RIGDON FOREKNOWS THE COMING AND CONTENTS OF THE BOOK OF MORMON.

The Rev. Adamson Bentley (whose wife was sister to Mrs. Sidney Rigdon) wrote the following to Walter Scott under date of January 22, 1841:

"I know that Sidney Rigdon told me that there was a book coming out, the manuscript of which had been found engraved on gold plates, as much as two years before the Mormon book made its appearance or had been heard of by me."

This statement was published in the Millennial Harbinger for 1844, with the following editorial note from Rev. Alexander Campbell:

"The conversation alluded to in Brother Bentley's letter of 1841 was in my presence as well as his, and my recollection of it led me, some two or three years ago, to interrogate Brother Bentley touching his recollection of it, which accorded with mine in every particular, except the year in which it occurred, he placing it in the summer of 1827, I in the summer of 1826, Rigdon at the same time observing that in the plates dug up in New York there was an account, not only of the aborigines of this country, but also it was stated that the Christian religion had been preached in this country during the first century, just as we were preaching it in the Western Reserve."[77]

[Footnote 77: Besides Millennial Harbinger 1844, p. 39, see "Who Wrote the Book of Mormon?" 12 and 13. "Braden-Kelly Debate," 45.]

It will be remembered that Rigdon lived for a time at his brother-in-law Bentley's house, and that it was Scott, Campbell, and Rigdon who, in Pittsburg, organized the Disciple Church in 1824 or 1825. The above statements were published in the Millennial Harbinger in 1844 (p. 39), twenty-two years before Rigdon's death, yet he never published a denial to either. It seems that before that publication Adamson Bentley was orally making statements, probably to the same effect, which remained undenied by Rigdon, though he published a card denouncing his brother-in-law.[78]

[Footnote 78: Evening and Morning Star, 301.]

Mrs. Amos Dunlap, a niece of Mrs. Rigdon, under date of Warren, O., December 7, 1879, writes this:

"When I was quite a child I visited Mr. Rigdon's family. He married my aunt. They at that time lived at Bainbridge, O. [1826-7]. During my visit Mr. Rigdon went to his bedroom and took from a trunk which he kept locked, a certain manuscript. He came out into the other room and seated himself by the fireplace and commenced reading it. His wife at that moment came into the room and exclaimed: 'What, are you studying that thing again?' or something to that effect. She then added: 'I mean to burn that paper.' He said, 'No indeed, you will not; this will be a great thing some day.' Whenever he was reading this he was so completely occupied that he seemed entirely unconscious of anything passing around him."[79]

[Footnote 79: "Who Wrote the Book of Mormon?" 12. "Braden-Kelly Debate," 45.]

Since Rigdon never, in person or by anyone else, has claimed to have written any such manuscript of his own, in the light of other evidence here adduced, we are warranted in believing that to have been Spaulding's "Manuscript Found."

The Rev. D. Atwater, under date Mantua Station, O., April 26, 1873, three years before Rigdon's death, writes this:

"Soon after this the great Mormon defection came on us [Disciples]. Sidney Rigdon preached for us, and notwithstanding his extravagantly wild freaks, he was held in high repute by many. For a few months before his professed conversion to Mormonism, it was noticed that his wild, extravagant propensities had been more marked. That he knew before of the coming of the Book of Mormon is to me certain from what he said [during] the first of his visits at my father's some years before. He gave a wonderful description of the mounds and other antiquities found in some parts of America, and said that they must have been made by the aborigines. He said that there was a book to be published containing an account of those things. He spoke of these in his eloquent, enthusiastic style, as being a thing most extraordinary. Though a youth then, I took him to task for expending so much enthusiasm on such a subject, instead of things of the gospel."[80]

[Footnote 80: "Early History of the Disciples in the Western Reserve," 239-240, copied in "Who Wrote the Book of Mormon?" 13. "Braden-Kelly Debate," 45.]

Of this statement Rigdon never made a denial.

Dr. S. Rosa, under date of Painsville, O., June 3, 1841, writes, among other things, this:

"In the early part of the year 1830, when the Book of Mormon appeared, [and in November of which year Rigdon was converted], either in May or June, I was in company with Sidney Rigdon, and rode with him on horseback a few miles. Our conversation was principally upon the subject of religion, as he was at that time a very popular preacher of the denomination calling themselves 'Disciples' or Campbellites. He remarked to me that it was time for a new religion to spring up; that mankind were all rife and ready for it. I thought he alluded to the Campbellite doctrine. He said it would not be long before something would make its appearance; he also said that he thought of leaving Pennsylvania and should be absent for some months. I asked him how long. He said it would depend upon circumstances. I began to think a little strange of his remarks, as he was a minister of the gospel. I left Ohio that fall and went to the State of New York to visit my friends who lived in Waterloo, not far from the mine of golden Bibles. In November I was informed that my old neighbor, E. Partridge, and the Rev. Sidney Rigdon, were in Waterloo, and that they both had become the dupes of Joe Smith's necromancies. It then occurred to me that Rigdon's new religion had made its appearance, and when I became informed of the Spaulding manuscript, I was confirmed in the opinion that Rigdon was at least accessory, if not the principal, in getting up this farce."[81]

[Footnote 81: "Gleanings by the Way," 317. "Prophet of the Nineteenth Century," 58. "Early Days of Mormonism," 172-3.]

This last article was first published in book form in 1842, thirty-four years before Rigdon's death, but never publicly denied or explained by him. Whether this particular letter was published in the Christian Observer and Episcopal Recorder I cannot say, but other portions of the same book evidently were, and received comment in a Mormon church organ.[82] This but emphasizes Rigdon's silence upon Dr. Rosa's letter.

[Footnote 82: Gospel Reflector, 19.]

In Howe's "Mormonism Unveiled,"[83] it is said that Rigdon, during the incubation period of Mormonism between 1827 and 1830, preached new matters of doctrine which were afterwards found to be inculcated in the Mormon Bible. The evident purpose of all this was to prepare his congregation for the acceptance of Mormonism, and the end was most successfully achieved. Evidently this and the other circumstances showing Rigdon's foreknowledge of the forthcoming Book of Mormon, all combined with a guilty conscience, irresistibly impelled the making of an explanation tending to allay the suspicion that there was a conscious purpose in all such conduct. This defense is found in a revelation to Sidney Rigdon, dated December 7, 1830, at the alleged first meeting between Rigdon and Smith, and within one month after the former's conversion. The revelation, in part, says:

[Footnote 83: Page 289. "Braden-Kelly Debate," 45.]

"Behold thou was sent forth, even as John, To prepare the way before me, and before Elijah which should come, and thou knewest it not."[84]

[Footnote 84: Section 35, "Doctrine and Covenants." Supplement 14, Millennial Star, 50. The exact date of this revelation is December 7th. 1830, according to Howe's "Mormonism Unveiled," 107.]

That Rigdon did prepare the way we knew before the revelation informed us of it. That it was done unconsciously we cannot even now believe.

Especially in the light of the foregoing evidence, this revelation must be construed as much more convincing proof of Rigdon's advance knowledge of the forthcoming Book of Mormon and its contents than even a tacit admission.

It is practically an admission of guilty knowledge, coupled with a transparent effort at warding off the inference of complicity in fraud by veiling the acts constituting the evidence in an assumed mysticism, which really deceives few aside from the mystic degenerate and the willing victim who enters the fold for opportunities to "fleece the flock of Christ."

[III.]

FROM RIGDON TO SMITH via P. P. PRATT.

When to this evidence already adduced is added, as will be done, conclusive proof of the identity of the salient features of the Book of Mormon and Spaulding's rewritten "Manuscript Found," it would seem that the case of plagiarism through Rigdon's complicity is established beyond reasonable doubt. The Mormon objector, however, insists that no possible connection between Rigdon and Smith has ever been shown to exist prior to 1830, and that, therefore, even if Rigdon did steal the manuscript, Smith could not have obtained it for use as a help in preparing the Book of Mormon. It would seem as if the facts above recited should, even if unaided by more direct evidence, raise an almost conclusive presumption of the existence of an undiscovered connection between the two. But we are not confined to an inference from such evidence alone. There are still more pointed evidentiary circumstances to which we will now give attention.

Parley Parker Pratt was born at Burlington, Otsego County, N.Y., April 12, 1807, of parents who later resided at Canaan, Columbia County, N.Y.[85] During his sixth year (1813) he went to reside with his father's sister, named Van Cott,[86] which name afterward became conspicuous in the early history of Utah. In 1826 Pratt spent a few months with an uncle in Wayne (formerly Ontario) County, N. Y.[87]

[Footnote 85: "Autobiography of P.P. Pratt," 17.]

[Footnote 86: "Autobiography of P.P. Pratt," 19.]

[Footnote 87: "Supplement 14, Millennial Star," 1.]

This, it will be remembered, is the same county in which Smith was at that time gaining much newspaper notoriety as a "peep-stone" money digger[88] through mention made of him in papers published in several counties in southern New York and northern Pennsylvania.[89] While Smith was thus working the gullible of his neighborhood with his necromancy, Pratt was a peddler, who, it is said, knew almost everybody in western New York.[90] At that time Ontario County took in all the territory of several counties as now bounded, and in 1820 had only a population of 80,267.[91] Pratt, therefore, could hardly have helped knowing Smith's fame, which was such as at once to have suggested him as the star actor in any scheme of fraud requiring a prophet. In view of Pratt's subsequent connection with the Wells family,[92] who were Smith's neighbors and friends,[93] it is more than probable that he knew the Smiths personally in or prior to 1826, although, of course, they would carefully guard the fact of such acquaintance from publicity as a most important secret.

[Footnote 88: "Origin, Rise, and Progress of Mormonism," 27.]

[Footnote 89: "Braden-Kelly Debate," 47.]

[Footnote 90: "Hand Book of Mormonism," 3.]

[Footnote 91: Compendium, 11th Census.]

[Footnote 92: "Autobiography of P.P. Pratt," 37.]

[Footnote 93: "Joseph Smith, the Prophet," by Lucy Smith, 101-2-3.]

In October of this year Pratt went to Ohio, locating at Amherst, thirty miles west of Cleveland[94] and was also located fifty miles west of Kirtland.[95] One of the temptations inducing Pratt's departure from New York was to get to a country where, as he himself expresses it, there is "no law to sweep [away] all the hard earnings of years to pay a small debt."[96] The ethical status of an average country peddler who is willing to leave his native state to avoid the payment of his "small debts" furnishes a fertile immorality in which to plant the seeds of religious imposture.

[Footnote 94: "Autobiography of P.P. Pratt," 27.]

[Footnote 95: "Autobiography of P.P. Pratt," 50.]

[Footnote 96: "Autobiography of P.P. Pratt," 26.]

It will be remembered that it was also in 1826 that Rigdon went for a second time to reside in Ohio, where he became an itinerant "Disciple" preacher, laboring in the vicinity of Bainbridge, Mantua, Kirtland, Mentor, Chester, New Lisbon, and Warren,[97] at some of which places Rigdon had an unsavory reputation.[98] Rigdon and Pratt, therefore, were in the same neighborhood in 1826, and undoubtedly met soon after. The date of their first meeting is nowhere given, but may reasonably be inferred from an address delivered by Parley P. Pratt in 1843 or '4. In this discourse Pratt tells of an occurrence which transpired on his way to his future Ohio home, which occurrence furnishes the key to his first connection with Mormonism. On his way he stopped at a humble cottage, the name of whose occupant he carefully fails to give. Here, while asleep (so he says), "a messenger of a mild and intelligent countenance suddenly stood before me [Pratt], arrayed in robes of dazzling splendor." According to Mormon theology, an angel is but an exalted man.[99] Of course Sidney Rigdon was an exalted man; why not, then, an angel? This angel claimed to hold the keys to the mysteries of this wonderful country, and took Pratt out to exhibit those mysteries to him. Pratt then had portrayed to his mind the whole future of Mormonism; its cities, with inhabitants from all parts of the globe; its temples, with a yet unattained splendor; its present church organization was, with considerable definiteness outlined; its political ambition to establish a temporal kingdom of God on the ruins of this government was set forth with quite as much definiteness as in the subsequent more publicly uttered, treasonable sermons.[100] I conclude from the exact manner in which this "Angel of the Prairies" foreknew the ambitions, hopes, and future achievements of the Mormon Church and the similar admitted foreknowledge of Rigdon and the subsequently established connection between Rigdon, Pratt, and Smith, that the "Angel of the Prairies" who outlined to Pratt his then contemplated and now executed religious fraud, was none other than Sidney Rigdon himself, and that this fact accounts for Pratt's failure to give the name of his host or the date of his first meeting with Rigdon.[101]

[Footnote 97: "History of the Church," 149-150. ("Josephite".)]

[Footnote 98: "4 Times and Seasons," 209. Supplement 14, Millennial Star, 45.]

[Footnote 99: See Text for foot-notes, Nos. 106 to 109 herein. 6 Millennial Star, 20. "History of Mormonism," 154.]

[Footnote 101: 20 Millennial Star, 33-36. 7 Deseret News, 288-9. 7 Journal of Discourses, 53. 1 Journal of Discourses, 230, and Sermons generally of this period. See also Am. Hist. Mag., July, 1906.]

Lambdin, who, by some, has been suspected of once having been Rigdon's partner in the contemplated fraud, died Aug. 1, 1825. Engles, Patterson's foreman, died July 17, 1827. Spaulding had died in 1816, and Robert Patterson, it seems, knew nothing personally of the contents of the Spaulding manuscript,[102] which fact Rigdon probably well knew through his intimate acquaintance with Lambdin. In September of 1827 the time was, therefore, as ripe as it was ever likely to be for active preparation in the matter of bringing forth the "Book of Mormon," since probably all those having any intimate knowledge of the "Manuscript Found" had conveniently died.

[Footnote 102: "Mormonism Exposed," by Williams. "Who Wrote the Book of Mormon?" 7.]

In 1827 Pratt started back to New York for the purpose of getting married. Now, remember, this was nearly three years before the advent of Mormonism. Pratt reached the home of his aunt Van Cote July 4, 1827, and in his autobiography records a summary of a conversation with his future wife thus: "I also opened my religious views to her and my desire, which I sometimes had, to try and teach the red man."[103] In October, 1830, within a month after Pratt's professed conversion to Mormonism, a revelation was received for Pratt, in which the Lord, through "Joseph Smith, the Prophet," directed Pratt to carry out this very design.[104] The desire which Pratt thus expressed to his wife three years before the advent of Mormonism was afterward and for a long time the pet scheme of all Mormons. Pratt was married September 9, 1827.[105] On September 22, 1827, a "heavenly messenger" appeared to Joseph Smith and unfolded to him the scheme of the Book of Mormon, and disclosed the whereabouts of the "Golden Plates."[106] This "heavenly messenger" is called the Angel Moroni. According to Mormon theology, "God may use any beings he has made or that he pleases, and call them his angels, or messengers."[107] "God's angels and men are all of one species, one race, one great family."[108] "God is a man like unto yourselves; that is the great secret."[109] Why, of course! "That is the great secret." God is but an "exalted man," and may call Parley Parker Pratt his angel. Parley Parker Pratt was the "heavenly messenger," the angel who, on that day (September 22, 1827), appeared to Joseph Smith and told him where were the golden plates, that is, Spaulding's "Manuscript Found." Sidney Rigdon, for Smith's purposes, was the "exalted man," the "God" who sent this "heavenly messenger" Parley Parker Pratt, just as the Mormon people now look upon Joseph Smith as the "God to this people."[110] Now, watch the sequel, and no doubt can remain.

[Footnote 103: Pages 29 and 30.]

[Footnote 104: Section 32, Doctrine and Covenants. Smith's God was, however, unfamiliar with governmental regulations of Indian affairs, so in spite of the revelation Pratt and Company were compelled by the United States Indian agent to leave the reservation. 5 Journal of Discourses, 199. Howe's "Mormonism Unveiled," 218-226. "Gleanings by the Way," 324.]

[Footnote 105: "Autobiography of P.P. Pratt," 30.]

[Footnote 106: Supplement 14, Millennial Star, 6.]

[Footnote 107: 5 Journal of Discourses, 141.]

[Footnote 108: Key to Theology, 41, 5 Millennial Star, 20.]

[Footnote 109: 5 Times and Seasons, 613. God an Exalted Man, 6 Journal of Discourses, 3.]

[Footnote 110: Deseret News, March 18, 1857, 13. See also Deseret News 179. Those most familiar with the psychology of dreams and the influence over them had by the experiences of waking life, will give considerable evidentiary weight to a dream of the prophet's father, in which there appeared to him a "man with a peddler's budget on his back," such a peddler P. P. Pratt probably carried. This peddler of his dreams flattered him, told him he had called seven times and this last call had come to tell him what was the one thing essential to his salvation, and then he awoke. ("Joseph Smith, the Prophet," 74.)]

September 9, 1827, Pratt was married. On September 22, 1827, he was the angel who appeared to Smith, and in October he started back to Ohio, the home of Rigdon.[111] Rigdon is now brought again upon the scene. He preaches in Pratt's neighborhood, converts him, the latter commences preaching,[112] evidently preparing for his part in the drama about to be enacted.

[Footnote 111: "Autobiography of P.P. Pratt," 30.]

[Footnote 112: "Autobiography of P.P. Pratt," 31-33.]