Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1885-12-26
-----------------
A Modern Saul of Tarsns.

David Whitmer, who died in Missouri
the other day, was a sincere believer in the
divine origin of MOrmonism. As the last
survivor of the witnesses" who beheid
the plates of gold which Joseph Smith
claimed to have found in Western New
York. and as one of the men who helped
transcribe the Book of Mormon as the
strange characters on the plates were in
terpreted by Smith, he has been for many
years an object of great interest to Nor
mons as well as to the people in general.
In the Missouri neighborhood where Mr..
Whitmer has lived for more than genera
ton he has been highly esteemed. Full of
kindness and charity, scrupulously honest
and truthful, hoSpitable and just On only
one point has his word ever been doubted,
and even as to that his friends have CHART
ably conceded his sincerity while believing
that he was made the victim of designing
men. Whitmer's own account of the
alleged miraculous discovery of the Book
of Mormon is well known He did not see
the vision which Smith claims 10 have seen
and he did not go with him to the hill where
Smith claims to have found the golden
plates, but he did see the plates covered with
meaningless hieroglyphics, and in the pres
ence of two or three other pious men he
heard Smith, acting Ostensibly under super
natural power and intelligence, translate
the characters, and as Smith dictated he
and his companions wrote. A few days
later he and the others were on the high
way together when great light broke
upon them, a mysterious power smote them
to the earth, and voice awesome in its
scope commanded them to bear witness to
the truth of that which they had seen and
heard. David Whitmer was convinced.
and to his dying day he testified on ali
occasions to the divine origin of the work,
which he regarded as a supplement to the
Bible. That he was deceived and imposed
upon by the fanatics and charlatans who
founded the order, goes without saving.
but that he was himself cognizant OF the
swindle has never been alleged. He was a
very religious man, and he had carried his
devotlons to point where he became an
easy victim to designing men. Following the
new sect to the West, he presently disagreed
with the more fanatiCal leaders, and when
the Brighamite schism occurred he prac-
tically abandoned the leaders of his Church,
they going to Utah and he remaining IN
Missouri. Since that time he has lost no
opportunity to attack the false doctrines
taught in Salt Lake and to make light of
the alleged revelations received in that
quarter on the subject of polygamy, but as
to the original miracles he has never
wavered. Taking everything into consid-
Grafton, his character and the well-known
villainy of several of the men with whom
he was early associated the only inference
that can be drawn is that he was deceived
for time, but that when the scales fell
from his eyes he was still blinded as to
events which he might have explained as
easily on the theory of false pretense as he
did the revelation concerning plural mar
riage. He was too good a man to be mis-
led in the direction of vice, but he was not
smart enough to detect the imposition
practiced upon him earlier and which
paved the way to the brutal worship in
Utah, which he never ceased to deprecate.
The Mormon authorities have made many
efforts to secure possession of the manu-
script copy of the Book of Mormon, which
he always kept, and now that he is dead
they will probably renew negotiations with
his heirs.-[Chicago Herald.