The Story of the Mormons:

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*Turner's "Mormonism in all Ages," p. 38.

The iron hand with which Smith repressed Rigdon from the date of
their arrival in Ohio affords strong proof of Rigdon's complicity
in the Bible plot, and of Smith's realization of the fact that he
stood to his accomplice in the relation of a burglar to his mate,
where the burglar has both the boodle and the secret in his
possession. An illustration of this occurred during their first
trip to Missouri. Rigdon and Smith did not agree about the
desirability of western Missouri as a permanent abiding-place for
the church. The Rev. Ezra Booth, after leaving the Mormons,
contributed a series of letters on his experience with Smith to
the Ohio Star of Ravenna.* In the first of these he said: "On our
arrival in the western part of the state of Missouri we
discovered that prophecy and visions had failed, or rather had
proved false. This fact was so notorious that Mr. Rigdon himself
says that 'Joseph's vision was a bad thing.'" Smith nevertheless
directed Rigdon to write a description of that promised land,
and, when the production did not suit him, he represented the
Lord as censuring Rigdon in a "revelation" (Sec. 63):--

* Copied in Howe's "Mormonism Unveiled."

"And now behold, verily I say unto you, I, the Lord, am not
pleased with my servant Sidney Rigdon; he exalteth himself in his
heart, and receiveth not counsel, but grieveth the spirit.
Wherefore his writing is not acceptable unto the Lord; and he
shall make another, and if the Lord receiveth it not, behold he
standeth no longer in the office which I have appointed him."

That the proud-minded, educated preacher, who refused to allow
Campbell to claim the foundership of the Disciples' church,
should take such a rebuke and threat of dismissal in silence from
Joe Smith of Palmyra, and continue under his leadership,
certainly indicates some wonderful hold that the prophet had upon
him.

While the travelling elders were doing successful work in adding
new converts to the fold, there was beginning to manifest itself
at Kirtland that "apostasy" which lost the church so many members
of influence, and was continued in Missouri so far that Mayor
Grant said, in Salt Lake City, in 1856, that "one-half at least
of the Yankee members of this church have apostatized."* The
secession of men like Booth and Ryder, and their public exposure
of Smith's methods, coupled with rumors of immoral practices in
the fold, were followed by the tarring and feathering of Smith
and Rigdon on the night of Saturday, March 25, 1832. The story of
this outrage is told in Smith's autobiography, and the details
there given may be in the main accepted.

* Journal of Discourses, Vol. III, p. 201.

Smith and his wife were living at the house of a farmer named
Johnson in Hiram township, while he and Rigdon were translating
the Scriptures. Mrs. Smith had taken two infant twins to bring
up, and on the night in question she and her husband were taking
turns sitting up with these babies, who were just recovering from
the measles. While Smith was sleeping, his wife heard a tapping
on the window, but gave it no attention. The mob, believing that
all within were asleep, then burst in the door, seized Smith as
he lay partly dressed on a trundle bed, and rushed him out of
doors, his wife crying "murder." Smith struggled as best he
could, but they carried him around the house, choking him until
he became unconscious. Some thirty yards from the house he saw
Rigdon, "stretched out on the ground, whither they had dragged
him by the heels." When they had carried Smith some thirty yards
farther, some of the mob meantime asking, "Ain't ye going to kill
him?" a council was held and some one asked, "Simmons, where's
the tarbucket?" When the bucket was brought up they tried to
force the "tarpaddle" into Smith's mouth, and also, he says, to
force a phial between his teeth. He adds:

"All my clothes were torn off me except my shirt collar, and one
man fell on me and scratched my body with his nails like a mad
cat. They then left me, and I attempted to rise, but fell again.
I pulled the tar away from my lips, etc., so that I could breathe
more freely, and after a while I began to recover, and raised
myself up, when I saw two lights. I made my way toward one of
them, and found it was father Johnson's. When I had come to the
door I was naked, and the tar made me look as though I had been
covered with blood; and when my wife saw me she thought I was all
smashed to pieces, and fainted. During the affray abroad, the
sisters of the neighborhood collected at my room. I called for a
blanket; they threw me one and shut the door; I wrapped it around
me and went in.... My friends spent the night in scraping and
removing the tar and washing and cleansing my body, so that by
morning I was ready to be clothed again.... With my flesh all
scarified and defaced, I preached [that morning] to the
congregation as usual, and in the afternoon of the same day
baptized three individuals."

Rigdon's treatment is described as still more severe. He was not
only dragged over the ground by the heels, but was well covered
with tar and feathers; and when Smith called on him the next day
he found him delirious, and calling for a razor with which to
kill his wife.

All Mormon accounts of this, as well as later persecutions,
attempt to make the ground of attack hostility to the Mormon
religious beliefs, presenting them entirely in the light of
outrages on liberty of opinion. Symonds Ryder (whom Smith accuses
of being one of the mob), says that the attack had this origin:
The people of Hiram had the reputation of being very receptive
and liberal in their religious views. The Mormons therefore
preached to them, and seemed in a fair way to win a decided
success, when the leaders made their first trip to Missouri.
Papers which they left behind outlining the internal system of
the new church fell into the hands of some of the converts, and
revealed to them the horrid fact that a plot was laid to take
their property from them and place it under the control of Smith,
the Prophet.... 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, Garretsville,
and Hiram, and took Smith and Rigdon from their beds and tarred
and feathered them."*

* Hayden's "Early History of the Disciples' Church in the Western
Reserve," p. 221.

This manifestation of hostility to the leaders of the new church
was only a more pronounced form of that which showed itself
against Smith before he left New York State. When a man of his
character and previous history assumes the right to baptize and
administer the sacrament, he is certain to arouse the animosity,
not only of orthodox church members, but of members of the
community who are lax in their church duties. Goldsmith
illustrates this kind of feeling when, in "She Stoops to
Conquer," he makes one of the "several shabby fellows with punch
and tobacco" in the alehouse say, "I loves to hear him, the
squire sing, bekeays he never gives us nothing that's low," and
another responds, "O, damn anything that's low." The AntiMormon
feeling was intensified and broadened by the aggressiveness with
which the Mormons sought for converts in the orthodox flocks.

Beliefs radically different from those accepted by any of the
orthodox denominations have escaped hostile opposition in this
country, even when they have outraged generally accepted social
customs. The Harmonists, in a body of 600, emigrated to
Pennsylvania to escape the persecution to which they were
subjected in Germany, purchased 5000 acres of land and organized
a town; moved later to Indiana, where they purchased 25,000
acres; and ten years afterward returned to Pennsylvania, and
bought 5000 acres in another place,--all the time holding to
their belief in a community of goods and a speedy coming of
Christ, as well as the duty of practicing celibacy,--without
exciting their neighbors or arousing their enmity. The
Wallingford Community in Connecticut, and the Oneida Community in
New York State, practised free love among themselves without
persecution, until their organizations died from natural causes.
The leaders in these and other independent sects were clean men
within their own rules, honest in their dealings with their
neighbors, never seeking political power, and never pressing
their opinions upon outsiders. An old resident of Wallingford
writes to me, "The Community were, in a way, very generally
respected for their high standard of integrity in all their
business transactions."

As we follow the career of the Mormons from Ohio to Missouri, and
thence to Illinois, we shall read their own testimony about the
character of their leading men, and about their view of the
rights of others in each of their neighborhoods. When Horace
Greeley asked Brigham Young in Salt Lake City for an explanation
of the "persecutions" of the Mormons, his reply was that there
was "no other explanation than is afforded by the crucifixion of
Christ and the kindred treatment of God's ministers, prophets,
and saints in all ages"; which led Greeley to observe that, while
a new sect is always decried and traduced,--naming the Baptists,
Quakers, Methodists, and Universalists,--he could not remember
"that either of them was ever generally represented and regarded
by the other sects of their early days as thieves, robbers, and
murderers."*

* "Overland Journey," p. 214.

Another attempt by Rigdon to assert his independence of Smith
occurred while the latter was still at Mr. Johnson's house and
Rigdon was in Kirtland. The fullest account of this is found in
Mother Smith's "History," pp. 204-206. She says that Rigdon came
in late to a prayer-meeting, much agitated, and, instead of
taking the platform, paced backward and forward on the floor.
Joseph's father told him they would like to hear a discourse from
him, but he replied, "The keys of the Kingdom are rent from the
church, and there shall not be a prayer put up in this house this
day." This caused considerable excitement, and Smith's brother
Hyrum left the house, saying, "I'll put a stop to this fuss
pretty quick," and, mounting a horse, set out for Johnson's and
brought the prophet back with him. On his arrival, a meeting of
the brethren was held, and Joseph declared to them, "I myself
hold the keys of this Last Dispensation, and will forever hold
them, both in time and eternity, so set your hearts at rest upon
that point. All is right." The next day Rigdon was tried before a
council for having "lied in the name of the Lord," and was
"delivered over to the buffetings of Satan," and deprived of his
license, Smith telling him that "the less priesthood he had, the
better it would be for him." Rigdon, Mrs. Smith says, according
to his own account, "was dragged out of bed by the devil three
times in one night by the heels," and, while she does not accept
this literally, she declares that "his contrition was as great as
a man could well live through." After awhile he got another
license.

CHAPTER IV. GIFTS OF TONGUES AND MIRACLES

In January, 1833, Smith announced a revival of the "gift of
tongues," and instituted the ceremony of washing the feet.* Under
the new system, Smith or Rigdon, during a meeting, would call on
some brother, or sister, saying, "Father A., if you will rise in
the name of Jesus Christ you can speak in tongues." The rule
which persons thus called on were to follow was thus explained,
"Arise upon your feet, speak or make some sound, continue to make
sounds of some kind, and the Lord will make a language of it." It
was not necessary that the words should be understood by the
congregation; some other Mormon would undertake their
interpretation. Much ridicule was incurred by the church because
of this kind of revelation. Gunnison relates that when a woman
"speaking in tongues" pronounced "meliar, meli, melee," it was at
once translated by a young wag, "my leg, my thigh, my knee," and,
when he was called before the Council charged with irreverence,
he persisted in his translation, but got off with an
admonition.** At a meeting in Nauvoo in later years a doubting
convert delivered an address in real Choctaw, whereupon a woman
jumped up and offered as a translation an account of the glories
of the new Temple.

* This ceremony has fallen into disuse in Utah.

** "The Mormons." p. 74.

At the conference of June 4, 1831, Smith ordained Elder Wright to
the high priesthood for service among the Indians, with the gift
of tongues, healing the sick, etc. Wright at once declared that
he saw the Saviour. At one of the sessions at Kirtland at this
time, as described by an eye-witness, Smith announced that the
day would come when no man would be permitted to preach unless he
had seen the Lord face to face. Then, addressing Rigdon, he
asked, "Sidney, have you seen the Lord?" The obedient Sidney made
reply, "I saw the image of a man pass before my face, whose locks
were white, and whose countenance was exceedingly fair, even
surpassing all beauty that I ever beheld." Smith at once rebuked
him by telling him that he would have seen more but for his
unbelief.

Almost simultaneously with Smith's first announcement of his
prophetic powers, while working his "peek-stone" in Pennsylvania
and New York, he, as we have seen, claimed ability to perform
miracles, and he announced that he had cast out a devil at
Colesville in 1830.* The performance of miracles became an
essential part of the church work at Kirtland, and had a great
effect on the superstitious converts. The elders, who in the
early days labored in England, laid great stress on their
miraculous power, and there were some amusing exposures of their
pretences. The Millennial Star printed a long list of successful
miracles dating from 1839 to 1850, including the deaf made to
hear, the blind to see, dislocated bones put in place, leprosy
and cholera cured, and fevers rebuked. Smith, Rigdon, and Cowdery
took a leading part in this work at Kirtland.** To a man nearly
dead with consumption Rigdon gave assurance that he would recover
"as sure as there is a God in heaven." The man's death soon
followed. When a child, whose parents had been persuaded to trust
its case to Mormon prayers instead of calling a physician,***
died, Smith and Rigdon promised that it would rise from the dead,
and they went through certain ceremonies to accomplish that
object.****

* For particulars of this miracle, see Millennial Star, Vol. XIV,
pp. 28, 32.

** While Smith was in Washington in 1840, pressing on the federal
authorities the claims of the Mormons for redress for their
losses in Missouri, he preached on the church doctrines. A member
of Congress who heard him sent a synopsis of the discourse to his
wife, and Smith printed this entire in his autobiography
(Millennial Star, Vol. XVII, p. 583). Here is one passage: "He
[Smith] performed no miracles. He did not pretend to possess any
such power." This is an illustration of the facility with which
Smith could lie, when to do so would serve his purpose.

*** The Saints were early believers in faith cure. Smith, in a
sermon preached in 1841, urged them "to trust in God when sick,
and live by faith and not by medicine or poison" (Millennial
Star, Vol. XVIII, p. 663). A coroner's jury, in an inquest over a
victim of this faith in London, England, cautioned the sect
against continuing this method of curing (Times and Seasons,
1842, p. 813).

**** For further illustrations of miracle working, in Ohio, see
Kennedy's "Early Days of Mormonism," Chap. V.

The lengths to which Smith dared go in his pretensions are well
illustrated in an incident of these days. Among the curiosities
of a travelling showman who passed through Kirtland were some
Egyptian mummies. As the golden plates from which the Mormon
Bible was translated were written in "reformed Egyptian," the
translator of those plates was interested in all things coming
from Egypt, and at his suggestion the mummies were purchased by
and for the church. On them were found some papyri which Joseph,
with the assistance of Phelps and Cowdery, set about
"translating." Their success was great, and Smith was able to
announce: "We found that one of these rolls contained the
writings of Abraham, another the writings of Joseph.* Truly we
could see that the Lord is beginning to reveal the abundance of
truth." That there might be no question about the accuracy of
Smith's translation, he exhibited a certificate signed by the
proprietor of the show, saying that he had exhibited the
"hieroglyphic characters" to the most learned men in many cities,
"and from all the information that I could ever learn or meet
with, I find that of Joseph Smith, Jr., to correspond in the most
minute matters." * When the papyri were shown to Josiah Quincy
and Charles Francis Adams, on the occasion of their visit to
Nauvoo in 1844, Joseph Smith, pointing out the inscriptions,
said: "That is the handwriting of Abraham, the Father of the
Faithful. This is the autograph of Moses, and these lines were
written by his brother Aaron. Here we have the earliest account
of the creation, from which Moses composed the first Book of
Genesis."--"Figures of the Past," p. 386.

Smith's autobiography contains this memorandum: "October 1, 1835.
This afternoon I labored on the Egyptian alphabet in company with
Brother O. Cowdery and W. W. Phelps, and during the research the
principals of astronomy, as understood by Father Abraham and the
Ancients, unfolded to our understanding. "When he was in the
height of his power in Nauvoo, Smith printed in the Times and
Seasons a reproduction of these hieroglyphics accompanied by this
alleged translation, of what he called "the Book of Abraham," and
they were also printed in the Millennial Star.* The translation
was a meaningless jumble of words after this fashion:--

* See Vol. XIX, p. 100, etc., from which the accompanying
facsimile is taken.

"In the land of the Chaldeans, at the residence of my father, I,
Abraham, saw that it was needful for me to obtain another place
of residence, and finding there was greater happiness and peace
and rest for me, I sought for the blessings of the Fathers, and
the right whereunto I should be ordained to administer the same,
having been myself a follower of righteousness, desiring to be
one also who possessed great knowledge, and to possess greater
knowledge, and to be a greater follower of righteousness."

Remy submitted a reproduction of these hieroglyphics to Theodule
Deveria, of the Museum of the Louvre, in Paris, who found, of
course, that Smith's purported translation was wholly fraudulent.
For instance, his Abraham fastened on an altar was a
representation of Osiris coming to life on his funeral couch, his
officiating priest was the god Anubis, and what Smith represents
to indicate an angel of the Lord is "the soul of Osiris, under
the form of a hawk."* Smith's whole career offered no more brazen
illustration of his impostures than this.

* See "A Journey to Great Salt Lake City", by Jules Remy (1861),
Note XVII.

A visitor to the Kirtland Temple some years later paid Joseph's
father half a dollar in order to see the Egyptian curios, which
were kept in the attic of that structure.

A well-authenticated anecdote, giving another illustration of
Smith's professed knowledge of the Egyptian language is told by
the Rev. Henry Caswall, M.A., who, after holding the
Professorship of Divinity in Kemper College, in Missouri, became
vicar of a church in England. Mr. Caswall, on the occasion of a
visit to Nauvoo in 1842, having heard of Smith's Egyptian lore,
took with him an ancient Greek manuscript of the Psalter, on
parchment, with which to test the prophet's scholarship. The
belief of Smith's followers in his powers was shown by their
eagerness to have him see this manuscript, and their persistence
in urging Mr. Caswall to wait a day for Smith's return from
Carthage that he might submit it to the prophet. Mr. Caswall the
next day handed the manuscript to Smith and asked him to explain
its contents. After a brief examination, Smith explained: "It
ain't Greek at all, except perhaps a few words. What ain't Greek
is Egyptian, and what ain't Egyptian is Greek. This book is very
valuable. It is a dictionary of Egyptian hieroglyphics. These
figures (pointing to the capitals] is Egyptian hieroglyphics
written in the reformed Egyptian. These characters are like the
letters that were engraved on the golden plates."*

* "The City of the Mormons," p. 36 (1842).

CHAPTER V. SMITH'S OHIO BUSINESS ENTERPRISES

When Rigdon returned to Ohio with Smith in January, 1831, it
seems to have been his intention to make Kirtland the permanent
headquarters of the new church. He had written to his people from
Palmyra, "Be it known to you, brethren, that you are dwelling on
your eternal inheritance." When Cowdery and his associates
arrived in Ohio on their first trip, they announced as the
boundaries of the Promised Land the township of Kirtland on the
east and the Pacific Ocean on the west. Within two months of his
arrival at Kirtland Smith gave out a "revelation" (Sec. 45), in
which the Lord commanded the elders to go forth into the western
countries and buildup churches, and they were told of a City of
Refuge for the church, to be called the New Jerusalem. No
definite location of this city was given, and the faithful were
warned to "keep these things from going abroad unto the world."
Another "revelation" of the same month (Sec. 48) announced that
it was necessary for all to remain for the present in their
places of abode, and directed those who had lands "to impart to
the eastern brethren," and the others to buy lands, and all to
save money" to purchase lands for an inheritance, even the city."

The reports of those who first went to Missouri induced Smith and
Rigdon, before they made their first trip to that state, to
announce that the Saints would pass one more winter in Ohio. But
when they had visited the Missouri frontier and realized its
distance from even the Ohio border line, and the actual
privations to which settlers there must submit, their zeal
weakened, and they declared, "It will be many years before we
come here, for the Lord has a great work for us to do in Ohio."
The building of the Temple at Kirtland, and the investments in
lots and in business enterprises there showed that a permanent
settlement in Ohio was then decided on.

Smith's first business enterprise for the church in Ohio was a
general store which he opened in Hiram. This establishment has
been described as "a poorly furnished country store where
commerce looks starvation in the face."* The difficulty of
combining the positions of prophet, head of the church, and
retail merchant was naturally great. The result of the
combination has been graphically pictured by no less an authority
than Brigham Young. In a discourse in Salt Lake City, explaining
why the church did not maintain a store there, Young said:--

* Salt Lake Herald, November 17, 1877.

"You that have lived in Nauvoo, in Missouri, in Kirtland, Ohio,
can you assign a reason why Joseph could not keep a store and be
a merchant? Let me just give you a few reasons; and there are men
here who know just how matters went in those days. Joseph goes to
New York and buys $20,000 worth of goods, comes into Kirtland and
commences to trade. In comes one of the brethren. Brother Joseph,
let me have a frock pattern for my wife: What if Joseph says,
'No, I cannot without money.' The consequence would be, 'He is no
Prophet,' says James. Pretty soon Thomas walks in. 'Brother
Joseph, will you trust me for a pair of boots?' 'No, I cannot let
them go without money.' 'Well,' says Thomas, 'Brother Joseph is
no Prophet; I have found THAT out and I am glad of it.' After a
while in comes Bill and Sister Susan. Says Bill, 'Brother Joseph,
I want a shawl. I have not got any money, but I wish you to trust
me a week or a fortnight.' Well, Brother Joseph thinks the others
have gone and apostatized, and he don't know but these goods will
make the whole church do the same, so he lets Bill have a shawl.
Bill walks of with it and meets a brother. 'Well,' says he, 'what
do you think of Brother Joseph?' 'O, he is a first rate man, and
I fully believe he is a Prophet. He has trusted me with this
shawl.' Richard says, 'I think I will go down and see if he won't
trust me some.' In walks Richard. Brother Joseph, I want to trade
about $20.' 'Well,'says Joseph, 'these goods will make the people
apostatize, so over they go; they are of less value than the
people.' Richard gets his goods. Another comes in the same way to
make a trade of $25, and so it goes. Joseph was a first rate
fellow with them all the time, provided he never would ask them
to pay him. And so you may trace it down through the history of
this people."*

* Journal of Discourses, Vol. 1, p. 215.

If this analysis of the flock which Smith gathered in Ohio, and
which formed the nucleus of the settlements in Missouri, was not
permanently recorded in an official church record, its
authenticity would be vigorously assailed.