda Spaulding, was married to Dr. A. McKinstry in 1828, and removed to Monson, Hampden County, Massachusetts, where her mother followed her soon afterwards and where she spent the remainder of her life. When Mrs. Davison removed from Hartwick, the trunk spoken of was left in the care of her cousin, Mr. Jerome Clark, of that place.

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Leaving the Spauldings for the present, we return to Conneaut, Ohio. In 1832 or 1833, a "woman preacher" came to that place and read copious extracts from the Book of Mormon before a congregation composed, in part, of Spaulding's relatives and old acquaintances. The book was immediately recognized by Spaulding' s brother and others as a plagiarism of the "Manuscript Found," and considerable indignation was manifested that it should have been put to so unholy a use as to be transformed into a new Bible. The excitement was so intense that a citizens' meeting was called, and Dr. Philastrus [sic] Hurlburt, who had been a Mormon, but who had been cut off from the church, Mormons say, for immorality, was deputed to visit Mrs. Davison and secure, if possible, the "Manuscript Found," that it might be compared with the Book of Mormon and the fraud be exposed.

Hurlburt went, first, to Onondaga Valley, New York, where he secured the recommendation of Mr. Sabine, Mrs. Davison's brother, and from there to Monson, Massachusetts, where he met Mrs. Davison herself. At first this lady declined to give her consent to let the writings of her former husband pass out of her possession, but upon receiving Hurlburt's solemn promise that the manuscript he was seeking would be returned, she reluctantly acceded, and Hurlburt went to Hartwick and obtained from the old trunk in Mr. Clark's possession the "single manuscript" which it contained, and which at that time was supposed to be the "Manuscript Found."

Hurlburt then returned to Ohio and delivered the manuscript, with other matter which he had collected, to a Mr. E. D. Howe, editor of the Painesville Telegraph, who was then engaged in writing his book, "Mormonism Unveiled." But, when this gentleman examined the

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manuscript, he discovered that it was not the "Manuscript Found" at all, but Spaulding's first story, entitled "Manuscript Story -- Conneaut Creek." He also afterwards exhibited it to the old acquaintances of Spaulding, who immediately recognized it as his work, but who declared that it was not the "Manuscript Found," but another manuscript written earlier.

This romance was not returned to Mrs. Davison, as had been agreed upon, and was soon lost track of. Howe declared that it had been destroyed by fire, while the Spauldings accused Hurlburt of having sold it to the Mormons. But neither of these explanations of its disappearance proved true. In 1839-40, Howe sold his printing establishment to a Mr. L. L. Rice, who, with a partner, began publishing an antislavery newspaper. Rice subsequently sold out and removed to Honolulu, Sandwich Islands, where, in 1884, he accidentally discovered this manuscript in his possession, it having been inadvertently transferred to him by Howe, among other things, when he bought out his printing establishment.

Soon after its discovery, this manuscript was placed in the library of Oberlin College, Ohio, where it still remains. Both of the Mormon Churches have made copies of it, which they publish under the erroneous title, "Manuscript Found."

THE FAIRCHILD -- RICE -- SMITH CORRESPONDENCE.

With the finding of the Honolulu manuscript, interest in the question of the origin of the Book of Mormon was re-aroused, and papers and magazines throughout the country heralded the news of the new find and discussed its probable bearing upon the traditional theory, so long held, of the origin of the Book of Mormon in the Spaulding Romance. Pres. J. H. Fairchild, of Oberlin College,

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having been in Honolulu at the time of the discovery of this manuscript, wrote a brief note in regard to the same for the Bibliotheca Sacra, which was widely copied by papers and magazines ¹ throughout the country. This note, with three letters from the pen of Mr. L. L. Rice, the finder, appear in the preface to the Josephite edition of this manuscript. The note is as follows:

The theory of the origin of the Book of Mormon in the traditional manuscript of Solomon Spaulding, will probably have to be relinquished. That manuscript is doubtless now in the possession of Mr. L. L. Rice, of Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands, formerly an anti-slavery editor in Ohio, and for many years State Printer at Columbus. During a recent visit to Honolulu, I suggested to Mr. Rice that he might have valuable anti-slavery documents in his possession, which he would be willing to contribute to the rich collection already in the Oberlin College Library. In pursuance of this suggestion, Mr. Rice began looking over his old pamphlets and papers, and at length came upon on old, worn and faded manuscript of about one hundred and seventy-five pages, small quarto, purporting to be a history of the migrations and conflicts of the ancient Indian Tribes, which occupied the territory now belonging to the States of New York, Ohio and Kentucky. On the last page of this manuscript is a certificate ² and signature, giving the names of several persons known to the signer, who have assured him that to their personal knowledge the manuscript was the writing of Solomon Spaulding. Mr. Rice has no recollection how or when this manuscript came into his possession. It was enveloped it, a coarse piece of wrapping paper, and endorsed in Mr. Rice's hand-writing, "A Manuscript Story."

There seems no reason to doubt that this is the long-lost story. Mr. Rice, myself and others compared it with the Book of Mormon; and could detect no resemblance between the two, in general or in detail. There seems to he no name or incident

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¹ Grinnell (Iowa) Herald; Western Watchman, Eureka, California; New York Observer, Frank Leslie's Sunday Magazine, etc.

² "The Writings of Sollomon Spaulding Proved by Aron Wright, Oliver Smith, John N. Miller & others. The testimonies of the above gentlemen are now in my possession. (Signed) D. P. Hurlburt."

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common to the two. The solemn style of the Book of Mormon, in imitation of the English Scriptures, does not appear in the manuscript. The only resemblance is in the fact that both profess to set forth the history of lost tribes. Some other explanation of the origin of the Book of Mormon must be found, if any explanation is required.
(Signed) James H. Fairchild.

The three letters of Mr. Rice I now give, reserving my comments on the same, as I also shall on the note of President Fairchild, until their close:

HONOLULU, Sandwich Islands, March 18, 1885.
MR. JOSEPH SMITH: ¹ -- The Spaulding Manuscript in my possession came into my hands in this wise. In 1839-40 my partner and myself bought of E. D. Howe the Painesville Telegraph, published at Painesville, Ohio. The transfer of the printing department, types, press, &c., was accompanied with a large collection of books, manuscripts, &c., this manuscript of Spaulding among the rest. So, you see, it has been in my possession over forty years. But I never examined it, or knew the character of it, until some six or eight months since. The wrapper war marked, "Manuscript Story -- Conneaut Creek." The wonder is, that in some of my movements, I did not destroy or burn it with a large amount of rubbish that had accumulated from time to time.

It happened that Pres't Fairchild was here on a visit, at the time I discovered the contents of it, and it was examined by him and others with much curiosity. Since Pres't Fairchild published the fact of its existence in my possession, I have had applications for it from half a dozen sources, each applicant seeming to think that he or she was entitled to it. Mr. Howe says when he was setting up a book to expose Mormonism as a fraud at an early day, when the Mormons had their headquarters at Kirtland, he obtained it from some source, and it was inadvertently transferred with the other effects of his printing office. A. B. Deming, of Painesville, who is also getting up some kind of a book I believe on Mormonism, wants me to send it to him. Mrs. Dickinson, of Boston, claiming to

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¹ President of the Reorganized Church.

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be a relative of Spaulding, and who is getting up a book to show that he was the real author of the Book of Mormon; wants it. She thinks, at least, it should be sent to Spaulding's daughter, a Mrs. Somebody -- but she does not inform me where she lives. Deming says that Howe borrowed it when he was getting up his book, and did not return it, as he should have done, &c.

This Manuscript does not purport to be "a story of the Indians formerly occupying this continent" but is a history of the wars between the Indians of Ohio and Kentucky, and their progress in civilization, &c. It is certain that this Manuscript is not the origin of the Mormon Bible, whatever some other manuscript may have been. The only similarity between them, is, in the manner in which each purports to have been found -- one in a cave on Conneaut Creek -- the other in a hill in Ontario County, New York. There is no identity of names, of persons, or places; and there is no similarity of style between them. As I told Mr. Deming, I should as soon think the Book of Revelation was written by the author of Don Quixote, as that the writer of this Manuscript was the author of the Book of Mormon. Deming says Spaulding made three copies of "Manuscript Found," one of which Sidney Rigdon stole from a printing office in Pittsburg. You call probably tell better than I can, what ground there is for such all allegation.

As to this Manuscript, I can not see that it call be of any use to any body, except the Mormons, to show that it is not the original of the Mormon Bible. But that would not settle the claim that some other manuscript of Spaulding was the original of it. I propose to hold it in my own hands for a while, to see if it can not he put to some good use. Deming and Howe inform me that its existence is exciting great interest in that region. I am under a tacit, but not a positive pledge to President Fairchild, to deposit it eventually in the Library of Oberlin College. I shall be free from that pledge, when I see an opportunity to put it to a better use. Yours, &c., L. L. RICE.

P. S. -- Upon reflection, since writing the foregoing, I am of the opinion that no one who reads this Manuscript will give credit to the story that Solomon Spaulding was in any wise the author of the Book of Mormon. It is unlikely that any one who wrote so elaborate a work as the Mormon Bible, would spend his time in getting up so shallow a story as this, which at best

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is but a feeble imitation of the other. Finally, I am more than half convinced that this is his only writing of the sort, and that any pretense that Spaulding was in any sense the author of the other, is a sheer fabrication. It was easy for any body who may have seen this, or heard anything of its contents, to get up the story that they were identical. L. L. R.

HONOLULU, Sandwich Islands, May 14th, 1885.

MR. JOSEPH SMITH:
Dear Sir -- I am greatly obliged to you for the information concerning Mormonism, in your letters of April 30th and May 2d. As I am in no sense a Mormonite, of course it is a matter of curiosity, mainly, that I am interested in the history of Mormonism.

Two things are true concerning this manuscript in my possession: First, it is a genuine writing of Solomon Spaulding; and second, it is not the original of the Book of Mormon.

My opinion is, from all I have seen and learned, that this is the only writing of Spaulding, and there is no foundation for the statement of Deming and others, that Spaulding made another story, more elaborate, of which several copies were written, one of which Rigdon stole from a printing office in Pittsburgh, &c. Of course I can not be as certain of this, as of the other two points. One theory is, that Rigdon, or some one else, saw this manuscript, or heard it read, and from the hints it conveyed, got up the other and more elaborate writing on which the Book of Mormon was founded. Take that for what it is worth. It don't seem to me very likely.

You may be at rest as to my putting the manuscript into the possession of any one who will mutilate it, or use it for a bad purpose. I shall have it deposited in the Library of Oberlin College, in Ohio, to be at the disposal for reading of any one who may wish to peruse it; but not to be removed from that depository. My friend, President Fairchild, may be relied on as security for the safe keeping of it. It will be sent there in July, by a friend who is going there to "take to himself a wife." Meantime, I have made a literal copy of the entire document -- errors of orthography, grammar, erasures, and all -- which I shall keep in my possession, so that any attempt to mutilate it will be of easy detection and exposure. Oberlin is

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a central place, in the vicinity of Conneaut, where the manuscript was written.

I have had an idea, sometimes, that it is due to the Mormons to have a copy of it, if they took interest in it enough to publish it. As it is only of interest as showing that it is not the original of the Book of Mormon, no one else is likely to wish it for publication.

Miss Dickinson, whom you call a granddaughter of Solomon Spaulding, represents herself to me as his grandniece; "My great uncle, Rev. Solomon Spaulding," she writes.

Rev. Dr. Hyde, President of the Institution, in this place, for training Native Missionaries for Micronesia, (a very prominent and successful institution,) has written an elaborate account of this manuscript, and of Mormonism, and sent it for publication in the Congregationalist, of Boston. I presume it will be published, and you will be interested in reading it.
Very respectfully yours, L. L. RICE.

HONOLULU, H. I., June 12, 1885.

PRESIDENT J. H. FAIRCHILD : -- Herewith I send to you the Solomon Spalding Manuscript, to be deposited in the Library of Oberlin College, for reference by any one who may be desirous of seeing or examining it. As a great deal of inquiry has been made about it since it became known that it was in my possession, I deem it proper that it be deposited for safe keeping, where any one interested in it, whether Mormon or Anti-Mormon, may examine it. It has been in my possession forty-six years -- from 1839 to 1885 -- and for forty-four years of that time no one examined it, and I was not aware of the character of its contents. I send it to you enclosed in the same paper wrapper, and tied with the same string that must have enclosed it for near half a century -- certainly during the forty-six years since it came into my possession. I have made and retain in my possession a correct literal copy of it, errors of orthography, of grammar, erasures and all. I may allow the Mormons of Utah to print it from this copy, which they are anxious to do; and a delegation is now in the Islands, awaiting my decision on this point. They claim that they are entitled to whatever benefit they may derive from its publication; and it seems to me there is some justice in that claim. Whether it will relieve them in any measure, from the imputation that Solomon Spalding was

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the author of the Book of Mormon, I do not attempt to decide. It devolves upon their opponents to show that there are or were other writings of Spalding -- since it is evident that this writing is not the original of the Mormon Bible.
Truly yours, &c., L. L. RICE.

P. S. -- The words "Solomon Spaulding's Writings" in ink on the wrapper were written by me, after I became aware of the contents. The words "Manuscript Story -- Conneaut Creek," in faint penciling, were as now when it came into my possession.

Having put before the reader the foregoing correspondence, I now invite his attention to a brief, critical examination of the same. First, the manuscript described is not the "Manuscript Found," from which it is claimed the Book of Mormon was revamped, but an entirely different romance, entitled on the wrapper, "Manuscript Story -- Conneaut Creek." Professor Fairchild says that this title appeared on the wrapper in Mr. Rice's handwriting, but Rice, himself, declares that it was there, "in faint penciling," when it first came into his possession. For a reason that will appear in the next chapter, I believe that it was on the wrapper long before it fell into the hands of Dr. Hurlburt.

Secondly, Professor Fairchild seems not to have fully understood, at this time, the Spaulding manuscript theory. He speaks of this manuscript as "the long-lost story," wholly unmindful of the fact that, fifty years before, Howe, in his "Mormonism Unveiled," had given a paragraph outline of it and had declared that he had submitted it to the acquaintances of Spaulding, who had admitted that the latter was its author, but who had expressly denied that it was the "Manuscript Found." It is, therefore, not "the long-lost story" at all, but a totally different story, written earlier and bearing no more relation to the "Manuscript Found" than Longfellow's

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"Evangeline" bears to his "Hiawatha." The difference in style between this manuscript and the Book of Mormon is explained by the statement of Spaulding, when he threw it aside, that he intended to change the style and go further back in his dates that his story might appear more ancient. Thirdly, Mr. Rice, in denying that the "Manuscript Story" was in any sense the basis of the Book of Mormon, admits the contention of nearly all learned anti-Mormon polemics, both before and since his time, that another manuscript of Spaulding's might have formed such a basis. He says:

It is certain that this Manuscript is not the origin of the Mormon Bible, whatever some other manuscript may have been.

And:

But that would not settle the claim that some other manuscript of Spaulding was the original of it.

Fourthly, Professor Fairchild, in October, 1900, so far changed his sentiments expressed sixteen years before, that he admitted the same contention. In the month mentioned, and shortly before his death, he signed the following statement in the presence of Rev. J. D. Nutting:

FAIRCHILD'S LAST STATEMENT.
With regard to the manuscript of Mr. Spaulding now in the Library of Oberlin College, I have never stated, and know of no one who can state, that it is the only manuscript which Spaulding wrote, or that it is certainly the one which has been supposed to be the original of the Book of Mormon. The discovery of this Ms. does not prove that there may not have been another, which became the basis of the Book of Mormon. The use which has been made of statements emanating from me as implying the contrary of the above is entirely unwarranted.
JAMES H. FAIRCHILD.

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With this last statement, Professor Fairchild nullifies the wrong inferences which have been drawn from his first declaration, and swings into line with the position generally assumed by intelligent anti-Mormon polemics, that there was another manuscript, different from the one found in Honolulu, which became the basis of the Book of Mormon.

A MORMON LIE NAILED.

In the preface to the copy of the Honolulu manuscript, as published by the Reorganized Mormon Church, I find the following false and misleading statement:

Herewith we present to the reader the notorious "Manuscript Story" ("Manuscript Found")¹ of the late Rev. Solomon Spalding. What gives this document prominence is the fact that, for the past fifty years, it has been made to do duty by the opposers of the Book of Mormon and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, as the source, the root, and the inspiration, by and from which Joseph Smith and Sydney Rigdon wrote said Book of Mormon and organized said Church . . .

This seeming huge hindrance and insurmountable obstacle which is always thrown in the way of the investigator with all the skill and power that craft and cunning and malice and fear and blind zeal can invent and command, vanishes from the presence of this original witness in the case; for when it speaks it reveals the flimsiness and falsity of the claim that it was in any way or in any sense the origin of the Book of Mormon, or that there is the least likeness between the two. This newly found "missing link" completes the chain of evidence which proves that the "Manuscript Found" never was and never could be made the occasion, cause or germ of the Book of Mormon.

It would be difficult to find, among all that has been written upon this subject, a more false, misleading and

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¹ Notice that the title, "Manuscript Found," appears in parentheses. It is not to he found on the manuscript anywhere, and it is wholly a gratuitous assumption to call the latter the "Manuscript Found."

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incorrect statement than the foregoing, How an intelligent and honest writer could have penned these words, in the face of what Howe, Hurlburt, Bennett and Braden had written prior to this time to the contrary, is inexplicable. The "Manuscript Story" was never "made to do duty by the opposers of the Book of Mormon and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, as the source, the root, and the inspiration, by and from which Joseph Smith and Sydney Rigdon wrote said Book of Mormon and organized said Church." From 1834 it was expressly denied that this manuscript had anything to do with the Book of Mormon or that it was the "Manuscript Found." ¹ A paragraph review of it was given in Howe's book in 1834, and the contents of it were well known and employed in public discussion ² before the manuscript, itself, was found in 1884. The writer of the foregoing could not have been ignorant of these facts; they were to be found in the books widely known of and read among the members of his church. ³

In 1834, Howe wrote as follows of the "Manuscript Story":

The trunk referred to by the widow was subsequently examined and found to contain only a single MS. book, in Spalding's handwriting, containing about one quire of paper. This is a romance, purporting to have been translated from the

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¹ "Disbelievers in Joseph Smith's "find" have never claimed that the Book of Mormon was a plagiarism of the Oberlin manuscript, and all the powder used by the Mormons on that subject is a wasted explosive." -- Stanton's "The Three Movements" p. 43.

² See the "Braden-Kelley Debate," p. 91.

³ The Mormons well knew the contents of the "Manuscript Story" long before it was found in Honolulu, and Reynolds, in his "Myth of the Manuscript Found," p. 51 (1883), gives the outline of it. Then, in the face of the fact that Howe, Bennett and other anti-Mormons, following the Conneaut testimonies about to be given, claimed that the "Manuscript Found" was a Jewish romance, how could he honestly assert that they claimed that the Book of Mormon came from the former? There has been some pretty hard Mormon lying all along the line.

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Latin, found on twenty-four rolls of parchment, in a cave, on the banks of Conneaut Creek, but written in modern style, and giving a fabulous account of a ship's being driven upon the American coast, while proceeding from Rome to Britain, a short time previous to the Christian era, this country then being inhabited by the Indians, This old MS. has been shown to several of the foregoing witnesses, who recognize it as Spaulding's, he having told them that he had altered his first plan of writing, by going farther back with dates, and writing in the old Scripture style, in order that it might appear more ancient They say that it bears no resemblance to the "Manuscript Found."

This is the first description ever given in print of this "Manuscript Story" which was afterwards found in the possession of Mr. Rice, of Honolulu. And Howe here disclaims that it was the "Manuscript Found," hence that it was the basis of the Book of Mormon. Yet, in the face of this fact, we are coolly told that this manuscript has been made to do service "as the source, the root, and the inspiration, by and from which Joseph Smith and Sydney Rigdon wrote said Book of Mormon and organized said Church"!

This same statement appeared again in the second edition of Howe's book of 1840, and in Bennett's "Mormonism Exposed" of 1842.

Howe, again, in 1881, disclaimed any connection or resemblance, whatever, between the "Manuscript Story" and the "Manuscript Found." In a letter, addressed to Elder T. W. Smith, an apostle of the Reorganized Church, he says:

PAINESVILLE, Ohio, July 26th, 1881.
Sir: - Your note of 21st is before me, -- and I will answer your queries seriatim.

1st. -- The manuscript you refer to was not marked on the outside or inside "Manuscript Found." It was a common-place story of some Indian wars along the borders of our Great Lakes,

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between the Chicagoes and Eries, as I now recollect ¹ -- not in Bible style -- but purely modern.

2d. -- It was not the original "Manuscript Found," and I do not believe Hurlburt ever had it.

3d. -- I never saw or heard read the "Manuscript Found," but have seen five or six persons who had, and from their testimony, concluded it was very much like the Mormon Bible.

4th. -- Never succeeded in finding out anything more than was detailed in my book of exposure published about fifty years ago.

5th. -- The manuscript that came into my possession I suspect was destroyed by fire forty years ago.

I think there has been much mist thrown around the whole subject of the origin of the Mormon Bible and the "Manuscript Found," by the several statements that have been made by those who have been endeavoring to solve the problem after sleeping quietly for half a century. Every effort was made to unravel the mystery at the time, when nearly all the parties were on earth, and the result published at the time, and I think it all folly to try to dig out anything more. Yours, etc.,
E. D. HOWE.

Dr. Hurlburt, also, bears testimony to the fact that the manuscript which he obtained from Mrs. Davison, and which is now in Oberlin College Library, is not the "Manuscript Found." In a statement issued at Gibsonburg, Ohio, January 10, 1881, he says:

To all whom it may concern:
In the year eighteen hundred and thirty-four (1834), I went from Geauga county, Ohio, to Monson, Hampden county, Mass., where I found Mrs. Davison, late widow of the Rev. Solomon Spaulding, late of Conneaut, Ashtabula county, Ohio. Of her I obtained a manuscript, supposing it to be the manuscript of the romance written by the said Solomon Spaulding, called the "Manuscript Found," which was reported to be the foundation of the "Book of Mormon." I did not examine the manuscript till I got home, which upon examination I found it to contain

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¹ Notice Howe saying, "As I now recollect." He is mistaken in regard to the tribes mentioned. They were not the Chicagoes and the Eries, but the Sciotans and Kentucks.

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nothing of the kind, but being a manuscript upon all entirely different subject. This manuscript I left with E. D. Howe, of Painesville, Geauga county, Ohio, now Lake county, Ohio, with the understanding that when he had examined it he should return it to the widow. Said Howe says the manuscript was destroyed by fire, and further the deponent saith not.
(Signed) D. P. HURLBURT.

The manuscript, then, which Hurlburt obtained from Mrs. Davison, was not the "Manuscript Found," from which it is claimed the Book of Mormon was taken, but was "upon an entirely different subject." The same distinction between the manuscripts was also made by Clark Braden in the celebrated Braden-Kelley debate, held at Kirtland, Ohio, in 1884, a short time before the Honolulu manuscript came to light. ¹

Reader, when the Mormon elder, who comes to your door with his literature, tells you that the "Manuscript Found," from which it is claimed the Book of Mormon was taken, was discovered in Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands, in 1884, and that they now have it in printed form for twenty-five cents per copy, don't you believe it. The manuscript from Honolulu is not the "Manuscript Found," but the "Manuscript Story;" the former may be found, revamped, as the Book of Mormon, at the publishing-houses of the Brighamite and Josephite Mormon Churches,

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¹ See "Braden-Kelley Debate" (first ed.), p. 75.

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CHAPTER V.

Mrs. Davison's Boston Recorder letter -- The Quincy Whig Reply

Immediately after the death of Solomon Spaulding, his widow removed to the home of her brother, William H. Sabine, a prominent lawyer of Onondaga Valley, New York, carrying with her the trunk which contained the writings of her deceased husband. In 1820, she was married to a Mr. Davison, of Hartwick, near Cooperstown, New York, and removed to that place, taking the trunk and its contents with her. And eight years later we find her at Monson, Massachusetts, living with her daughter, Mrs. McKinstry, having left the trunk at Hartwick in the care of her cousin, Jerome Clark.

It has been the contention of some that Spaulding made several drafts of the "Manuscript Found," one of which was in the trunk while it remained at the house of Squire Sabine at Onondaga Valley, and that Joseph Smith, who worked as a teamster for Sabine, either stole or copied it. But I am convinced that this contention is not correct, for, if Smith worked for Sabine at this time, as alleged, ¹ but which is doubtful, he was both too young and too illiterate to have taken much interest in such a romance, and the "single manuscript" which this trunk contained is now known to have been, not the "Manuscript Found," but the "Manuscript Story," while the testimony of Joseph Miller, a friend of Spaulding at Amity, Pennsylvania, reveals the fact that the "Manuscript Found," itself, was stolen from the Patterson

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¹ "New Light on Mormonism," p. 21.

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printing-office before Spaulding's death, which occurred in 1816. The confusion upon this point largely arises from the letters of Mrs. Davison and her daughter, Mrs. McKinstry, who seem to have retained but a vague recollection of what Spaulding wrote and to have paid but little attention to his writings after his death. In the letters of both, while a number of statements are undoubtedly correct, there is a distinct tendency to identify the "single manuscript" in the old hair trunk with the "Manuscript Found," which is disproved by that manuscript, itself, since its discovery in 1884.

MRS. DAVISON'S BOSTON "RECORDER" LETTER.

In 1838-39, the missionaries of the Mormon Church opened operations in the town of Holliston, Massachusetts. In that town there existed a Congregational church of which the Rev. John Storrs was the pastor. Some of the members of Dr. Storrs' church became proselytes to the Mormon faith, and this caused him to bestir himself to action, ¹ and, through Prof. D. R. Austin, principal of the Monson (Massachusetts) Academy, he obtained a statement from Mrs. Davison which he published in May, 1839 in the Boston Recorder. This statement of Mrs. Davison is as follows:

As the Book of Mormon, or Golden Bible (as it was originally called), has excited much attention, and is deemed by a certain new sect of equal authority with the Sacred Scriptures, I think it is a duty which I owe to the public, to state what I know touching its origin.

That its claims to a divine origin are wholly unfounded

____________
¹ P. P. Pratt says: "If the public will be patient, they will doubtless, find that the piece signed 'Matilda Davison' (Spaulding's widow) is a base fabrication by Priest Storrs, of Holliston, Massachusetts, in order to save his craft, after losing the deacon of his church, and several of its most pious and intelligent members, who left his society to embrace what they considered to be truth." --Letter in New York Era, 1839.

80 THE TRUE ORIGIN OF

needs no proof to a mind unperverted by the grossest delusions. That any sane person should rank it higher than any other merely human composition is a matter of the greatest astonishment; yet it is received as divine by some who dwell in enlightened New England, and even by those who have sustained the character of devoted Christians. Learning recently that Mormonism had found its way into a church in Massachusetts, and has impregnated some with its gross delusions, so that excommunication has been necessary, I am determined to delay no longer in doing what I can to strip the mask from this mother of sin, and to lay open this pit of abominations.

Rev. Solomon Spaulding, to whom I was united in marriage in early life, was a graduate of Dartmouth College, and was distinguished for a lively imagination, and a great fondness for history. At the time of our marriage he resided in Cherry Valley, New York. From this place we removed to New Salem, Ashtabula County, Ohio; sometimes called Conneaut, as it is situated upon Conneaut Creek. Shortly after our removal to this place, his health sunk, and he was laid aside from active labors. In the town of New Salem there are numerous mounds and forts supposed by many to be the dilapidated dwellings and fortifications of a race now extinct. These ancient relics arrest the attention of the new settlers, and become objects of research for the curious. Numerous implements were found, and other articles evincing great skill in the arts. Mr. Spaulding being an educated man, and passionately fond of history, took a lively interest in these developments of antiquity; and in order to beguile the hours of retirement and furnish employment for his lively imagination, he conceived the idea of giving an historical sketch of this long lost race. Their extreme antiquity led him to write in the most ancient style, and as the Old Testament is the most ancient book in the world, he imitated its style as nearly as possible. His sole object in writing this imaginary history was to amuse himself and his neighbors. This was about the year 1812. Hull's surrender at Detroit occurred near the same time, and I recollect the date well from that circumstance. As he progressed in his narrative the neighbors would come in from time to time to hear portions read, and a great interest in the work was excited among them. It claimed to have been written by one of the lost nation, and to have been recovered

THE BOOK OF MORMON 81

from the earth, and assumed the title of "Manuscript Found." The neighbors would often inquire how Mr. Spaulding progressed in deciphering the manuscript, and when he had sufficient portion prepared, he would inform them, and they would assemble to hear it read. He was enabled, from his acquaintance with the classics and ancient history, to introduce many singular names, which were particularly noticed by the people, and could be easily recognized by them. Mr. Solomon Spaulding had a brother, Mr. John Spaulding, residing in the place at the time, who was perfectly familiar with the work, and repeatedly heard the whole of it read. From New Salem we removed to Pittsburg, in Pennsylvania. Here Mr. Spaulding found a friend and acquaintance in the person of Mr. Patterson, an editor of a newspaper. He exhibited his manuscript to Mr. Patterson, who was very much pleased with it, and borrowed it for perusal. He retained it for a long time, and informed Mr. Spaulding that if he would make out a title page and preface, he would publish it, and it might be a source of profit. This Mr. Spaulding refused to do. Sidney Rigdon, who has figured so largely in the history of the Mormons, was at that time connected with the printing office of Mr. Patterson, as is well known in that region, and as Rigdon himself has frequently stated, became acquainted with Mr. Spaulding's manuscript, and copied it. It was a matter of notoriety and interest to all connected with the printing establishment. At length the manuscript was returned to its author, and soon after we removed to Amity, Washington county, etc., where Mr. Spaulding deceased in 1816. The manuscript then fell into my hands, and was carefully preserved. It has frequently been examined by my daughter, Mrs. M'Kenstry, of Monson, Mass., with whom I now reside, and by other friends.

After the Book of Mormon came out, a copy of it was taken to New Salem, the place of Mr. Spaulding's former residence, and the very place where the "Manuscript Found" was written. A woman ¹ preacher appointed a meeting there; and in

____________
¹ Mormons claim that they never had a "woman preacher," and use this as one of the arguments in their attempt to discredit Mrs. Davison's testimony. But it does not say that it was a Mormon "woman preacher." It may have been a woman preacher of some other connection. The probability, however, it that it is a typographical error for "Mormon preacher," Or it may have been some lady convert to Mormonism, who,

82 THE TRUE ORIGIN OF

the meeting read and repeated copious extracts from the Book of Mormon. The historical part was immediately recognized by all the older inhabitants, as the identical work of Mr. Spaulding, in which they had all been so deeply interested years before. Mr. John Spaulding was present and recognized perfectly the work of his brother. He was amazed and afflicted, that it should have been perverted to so wicked a purpose. His grief found vent in [a flood] of tears, and he arose on the spot, and expressed to the meeting his sorrow and regret that the writings of his deceased brother should be used for a purpose so vile and shocking. The excitement in New Salem became so great that the inhabitants had a meeting and deputed Dr. Philastus Hurlbut, one of their number, to repair to this place and to obtain from me the original manuscript of Mr. Spaulding, for the purpose of comparing it with the Mormon Bible, to satisfy their own minds, and to prevent their friends from embracing an error so delusive. This was in the year 1834. Dr. Hurlbut brought with him an introduction and request for the manuscript, which was signed by Messrs. Henry Lake, Aaron Wright, and others, with all of whom I was acquainted, as they were my neighbors when I resided at New Salem. I am sure that nothing would grieve my husband more, were he living, than the use which has been made of his work. The air of antiquity which was thrown about the composition, doubtless suggested the idea of converting it to the purposes of delusion. Thus an historical romance, with the addition of a few pious expressions and extracts from the sacred Scriptures, has been construed into a new Bible, and palmed off upon a company of poor deluded fanatics, as Divine. I have given the previous brief narration that this work of deep deception and wickedness may be searched to the foundation, and the authors exposed to the contempt and execration they so justly deserve.
(Signed) MATILDA DAVISON.

The letter of Mrs. Davison, judging from the facts that we now possess, presents to us a strange conglomeration

____________
while not a preacher officially, was practically such by reading copious extracts from the Book of Mormon. Mormon women are not forbidden taking part in their social services, and I have heard them do as much as claimed here.

THE BOOK OF MORMON 83

of truth and error. This confusion is, doubtless, due to the failure of memory during the lapse of time between the death of her husband and the date of her writing, She is certain that one of her husband's romances resembled the Book of Mormon and was written in imitation of the Old Testament style of speech. In this supposition she is doubtless correct. But she is also certain that this manuscript was copied by Rigdon while it lay in the Patterson printing-office, and that it was afterwards returned to her family and was by them carefully preserved until it was delivered to Dr. Hurlburt, In this she is doubtless incorrect. Everything goes to show that the "Manuscript Found" was not finally returned to the Spaulding family, but that it was stolen, not copied, by Sidney Rigdon, who, with the assistance of Smith and Cowdery, transformed it into the Book of Mormon. Mrs. Davison has made a mistake in supposing ¹ that the manuscript which she preserved so long as the "Manuscript Found," whereas it was an entirely different manuscript upon an entirely different subject.

THE QUINCY "WHIG" REPLY.

Some months after the purported letter of Mrs. Davison appeared in the Boston Recorder, the following interview was published, in reply, in the Whig of Quincy, Illinois:

____________
¹ At another time, Mrs. Davison was not as certain that the "Manuscript Found" was returned to her family or that it was the trunk manuscript. Howe says: "She states that Spaulding had a great variety of manuscripts, and recollects that one was entitled the 'Manuscript Found;' but of is contents she has now no distinct knowledge. While they lived in Pittsburgh, she thinks it was once taken to the printing-office of Patterson & Lambdin; but whether it was ever brought back to the house again, she is quite uncertain; if it was, however, it was then, with his other writings, in a trunk which she had left in Otsego County, New York." -- Quoted in "Mormonism Exposed," p. 120.

84 THE TRUE ORIGIN OF

A CUNNING DEVICE DETECTED.
It will be recollected that a few months since an article appeared in several of the papers, purporting to give an account of the origin of the Book of Mormon. How far the writer of that piece has effected his purposes, or what his purposes were in pursuing the course he has, I shall not attempt to say at this time, but shall call upon every candid man to judge in this matter for himself, and shall content myself by presenting before the public the other side of the question in the form of a letter, as follows:

Copy of a letter written by Mr. John Haven, of Holliston, Middlesex Co., Massachusetts, to his daughter, Elizabeth Haven, of Quincy, Adams Co., Illinois.

"Your brother Jesse passed through Monson, where he saw Mrs. Davison and her daughter, Mrs. McKinstry, and also Dr. Ely, and spent several hours with them, during which time he asked them the following questions, viz.:

"Question -- Did you, Mrs. Davison, write a letter to John Storrs, giving an account of the, origin of, the Book of Mormon?'
"Answer -- I did not.

"Q. -- Did you sign your name to it?
"A. -- I did not, neither did I ever see the letter until I saw it in the Boston Recorder, the letter was never brought to me to sign.

"Q. -- What agency had you in having this letter sent to Mr. Storrs?
"A. -- D. R. Austin came to my house and asked me some questions, took some minutes on paper, and from these minutes wrote that letter.

"Q. --.Have you read the Book of Mormon?
"A. -- I have read some of it.

"Q. -- Does Mr. Spaulding's manuscript and the Book of Mormon agree?
"A. -- I think some few of the names are alike.

"Q. -- Does the manuscript, describe an idolatrous or a religious people?
"A. -- An idolatrous people.

"Q. -- Where is the manuscript?'
"A. -- D. P. Hurlburt came here and took it, said he would get it printed and let me have one half of the profits.

THE BOOK OF MORMON 85

"Q. -- Has D. P. Hurlburt got the manuscript printed?
"A. -- I received a letter stating that it did not read as he expected, and he should not print it.

"Q. -- How large is Mr. Spaulding's manuscript?
"A. -- About one-third as large as the Book of Mormon.

"Q. -- To Mrs. McKinstry: How old were you when your father wrote the manuscript?
"A. -- About five years of age.

"Q. -- Did you ever read the manuscript?
"A. -- When I was about twelve years old I used to read it for diversion.

"Q. -- Did the manuscript describe an idolatrous or a religious people?
"A. -- An idolatrous people.

"Q. -- Does the manuscript and the Book of Mormon agree?
"A. -- I think some of the names agree.

"Q. -- Are you certain that some of the names agree?
"A. -- I am not.

"Q. -- Have you read any in the Book of Mormon?
"A. -- I have not.

"Q. -- Was your name attached to that letter, which was sent to Mr. John Storrs, by your order?
"A. -- No, I never meant that my name should be there.

"You see by the above questions and answers, that Mr. Austin, in his great zeal to destroy the Latter-day Saints, has asked Mrs. Davison a few questions, then wrote a letter to Mr. Storrs in his own language. I do not say that the above questions and answers were given in the form that I have written them, but these questions were asked, and these answers given. Mrs. Davison is about seventy years of age, and somewhat broken."

This may certify that I am personally acquainted with Mr. Haven, his son and daughter, and am satisfied they are persons of truth. I have also read Mr. Haven's letter to his daughter which has induced me to copy it for publication, and I further say, the above is a correct copy of Mr. Haven's letter.
A. BADLAM. ¹

There are a few points in this "Cunning Device

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¹ I have copied this letter from Reynolds' "Myth of the Manuscript Found," pp. 21, 22.

86 THE TRUE ORIGIN OF

Detected"¹ to which it will be well to call the reader's attention:

First, if the purported letter of Mrs. Davison, as published in the Boston Recorder, is not genuine, but is the production of Principal D. R. Austin, this may account for the errors which it contains, and which have been circulated as truths by the Mormons themselves. By this letter, the Mormons have zealously sought to establish the identity of the "Manuscript Found" with the "single manuscript" in the old hair trunk and which afterwards fell into the hands of Hurlburt.

Secondly, the charge is made that the "Cunning Device Detected," as I have given it and as it appears in present-day Mormon literature, has been maliciously garbled and an important admission of Mrs. Davison left out. A. T. Schroeder, in his excellent little pamphlet, "The Origin of the Book of Mormon Re-examined in Its Relation to the Spaulding's Manuscript Found," page 13, says:

On page 22 of the "Myth of the Manuscript Found" this interview appears with the statement that the Boston Recorder article was in the main true, carefully omitted.

Thomas Gregg, also, claims that the admission of Mrs. Davison, that the Boston Recorder article "was in the main true," was to be found in the Mormon paper, the Times and Seasons, Vol. I., p. 47. ²

If this is true, why have the Mormons left this important admission out of their later publications of the Haven letter? ³

Thirdly, Haven does just what Austin is accused of

____________
¹ I have tried to locate the files of The Quincy Whig, containing this letter, but so far have been unsuccessful.

² "Prophet of Palmyra," p. 421.

³ If this is true, it is not the first time that Mormonism has garbled testimony to further its ends.

THE BOOK OF MORMON 87

having done. He declares that Mrs. Davison told his son, Jesse, that she did not write or sign the Boston Recorder letter, but that Professor Austin came to her home, asked some questions, took down some minutes and wrote the letter. And then Haven, himself, admits that the questions and answers in the "Cunning Device Detected" are not given in their original form. So, if there are just grounds for questioning the Boston Recorder letter, there are equally as just grounds for questioning the Quincy Whig reply. If Mrs. Davison did not write and sign the former, she certainly did not write and sign the latter, and, by his own admission, Haven took as much liberty with what Mrs. Davison told his son, Jesse, as Austin took wit)l what Mrs. Davison told him. And, in favor of the Boston Recorder letter, we have the admission published in the Mormon paper, the Times and Seasons, that it was "in the main true."

Fourthly, this purported interview with Mrs. Davison and her daughter, Mrs. McKinstry, disagrees with the sworn statement of Mrs. McKinstry afterwards made. In her purported interview with Jesse Haven, we find the following: questions and answers: Q. -- Does the manuscript and the Book of Mormon agree?
A. -- I think some of the names agree.

Q. -- Are you certain that some of the names agree?
A. -- I am not. In her sworn statement, on this point, which we shall presently give, Mrs. McKinstry says:

Afterward he (Spaulding) read the manuscript which I had seen him writing, to the neighbors and to a clergyman, a friend of his, who came to see him. Some of the names that he mentioned, while reading to these people, I have never forgotten. They are as fresh to me today as though I heard them yesterday. They were Mormon, Moroni, Lamenite, Nephi.

88 THE TRUE ORIGIN OF

In the Haven letter, Mrs. McKinstry is said to have been uncertain in regard to the identity of certain names in her father's manuscript with those in the Book of Mormon; in her affidavit, made in 1880, she says that the four Book of Mormon names given were as fresh to her then as though she had heard them only the day before. It seems very probable that Haven, who was evidently either a Mormon or a Mormon sympathizer, wrote down the answers of Mrs. McKinstry so as to make them appear as favorable as possible to the claims of the Book of Mormon -- an art in which the Mormons are particularly accomplished.

MRS. M'KINSTRY'S AFFIDAVIT.
Mrs. Matilda Spaulding McKinstry has left us the following sworn statement in regard to the manuscript of her father:

WASHINGTON, D. C., April 3rd, 1880.
So much has been published that is erroneous concerning the "Manuscript Found," written by my father, the Rev. Solomon Spaulding, and its supposed connection with the book, called the Mormon Bible, I have willingly consented to make the following statement regarding it, repeating all that I remember personally of this manuscript, and all that is of importance which my mother related to me in connection with it, at the same time affirming that I am in tolerable health and vigor, and that my memory, in common with elderly people, is clearer in regard to the events of my earlier years, rather than those of my maturer life.

During the war of 1812, I was residing with my parents in a little town in Ohio called Conneaut. I was then in my sixth year. My father was in business there, and I remember his iron foundry and the men he had at work, but that he remained at home most of the time and was reading and writing a great deal. He frequently wrote little stories, which he read to me. There were some round mounds of earth near our house which greatly interested him, and he said a tree on the top of one of

THE BOOK OF MORMON 89

them was a thousand years old. He set some of his men to work digging into one of these mounds, and I vividly remember how excited he became when he heard that they had exhumed some human bones, portions of gigantic skeletons, and various relics. He talked with my mother of these discoveries in the mound, and was writing every day as the work progressed. Afterward he read the manuscript which I had seen him writing, to the neighbors and to a clergyman, a friend of his, who came to see him. Some of the names that he mentioned while reading to these people I have never forgotten. They are as fresh to me today as though I heard them yesterday. They were Mormon, Maroni, Lamenite, Nephi.

We removed from Conneaut to Pittsburg while I was still very young, but every circumstance of this removal is distinct in my memory. In that city my father had an intimate friend named Patterson, and I frequently visited Mr. Patterson's library with him, and heard my father talk about books with him. In 1816 my father died at Amity, Pennsylvania, and directly after his death my mother and myself went to visit at the residence of my mother's brother William H. Sabine, at Onondaga Valley, Onondaga County, New York. Mr. Sabine was a lawyer of distinction and wealth, and greatly respected. We carried all our personal effects with us, and one of these was an old trunk, in which my mother had placed all my father's writings which had been preserved. I perfectly remember the appearance of this trunk, and of looking at its contents. There were sermons and other papers, and I saw a manuscript, about an inch thick, closely written, tied with some of the stories my father had written for me, one of which he called, "The Frogs of Wyndham." On the outside of this wrapper were written the words, "Manuscript Found." I did not read it, but looked through it and had it in my hands many times, and saw the names I had heard at Conneaut, when my father read it to his friends. I was about eleven years of age at this time.

After we had been at my uncle's for some time, my mother left me there and went to her father's house at Pomfret, Connecticut, but did not take her furniture nor the old trunk of manuscripts with her. In 1820 she married Mr. Davison, of Hartwicks, a village near Cooperstown, New York, and sent for the things she had left at Onondaga Valley, and I remember that

90 THE TRUE ORIGIN OF

the old trunk, with its contents, reached her in safety. In 1828, I was married to Dr. A. McKinstry of Hampden County, Massachusetts, and went there to reside. Very soon after my mother joined me there, and was with me most of the time until her death in 1844. We heard, not long after she came to live with me -- I do not remember just how long -- something of Mormonism, and the report that it had been taken from my father's "Manuscript Found;" and then came to us direct an account of the Mormon meeting at Conneaut, Ohio, and that, on one occasion, when the Mormon Bible was read there in public, my father's brother, John Spaulding, Mr. Lake and many other persons who were present, at once recognized its similarity to the "Manuscript Found," which they had heard read years before by my father in the same town. There was a great deal of talk and a great deal published at this time about Mormonism all over the country. I believe it was in 1834 that a man named Hurlburt came to my house at Monson to see my mother, who told us that he had been sent by a committee to procure the "Manuscript Found" written by the Reverend Solomon Spaulding, so as to compare it with the Mormon Bible. He presented a letter to my mother from my uncle, William H. Sabine, of Onondaga Valley, in which he requested her to loan this manuscript to Hurlburt, as he (my uncle) was desirous "to uproot (as he expressed it) this Mormon fraud." Hurlburt represented that he had been a convert to Mormonism, but had given it up, and through the "Manuscript Found," wished to expose its wickedness. My mother was careful to have me with her in all the conversations she had with Hurlburt, who spent a day at my house. She did not like his appearance and mistrusted his motives, but having great respect for her brother's wishes and opinions, she reluctantly consented to his request. The old trunk, containing the desired "Manuscript Found," she had placed in the care of Mr. Jerome Clark of Hartwicks, when she came to Monson, intending to send for it. On the repeated promise of Hurlburt to return the manuscript to us, she gave him a letter to Mr. Clark to open the trunk and deliver it to him. We afterwards heard that he had received it from Mr. Clark, at Hartwicks, but from that time we have never had it in our possession, and I have no present knowledge of its existence, Hurlburt never returning it or answering letters requesting

THE BOOK OF MORMON 91

him to do so. Two years ago, I heard he was still living in Ohio, and with my consent he was asked for the "Manuscript Found." He made no response although we have evidence that he received the letter containing the request. So far I have stated facts within my own knowledge. My mother mentioned many other circumstances to me in connection with this subject which are interesting, of my father's literary tastes, his fine education and peculiar temperament. She stated to me that she had heard the manuscript alluded to read by my father, was familiar with its contents, and she deeply regretted that her husband, as she believed, had innocently been the means of furnishing matter for a religious delusion. She said that my father loaned this "Manuscript Found" to Mr. Patterson, of Pittsburgh, and that when he returned it to my father, he said: "Polish it up, finish it, and you will make money out of it." My mother confirmed my remembrances of my father's fondness for history, and told me of his frequent conversations regarding a theory which he had of a prehistoric race which had inhabited this continent, etc., all showing that his mind dwelt on this subject. The "Manuscript Found," she said, was a romance written in Biblical style, and that while she heard it read, she had no special admiration for it more than other romances he wrote and read to her. We never, either of us, ever saw, or in any way communicated with the Mormons, save Hurlburt as above described; and while we have no personal knowledge that the Mormon Bible was taken from the "Manuscript Found," there were many evidences to us that it was, and that Hurlburt and the others at the time thought so. A convincing proof to us of this belief was that my uncle, William H. Sabine, had undoubtedly read the manuscript while it was in his house, and his faith that its production would show to the world that the Mormon Bible had been taken from it, or was the same with slight alterations. I have frequently answered questions which have been asked by different persons regarding the "Manuscript Found," but until now have never made a statement at length for publication. (Signed) M. S. MCKINSTRY.

Sworn and subscribed to before me this 3rd day of April, A.D. 1880, at the city of Washington, D. C.
Charles Walter, Notary Public. ¹

____________
¹ This affidavit was first published in Scribner's Monthly for August, 1880.

92 THE TRUE ORIGIN OF

We call the attention of the reader to the following points which are brought out in the foregoing affidavit:

First, Mrs. McKinstry certifies that her mother told her that her father wrote a number of romances.

Secondly she states further that one of these romances, called the "Manuscript Found," resembled the Book of Mormon in the use of such propel names as Mormon, Maroni, Lamenite and Nephi. This manuscript, then, could not have been the one that Hurlburt afterwards obtained from the old trunk, for that manuscript contains no such names as these.

Thirdly, she declares that her mother informed her that the "Manuscript Found" was written in Biblical style; another proof that it was not the manuscript now in the library of Oberlin College, which is not written in Biblical style.

Fourthly, she states that the manuscript in the old trunk was examined by her when eleven years of age and that it had the words "Manuscript Found" written on the wrapper. In this we know that she was mistaken, for no such title appears on the manuscript found in Honolulu. But the words, "Manuscript Story -- Conneaut Creek," do appear in "faint penciling." This is the title which Mrs. McKinstry undoubtedly saw when she was eleven years of age, and her mistake is probably due to the failure of memory during the great number of years that elapsed between the time when she last saw this manuscript and the date of her affidavit. This would seem to show that as early as 1817 the title, "Manuscript Story," in "faint penciling," was on the wrapper of the romance front Honolulu and that it was probably placed there by her father himself.

Fifthly, Mrs. McKinstry thinks that the trunk manuscript was the same as the one recognized by the old

THE BOOK OF MORMON 93

citizens of Conneaut as the basis of the Book of Mormon. We shall see, presently, that in this she is mistaken.

Although the letters of both Mrs. Davison and Mrs. McKinstry contain a number of errors, these are easily detected by the facts that have been brought to light since 1884. So, culling these errors, we have the invulnerable facts remaining that Solomon Spaulding wrote one manuscript in Biblical style and employed names that afterwards appeared in the Book of Mormon. This was his celebrated "Manuscript Found."

94 THE TRUE ORIGIN OF

CHAPTER VI.

The Manuscript Found -- Its Identity with the Book of Mormon Established --
The Testimony of John Spaulding, Martha Spaulding, Henry Lake, John N. Miller, Aaron Wright, Oliver Smith, Nahum Howard and Artemas Cunningham.

Having established the distinction between the manuscript discovered in Honolulu and the "Manuscript Found," I now pass to those evidences which go to identify tile latter with the basis of the Book of Mormon. These evidences consist of the testimonies of eleven of the relatives and acquaintances of Solomon Spaulding, who heard him read his celebrated "Manuscript Found." They are met by the Mormons either with silence, with evasion or with a blustering denial.

The opinion of some of those, outside of Mormonism, who have made the matter the subject of special study, is that Solomon Spaulding made three copies, or drafts, of his "Manuscript Found," ¹ as follows:

1. The Nephite copy. This copy was written at Conneaut, and is thought to have contained only the outline of Nephite history as given in the Book of Mormon.

2. The Zarahemlaite copy. This copy is thought to have been begun at Conneaut and completed at Pittsburgh. It is supposed to have contained all that was in the former copy, with the account added of the colony which came to America under Mulek at the time of the destruction of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar.

3. The Jaredite copy. This copy is supposed to have been written at Pittsburgh, and to have contained all that

____________
¹ See "Braden-Kelley Debate," p. 75.

THE BOOK OF MORMON 95

was in the preceding copies, with the Jaredite portion of the Book of Mormon added.

I must confess that this classification of the writings of Solomon Spaulding is ingenious, but it requires the following of altogether too slender lines of evidence to be very trustworthy. I shall, therefore, make no attempt to discriminate between the different copies, or drafts, of the "Manuscript Found," if such really existed, as some other authors have done, but to settle down to the easier task of showing that this manuscript, whether it originally existed in one or in three drafts, was identical with the Book of Mormon in proper names and general historical outline. ¹

In order to accomplish this, I shall put before the reader, in this chapter and in the following chapter, the testimonies of the eleven witnesses referred to, who either at Conneaut or Amity heard the "Manuscript Found" read. The testimonies of the eight to be given in this chapter were first published in Howe's "Mormonism Unveiled" of 1834, ² and constitute, says A. T. Schroeder, "the most important single collection of original evidence ever made upon the subject."³

THE TESTIMONY OF JOHN SPAULDING,
Solomon Spaulding was born in Ashford, Conn. in 1761, and in early life contracted a taste for literary pursuits. After he left school, he entered Plainfield Academy, where he made great proficiency in study, and excelled most of his classmates.

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¹ Personally, I very much doubt if Spaulding ever wrote more than one copy of his "Manuscript Found," though this may have been written In three installments, first the Nephite part, then the Zarahemlaite, and lastly the Jaredite. But that he did write one manuscript at least, which gave a history of the first two peoples, is beyond question.

² Not having Howe's hook at hand, I have copied them from Bennett's "Mormonism Exposed," pp. 115-120.

³ "The Origin of the Book of Mormon, Re-examined In Its Relation to Spaulding's 'Manuscript Found,'" p. 40.

96 THE TRUE ORIGIN OF

He next commenced the study of law, in Windham county, in which he made little progress, having in the meantime turned his attention to religious subjects. He soon after entered Dartmouth College, with the intention of qualifying himself for the ministry, where he obtained the degree of A.M. and was afterwards regularly ordained. After preaching three or four years, he gave it up, removed to Cherry Valley, N. Y., and commenced the mercantile business in company with his brother Josiah. In a few years he failed in business, and in the year 1809 removed to Conneaut, in Ohio. The year following, I removed to Ohio, and found him engaged in building a forge. I made him a visit in about three years after; and found that he had failed, and was considerably involved in debt. He then told me had he been writing a book, which he intended to have printed, the avails of which he thought would enable him to pay all his debts. The book was entitled the "Manuscript Found," of which he read to me many passages. It was an historical romance of the first settlers of America, endeavoring to show that the American Indians are the descendants of the Jews, or the lost tribes. It gave a detailed account of their journey from Jerusalem, by land and sea, till they arrived in America, under the command of Nephi and Lehi. They afterwards had quarrels and contentions, and separated into two distinct nations, one of which he denominated Nephites and the other Lamanites. Cruel and bloody wars ensued, in which great multitudes were slain. They buried their dead in large heaps, which caused the mounds so common in this country. Their arts, sciences and civilization were brought into view, in order to account for all the curious antiquities found in various parts of North and South America. I have recently read the Book of Mormon, and to my great surprise I find it nearly the same historical matter, names, &c. as they were in my brother's writings. I well remember that he wrote in the old style, and commenced about every sentence with "And it came to pass," or "Now it came to pass," the same as in the Book of Mormon, and according to the best of my recollection and belief, it is the same as my brother Solomon wrote, with the exception of the religious matter. By what means it has fallen into the hands of Joseph Smith, Jr. I am unable to determine.
JOHN SPALDING.

THE BOOK OF MORMON 97

THE TESTIMONY OF MARTHA SPAULDING,
I was personally acquainted with Solomon Spaulding, about twenty years ago. I was at his house a short time before he left Conneaut; he was then writing a historical novel founded upon the first settlers of America. He represented them as an enlightened and warlike people. He had for many years contended that the aborigines of America were the descendants of some of the lost tribes of Israel, and this idea he carried out in the book in question. The lapse of time which has intervened, prevents my recollecting but few of the leading incidents of his writings; but the names of Nephi and Lehi are yet fresh in my memory, as being the principal heroes of his tale. They were officers of the company which first came off from Jerusalem. He gave a particular account of their journey by land and sea, till they arrived in America, after which, disputes arose between the chiefs, which caused them to separate into different bands, one of which was called Lamanites and the other Nephites. Between these were recounted tremendous battles, which frequently covered the ground with the slain; and their being buried in large heaps was the cause of the numerous mounds in the country. Some of these people he represented as being very large. I have read the Book of Mormon, which has brought fresh to my recollection the writings of Solomon Spaulding; and I have no manner of doubt that the historical part of it is the same that I read and heard read more than twenty years ago. The old, obsolete style, and the phrases of "and it came to pass," &c. are the same. MARTHA SPALDING.

THE TESTIMONY OF HENRY LAKE.
Conneaut, Ashtabula Co. Ohio, Sept., 1833.
I left the state of New York, late in the year 1810, and arrived at this place, about the first of January following. Soon after my arrival, I formed a copartnership with Solomon Spaulding, for the purpose of rebuilding a forge which he had commenced a year or two before. He very frequently read to me from a manuscript which he was writing, which he entitled the "Manuscript Found," and which he represented as being found in this town. I spent many hours in hearing him read said writings, and became well acquainted with its contents. He

98 THE TRUE ORIGIN OF

wished me to assist him in getting his production printed, alleging that a book of that kind would meet with a rapid sale. I designed doing so, but the forge not meeting our anticipations, we failed in business, when I declined having anything to do with the publication of the book. This book represented the American Indians as the descendants of the lost tribes, gave an account of their leaving Jerusalem, their contentions and wars, which were many and great. One time, when he was reading to me the tragic account of Laban, I pointed out to him what I considered an inconsistency, which he promised to correct; but by referring to the Book of Mormon, I find to my surprise that it stands there just as he read it to me then. Some months ago I borrowed the Golden Bible, put it into my pocket, carried it home, and thought no more of it. About a week after, my wife found the book in my coat pocket, as it hung up, and commenced reading it aloud as I lay upon the bed. She had not read twenty minutes till I was astonished to find the same passages in it that Spaulding had read to me more, than twenty years before, from his "Manuscript Found." Since that, I have more fully examined the said Golden Bible, and have no hesitation in saying that the historical part of it is principally, if not wholly taken from the "Manuscript Found." I well recollect telling Mr. Spaulding, that the so frequent use of the words "And it came to pass," "Now it came to pass," rendered it ridiculous. Spaulding left here in 1812, and I furnished him the means to carry him to Pittsburgh, where he said he would get the book printed, and pay me. But I never heard any more from him or his writings, till I saw them in the Book of Mormon.
HENRY LAKE.

THE TESTIMONY OF JOHN N. MILLER
Springfield, Pa. September, 1833.
In the year 1811, I was in the employ of Henry Lake and Solomon Spaulding, at Conneaut, engaged in rebuilding a forge. While there, I boarded and lodged in the family of said Spaulding for several months. I was soon introduced to the manuscripts of Spaulding, and perused them as often as I had leisure. He had written two or three books or pamphlets on different subjects; but that which more particularly drew my attention was one which he called the "Manuscript Found." From this

THE BOOK OF MORMON 99

he would frequently read some humorous passages to the company present. It purported to be the history of the first settlement of America, before discovered by Columbus. He brought them off from Jerusalem, under their leaders; detailing their travels by land and water, their manners, customs, laws, wars, &c. He said that he designed it as a historical novel, and that in after years it would be believed by many people as much as the history of England. He soon after failed in business, and told me he should retire from the din of his creditors, finish his book and have it published, which would enable him to pay his debts and support his family. He soon after removed to Pittsburgh, as I understood.

I have recently examined the Book of Mormon, and find in it the writings of Solomon Spaulding, from beginning to end, but mixed up with Scripture and other religious matter, which I did not meet with in the "Manuscript Found." Many of the passages in the Mormon Book are verbatim from Spaulding, and others in part. The names of Nephi, Lehi, Moroni, and in fact all the principal names, are brought fresh to my recollection, by the Gold Bible. When Spaulding divested his history of its fabulous names, by a verbal explanation, he landed his people near the Straits of Darien, which I am very confident he called Zarahemla, they were marched about that country for a length of time, in which wars and great blood shed ensued, he brought them across North America in a north east direction.
JOHN N. MILLER.

THE TESTIMONY OF AARON WRIGHT.
Conneaut, August, 1833.
I first became acquainted with Solomon Spaulding in 1808 or '9, when he commenced building a forge on Conneaut creek. When at his house, one day, he showed and read to me a history he was writing, of the lost tribes of Israel, purporting that they were the first settlers of America, and that the Indians were their descendants. Upon this subject we had frequent conversations. He traced their journey from Jerusalem to America, as it is given in the Book of Mormon, excepting the religious matter. The historical part of the Book of Mormon, I know to be the same as I read and heard read from the writings of Spaulding, more than twenty years ago; the names more especially

100 THE TRUE ORIGIN OF

are the same without any alteration. He told me his object was to account for all the fortifications, &c. to be found in this country, and said that in time it would be fully believed by all, except learned men and historians. I once anticipated reading his writings in print, but little expected to see them in a new Bible. Spaulding had many other manuscripts, which I expect to see when Smith translates his other plate. In conclusion, I will observe, that the names of, and most of the historical part of the Book of Mormon, were as familiar to me before I read it, as most modern history. If it is not Spaulding's writing, it is the same as he wrote; and if Smith was inspired, I think it was by the same spirit that Spaulding was, which he confessed to be the love of money. AARON WRIGHT.

TESTIMONY OF OLIVER SMITH.
Conneaut, August, 1833.
When Solomon Spaulding first came to this place, he purchased a tract of land, surveyed it out and commenced telling it. While engaged in this business, he boarded at my house, in all nearly six months. All his leisure hours were occupied in writing a historical novel, founded upon the first settlers of this country. He said he intended to trace their journey from Jerusalem, by land and sea, till their arrival in America, give an account of their arts, sciences, civilization, wars and contentions. In this way, he would give a satisfactory account of all of the old mounds, so common to this country. During the time he was at my house, I read and heard read one hundred pages or more. Nephi and Lehi were by him represented as leading characters, when they first started for America. Their main object was to escape the judgments which they supposed were coming upon the old world. But no religious matter was introduced, as I now recollect. Just before he left this place, Spaulding sent for me to call on him, which I did. He then said, that although he was in my debt, he intended to leave the country, and hoped I would not prevent him, for, says he, you know I have been writing the history of the first settlement of America, and I intend to go to Pittsburgh, and there live a retired life, till I have completed the work, and when it is printed, it will bring me a fine sum of money, which will enable me to return and pay off all my debts. The book, you know,

THE BOOK OF MORMON 101

will sell, as every one is anxious to learn something upon that subject. This was the last I heard of Spaulding or his book, until the Book of Mormon came into the neighborhood. When I heard the historical part of it related, I at once said it was the writings of old Solomon Spaulding. Soon after, I obtained the book, and on reading it, found much of it the same as Spaulding had written, more than twenty years before.
      OLIVER SMITH.

THE TESTIMONY OF NAHUM HOWARD.
         Conneaut, August, 1833.
I first became acquainted with Solomon Spalding, in December, 1810. After that time I frequently saw him at his house, and also at my house. I once in conversation with him expressed a surprise at not having any account of the inhabitants once in this country, who erected the old forts, mounds, &c. He then told me that he was writing a history of that race of people; and afterwards frequently showed me his writings, which I read. I have lately read the Book of Mormon, and believe it to be the same as Spaulding wrote, except the religious part. He told me that he intended to get his writings published in Pittsburgh, and he thought that in one century from that time, it would be believed as much as any other history.
            NAHUM HOWARD.

THE TESTIMONY OF ARTEMAS CUNNINGHAM.
In the month of October, 1811, I went from the township of Madison to Conneaut, for the purpose of securing a debt due me from Solomon Spaulding. I tarried with him nearly two days, for the purpose of accomplishing my object, which I was finally unable to do. I found him destitute of the means of paying his debts. His only hope of ever paying his debts, appeared to be upon the sale of a book which he had been writing. He endeavored to convince me from the nature and character of the work, that it would meet with a ready sale. Before showing me his manuscripts, he went into a verbal relation of its outlines, saying that it was a fabulous or romantic history of the first settlement of this country, and as it purported to have been a record found buried in the earth, or in a cave, he had adopted the ancient or Scripture style of writing. He then presented his

102 THE TRUE ORIGIN OF

manuscripts, when we sat down and spent a good share of the night, in reading them, and conversing upon them. I well remember the name of Nephi, which appeared to be the principal hero of the story. The frequent repetition of the phrase, "I Nephi," I recollect as distinctly as though it was but yesterday, although the general features of the story have passed from my memory, through the lapse of twenty-two years. He attempted to account for the numerous antiquities which are found upon this continent, and remarked that, after this generation had passed away, his account of the first inhabitants of America would be considered as authentic as any other history. The Mormon Bible I have partially examined, and am fully of the opinion that Solomon Spaulding had written its outlines before he left Conneaut.

This completes the original testimony on the "Manuscript Found" as given by E. D. Howe in 1834. By it the following points are established:

First, Solomon Spaulding wrote several manuscripts which he was fond of exhibiting to his acquaintances.

Secondly, one of these manuscripts, and the most important of them, bore the title of the "Manuscript Found."

Thirdly, this manuscript agreed with the Book of Mormon in its general historical outline and proper names, it containing such proper names as Lehi, Nephi, Nephites, Lamanites, Laban, Zarahemla and Moroni.

Fouthly, it was also written in Scripture style, and began nearly every passage with "And it came to pass" and "Now it came to pass." It could not, therefore, have been identical with the manuscript found in Honolulu, which does not contain these introductory expressions.

Fifthly, the "Manuscript Found" was devoid of the religious matter found in the Book of Mormon, hence this must have been added later, presumably by Rigdon.

Are these coincidences purely accidental?

THE BOOK OF MORMON 103

CHAPTER VII.

The Testimony of Other Witnesses -- Joseph Miller -- Ruddick McKee -- Abner Jackson
-- The Mormon Admissions of Genuineness -- The Disclosures of J. C. Bennett.

Since 1834, other witnesses have borne testimony to the close resemblance of the "Manuscript Found" to the Book of Mormon, even as touching certain details.

THE TESTIMONY OF JOSEPH MILLER.

Joseph Miller was a resident of Amity, Pennsylvania, and a particular friend of Solomon Spaulding while he resided at that place. In a letter to Thomas Gregg, ¹ he says:

TEN MILE, Washington Co., Pa., Jan. 20, 1882.
DEAR SIR: -- In answer to yours, I would state that I was familiar with Solomon Spaulding. I worked in Amity, where he lived, and as the fashion was at that day, we all assembled at his house in the evenings (as he kept tavern), and he frequently would read from his manuscript. The work was very odd. The words "Moreover," "And it came to pass," occurred so often that the boys about the village called him "Old Came to Pass." He told me he lived in Ohio when he wrote his manuscript. He said he lost his health, and he commenced writing a history of the mounds near where he lived, or of the people who built them. He afterwards removed to Pittsburgh, and kept a little store to support his family, and while there he took his manuscript to Mr. Patterson, then engaged in a publishing house. Mr. Patterson told him if he would write a title page he would publish it. He left the copy and moved to Amity. He afterwards went back to have his MS. published, but it could not be found. He said there was a man named Sidney Rigdon about the office, and they thought he had stolen it. The passage you

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¹ Prophet of Palmyra," pp. 441, 442.

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refer to, on page 148, as Cooper has it, in his reference to being marked with red in their foreheads.

"Nephites," I recollect distinctly, as occurring very often; as to "Lamanites" it is not so distinct, -- and a great many other names that were very odd.

The MS that I saw, would not, I think, make as large a book as the Book of Mormon.

Spaulding was a very poor man; during his stay at Amity, I was very familiar with him, bailed him for money at least twice; and by request of Spaulding, assisted his wife in settling up his little business -- made his coffin and helped lay him in his grave. JOSEPH MILLER.

In the Pittsburgh Telegraph of February 6, 1879, we find the following from the pen of Mr. Miller:

Mr. Spaulding seemed to take delight in reading from his manuscript written on foolscap. I heard him read most, if not all of it; and had frequent conversations with him about it. Some time ago I heard most of the Book of Mormon read. On hearing read the account of the battle between the Amlicites and the Nephites (Book of Alma, chapter II.), in which the soldiers one army had placed a red mark on their foreheads, to distinguish them from their enemies, it seemed to reproduce in my mind not only the narrative, but the very words, as they had been impressed on my mind by reading Spaulding's manuscript. ¹

THE TESTIMONY OF RUDDICK M'KEE

In the Washington (Pennsylvania) Reporter for April 21, 1879, Ruddick ² McKee, of Washington, District of Columbia, said in regard to Spaulding and his romance:

In the fall of 1814, I arrived in the village of "Good Will" and, for eighteen or twenty months sold goods in the store previously occupied by Mr. Thos. Brice. It was on the Main street, a few rods west of Spalding's Tavern where I was a boarder. With both Mr. Solomon Spaulding and his wife, I was quite intimately

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¹ "Braden-Kelley Debate," p. 42.

² Sometimes spelled Redick.

THE BOOK OF MORMON 105

acquainted. I recollect, quite well, Mr. Spaulding spending much time in writing (on sheets of paper torn out of an old book), what purported to be a veritable history of the nations or tribes who inhabited Canaan. He called it "Lost History Found," "Lost Manuscript," or some such name: not disguising that it was wholly a work of the imagination, written to amuse himself, and without any immediate view to publication. I was struck with the minuteness of his details and the apparent truthfulness and sincerity of the author. I have an indistinct recollection of the passages referred to by Mr. Miller, about the Amalekites making a cross with red paint on their foreheads, to distinguish them from their enemies in the confusion of battle. ¹

THE TESTIMONY OF ABNER JACKSON.

The evidence that I have already given is sufficient to establish the plagiarism, but I introduce one more testimony. The following statement of Rev. Abner Jackson, of Canton, Ohio, was communicated to the Washington County (Pennsylvania) Historical Society, December 20, 1880 ²

It is a fact well established that the book called the Book of Mormon, had its origin from a romance that was written by Solomon Spaulding, in Conneaut, a small village in Ashtabula County, Ohio, about AD 1812. Spaulding was a highly educated man about six feet high, of rather slender build, with a dark complexion, black eyes, black hair, rather slow of speech, never trifling, pleasant in conversation, but seldom laughing aloud. His deportment was grave and dignified in society, and he was much respected by those of his acquaintance. He was a clergyman of the Presbyterian order, and for a time a settled pastor in the city of New York. So said his brother John Spaulding and others in the neighborhood, who heard him preach. It was said that failing health caused him to resign the pastorate. He then came to Richfield, Otsego County, New York, and started a store, near where my father lived, about the beginning of the present century.

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¹ Schroeder, p. 46

² "Prophet of Palmyra," pp. 444-450.

106 THE TRUE ORIGIN OF

Spaulding contracted for large tracts of land along the shore of Lake Erie, on each side of the state line, in both Pennsylvania and Ohio. My father exchanged with him the farm on which he lived in Otsego County, New York, for land in Erie County, Pa. where the town of Albion now stands, and moved on it A.D. 1805. It was then a dense forest. Shortly after my father moved, Spaulding sold his store in Richfield, and moved to Conneaut, Ashtabula County, Ohio, and built a forge on Conneaut Creek, two miles from Conneaut Harbor and two miles from the State line. In building this he failed, sold out, and about the beginning of the year 1812, commenced to write his famous romance called by him the Manuscript Found.

This romance, Mr. Spaulding brought with him on a visit to my father, a short time before he moved from Conneaut to Pittsburgh. At that time I was confined to the house with a lame knee, and so I was in company with them and heard the conversation that passed between them. Spaulding read much of his manuscript to my father, and in conversation with him, explained his views of the old fortifications in this country, and told his romance. A note in Morse's Geography suggested it as a possibility that our Indians were descendants of the lost tribes of Israel. Said Morse, they might have wandered through Asia up to Behring's Strait, and across the strait to this continent. Besides there were habits and ceremonies among them that resembled some habits and ceremonies among the Israelites of that day. Then the old fortifications and earth mounds, containing so many kinds of relics and human bones, and some of them so large, altogether convinced him that they were a larger race and more enlightened and civilized than are found among the Indians among us at this day. These facts and reflections prompted him to write his Romance, purporting to be a history of the lost tribes of Israel.

He begins with their departure from Palestine or Judea, then up through Asia, ¹ points out their exposures, hardships, and sufferings, also their craft for passing over the straits. Then after their

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¹ If Spaulding's "Manuscript Found" gave this migrational direction, the account was afterwards changed, because the Book of Mormon has them come across the Pacific Ocean to South America.

THE BOOK OF MORMON 107

landing he gave an account of their divisions and subdivisions under different leaders, but two parties controlled the balance. One of them was called the righteous, worshipers and servants of God. These organized with prophets, priests, and teachers, for the education of their children, and settled down to cultivate the soil, and to a life of civilization. The others were idolaters. They contended for a life of idleness; in short, a wild, wicked, savage life.

They soon quarreled, and then commenced war anew, and continued to fight, except at very short intervals. Sometimes one party was successful and sometimes the other, until finally a terrible battle was fought, which was conclusive. All the righteous were slain, except one, and he was Chief Prophet and Recorder. He was notified of the defeat in time by Divine authority; told where, when and how to conceal the record, and He would take care that it should be preserved, and brought to light again at the proper time, for the benefit of mankind. So the Recorder professed to do, and then submitted to his fate. I do not remember what that fate was. He was left alone of his party. I do not remember that anything more was said of him.

Spaulding's romance professed to find the Record where the Recorder concealed it, in one of those mounds, one of which was but a few rods from Spaulding's residence. Soon after this visit, Spaulding moved to Pittsburgh, and took his manuscript to the Pittsburgh Gazette office, intending to have it printed, but in this he failed. My brother, J. J. Jackson, was a recruiting officer in the U. S. Army, and stationed at Pittsburgh at that time. Being well acquainted with Spaulding and his lady he soon found them, and in his letters home would inform us how they were getting along. This last account he gave us of them was that he was selling pictures and she was sewing up clothing for the soldiers. The next we heard of them was by report. Spaulding moved to Amity, Washington County, Pa., and soon after died and was buried there. His wife and daughter went to her brother, Lawyer Sabine, Onondaga Valley, Onondaga, Co., N. Y. When I was returning from Clarksburg, W.Va., to my home in New Brighten, Beaver Co., Pa., A.D. 1840, I passed through Amity, hunted the grave of Spaulding and copied from the headstone the following inscription:

108 THE TRUE ORIGIN OF

"IN MEMORY OF
Solomon Spaulding, who departed this life Oct. 20th, A.D., 1816. Aged 55 years.

"Kind cherubs guard the sleeping clay, Until the great decision day, And saints complete in glory rise, To share the triumph of the skies."
Spaulding frequently read his manuscript to the neighbors and amused them as he progressed with his work. He wrote it in Bible style, "And it came to pass" occurred so often that some called him "Old Come to Pass."

So much for Spaulding's romance; now for the Book of Mormon.

The first account of the Book of Mormon that I saw, was a notice in my father's newspaper, stating that Joseph Smith, Jr., professed having dreamed that an angel had appeared to him and told him to go and search in a place he named in Palmyra, N. Y., and he would find a gold-leaf Bible. Smith was incredulous and did not go until the second or third time he dreamed the same dream. Then he said he went and, to his surprise, he found the golden Bible, according to his dreams. But it was written in a language so ancient that none could be found able either to read it or tell in what language it was written. Some time after another statement appeared, that an angel had consented to read and interpret it to Joseph Smith, and he should report it to a third person, who should write it in plain English, so that all might read the new Bible and understand its import. Some time after, in 1830, the book was published at Palmyra, N. Y., called a New Revelation; the Book of Mormon. This purports to be a history of the lost tribes of the Children of Israel. It begins with them just where the romance did, and it follows the romance very closely. It is true there are some verbal alterations and additions, enlarging the production somewhat, without changing its main features. The Book of Mormon follows the romance too closely to be a stranger. In both, many having the same name; as Maroni, Mormon, Nephites, Moroni, Lama, Nephe, and others.

Here then we are presented with romance second, called the Book of Mormon, telling the same story of the same people, traveling from the same plain, in the same way, having the same

THE BOOK OF MORMON 109

difficulties and destination, with the same wars, same battles, and same results, with thousands upon thousands slain. Then see the Mormon account of the last battle at Cumorah, where all the righteous were slain. They were called the Nephites, the others were called Lamanites (see Moroni's account of the closing scene) "and now it came to pass that a great battle was fought at Cumorah. The Lamanites slew all the Nephites" (except Moroni), and he said I will write and hide up the Record in the earth, and whither I go it mattereth not." -- Book of Mormon page 344, third American edition. ¹ How much this resembles the closing scene in the Manuscript Found. The most singular part of the whole matter is that it follows the romance so closely, with this difference: the first claims to be a romance; the second claims to be a revelation of God, a new Bible! When it was brought to Conneaut and read there in public, old Esq. Wright heard it, and exclaimed, "Old come to Pass has come to life again." Here was the place where Spaulding wrote and read his manuscript to the neighbors for their amusement and 'Squire Wright had often heard him read from his Romance. This was in 1832, sixteen years after Spaulding's death. This 'Squire Wright lived on a farm just outside of the little village. I was acquainted with him for twenty-five years. I lived on his farm when I was a boy and attended school in the village. I am particular to notice these things to show that I had an opportunity of knowing what I am writing about.

After I commenced writing this article, I heard that an article in Scribner's Monthly, for August, 1880, on the Book of Mormon, contained a note and affidavit of Mrs. Matilda S. McKinstry, Solomon Spaulding's only child, stating that she remembered her father's romance. I sent at once for the Monthly, and on the 613, 614, 615 and 616 pages, found the article and her testimony. Her statement from the commencement, until they moved to Pittsburgh, in all essential particulars I know to be true. She relates those acts as they occurred to my own personal knowledge, though she was then a little girl. She is now about seventy-five years of age.

I stated before that I knew nothing of Spaulding after he moved to Pittsburgh, except by letters and newspapers. He soon moved to Amity, Washington County, Pa., and shortly

____________
¹ This is not an exact quotation.

110 THE TRUE ORIGIN OF

after this he died and his wife went to her brother's. His daughter's account of the deceitful method by which Hurlburt gained possession of and retained Spaulding's manuscript, is, I think, important and should not be lost sight of. She was no child then. I think she has done her part well in the vindication of the truth by her unvarnished statement of what she remembered of her father's romance. I have not seen her since she was a little girl, but I have seen both of these productions, heard Spaulding read much of his romance to my father and explain his views and reasons for writing it. I also have seen and read the Book of Mormon, and it follows Spaulding's romance too closely to be anything else than a borrowed production from that romance. I think that, Mrs. McKinstry's statement fills a gap in my account from Spalding's removal to Pittsburgh, to the death of his wife in 1844. I wish, if my statement is published that hers also be published with it, that the truth may be vindicated by the truth beyond any reasonable doubt.
(Signed) ABNER JACKSON.
Canton, Ohio, Dec. 20, 1880.

THE MORMON ADMISSIONS OF GENUINENESS.

While the Mormons deny the truthfulness of the testimony in this and the preceding chapter, they concede its genuineness. ¹ As proof of this, I submit the following extract from the pen of Elder Brigham H. Roberts, of the Utah Mormon Church, taken from the "Young Men's Mutual Improvement Associations Manual" for 1905-1906, pages 465 and 466:

In the fall of 1833, a number of affidavits were taken from the former neighbors and friends of Solomon Spaulding, and one was given by his brother, John Spaulding, and one by the latter's wife, Martha Spaulding. They at the time were residing in Crawford, Pennsylvania, and both testified that they had "recently read the Book of Mormon," and recognized in it the general outlines of Solomon Spaulding's story, claimed especially

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¹ By the genuineness of these testimonies, I mean that they were actually made and subscribed to by the parties to whom they are accredited.

THE BOOK OF MORMON 111

to remember the names "Nephi and Lehi;" the words "Nephites and Lamanites;" as also the ancient scriptural style and the frequent use of the phrase "and it came to pass;" and that the American Indians are descendants of the Jews, or "lost tribes Of Israel."

Mr. Henry Lake, an associate in business with Mr. Spaulding, living at Conneaut in the fall of 1833, in connection with others that will be named, living in the same neighborhood, testified that Solomon Spaulding read to him from the "Manuscript Found;" that it represented the American Indians as the descendants of the "lost tribes" of Israel, and that he suggested to Mr. Spaulding that the frequent use of the phrase "and it came to pass" rendered the book ridiculous.

John N. Miller testified substantially to the same things saying in addition that Spaulding's story landed his colony near the "Straits of Darien," which he was confident he called "Zarahemla."

Aaron Wright testified substantially to the same things as he foregoing. That the American Indians, according to Spaulding's story, were descendants of the "lost tribes" of Israel, and claims especially that the historical part of the Book of Mormon is substantially what he heard read from the "Manuscript Found" though he excepts out of the work, as not being Spaulding's, the religious matter.

Oliver Smith testified substantially to the same things, saying in effect that on reading the Book of Mormon he at once recognized it as the writings of Solomon Spaulding.