The Missouri Persecutions

by B. H. Roberts

1. Not observing the word of wisdom.

2. Unchristian-like conduct in neglecting to attend meetings, and in uniting with and possessing the same spirit as the dissenters.

3. Writing letters to the dissenters in Kirtland, unfavorable to the cause and to the character of Joseph Smith, Jr.

4. Neglecting the duties of his calling, and separating himself from The Church.

5. Signing himself president of the Church of Christ in an insulting letter to the High Council, after he had been cut off from the presidency ^[B]

[Footnote B: In reorganizing the quorums of the Priesthood at Far West, in November, 1836, to which we have alluded, David Whitmer was made president of The Church in Missouri, and W. W. Phelps and John Whitmer, counselors; but the whole Church under the leadership of Thomas B. Marsh, Lyman Wight, David Patten, and others, on February 5, 1838, met as a committee of the whole, and preferred serious charges of wickedness against the three presidents, and refused to sustain them in their office. The vote which deposed them was unanimous, but the presidents refused to acknowledge the authority of The Church and continued to sign documents as presidents of The Church. It is this to which the fifth charge against David Whitmer refers.]

As before stated, these two men, Oliver Cowdery and David Whitmer, were two of the three special witnesses to the Book of Mormon. It was, therefore, a bold move to excommunicate them. Although it may be thought outside the theme I am following in these pages to make such a digression, still I cannot refrain from indulging in the following reflections: Suppose for a moment that the theory of the world relative to the origin of the Book of Mormon be true: that is, that it was the production of Solomon Spaulding or Sidney Rigdon; that Joseph Smith was put forward as a figure-head; and the three witnesses were induced to become parties to the fraud that was to be perpetrated on mankind—if this supposition were true, would Joseph Smith and Sidney Rigdon, under such circumstances, have dared to withdraw their fellowship from these men? If the Book of Mormon were a huge scheme to deceive mankind, and Cowdery and Whitmer were parties with Smith and Rigdon to the deception, the latter would hardly venture to cast away the former, for fear they might deny their testimony, expose the fraud, and cause the whole Mormon Church fabric to collapse. If the Book of Mormon had been a fraudulent production, Joseph Smith and Sidney Rigdon would never have dared to break with these two important witnesses, whatever their wickedness might be. But the bold, independent course pursued in excommunicating them, when their conduct warranted the action, supplies good evidence that Joseph Smith knew that the existence of The Church did not depend on the testimony of Oliver Cowdery and David Whitmer. The Book of Mormon being true, it would stand independent of these witnesses, and Joseph knew it. But the most gratifying part of it is, these witnesses to the Book of Mormon, though separated from The Church—excommunicated for unrighteousness—never denied their testimony or changed it in the least. But the fact of their having uniformly adhered to their testimony while disconnected with The Church, doubtless adds strength to that testimony, as they stand in the light of disinterested witnesses.

Oliver Cowdery, after his excommunication, became a wanderer for a number of years, unsettled and restless, though following the profession of the law. It was impossible for a man who had once tasted the glories of the Celestial Kingdom of God, as Oliver Cowdery had, to be satisfied with the dry husks of the beggarly elements of the world; and hence after some ten years of wandering outside The Church of Christ he at last found his way back to the fold of God, to the house of his father, and begged to be admitted as a humble member of The Church. This was in the early part of November, 1848, before a High Council over which Elder Orson Hyde presided. On that occasion Oliver Cowdery said: "Brethren, for a number of years I have been separated from you. I now desire to come back. I wish to come humbly and be one in your midst. I seek no station, I only wish to be identified with you. I am out of The Church. I am not a member of The Church, but I wish to become a member of it. I wish to come in at the door. I know the door. I have not come here to ask precedence. I come humbly and throw myself upon the decisions of this body, knowing as I do, that its decisions are right and should be obeyed."

Soon after this he was re-baptized. He was on his way to join the main body of The Church when he stopped at Kanesville, Iowa, where the above occurred. Before continuing his journey west he resolved to visit his wife's friends, the Whitmers, then living at Richmond, Missouri; and while there he was taken with an illness from which he died, on the 3rd of March, 1850, in his forty-fifth year. According to the testimony of Phineas Young, who was present at his death, "his last moments were spent in bearing testimony of the truth of the gospel revealed through Joseph Smith, and the power of the holy Priesthood which he had received through his administration."

David Whitmer never denied his testimony to the truth of the Book of Mormon, through all the years of his separation from The Church, but repeatedly reaffirmed it, especially in the closing years of his life. Three days previous to his death, which occurred on the 25th of January, 1888, he called his family and a number of his friends to his bedside, and turning to his physician, said: