Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1856-05-01
STAR.
Joseph Smith and the Mormons

the following:
Joseph Smith was a man Of colossal statue,
(more than six feet high,) well proportioned,
and very Intellectual, but without much edu-
cation. He had the happy faculty of capti-
waiting the hearts of all who came near him.
More than once have his blandness and affa-
biilty disarmed the wrath Of persons who had
approached him with fell and murderous in
tent, and caused them to retire in shame and
confusion before the august presence of a man
whom they had vowed 20 assassinste without
even once comprehending his character
Thts remarkable man was born on the 23d
December, 1905, at Sharon, in the county of
Windsor, and fell by the hands of the mob the
Z7th OF June, 1874, breathing his last in the
prison OF Carthage; He left some very curl
Gus memories, which have been in the course
OF publication for several years, and already
comprise matters ten volumes and upwards.
bis parents who were poor tillers of the soil,
were OF the sect of Presbyterians, and Of the
strictest orders Of Presbyterians He was
brought up by his mother, Lucy Mack, who
with the assistance Of Orson Pratt, has pub
iishea his biography, and traced his geuealogy
pack for the last seven generations. The young
Joseph did nothing of note before the age OF
nfteen. In 1923, be was present at the violent
debates that the Presbyterians, Baptists and
Methodists carried on in the county of his
birth, where matters Of conscience were dis
cussed with an earnestness and acerbity, wor-
thy of the reformation. Struck with the pre-
tensions set up by each sect, he set about study
Ing them In the hope Of educing the truth.
Mature reflection led his youthful mind to re-
gard them all as of human invention, and like
wise led him to the study Of the Catholic re-
hgion. Here he believed, for an instant, to have
recognized the purity of tradition, but in view
OF the grosspractical superstitions he saw toler-
atea amongst them, he soon undertook to pro-
nounce the ROmish Church as false as all the 9TH
ers. AT loss now to know to what patron saint
to dedicate himself, he resolved to follow the
counsels of Saint John, and to address him.
self to God alone in the midst of his great
mental embarrassments and tribulations. He
retired to the solitude CT the woods, as the
httest place to enter upon his devotions with
fervor, and there upon his knees on the naked
earth, at the feet of the God Of nature and
the universe, he called upon him with earnest
prayer and profound humility, to know in
what sect resided the true religion of Heaven.
Angelic persons, from the crowns of whose
heads blazed forth thousand radii of shining
and burning lights, answered him that the re-
nglous beliefs of men were all abomination in
the sight of the Most High, and forbade him
10 attach himself to any one of them. This
vision, evidently the offspring of an active
IMAGINATION centred upon one fixed idea, led
his mind to conceive a grand and generous
project, and to attempt to harmonize in one
consistent whole, the many religions that are
Wralgllng SO miserably and disgracefulIy
ABOUT the souls OF us poor mortals here be-
low. He spent several years in ripeninq his
plan, and in seeking basis upon which TO
rest his plea of a new revelation-having
learned at an early period Of his life that il
was easier to captivate the human under
standing by the marvellous and absurd than
by the force of reason and well balanced
facts: Having sought the most retired place
Tor his operations, he cut upon brazen tablets
an interminable system of copjuring figures,
that represented in reality nothing else than
the uniformed caprices of his engraving pen
upon achieving this work, upon which he had
expended degree of patience as full of ingrat-
itude as it was worthy of admiration, he cut
out OF stone an instrument in the form of an
opaque lunette, destined to become a sort of
Orim and Thummin amongst the MormOns
The eye-glass and tables, bound as il were in
volume, were buried together in a hole,
which he dug on the top of hill, and which
he took good care t. recover with most stu
dious art. On the 2lst of September, 1923, at
time when he was scarcely eighteen years of
age, be feigned to have had a vision in which |
an angel, descended expressly from Heaven,
had revealed the astonishing projects that God |
had in store for him, and had informed him of |
the existence Of sacred book that had lain |
for ages hidden from the eyes Of man, in the /
very bowels Of the Garth. The 22d of Sep
tember, 1925, the same inhabitant Of the ethe- |
real regions appeared to him again to desig- |
nate the spot where rested the precious de- /
pOsit, and to spread it out before his aston |
ished eyes without, however. permitting him |
to carry it away-dOubtlcss because the an
gel confederate had not finished his prepa-
tionS. 1t was only on the 9th Of September, |
1927, that he was permitted, after third re-
vision, to disinter the mysterious tables, and
to carry them home for study and traDsls- |
ton Nor did he forget at the same time |
the famous eye-glass Of stone the Urim and |
Trummin which, if reports are to be relied |
on, had been fabricated in the celestial ar
mory with the special view to aid in decipher
ing all coDjurations and hieroglyphics imagi- i
nabIe This precious God send, he showed to /
a very limited number Of ignorant dupes, who |
gave him a certificate, attesting the fact OF 4
their having seen the famous golden book, /
formed Of tablets, seven inches by eight, |
splendidly engraved on the two sides, with /
characters that were styled reformed Egyp-
tta'I. Joseph, most happy as he must have
been, shut himself up in his chamber for sew
eral years to translate, at leisure and In soli /
tude, the important traditions that had been |
shut out so long from the light of the world. /
He dictated his translations to Emma Hale, |
his wife, who was acting as his amanu
ensis. When the hidden sense of the tab |
lClS Wds IcuuClcu iulO
as possible, extraordinary sacrifices were |
made to precipitate the publication, after |
which the golden book was again entombed |
in a spot that no man knows of. The first |
edition, which is styled the Book Of Mormon,
was published at Palmyra, in the State of |
New York, and FIVE thousand copies were |
struck off. Joseph subsequently received the |
apostleship at the hands of two celestial mes
sengerS, and on the 9th Of April, 1880, he laid I
the foundation of the Church of Jesus Christ,
or the Latter Day Saints, by the baptism of
six members of his family. 1t was at Man
chester, not far from New York, that the
Church was organized. At first the proselytes
were lukewarm about presenting themselves;
but soon, by the force of local persecution,
and by the illiberal vexations of the federal
government, she received recruits from all
sides in numbers sufficiently large to dlsquiet
the country, which soon placed itself IN
hostile attitude, and forced them to pack up
and leave-thus giving them another and a
better chance for success There are at this
moment in the world, by actual calculation,
more than FIVE hundred thousand Mormons.