FROM

THE

MILLENNIAL HARBINGER.

NEW SERIES.

VOL. VI.	B E T H A N Y,   V A. NOVEMBER, 1842.	NO. XI.

      WE now commence our quotations from the Congressional Document before referred to--

      "John Whitmar, a [Mormon] witness for the state, produced, sworn and examined, deposeth and saith--

      "I also conversed with Mr. J. Smith, Jun., on this subject. I told him I wished to allay the (then) excitement, as far as I could do it. He said the excitement was very high, and he did not know what would allay it; but remarked he would give me his opinion; which was, that if I would put my property into the hands of the bishop and high council, to be disposed of according to the laws of the church, he thought that would allay it, and the church after a while might have confidence in me." Cong. Doc., No. 189, p. 33.

      "Behold it is said in my laws, or forbidden to get in debt to thine enemies; but, behold, it is not said, at any time, that the Lord should not take when he please, and pay as seemeth him good: wherefore, as ye are agents, and ye are on the Lord's errand, and whatsoever ye do according to the will of the Lord is the Lord's business, and he hath sent you to provide for his saints," &c. Doc. and Cov., p. 147.

      A Mormon has only to imagine himself an agent of God, and, according to the above precept, he may steal or commit any other crime, and fancy himself doing the will of God all the while. And these [497] very things the Mormons have done. Most of our readers have probably heard of the Mormon war, which raged in Missouri in 1838. And it is a remarkable fact, that the Editor of the New York Watchman, while exposing this great delusion through the columns of that paper, a year before, showed the tendency of Mormonism to that very state of things; and the reader will see, in the sequel, that Mormonism is directly calculated to produce insurrection and bloodshed.

      That they have been persecuted, we admit as quite probable. This is much to be regretted, as nothing could increase that fanaticism more than to persecute its advocates.

      The following account of one of the battles is from a Western paper, printed in Jefferson City, Mo., and quoted in the New York Sun, of November 20, 1838:--

"ELKHORN, October 30, 1818.      

      "On Thursday, the 25th instant, about the dawn of day, a party of Mormons, about 200 strong, attacked Captain Bogart's company, consisting of about 40 men, on the line dividing Ray and Caldwell counties. On the approach of the Mormons, the sentry fired and gave the alarm. The former advanced within 35 paces, formed a line, and received orders 'in the name of Lazarus, the Apostles, and Jesus Christ our Lord, to fire;' which was followed by a simultaneous charge, accompanied by demoniac and hideous yells of 'Fight for liberty!--Charge, boys!--Charge!--Kill the d--d rascals,' &c. Bogart, at the head of his gallant band, levelled his gun and echoed the command, 'Boys, let them have it!' The struggle was short and desperate. The Mormons were armed with one gun, two long pistols, a butcher's knife, &c., and rushed to the charge, in which many of our men came in collision with them and parried their swords, &c., with their guns, and knocked them down. They pursued the charge about 600 yards. Our loss was one killed and three wounded; two of the latter were left for dead on the ground. The loss of the Mormons was 19 or 20 killed and wounded; five or six of the latter are yet living. They took one prisoner, carried him to within three miles of Far West, where they had him put to death.

      "The country is in the highest state of excitement; there are about 2500 troops within a day's march of Far West. They are pouring in from all quarters, and we expect, in a day or two, that that town will be laid waste. We are looking for the Governor with more troops. I have this moment been informed that the Mormons are making every preparation for a general battle. In the engagement on the 25th they took about $1,500 worth of horses, &c."

      The congressional document before mentioned contains testimony which frequently alludes to this battle. This testimony was given before the Honorable Austin A. King, Judge of the Fifth Judicial Circuit, in the state of Missouri, at the court-house in Richmond, in a Criminal Court of Inquiry, begun November 12, 1838. The defendants were Joseph Smith, Jun., the head Mormon leader, Hiram Smith, Sidney Rigdon, Parley P. Pratt, Amasa Lyman, Lyman Wright, George W. Robinson, and about fifty other Mormons, who appear to have been the ringleaders in this war.

      This testimony was given by about thirty persons, most of whom were Mormons, and it demonstrates most fully the bloody and thievish character of this most wretched of all fanaticisms. [498]

      The following extracts will show the insidious manner in which Smith teaches his followers to steal. One of the principal witnesses was a prominent Mormon leader, by the name of Samuel Avard.--Speaking of an address delivered at a certain time by Joseph Smith, Jun., he says--

      "In the address he [Smith] related an anecdote about a Captain who applied to a Dutchman to purchase potatoes, who refused to sell.--The Captain then charged his company several different times not to touch the Dutchman's potatoes. In the morning the Dutchman had not a potato left in his patch." Cong. Doc., 189, page 2.

      "Reed Peck, a [Mormon] witness for the state, produced, sworn, and examined, deposeth and saith:--One day before the last expedition to Daviess, I heard Joseph Smith, Jun. in a speech say, in reference to stealing, that in a general way he did not approve of it; but, that on one occasion our Saviour and his disciples stole corn in passing through the corn fields." Ib. page 18.

      "John Corrill, a [Mormon] witness, produced, sworn, and examined in behalf of the state, deposeth and saith:--On Sunday Joseph Smith, Jun. in his discourse, spoke of persons taking [!] at some times, what at other times it would be wrong to take." Ib. page 13.

      In the next extracts we have the practice of this doctrine:--

      "Andrew J. Job, a witness for the state, produced, sworn and examined, deposeth and saith:--After I left Diahmon I went to my step-mother's, and made efforts to get out of the county. After the Mormons surrendered at Diahmon to the militia, I went with my step-mother to Diahmon to hunt for her property which had been left at the house when she moved, and which was missing on her return--such as beds, bed-clothing, knives and forks, a trunk, &c. On examination we found at the house of Lyman Wright, and upon his bedstead, a feather bed, which I knew to be one left by her at the time she fled from the Mormons. I knew the bed from its appearance; the tick was striped and pieced at the end, and the stripes of the piece turned crosswise; also, we found in Wright's house a set of knives and forks which I know were the same left at her house as above stated. My step-mother left her residence, (within two miles of Diahmon,) where she left the above articles, on Wednesday before I was taken prisoner, which was on the Sunday night after; and when at Diahmon, the night I was a prisoner, I slept on that same bed, as I believed it to be, at one Sloan's, as I understood his name to be." Ib. page 28.

      "George W. Worthington, a witness in behalf of the state, produced, sworn and examined, deposeth and saith--

      "I thought it best then for me to put out, seeing they were burning. It alarmed me, and I fixed, and did start that evening, leaving something like 700 dollars worth of property in my house. After I left, my house was burnt, and the property gone. Since then I have seen some of my property in a vacant house in Diahmon; some in a storehouse; some in a house said to be Bishop Knight's; all in Diahmon. These articles consisted of a clock, two glass jars, a box coat, a paper of screws, some paints, a canister of turpentine, and some planes, chisels, squares, &c. These were found since the surrender of arms in Diahmon, by the Mormons. I saw a number of articles also in Diahmon, at the time I was seeking after my property, which, I [499] believe, were taken from Strolling's store, consisting of a Leghorn bonnet, a castor, screw and hinges, or butts, which I knew belonged to Strolling. I saw a number of articles which had been concealed under ground, consisting of pots, ovens, and skillets; among them a pot belonging to myself." Ib. page 34.

      The above are sufficient to fix the charge of theft against Mormonism as a system.

      Dr. Avard, the Mormon teacher before alluded to, when under examination, produced a document, signed by eighty-four Mormons, in which they charge a number of the leaders directly with theft, and in a manner which leaves no room to doubt the truth of what is stated. The following are extracts. It is addressed "To Oliver Cowdery, David Whitmar, John Whitmar, W. W. Phelps, and Lyman E. Johnson," and dated

"FAR WEST, June, 1838.      

      "After Oliver Cowdery had been taken by a state warrant for stealing, and the stolen property found in the house of William W. Phelps; in which nefarious transaction John Whitmar had also participated. Oliver Cowdery stole the property, conveyed it to John Whitmar, and John Whitmar to William W. Phelps; and then the officers of law found it. While, in the hands of ail officer, and under arrest for this vile transaction, and, if possible, to hide your shame from the world, like criminals (which indeed you were) you appealed to our beloved Presidents, Joseph Smith, Jun. and Sidney Rigdon, men whose characters you had endeavored to destroy by every artifice you could invent, not even the basest lying excepted.

      "As we design this paper to be published to the world, we will give an epitome of your scandalous conduct and treachery for the last two years. We wish to remind you that Oliver Cowdery and David Whitmar were among the principal of those who were the means of gathering us to this place, (Far West,) by their testimony which they gave concerning the plates of the book of Mormon, that they were shown to them by an angel, which testimony we believe, now, as much as before you had so scandalously disgraced it. The saints in Kirtland, having elected Oliver Cowdery to be a Justice of the Peace, he used the power of that office to take their most sacred rights from them, and that contrary to law. He supported a parcel of blacklegs, and disturbing the worship of the saints. Oliver Cowdery, David Whitmar, and Lyman E. Johnson, united with a gang of counterfeiters, thieves, liars, and blacklegs of the deepest dye, to deceive, cheat, and defraud the saints out of their property, by every art and stratagem which wickedness could invent; using the influence of the vilest persecutions, to bring vexatious law-suits, villainous prosecutions, and even stealing not excepted.

      "During the full career of Oliver Cowdery and David Whitmar's bogus [counterfeit] money business, it got abroad into the world that they were engaged in it, and several gentlemen were preparing to commence a prosecution against Cowdery; he, finding it out, took with him Lyman E. Johnson, and fled to Far West, with their families, Cowdery stealing property and bringing it with him, which has been, within [500] a few weeks past, obtained by the owner, by means of a search-warrant; and he was saved from the penitentiary by the influence of two influential men of the place. He also brought notes with him, upon which he had received pay, and made an attempt to sell them to Mr. Arthur, of Clay county. And Lyman E. Johnson, on his arrival, reported that he had a note for one thousand dollars against a principal man of the church, when it was a palpable falsehood, and he had no such thing; and he did it for the purpose of injuring his character.

      "Neither were you content with slandering and vilifying here, but you kept up a continual correspondence with your gang of marauders in Kirtland, encouraging them to go on with their iniquity, which they did to perfection, by swearing falsely to injure the character and property of innocent men--stealing, cheating, lying--instituting vexatious law suits--selling bogus [bad] money--and also stones and sand for bogus: in which nefarious business Oliver Cowdery, David Whitmar, and Lyman E. Johnson were engaged while you were there. Since your arrival here you have commenced a general system of that same kind of conduct in this place. You set up a nasty, dirty pettifogger's office, pretending to be judges of the law, when it is a notorious fact that you are profoundly ignorant of it, and of every other thing which is calculated to do mankind good, [of course, then, they were ignorant of the 'plates' which they said an angel had 'made known' to them,] or if you know it, you take good care never to practise it.

      "And in order to bring yourselves into notice, you began to interfere with all the business of the place, trying to destroy the character of our merchants, and bringing their creditors upon them, and break them up. In addition to this, you stirred up men of weak minds to prosecute one another, for the vile purpose of getting a fee for pettifogging from one of them. You have also been threatening continually to enter into a general system of prosecuting, determined, as you said, to pick a flaw in the titles of those who have bought city lots and built upon them--not that you can do anything but cause vexatious lawsuits.

      "And, amongst the most monstrous of all your abominations, we have evidence (which, when called upon, we can produce) that letters sent to the Post-Office in this place have been opened, read, and destroyed, and the persons to whom they were sent never obtained them; thus ruining the business of the place. We have evidence of a very strong character, that I you are at this time engaged with a gang of counterfeiters, coiners, and blacklegs, as some of those characters have lately visited our city from Kirtland, and told what they had come for; and we know, assuredly, that if we suffer you to continue, we may expect, and that speedily, to find a general system of stealing, counterfeiting, cheating, and burning property, as in Kirtland--for so are your associates carrying on there at this time; and that, encouraged by you, by means of letters you send continually to them; and, to crown the whole, you have had the audacity to threaten us, that, if we offered to disturb you, you would get up a mob from Clay and Ray counties. For the insult, if nothing else, and your threatening to shoot us if we offered to molest you, we will put you from the county of Caldwell: so help us God."

      "The above was signed by eighty-four Mormons." Cong. Doc., No. 189, p. 6, 7, 8. [501]

      Such, then, is the account which Mormons give of one another, and such are the men who profess to have "seen and hefted" the golden plates, and who command us to believe that they are inspired, and empowered to work miracles! And this Oliver Cowdery, here charged with such infamous conduct by his own disciples, is announced in the book of Doctrines and Covenants, (page 77,) as an "apostle," and the "second elder" of the Mormon church!!

[The Millennial Harbinger, New Series, 6 (November 1842): 497-502.]