The daily exchange. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1858-1861, 1858-02-25
MORM0NISM AND IT'S FOUNDER.

ana assuming an attitude of independent sovereign
ty, Is one of the remarkable phenomena of the age,
and requires more than casual notice from the CO.
temporaneous historian. \ brief review OF the
prominent facts in their career will be peculiarly
acceptable at the present time, the extraordinary
posture of their relations to Federal Government
having recently directed towards them large share
of the public attention.
Joseph Smith Junior as he always STYLES hmself.)
the founder of Mormonism and the Mahomet of the
nineteenth century, born in an obscure village
in Vermont, on the 2sth of December, 1905. The
same state enjoys the equivocal honor of giving
birth also to the first of his caliphs, Brigham Young
and to Heber c. Kimball, Brigham's grand vizier
and supposed to be next in succession the former of
whom first the light the lst and the latter on
the l4th OF June In the same year, 1901. Joe |
Smith, appears to have been a man of ardent tenn
permanent, vivid Imagination and considerable tact
and intuitive knowledge of mankind, accompanied
by great self-reliance, impudence and ndomta- |
BILE will The character of mpostor and fanatic
have so many points of contact and are often so diff
hcut to distinguish that history is nearly always at
fault in endeavoring to decide between the two in
any particular case. The true character of Mahom-
ct is to this day. a matter of controversy and
clouded as the early-history of Mormonism and its
founder is, with lies and exaggerations of every
Sort both by friends and foes we leave the question
to debating societies. to discuss whether Joe Smith
was upon the whole, a hypocrite or an enthusiast
The events OF his furnish abundant proof to
support either hypothesis.
The modern prophet commenced after the most
approved and orthodox method by seeing visions
and dreaming dreams He had ameagre education
but an inquiring and speculative mind. According
10 his own account, he was very early possessed
with strong religious sentiment, but was sorely
perplexed and embarrassed in his search for truth
particularly by the diversites and discussions in the
christian church. His early life seems to have al
ternated between spasms of religious frenzy and
fits of dissipation and debauchery. 1t was at the
age of fourteen, that Smith represents himself as
receiving the first miraculous ntimation of the new
revelation which he was destined to be the medium
of communicating to mankind He beheld prodi-
gy-a vast light of extraordinary brilliancy de-
scended from heaven, and without consuming the
foliage, completely filled and illuminated the grove
in which he was praying. The vision, as narrated
by Smith, is obviously but clumsy parody upon
the Mosaic account of the burning bush. "Two
glorious personages' then stood forth fromhe flames
and warned him by no means to follow after the
false doctines of any of the existing religious sects
assured him that they had all, without exception,
",
the fulness of the gospel should be manifested to
him by inspiration.
The promised dispensation was revealed according
to the Mormon account on the night of the 21st of
September, 1923, at the little village of Palmyra,
New York. to which place Smiths parents had re-
moved eight years previously. The vision of the
fiery cloud was repeated accompanied with all be-
coming and suitable sights and sounds "person-
age" again appeared and disclosed to him that the
covenant which God had made with ancient Israel
about to be fulfilled. The second coming of
the Messiah was at hand The Gospel was now to
be preached in its completeness and power unto all
nations to prepare them for the approaching Mile
mum. Smith, of course, was to be the instrument
to bring about this glorious consummaton. He was
Informed that the American Indians were f'the
remnant of 1srael-the descendants of the lost
tribes. That, when they first emigrated to this
continent from Asia, they were enlightened peo-
pie, having their inspired prophets, and and
scribes, who kept record of the events in their
history, well as of the revelations which were
disclosed to them pertaining to the '.latter days.
That these records were handed down from genera
ton to generation until the people relapsed into
gross depravity, when they We're engraved on ia
Diets, and deposited in the earth for safe keeping
until the Guinness of time should be accomplished
He then told where the tablets were buried. and
referred for further instructions to the documents
themselves.
Such is the marvellous account given of the dis
covery of the celebrated Mormon plates. Smith,
it will be remembered, claimed that he dug them
out of curious stone chest buried in the earth
somewhere in the vicinity of Canandaigua in the
State of New York, where they had been deposited
fourteen hundred years before by the primitive In
nv. 4
gold, of composition resembling it. about seven
by eight inches in length and breadth, and bound
together by rings running through them upon one
edge. The inscriptions upon them are in character
resembling the Egyptian, but by the miraculous as
sistance of an enormous pair of spectacles which
were also found in the chest, Smith was enabled to
decpher them.
OF course, the existence of these plates, or any
thing like Them is myth, or in plain terms, hum
bug. No credible evidence exists that any mortal
eye save Smiths ever saw them. Whatever visions
or prodigies might have been conured upby Smith:
diseased Imagination, under the excitement of re-
gious delirum it is quite certain that the produc
ton of the "Book of Mormon was an unmitigated
imposture. How Smith, who iterate boy
could have got hold of work showing the eabo
rate research and ingenuity which undoubtedly
characterize, to some extent, the "Book of Nor
mon, is accounted for in this wise
A retired clergyman, named Spauldng, man o
much quaint eruditon, living in part of Ohio
where mounds, ruins and other ancient relics of thu
aborigines still excite the curiosity of the learned
amused his leisure hours by inventing a fictitious
history of the American Indians before the discovery
of the new world, founded upon a thing then enter
tanned by many, of their being the posterity of tn
ten lost tribes of Israel He initiated the style ant
diptiOn of the Rblical atiye and mad ito
free and easy use of the canonical prophets. Thi
curious novel he labelled ''The Manuscript Found
and left with printer in Pittsburg, named Patter
SOM here it fell into the hands of the notorious Sid
neyRegdon, then a compositor in Pattersons estab
ishment, afterwards the Intimate friend and confed
ate of Joe Smith, and FIRST apostle of Mormonsm.
When or how these Two characters first becam
connected does not distinctly appear. The striking
coincidence, however, between the "Book of Nor
mon as afterwards palmed off upon the credulity Q
the simple by Smith, and the ''Manuscript Found
of Spaulding, as it came into the hands of Rigdon
was instantly detected by Spaulding's friends ant
neighbors, and excited their indignation at the i'm
pious fraud when the apostles of Mormonism cam
to preach in their vicinity.
1t will be recollected that about year ago
Mormon emissary named Farley p. Pratt was killet
in Arkansas, by one Mclean, whose wife he had per
suaded to leave her family to become one of hi
"spirituap' harem in Utah. We find the follown!
statement among the writings of this Pratt, who wa
known as one of their ablest and most Jealous pro
pagandists:-
1.-THE Book of Mormon contains the history of thu
ancient inhabitants of America, who were brancl
of the house of Israel, of the tribe of Joseph, o
whom the Indians are still remnant; but the prin
cipal nation of them having fallen in battle in the
fourth fifth century, one of their prophets, whose
name was Mormon, saw fit to make an abridgemen
of their history, their prophecies and their doc
trines, which he engraved plates, and afterwards
being san the second fell into the hands of his soI