THE MYTH OF THE
"MANUSCRIPT FOUND,"
OR THE
ABSURDITIES OF THE
"SPAULDING STORY."
* * * * *
ELEVENTH BOOK OF
THE FAITH-PROMOTING SERIES.
* * * * *
BY ELDER GEORGE REYNOLDS.
* * * * *
Designed for the Instruction and Encouragement of young Latter-day
Saints.
* * * * *
JUVENILE INSTRUCTOR OFFICE,
Salt Lake City, Utah.
1883.
PREFACE
The previous numbers of the FAITH-PROMOTING SERIES have consisted
largely of the personal narratives of men of God living in these days,
in which it has been shown how the Lord preserves, protects, guides,
inspires and directs His servants in this dispensation, and reveals
His word and will to them after the manner and by like methods to
those by which He manifested himself to the righteous in the ages of
the past, demonstrating His unchangeableness and the validity of our
claim that we are His acknowledged people. With feelings of intense
joy, deep devotion and profound gratitude to Him, the previous numbers
of this Series have been read by thousands of Latter day Saints. This
little volume takes a somewhat new departure. It treats of a book--a
divine record, the true story of its discovery and translation, and of
the falsehoods that have been invented, nourished and sown broadcast
throughout Christendom to blind men's eyes to its real import. For the
Book of Mormon being true then Joseph Smith is a prophet of God and
"Mormonism" is the everlasting gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ; but if
it were a forgery, as our enemies assert, then would all our hopes be
vain and our faith worthless.
The so-called "Spaulding story" has been for many years past the last
refuge of those who have undertaken to prove that the Book of Mormon
is not what it claims to be. All other hypothesis have long since been
committed to limbo as too silly, too outrageous or too inconsistent
even for a gullable anti-"Mormon" public. In this short treatise we
have endeavored to prove the utter untenability of this theory. We have
shown that the upholders of this myth are not only at variance with
each other, but that all their assertions are inconsistent with the
well-known facts associated with its discovery; and when we proceed
further to examine the internal evidence of the book we very soon
discover that the conglomeration of conjectures, guesses, suppositions,
etc., of which this "Spaulding story" is formed is "as unstable as
water" and utterly unworthy of belief.
The individual testimonies of the three witnesses gathered from many
authentic sources are an important feature of this little work. With
true Latter-day Saints they must inevitably be a source of joy and
consolation, and none who are honest, be they "Mormons" or not, can
rise from the perusal of their simple statements without realizing a
marked effect therefrom. They bear the impress of truth, sincerity and
genuineness in every paragraph.
In conclusion we dedicate these pages to God, to His people and to all
who love the right, trusting that their mission will not be without
effect in the spread of His righteousness and the dissemination of His
truth.
G. R.
SALT LAKE CITY,
August 7th, 1883.
CONTENTS.
The History of the Manuscript
The Originator of the "Spaulding Story"
The Bogus Affidavit
Mrs. Dickenson's Speculations
What the Book of Mormon Really is
Utter Disagreement of the Two Histories
Joseph Smith's Early Life
Joseph's Account of the Discovery of the Plates
Time Occupied in Translating the Book of Mormon
The Three Witnesses
Oliver Cowdery
David Whitmer
Martin Harris
Internal Evidences of the Book of Mormon
The Prophecies of the Book of Mormon
Appendix
THE MYTH OF THE MANUSCRIPT FOUND.
CHAPTER I.
THE HISTORY OF THE MANUSCRIPT.
Time and again, at recurring intervals of unequal length, the Church
of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is assailed with a rehash of
the notorious "Spaulding story," which from frequent repetition has
become as familiar in the mouths of many of the Saints as household
words. True, the story in its details is not always identical, it is
altered, re-arranged, or "cooked" to suit the necessities of the story
teller, but in its essential particulars it remains the same. Its
burden is that a certain "reverend" gentleman of Conneaut, Ohio, named
Solomon Spaulding, in the early part of the present century, wrote
a historical romance which he entitled the "Manuscript Found," that
in some unexplained and unexplainable way, but generally imagined to
have been through Sidney Rigdon, the youthful Joseph Smith obtained
access to this manuscript and from its scanty pages elaborated the
Book of Mormon, which he afterwards palmed upon the world as a divine
revelation.
This is the substance of the "Spaulding story." It is a frantic
effort to prove the Book of Mormon a forgery and a fraud, for it is
very evident that if the Book of Mormon is not of God then the whole
superstructure of "Mormonism" is of necessity a gross imposture, the
cruelest of religious deception that for many centuries has misled
humanity. All other theories advanced to prove this record false having
long since failed, the "Spaulding story" is the last and only resort
of those who oppose the divine mission of Joseph Smith, and though
many a time refuted and proved an impossibility, yet, it is that or
nothing; and the malignant hatred of the wicked not permitting the Book
of Mormon to stand on its own intrinsic merits, or be judged by its
own internal evidences, this story has to be again and again revamped
as the last hope of a hopeless cause which perceives in the triumph of
"Mormonism" the seal of its own destruction. To consider this story,
its origination and history, its claims on the credulity of mankind,
and the weight of evidence for and against it, will be topic of the
following pages.
Attention has been drawn and interest created anew in Mr. Spaulding
and his unpublished romance by the appearance in the public prints of
articles and affidavits by members of his family, in which the story
of the "Manuscript Found" is given, and efforts made to connect it
with the Book of Mormon. Among the most important of these papers is
an affidavit of Mrs. McKinstry the daughter of Mr. Spaulding, which
gives a history of the manuscript from the time it was written until it
passed out of the hands of the family. We will first draw attention to
the various points made by Mrs. McKinstry from her actual knowledge,
leaving out those reflections, suppositions and vain imaginings in
which she indulges when she wanders from the path of her actual
knowledge; but lest it should be asserted that we have not fairly
represented her statements, we insert the affidavit in full as an
appendix to this little volume.
According to Mrs. McKinstry's affidavit she resided with her father,
Mr. Solomon Spaulding, at Conneaut, Ohio, in 1812, she then being a
child in her sixth year.
About this time her father was very much interested in the antiquities
of this continent, and wrote a romance on the subject, which he called
the "Manuscript Found," in which she believes the names of Mormon,
Moroni, Nephi and Lamanite appear.
This was not the only work of Mr. Spaulding, he was a man of literary
tastes and wrote a number of tales etc., which he was in the habit of
reading to his family, to his little daughter, now Mrs. McKinstry,
among the rest.
From Conneaut the family removed to Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, where
they had a friend named Patterson, a bookseller. To this gentleman,
her mother states, the "Manuscript Found" was loaned and by him read,
admired and returned to the author.
The stay of the family in Pittsburg was very brief, for they shortly
removed to Amity, Pennsylvania, where Mr. Spaulding died in 1816.
Immediately afterwards she and her widowed mother paid a visit to the
latter's brother Mr. William H. Sabine, at Onondaga Valley, Onondaga
Co., New York. A trunk containing all the writings of the deceased
clergyman was taken with them and in this trunk was the "Manuscript
Found." While here Mrs. McKinstry saw and handled the manuscript and
describes it as closely written and about an inch thick.
Afterwards her mother went to reside with her father (Mrs. McKinstry's
grandfather) at Pomfret, Connecticut, but she did not take the trunk
of manuscript with her. In 1820 she again married and became the wife
of a Mr. Davison, of Hardwicks, near Coopertown, New York. After her
marriage she sent for her things left at her brother's, among the rest
the old trunk of manuscript. These reached her in safety.
In 1828, Mrs. McKinstry was herself married, and resided in Monson,
Hampton Co., Mass. Very soon after her marriage her mother joined her
there, and was with her most of the time until the latter's death,
which took place in 1844.
Mrs. Davison when she went to reside with her daughter left the trunk
of manuscript at Hardwicks, in care of Mr. Jerome Clark.
In 1834, one Hurlburt visited her. He bore a letter from her brother,
Mr. Sabine, and requested the loan of the "Manuscript Found." She
reluctantly gave him a letter addressed to Mr. Clark, at Hardwicks, to
deliver him the manuscript; Hurlburt having made repeated promises to
return it.
The family afterwards heard that Hurlburt received the manuscript from
Mr. Clark, but from that time the Spaulding family never again had it
in their possession, though they repeatedly wrote to Hurlburt about the
matter.
In the above we have the history of the notorious manuscript from the
time it was written until it fell into the hands of D. P. Hurlburt, who
was the first man who endeavored to connect it with the Book of Mormon.
Its history may be thus summed up:
Written in 1812 at Conneaut, Ohio.
Taken to Pittsburg shortly after. (1814.)
Thence to Amity, where it was in the possession of its author when he
died in 1816.
In 1816 taken to Onondaga Valley, New York.
In 1820 removed to Hardwicks, New York, where it remained until 1834,
when it was handed to Hurlburt.
Here we have an unbroken history of its wanderings until years after
the Book of Mormon was published.
How then is it presumed that Joseph Smith obtained possession of it?
This is an unanswered question. Was Joseph in any of those places at
the time the manuscript was there? No, there is not the least proof
that he ever was, all the testimony and evidence is directly to the
contrary. Was Sidney Rigdon ever in these places? Not at the same time
as the "Manuscript Found," as we shall presently show.
The Prophet Joseph Smith was born in Vermont, December 23rd, 1805, and
was consequently in his sixth year when the romance was written. He was
only fifteen when it was taken to Hardwicks. It would be preposterous
to imagine that before that age any such labor as the changing of the
"Manuscript Found" into the Book of Mormon could be accomplished by one
so young, so inexperienced, and withal so ignorant. For all admit, both
friend and foe, that his education at that time was very limited. In
1820, he received his first vision, and began his prophetic work, being
then a resident of Manchester, New York.
In 1823 he still resided with his parents at Manchester, and it was
in that year that he first began bearing testimony with regard to the
coming forth of what we now call the Book of Mormon, and that he had
seen the plates from which it would be translated. Manchester is from
80 to 100 miles from Hardwicks in a direct line, and in the last-named
place the "Manuscript" still remained hidden in an old trunk in a
garret, no one knowing or expecting that recourse would be had to it
for such a base purpose.
Joseph continued to live with his father's family. It is not until
1825, that we have any account of his leaving home for any length of
time; until then, when not employed on the farm, he hired out by the
day to his neighbors in Manchester and vicinity.