HIS was in the fall of 1830. This coarse imposture was not born of chance. Characterized by much that is gross, and accompanied by practices repulsive for their lowness and vulgarity, it yet had a plan and an aim, and it was led on by a master spirit of delusion. It marked out its own course, and premeditated its points of attack. Its advent in Mentor was not accidental. Its four emissaries to the "Lamanites" in the West, like the four evil messengers from the Euphrates (Rev. ix: 15), had Rigdon in their eye before leaving Palmyra, N. Y. On his part, Rigdon, with pompous pretense, was travailing with expectancy of some great event soon to be revealed to the surprise and astonishment of mankind. Gifted with very fine powers of mind, an imagination at once fertile, glowing and wild to extravagance, with temperament tinged with sadness and bordering on credulity, he was prepared and preparing others for the voice of some mysterious event soon to come.

      The discomfiture he experienced at the hands of Mr. Campbell at Austintown, when seeking to introduce his common property scheme, turned him away mortified, chagrined and alienated. This was only two and a half months before he received, in peace, the messengers of delusion. Another fact: A little [209] after this, the same fall, and before the first emissaries of the Mormon prophet came to Mentor, Parley P. Pratt, a young preacher of some promise from Lorain County, a disciple under Rigdon's influence, passing through Palmyra, the prophet's home, turned aside to see this great sight. He became an easy convert. Immediately an embassy is prepared, composed of this same P. P. Pratt, Oliver Cowdery and two others, for the "Lamanites."

      The next scene opens in Mentor. About the middle of November, came two footmen with carpet bags filled with copies of the book of Mormon, and stopped at Rigdon's. What passed that night between him and these young prophets no pen will reveal; but interpreting events came rapidly on. Next morning, while Judge Clapp's family were at breakfast, in came Rigdon, and in an excited manner said: "Two men came to my house last night on a c-u-r-i-o-u-s mission;" prolonging the word in a strange manner. When thus awakened, all around the table looking up, he proceeded to narrate how some men in Palmyra, N. Y., had found, by direction of an angel, certain plates inscribed with mysterious characters; that by the same heavenly visitant, a young man, ignorant of letters, had been led into the secret of deciphering the writing on the plates; that it made known the origin of the Indian tribes; with other matters of great interest to the world, and that the discovery would be of such importance as to open the way for the introduction of the Millennium. Amazement! They had been accustomed to his stories about the Indians, much more marvelous than credible, but this strange statement, made with an air both of wonder [210] and credulity, overcame their patience. "It's all a lie," cried out Matthew, quite disconcerting the half apostate Rigdon; and this future Aaron of the new prophet retired.

      These two men who came to Rigdon's residence, were the young preacher before named, P. P. Pratt, intimately acquainted with Rigdon, and therefore, doubtless, chosen to lead the mission, and Oliver Cowdery. This Mr. Cowdery was one of the three original witnesses to Mormonism; Martin Harris and David Whitmar were the other two. Harris was the first scribe to record the new Bible at the dictation of Smith; but through carelessness he suffered the devil to steal 116 pages of the manuscript, and then Cowdery was chosen in his stead.

      These men staid with Rigdon all the week. In the neighborhood, lived a Mr. Morley, a member of the church in Kirtland, who, acting on the community principles, had established a "family." The new doctrines of having "all things in common," and of restoring miracles to the world as a fruit and proof of true faith, found a ready welcome by this incipient "community." They were all, seventeen in number, re-immersed in one night into this new dispensation.

      At this, Rigdon seemed much displeased. He told them what they had done was without precedent or authority from the Scriptures, as they had baptized for the power of miracles, while the apostles, as he showed, baptized penitential believers for the remission of sins. When pressed, they said what they had done was merely at the solicitation of those persons. Rigdon called on them for proofs of the truth of their book and mission. They related the manner [211] in which they obtained faith, which was by praying for a sign, and an angel appeared to them. Rigdon here showed them from Scripture the possibility of their being deceived: "For Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light." "But," said Cowdery, "do you think if I should go to my Heavenly Father, with all sincerity, and pray to him, in the name of Jesus Christ, that he would not show me an angel--that he would suffer Satan to deceive me?" Rigdon replied: "If the Heavenly Father has ever promised to show you an angel to confirm any thing, he would not suffer you to be deceived; for John says: 'If we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us.' But," he continued, "if you should ask the Heavenly Father to show you an angel, when he has never promised such a thing--if the devil never had an opportunity before of deceiving you, you give him one now."

      This was a word in season, fitly spoken; yet, strange enough! "two days afterward he was persuaded to tempt God by asking this sign. The sign appeared, and he was convinced that Mormonism was of God! According to his own reasoning, therefore, Satan appeared to him as an angel of light. But he now imputed his former reasoning to pride, incredulity, and the influence of the Evil One."

      The next Sunday Rigdon, accompanied by Pratt and Cowdery, went to Kirtland to his appointment. He attempted to preach; but with the awful blasphemy in his heart, and the guilt of so shameless an apostasy on his conscience, how could he open his mouth in the name of the insulted Jesus? The eloquent lips which never stammered before, soon [212] became speechless, and his tongue was dumb. The faithless watchman, covered with the shame of his fall, surrendered his pulpit and congregation to the prey of wolves. Cowdery and Pratt did most of the preaching; and that day, both Mr. and Mrs. Rigdon, with many of the members of the church in Kirtland, were baptized into the new faith.

      "Scenes of the most wild, frantic and horrible fanaticism ensued. They pretended that the power of miracles was about to be given to all who embraced the new faith; and commenced communicating the Holy Spirit, by laying their hands on the heads of the converts, which operation, at first, produced an instantaneous prostration of body and mind. Many would fall upon the floor, where they would lie for a long time, apparently lifeless. The fits usually came on during, or after, their prayer-meetings, which were held nearly every evening. The young men and women were more particularly subject to this delirium. They would exhibit all the apish actions imaginable, making the most ridiculous grimaces, creeping upon their hands and feet, rolling upon the frozen ground, going through all the Indian modes of warfare, such as knocking down, scalping, etc. At other times they would run through the fields, get upon stumps, preach to imaginary congregations, enter the water and perform the ceremony of baptizing. Many would have fits of speaking in all the Indian dialects, which none could understand. Again, at the dead hour of night, young men might be seen running over the fields and hills, in pursuit, as they said, of the balls of fire, lights, etc., which they saw moving through the atmosphere."--Mormonism Unveiled,^a pp. 104, 105.

      These ridiculous practices were performed in Mr. Rigdon's absence. About three weeks after his adoption of the delusion, he went to Palmyra to see [213] Smith. The prophet was rejoiced at his coming, and had a revelation all ready for him, just suited to his own purpose and Rigdon's vanity. The beginning of it is here transcribed:

      "A commandment to Joseph and Sidney, December 7, 1830, saying: Listen to the voice of the Lord your God: I am Alpha and Omega. Behold! verily, verily, I say unto my servant Sidney, I have looked upon thee and thy works; I have heard thy prayers, and prepared thee for a greater work: thou art blessed, for thou shalt do great things. Behold! thou wast sent forth even as John, to prepare the way before me and Elijah, which should come, and thou knewest it not. Thou didst baptize with water unto repentance, but they secured not the Holy Ghost. But now I give unto you a commandment that thou shalt baptize with water and give the Holy Ghost by laying on of hands, even as the apostles of old. And it shall come to pass that there shall be a great work in the land, even among the Gentiles."^b

      Mr. Rigdon tarried with Smith about two months, receiving revelations, preaching in the vicinity, and urging proofs of the new religion. His knowledge of the Bible enabled him to pervert many scriptures to this end. Soon after his return to Ohio, Smith and several of his relatives arrived. "This being the 'promised land,' in it their long cherished hopes and anticipations of living without work were to be realized. Thus, from almost a state of beggary, the family of Smiths were immediately well furnished with the 'fat of the land' by their fanatical followers, many of whom were wealthy."^c

      The new delusion immediately assumed an aggressive attitude. A hierarchy was formed consisting of [214] several orders of priesthood and grades of eldership. New converts began to come up to the "New Jerusalem," to behold the miraculous wonders that busy rumor reported to be of daily occurrence, and to worship under the eye of the prophet of the "Latter Day Saints." Rigdon's reputation lifted it at once into notice. New members, with incredible haste, were solemnly ordained to the eldership by the high priests, and sent out every-where to propagate the faith. Their gravity and apparent candor, coupled with a degree of ignorance which was ostentatiously paraded as evidence that they were not deceivers, gave them great credit with a superstitious class of people who are ever ready to be duped by supernatural pretension.

      Though coming into Ohio first among the disciples, and introduced to their attention in a well-planned and artful manner, very few of the leading members were for a moment deceived. After its first approach, it boasted of few converts from any of our churches. Rigdon, Pratt and Orson Hyde, the last two young and but little known, were the only preachers who gave it countenance.

      The opposition to it was quick on its feet, in rank, and doing effective work to check the imposture. J. J. Moss, at the time a young school-teacher in the place, pelted them, but not with grass. Isaac Moore stood up, and became a shield to many. The vigilance of the Clapps prevented any serious inroads into the church of Mentor. Collins forbade its approach to Chardon, and it merely skulked around its hills. Alexander P. Jones was there also, young, shrewd, and skilled. In many an encounter he was left [215] without a foe. But the misfortune governing the case was that many people, victims of excitement and credulity, and taught in nearly all pulpits to pray for faith, now found themselves met on their own grounds, and so finding an emotion or impulse answerable to an expected response from heaven, dared not dispute the answer to their own prayers, and were hurried into the vortex. The reason the delusion made little progress among the Disciples, save only at Kirtland, where the way for it was paved by the common-stock principle, is to be found in the cardinal principle every-where taught and accepted among them, that faith is founded on testimony. This is the law of faith, both in things divine and human. This fundamental principle of the "current reformation," so rational, as well as so scriptural, was every-where proclaimed and accepted among the disciples. It constitutes the divergent truth lying at the basis of their views of conversion, and by which they are, on that subject, distinguished from other bodies of religious people. They never "pray for faith," since "faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God." Having obtained faith by the appropriate testimony, they pray, in the exercise of that faith, for all the rightful objects of petition.

      No marvel, then, that when the Mormon preacher approached a disciple, with the proposition to pray for a sign, or evidence of the truth of his system, he was met with an intelligent refusal so to "tempt the Lord his God."

      The venerable Thomas Campbell, hearing of the defection of Rigdon and the progress this silly delusion was making, came quickly to the front. He [216] spent much of the winter in Mentor and vicinity. His wise counsels and great weight of influence interposed an effectual barrier against its encroachments. He addressed a communication to Rigdon so firm, so fatherly and characteristic, that the reader shall have the pleasure of perusing it. Its great length will apologize for the omission of a portion of it. Soon after his return to Kirtland, Rigdon fulminated a pompous challenge to the world to disprove the new Bible. On this Mr. Campbell wrote him, as follows:

"MENTOR, February 4, 1831.

"MR. SIDNEY RIGDON,

      "DEAR SIR:--It may seem strange, that instead of a confidential and friendly visit, after so long an absence, I should thus address, by letter, one whom for many years I have considered not only as a courteous and benevolent friend, but as a beloved brother and fellow-laborer in the gospel; but, alas! how changed, how fallen! Nevertheless, I should now have visited you, as formerly, could I conceive that my so doing would answer the important purpose, both to ourselves and to the public, to which we both stand pledged, from the conspicuous and important stations we occupy--you as the professed disciple and public teacher of the infernal book of Mormon, and I as a professed disciple and public teacher of the supernal book of the Old and New Testaments of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, which you now say is superceded by the book of Mormon--is become a dead letter; so dead that the belief and obedience of it, without the reception of the latter, is no longer available for salvation. To the disproof of this assertion, I understand you to defy the world. I here use the epithets infernal and supernal in their primary and literal meaning, the former signifying from beneath, the latter from above, both of which are truly applied, if [217] the respective authors may be accredited; of the latter of which, however, I have no doubt. But, my dear sir, supposing you as sincere in your present, as in your former profession, neither yourself, your friends, nor the world are bound to consider you as more infallible in your latter than in your former confidence, any further than you can render good and intelligible reasons for your present certainty. This, I understand from your declaration on last Lord's day, you are abundantly prepared and ready to do. I, therefore, as in duty bound, accept the challenge, and shall hold myself in readiness, if the Lord permit, to meet you publicly, in any place, either in Mentor or Kirtland, or in any of the adjoining towns that may appear most eligible for the accommodation of the public. The sooner the investigation takes place the better for all concerned.

      "The proposition that I have assumed, and which I mean to assume and defend against Mormonism and every other ism that has been assumed since the Christian era, is the all-sufficiency and the alone-sufficiency of the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, vulgarly called the Bible, to make every intelligent believer wise to salvation, thoroughly furnished for any good work. This proposition, clearly and fully established, as I believe it most certainly can be, we have no more need for Quakerism, Shakerism, Wilkinsonianism, Buchanism, Mormonism, or any other ism, than we have for three eyes, three ears, three hands, or three feet, in order to see, hear, work, or walk. This proposition, I will illustrate and confirm, by showing--

      "1. That the declarations, invitations, and promises of the gospel, go to confer upon the obedient believer the greatest possible privileges, both here and hereafter, that our nature is capable of enjoying.

      "2. That there is not a virtue which can happify, or adorn the human character, nor a vice that can abase or dishappify, which human heart can conceive, or human [218] language can express, that is not most clearly commanded or forbidden in the Holy Scriptures.

      "3. That there are no greater motives that can possibly be expressed or conceived, to enforce obedience, or discourage and prevent disobedience, than the Scriptures most clearly and unequivocally exhibit.

      "These propositions being proved, every thing is proved that can affect our happiness here or hereafter."

      He next tells Mr. Rigdon the course he proposes to pursue in exposing the claims of Mormonism:

      1. By examining the character of its author and his accomplices;

      2. Expose their pretensions to miraculous gifts, and the gift of tongues; and will test them in three or four foreign languages;

      3. Expose their assertion, that the authority for administering baptism was lost for fourteen hundred years till restored by the new prophet, by showing it to be a contradiction to Matt. xvii: 18;

      4. That the pretended duty of "common property" is anti-scriptural, and a fraud upon society;

      5. That re-baptizing believers is making void the law of Christ; and the pretension of imparting the Holy Spirit by imposition of hands, is an unscriptural intrusion on the exclusive prerogative of the primary apostles;

      6. That its pretentious visions, humility and spiritual perfection, are nowise superior to those of the first Shakers, Jemima Wilkinson, the French prophets, etc.

      "In the last place we shall examine the internal evidence of the Book of Mormon itself, pointing out its evident contradictions, foolish absurdities, shameless pretensions to antiquity, restore it to the rightful claimant as a production beneath contempt, and utterly unworthy the reception of a school-boy."

      He concludes: [219]

      "I remain, with grateful remembrances of the past, and best wishes for the future, your sincere friend and humble servant,

THOMAS CAMPBELL."d

      Mr. Rigdon read a few lines of this communication, and then hastily committed it to the flames!

      Perhaps in no place, except Kirtland, did the doctrines of the "Latter Day Saints" gain a more permanent footing than in Hiram. It entrenched itself there so strongly that its leaders felt assured of the capture of the town. Rigdon's former popularity in that region gave wings to their appeal, and many people, not avowed converts, were under a spell of wonder at the strange things sounded in their ears. The following communication from Bro. Symonds Ryder, living in the midst of the scenes he describes, will be read with interest, especially by those who knew the high and indubitable integrity of the writer:

"HIRAM, February 1, 1868.

"DEAR BRO. HAYDEN:

      ". . . To give particulars of the Mormon excitement of 1831 would require a volume--a few words must suffice. It has been stated that from the year 1815 to 1835, a period of twenty years, 'all sorts of doctrine by all sorts of preachers had been plead;' and most of the people of Hiram had been disposed to turn out and hear. This went by the specious name of 'liberal.' The Mormons in Kirtland, being informed of this peculiar state of things, were soon prepared for the onset.

      "In the winter of 1831 Joseph Smith, with others, had an appointment in the south school-house, in Hiram. Such was the apparent piety, sincerity and humility of the speakers, that many of the hearers were greatly affected, and thought it impossible that such preachers should lie in wait to deceive. [220]

      "During the next spring and summer several converts were made, and their success seemed to indicate an immediate triumph in Hiram. But when they went to Missouri to lay the foundation of the splendid city of Zion, and also of the temple, they left their papers behind. This gave their new converts an opportunity to become acquainted with the internal arrangement of their church, which revealed to them the horrid fact that a plot was laid to take their property from them and place it under the control of Joseph Smith the prophet. This was too much for the Hiramites, and they left the Mormonites faster than they had ever joined them, and by fall the Mormon church in Hiram was a very lean concern.

      "But some who had been the dupes of this deception, determined not to let it pass with impunity; and, accordingly, a company was formed of citizens from Shalersville, Garrettsville, and Hiram, in March, 1832, and proceeded to headquarters in the darkness of night, and took Smith and Rigdon from their beds, and tarred and feathered them both, and let them go. This had the desired effect, which was to get rid of them. They soon left for Kirtland.

      "All who continued with the Mormons, and had any property, lost all; among whom was John Johnson, one of our most worthy men; also, Esq. Snow, of Mantua, who lost two or three thousand dollars.

"SYMONDS RYDER."

      The subsequent history of this modern imposture of most blasphemous pretension, is before the world. It is not a little curious that it has become the groundwork of many publications and much romance. A very full and complete history of it, full of incident and personal allusion, came out a few years ago in France, in two elegant volumes. Its research is minute and extensive, giving with remarkable accuracy [221]

      and fullness sketches of many leading actors, with accounts of the religious societies from which they deflected. A copy of the work is in the library of Congress, at Washington, as I learn by a note from Gen. Garfield,^e who writes: "It was published in French, at Paris, in 1860,^f and about the same time in English, in London. The London edition is entitled 'A Journey to Great Salt Lake City, by Jules Remy and Julius Brenchley.' It is published at London by W. Jeffs, 15 Burlington Arcade--imprint, 1861."^g [222]

[EHD 209-222]