The Spalding Enigma: Investigating the Mysterious Origin of The Book of Mormon

By Wayne L Cowdrey, Arthur Vanick and Howard A Davis

Expanded Scholars' Edition

Where did The Book of Mormon come from?  Who was Solomon Spalding and what connection did his manuscript have with Joseph Smith?  To answer these questions, this book critically examines key historical documents, personal testimonies, and records of 19th-century Mormon history to ex

• Language: English
• Publisher: St. Polycarp Publishing House
• Release date: May 15, 2018
• ISBN: 9781947707368

Book preview

Dedication

Respectfully dedicated to Solomon Spalding, M.A. (1761-1816),

that he may finally rest in peace;

and to the many good people, both past and present,

whose words and deeds have made this work possible.

He who sets out to find signs and omens will find enough of them. He that expects visits from angels will find them as abundant as he who in the age of witchcraft found a witch in every unseemly old woman.

- Alexander Campbell

I have here only made a collection of culled facts, and have brought together nothing of my own but the thread that ties them together.

- Montaigne

And if God had not spoken, if the angel of God has not appeared to Joseph Smith, and if these things are not true of which we speak, then the whole thing is an imposture from beginning to end. There is no half-way house, no middle path about the matter; it is either one thing or the other.

- Mormon Apostle John Taylor (Journal of Discourses 21:165)

The only thing new in the world is the history you never knew.

- Harry S Truman.

A saint is a dead sinner, revised and edited.

- Ambrose Bierce



Matilda-McKinstry-c1880

Solomon Spalding’s Daughter, Matilda Spalding McKinstry

January 17, 1805 – September 17, 1891

Probably taken at Washington, D.C. c.1880

Contents

Foreword

By Dr. Gene Edward Veith

This book is an updated, expanded version of Who Really Wrote the Book of Mormon (St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 2005), with the authors adding more evidence and answering the counter-arguments of Mormon apologists. This new version actually consists of two books: a Readers’ Edition, which makes the case that Solomon Spalding’s novel about the ten lost tribes of Israel in the Americas was a major source of the Book of Mormon; and an Expanded Scholars’ Edition, which lays out the evidence in meticulous detail.

As such, The Spalding Enigma makes important contributions to the history of Mormonism, though it will prove disconcerting for Latter-day Saints who believe that their sacred text was inscribed on golden plates and translated from Reformed Egyptian by Joseph Smith using seer stones. But the research given here—the painstaking sifting of correspondence, newspaper accounts, city directories, and other primary records—makes important contributions to American history as a whole.

As the authors trace the comings and goings of Solomon Spalding, the pioneering Mormons Smith, Sidney Rigdon, and Oliver Cowdery (a distant relative of one of the authors), as well as the witnesses who heard the novel being read, the printers who handled the manuscript, and other principals in the interwoven stories, the early days of the American republic come vividly to life.

America was a nation of entrepreneurs. Nearly everyone whose life is chronicled here was taking advantage of this land of opportunity, starting one venture after another, failing but starting over, moving from place to place to what they optimistically expected would be ever-greener pastures.

Solomon Spalding, for example, was born and educated in Connecticut, where he fought in the Revolutionary War. He then became a Congregational preacher, but after he got married he moved to Cherry Valley, New York, where he operated a general store, preached on the side, and served as a school principal. He then started a land speculation business, which led to a move to Conneaut, Ohio. That led to financial difficulties, so he started an iron foundry. That did not go so well either, so then followed a sojourn in Pittsburgh selling pictures and then a move to Amity, Pennsylvania, where he and his wife ran an inn.

Spalding’s big dream, though, was to be a novelist. He wrote several works, including the ambitious Manuscript Found depicting the adventures of ancient Hebrews in the New World, written in King James English. Once his books were published, Spalding thought, they would make enough money to solve the financial problems that dogged him throughout his life. He gave Manuscript Found to a Pittsburgh publisher, but he lacked the funds to subsidize the printing and then the publisher lost the manuscript for a while. Unfortunately, before his literary ambitions could come to fruition, Spalding got sick and died. But he had entertained his family, friends, and customers by reading his manuscript out loud. Years later, when Mormon missionaries came spreading the new religion, the stories from their new Bible—including characters with the names Nephi and Lehi—sounded familiar. Though the manuscript disappeared, a number of people told about hearing or reading Spalding’s novel, noting its similarity to the Book of Mormon.

The authors try to establish that the similarly ambitious and well-traveled intimate of Joseph Smith, Sidney Rigdon, knew Spalding, was in Pittsburgh when he was, frequented the publishing house where the manuscript was submitted and was a close friend with one of its employees. In doing so, they piece together indications that Rigdon copied the manuscript, added in his own religious convictions, and gave it to Smith, who turned it into a sacred text for a new religion.

Indeed, America was a land not only of business entrepreneurs but also religious entrepreneurs. A key to the spirit of innovation and invention was the way Americans looked at their country and the new culture they were founding. America was seen as the New World, in stark opposition to the Old World, with its tyrannies, corruption, and worn-out traditions. Freed from the stifling social, economic, and cultural order of the Old World, the New World was fertile ground for new ideas and new ways of life, including new religions.

Americans in the early 19th century were innovative, forward-looking, and freedom-loving; but this in no way conflicted with the fact that they were also highly religious. The First Great Awakening of the 18th century took place primarily in the context of traditional churches and traditional theologies. The Second Great Awakening in the first half of the 19th century was spread by revivals that took place throughout the nation and all the way to the frontier. Largely disconnected from traditional churches, these revivals gave rise to an intensely personal and distinctly American kind of piety, one that was highly individualistic and subjective, stressing a direct experience with the supernatural.

Many of the spiritually awakened believed that the Old World churches of Europe and their American counterparts, with their archaic rituals and dogmatic creeds, whether Catholic or Protestant, were spiritually dead, even apostate. But now God by His providence has raised up a novus ordo seclorum, in the words inscribed on the Great Seal of the United States of America, a new order of the ages. This climate was ripe for the formation of new churches, new theologies that stretched the definition of Christianity, and new religions.

Curiously, much of this religious innovation emerged out of a single, miniscule region out of all the vastness of America: the western arm of New York state, a mere 17 counties, located roughly between the Finger Lakes and Lake Erie, a span of 124 miles. This region was called the Burned Over District by evangelist Charles Finney, so scorched it was by the Holy Spirit.

This epicenter of the Second Great Awakening would gave us the Millerites, who were convinced of Christ’s imminent Second Coming, a movement that branched off into the Adventists and the Jehovah’s Witnesses. This region also gave us the Shakers, who foreswore all sexual activity, and the Oneida Community, which practiced group marriage. The Burned Over District was also the birthplace of the Spiritualist movement, with its séances and mediums who professed to channel the dead. This was also the home of Walter Rauschenbusch, the father of the Social Gospel, which sought to save not souls but society by building a politically-progressive Kingdom of God on earth. Also from this region was Elizabeth Cady Stanton, the pioneering feminist. It was in this same district of western New York that Joseph Smith lived and is said to have received his revelations and discovered the golden plates on which were written the Book of Mormon.

I was surprised to see the ties between Mormonism and another movement: the Restorationists, also known as Campbellites, which would become a mainline Protestant tradition, including a conservative denomination (The Christian Church), a very conservative denomination (The Church of Christ), and a liberal denomination (The Disciples of Christ). The Restorationists—who began not in western New York but in Kentucky, Virginia, and Pennsylvania—sought to unite all Christian churches by applying the principle no creed but the Bible. (I myself grew up in the Disciples church, with its liberal theology, its social gospel, and its ecumenical priorities. Later, I would embrace the Old World theology of Lutheranism.)

Although the Restorationists would become part of the mainstream of American Christianity with particularly strong ecumenical interests, for the 19th century pioneers of this movement, a corollary of no creed but the Bible was that the historic creeds were symptomatic of the church having drifted away from the Bible and from the model of Apostolic Christianity. Christianity had become obscured in the Old World, but it would be restored in the New World with the creation of a new America-based church.

Sidney Rigdon had been a Restorationist preacher, working hard to create this new church, until he took all of this much, much further, becoming one of the original Mormons and perhaps its first theologian. Instead of restoring Christianity to a more primitive ideal, he would promote a new kind of Christianity altogether, one so different from that of all other churches that it would constitute a different religion altogether. This new faith would be distinctly American, not only in its allegiance but in its claim that Jesus Christ appeared to ancient Israelites on American soil. No longer would Rigdon preach the Restorationist goal of returning to the model of the apostles. His new faith would have new apostles. Going beyond no creed but the Bible, Rigdon would find—or, if this book is correct, would devise—a new Bible.

To read The Spalding Enigma is to join the researchers as they dig through dusty archives, peruse newspapers from two centuries ago, pore over yellowed letters written by people long dead, and, in so doing, reconstruct the past. Historical scholarship is like detective work. It has to do with assembling clues, sifting evidence, weighing competing explanations, and coming to conclusions. Each fact recovered is a piece of a larger puzzle. The historian or detective must assemble all of these pieces, all of these facts, so that they fit with each other and come together to form a larger picture.

To be sure, this processing of evidence requires interpretation and logical analysis, so different researchers might arrive at different inferences. But historical research operates in the realm of facts, not opinions; the goal is not formulating subjective positions but finding objective truth. The authors of The Spalding Enigma take the readers along with them in this search for truth. Laying out their evidence in such detail allows us readers to make our own inferences and draw our own conclusions.

At any rate, all agree that uncovering the Book of Mormon takes digging. Joseph Smith dug into a mound in Western New York and claimed to have unearthed a set of golden plates. The authors of The Spalding Enigma dig into the historical record and claim to have unearthed a very different kind of fabrication.

Preface

The past can never be empirically proved, it can only be reconstructed.

- Bart D. Ehrman

Imagine it is evening and you are standing on the bank of a wide river. Being familiar with the area, you know there is a large house located some distance away on the other side of the water, even though you cannot see it due to intervening foliage. When you look in the direction where you know that house is located, you see a bright glow on the horizon and a large pall of smoke rising. Even though you cannot get to the house because there is a river between you and it, you recognize there are two reasonable probabilities that would explain what you are seeing: either the house is on fire, or its owner is burning a large heap of trash in his yard. The probability that you are seeing a house on fire and not just a pile of burning trash increases with the brightness of the glow and the size of the plume of smoke.

So it is with the hypothesis presented in this book regarding the historical mystery we have elected to call the Spalding Enigma. We do not claim to have solved the mystery; all we have done is to present a viable solution which is fully consistent will all of the available evidence and therefore constitutes the best explanation, even though it is not necessarily the only explanation. Although our view of the actual events is obscured by the fact that our vantage point lies two centuries distant from the fire and there is a river of time in-between, we are nonetheless able to see an extremely bright glow on the horizon and a huge pall of smoke rising above it. Given what we can see therefore, the most reasonable, the most logical, indeed the most obvious conclusion is that the bright glow and the cloud of smoke are from a burning house and not a heap of trash.

The historical evidence we have presented in this volume might therefore be likened to the bright glow and the distant pall of smoke. Most readers will probably find it sufficient to warrant the explanation we have suggested, while others, unwilling to concede the destruction of a beautiful house without more convincing proof, will continue to believe (or hope) that the evidence of fire has been greatly exaggerated.

More than a dozen years have passed since the predecessor to this volume, Who Really Wrote The Book of Mormon? – The Spalding Enigma, was published in 2005. Afterwards, through on-going research, the authors continued to accumulate new material until, at last, it is possible to bring forth this fully revised, expanded, corrected, and updated edition that you are now reading. This is not merely an old work in new clothes; this is a new work clothed in old finery and settled comfortably in newly refurbished rooms.

As new information came to light over the years, it inevitably brought with it new insights and new perspectives. Naturally it goes without saying that some of these have necessitated the revisions of old hypotheses in order to avoid conflicts and promote consistency.

Although the authors have made every effort to present the material in this volume as accurately and completely as possible, it is inevitable in a work of this size that some errors will occur. It is also inevitable that these will be eagerly sought out by critics and offered to the public as proof that the entire work is flawed. No doubt the motives of the authors themselves will also be questioned, based upon the ancient practice of taking the messengers to task when one is unable to digest the message itself. Whichever the case, the reader is urged to consider critical comments about this volume and its authors in a skeptical light and, always taking their source and the motivation behind them into account, to weigh them carefully against the evidence presented herein.

The issue here is not the writers, nor is it the many millions of good, industrious, and productive people for whom faith in Joseph Smith and his Church is an ongoing way of life. We are dealing with history here, not religion. Our concern is not dogma, but rather about stitching together past events, and in so doing, making a scholarly effort to place them into a reasonable perspective so they may be better understood by those of us whose lives are half-a-dozen or more generations removed from the events themselves. Under the best circumstances, reconstructing history is not easy. It becomes vastly more difficult when those who played key roles in important events have actively sought to conceal the truth from posterity.

Naturally, there will be some who claim that much of this work goes beyond the available documents -- a fatal flaw in historical texts according to some writers, as exemplified by Barbara Tuchman in Practicing History, (NY: Knopf, 1981), 18. While such criticism is no doubt valid under ideal circum-stances, there are certain occasions -- the early life of Oliver Cowdery, for example -- when the available documentation is so sparse that stitchometry and logical deduction are often the only recourse. Consider, for instance, the question of how and where Oliver obtained enough training to be considered a journeyman printer. Although everyone accepts the fact that he was well versed in the art by the time he arrived at the newly established Mormon colony at Kirtland, Ohio in 1831, not a single piece of documentation has yet been uncovered that unequivocally reveals the source of his proficiency. The logical conclusion voiced herein, that his cousin, Benjamin Franklin Cowdery, was most likely the one responsible, came only after a long and tedious process of collecting disparate pieces of information, then carefully eliminating possibilities. The same process eventually led to the determination that Solomon Spalding's Manuscript Story - Conneaut Creek and his A Manuscript Found must have been two different compositions.

Certainly speculation and conjecture do not constitute history in and of themselves. Yet no one can doubt their effectiveness in stimulating the research necessary to transform today's conjecture into tomorrow's reality or, alternatively, to consign it to history's dust bin. With the publication of this volume, much new ground has been broken. Although much work remains to be done, everything presented in this volume deserves to be carefully considered. In the words of Prof. Bart D. Ehrman of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, The past can never be empirically proved, it can only be reconstructed.

To those who will acknowledge that we have presented much new information, but with a distinctly anti-Mormon tone, let it be said that we are not anti-anything -- we are pro-history. Our purpose is to stimulate further inquiry into a subject that has long cried out for attention. As such, this work should be considered a beginning, not an end; and even devout Mormons in search of the truth should welcome it.

The Spalding theory for The Book of Mormon’s authorship did not begin as a conjectural hypothesis, but rather as the positive assertions of some of Solomon Spalding’s old associates, who recognized that the Saints’ new scriptures resembled some of Spalding’s unpublished fictional writings.

- Dale R. Broadhurst, historian

Interpretation of Frequently Used Terms

In addition, many of the quotations which appear in this volume incorporate nineteenth century words or phrases which are now archaic or obsolete. In such cases, every effort has been made to inform the reader of their intended meaning in modern terminology.

Dramatis Personae

Short Biographies of the Major Characters in the Enigma

Solomon Spalding, M.A. (1761-1816)

A Revolutionary War veteran, ex-preacher, small-time land speculator and inn-keeper who, in 1812, began to compose a novel entitled A Manuscript Found, but died before he could arrange for it to be published.



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Joseph Smith, Jr. (1805-1844)

A believer in things esoteric and occult whose youthful activities led to his arrest and conviction as a con-artist in 1826 and who was widely regarded by his neighbors as a person of ill-repute. In 1827 he claimed to have been contacted by an angel named Moroni who allegedly provided him with plates of gold upon which the text of The Book of Mormon was supposedly inscribed in hieroglyphics. In 1830, he, along with a number of family members and a few close associates, founded a new religious movement which would ultimately become known as Mormonism.



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Rev. Sidney Rigdon (1793-1876)

A controversial renegade Baptist clergyman who preached throughout western Pennsylvania and northeastern Ohio. In 1814, he quietly borrowed Spalding’s A Manuscript Found from the Pittsburgh publisher to whom Spalding had entrusted it, and surreptitiously made a copy of it. In 1826 he provided that copy to Oliver Cowdery and Joseph Smith but remained under cover during the process of coverting Spalding’s manuscript into The Book of Mormon. In 1830 he openly joined the Mormons and quickly became one of the leaders of the new religion.



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Oliver Cowdery (1806-1850)

A cousin of Joseph Smith who, in his youth, was an itinerant peddler of pamphlets and scribal services throughout western New York as well as a dabbler in the art of printing. In 1826, while visiting Ohio, he obtained a copy of Spalding’s A Manuscript Found from Sidney Rigdon and he, Rigdon, and Smith became partners in a venture to rewrite the manuscript and publish it as The Book of Mormon. In 1830, he became co-founder and Second Elder of the Mormon movement which eventually evolved into today’s Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.



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Rev. Robert Patterson, Sr. (1773-1854)

A pioneer Presbyterian minister who, in 1812, joined with his brother Joseph to form the Pittsburgh printing and publishing establishment of R & J Patterson. It was there that Solomon Spalding took his novel, A Manuscript Found, in hopes of having it published.

Jonathan H. Lambdin (1798-1825)

In 1812, at the age of fourteen, he became a clerk in the R & J Patterson establishment. While there, he met and was befriended by Sidney Rigdon and almost certainly (although perhaps innocently) assisted Rigdon in obtaining and copying Spalding’s manuscript.

Eber D. Howe (1798-1885)

A prominent editor, printer, and newspaper publisher from Painesville, Ohio, who became one of the earliest and most vocal critics of Mormonism. In 1834, he published Mormonism Unvailed, in which he presented a body of evidence asserting that The Book of Mormon had been derived from Solomon Spalding’s unpublished novel A Manuscript Found.



image-5.png

Doctor Philastus Hurlbut (1809-1883)

After joining the Mormons in Ohio in the spring of 1833, Hurlbut was dispatched on a missionary journey to northeastern Ohio and northwestern Pennsylvania. There he encountered some of Solomon Spalding’s former friends and neighbors who informed him that The Book of Mormon was actually Spalding’s old novel A Manuscript Found, with which they were familiar because Spalding, who had lived at Conneaut, Ohio, before moving to Pittsburgh, had shared portions of it with them while writing it. This discovery soon led to Hurlbut’s leaving Mormonism and embarking on an extensive investigation aimed at discovering and exposing the real origin of The Book of Mormon. In early 1834, he turned his findings over to Eber Howe, who published them later that same year in his book Mormonism Unvailed.



/Users/aaronsimms/Documents/Simms/St. Polycarp Publishing House/Authors/Spalding/Cover/source images/Hurlbut-MS-Story-inscription-BW.jpg

David Whitmer (1805-1888)

A friend of Oliver Cowdery who became one of the earliest adherents to Mormonism and one of the so-called Three Witnesses (along with Cowdery and Martin Harris, below) to the authenticity of The Book of Mormon.

Martin Harris (1782-1875)

A prosperous, but gullible, farmer whose supreme credulity led him inextricably into Joseph Smith’s orbit until he was finally conned into financing the printing of The Book of Mormon. Eventually fleeced of his wealth, he was dumped by Smith in Ohio where he lived in virtual poverty for many years until, in extreme old age, he was resurrected to prominence by Brigham Young and moved to Utah, where he died.

Dr. Warren Cowdery, MD (1788-1851)

Oliver Cowdery’s eldest brother, with whom he kept in close contact for the rest of his life. Dr. Cowdery began to practive medicine in western New York in 1816. The records of his medical practice as well as his correspondence with his brother have offered valuable contributions to this volume.

Benjamin Franklin Cowdery (1790-1867)

A cousin of Oliver Cowdery and one of western New York’s pioneer printers and editors. It was he who, between 1822 and 1828, taught Oliver much of what he knew about printing,

William Morgan (1774-1826?)

A shady and mysterious character who appeared in Rochester, NY, in the early 1820s claiming to be a Freemason of advanced degree. In 1825, he and several associates entered into a clandestine partnership aimed at publishing a book which would expose the innermost secrets of the Masons. One of his erstwhile friends later stated that Morgan was a half-way convert of Joseph Smith, who had taught him how to interpret dreams and visions. He was also, for a time, affiliated with several Masonic lodges in the Rochester area, including one where Oliver Cowdery and his brother Warren were almost certainly members. Evidence points to Oliver having served as a personal scribe to Morgan while he was in the process of composing his book. In 1826, some loyal Masons got wind of Morgan’s plan to expose their secrets, which resulted in his mysterious kidnapping and disappearance known today as the Morgan Affair. One of those involved in Morgan’s disappearance was Orsamus Turner, who was later tried but not convicted.



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Orsamus Turner (1801-1855)

Another of western New York’s pioneer printers and editors, he first met Oliver Cowdery in 1822 and later published a lengthy and detailed account of his personal recollections concerning both Smith’s and Cowdery’s involvement in the forthcoming of The Book of Mormon and the founding of the Mormon religion. /Users/aaronsimms/Documents/Simms/St. Polycarp Publishing House/Authors/Spalding/Cover/source images/Turner-Orsamus-BW.jpg

Matilda Spalding McKinstry (1805-1891)

Solomon Spalding’s adopted daughter who was almost certainly the illegitimate child of Mrs. Spalding’s brother. Mrs. McKinstry’s personal recollections concerning her father and his manuscript comprise an invaluable part of the historical record with respect to the Spalding Enigma.

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Judge Aron Wright (1776?-1853)

Judge Wright was among Solomon Spalding’s neighbors at Conneaut, Ohio, during the time he was composing A Manuscript Found. His invaluable recollections survive in the form of two written statements made in 1833.

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Introduction

So long as a mystery hangs over the origin of The Book of Mormon, so long will the name of Solomon Spalding be associated with a creed which was formulated years after his death, and with a church of which he had never heard.

- James Harrison Kennedy (1888) [1]

Ask any practicing member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (the Mormons) if they are aware of the mystery which underlies the origin of their sacred text, The Book of Mormon, and you will be met with a bland stare and a gratuitous, knowing half-smile which tells you at once that the person you have just spoken to knows you are not one of his brethren. If fortune then smiles upon you and you are granted the courtesy of a reply, it will inevitably be along the lines of, "What mystery? There is no mystery. We know where The Book of Mormon came from. It was given to the Prophet Joseph Smith, Jr. by an angel in 1827 on Plates of gold, and the Prophet was then given the power to translate them by miraculous means. If you pursue the point by daring to ask what would prompt anyone to believe that such a thing could be true, the reply will be, I know it in my heart to be true." And so it is with true believers of all religions, everywhere.

One of the richest, most influential, and fastest growing religious organizations in the world is the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, with headquarters in Salt Lake City, Utah. The Church (as Mormons often refer to themselves) is renowned for its aggressive missionary activities, its virtual stranglehold on Utah politics, and its long history of shrewd financial dealings that have made it a force to be reckoned with. However, few are aware of a fascinating body of evidence that, in spite of persistent efforts to deny or dismiss it, has continued to accumulate to such proportion that it now poses a significant challenge to history itself. At stake is nothing less than the Church’s most sacred text, The Book of Mormon. At issue is whether this long-revered book is actually a valuable, historical record of pre-Columbian North America, or a deception of the first order, perpetrated upon the gullible and the credulous by the very founder of the Church himself, the Prophet Joseph Smith.

Some of this evidence has been previously published, only to be met with a wall of denial from loyal and often eloquent Mormon advocates. However, upon being integrated with certain recent discoveries, a case of such overwhelming significance emerges that continuing to ignore it would constitute an historical injustice. The record speaks for itself. The purpose of this volume is only to present the facts in a form easily understood and assimilated by anyone possessed of an open mind and the curiosity to read on.

This is not a religious book; it is a book about a religious book. There are no religious arguments here, no dogmatic pronouncements from on high, and no efforts to discredit the truly humane works of the Mormon faith or its people. What follows is merely a carefully researched critical examination of the historical record laid bare for all to see. Indeed, perhaps the matter and the challenge surrounding The Book of Mormon were best stated by one of Mormonism’s founding fathers, Elder Orson Pratt, who, as one of the original Twelve, made the following astute observation just two decades after the Church was founded:

This book must be either true or false. If true, it is one of the most important messages ever sent from God.... if false, it is one of the most cunning, wicked, bold, deep-laid impositions ever palmed upon the world, calculated to deceive and ruin millions.... The nature of the message in The Book of Mormon is such that, if true, no one can possibly be saved and reject it; if false, no one can possibly be saved and receive it.... If, after rigid examination, it be found an imposition, it should be extensively published to the world as such; the evidences and arguments on which the imposture was detected, should be clearly and logically stated, that those who have been sincerely yet unfortunately deceived, may perceive the nature of the deception, and be reclaimed, and that those who continue to publish the delusion, may be exposed and silenced, not by physical force, neither by persecutions, bare assertions, nor ridicule, but by strong and powerful arguments.... But on the other hand, if investigations should prove The Book of Mormon true... the American and English nations should utterly reject both the Popish [i.e. Roman Catholic] and Protestant ministry, together with all the churches which have been built up by them or that have sprung from them, as being entirely destitute of authority. [2]

With the Latter-day Saints themselves having pointed the way, it remains only to examine the evidence and see where it will lead.

***

Endnotes for the Introduction

(1) James Harrison Kennedy, Early Days of Mormonism (NY: Charles Scribners & Sons, 1888), 265.

(2) Orson Pratt, Works: Divine Authenticity of The Book of Mormon (Liverpool, England, 1851), 1-2. Mormon journalist, poet, and musician William Wines Phelps once referred to the studious Pratt as the Gauge of Philosophy.

1 Genesis

It is only the densely ignorant, the totally depraved, and clergymen of different denominations afflicted with anti-Mormon rabies, who still use the Spaulding theory to account for the origin of The Book of Mormon.

- Salt Lake City Deseret Evening News, (14 May 1901). [1]

The Holy Bible speaks of the Hebrews as a people divided into twelve tribes, yet today it is generally understood that modern Israel is descended from only two tribes. The fate of the other ten lost tribes has long been the subject of myth and controversy.

According to traditional accounts promulgated by the Church of Jesus Christ of latter-day Saints (LDS), [2] the process that led to the publication of The Book of Mormon began in 1823, when the angel Moroni allegedly visited eighteen year-old church founder Joseph Smith, and explained to him that the North American Indians were descendants of the House of Israel. During this experience, Smith was informed that several groups of Israelites had migrated to North America many centuries before, and a sacred record of their ancient wanderings had been preserved and lay hidden in a cave beneath a small hill near Palmyra, New York, about three miles from Smith’s home.

Finally, in 1827, after repeated communications with his angel, Joseph Smith claimed to have uncovered these records that, he said, were engraved upon plates having the appearance of gold. These plates (or sheets) were about as thick as heavy-duty aluminum foil, measured approximately eight inches long by seven inches wide, were covered on both sides with engravings similar to Egyptian hieroglyphics, and were bound together at one edge by three rings. This Golden Bible supposedly measured nearly six inches in thickness, and was accompanied by a strange instrument consisting of a breastplate and two transparent stones set in the rims of a bow, like the lenses in a pair of old-fashioned spectacles. Although said by some to be largely uneducated, Joseph Smith was enabled by the use of this device, which he later claimed was the biblical Urim and Thummim, [3] to translate the hieroglyphics on the plates. He reportedly read them aloud, either from a place of concealment behind a curtain, or by consulting a magical stone placed in his hat, while various amanuenses (or scribes) carefully took down his words. When the process was complete, Smith supposedly returned the plates and the accom-panying translator device to the care of their guardian angel. Naturally, no one has seen them since; and, as it turns out, no one really saw them then either, except with spiritual eyes -- a point much debated by various writers over the years.

According to the story written on the plates, there were three separate migrations of Israelites. The first was a tribe known as the Jaredites, who followed their leader from the Tower of Babel and founded a flourishing nation in North America, only to be annihilated by civil war about 590 BCE.

Next to come were the Nephites, following their chief, Nephi, who led them to North America about the same time the Jaredites were busy exterminating themselves elsewhere on the continent. After the death of Nephi’s father, Lehi, they split into two factions, one following Nephi, and the other following his brother Laman (the Lamanites).

The third migration left Jerusalem eleven years after the Nephites and included Mulek, youngest son of King Zedekiah of Judah. [4] These Mulekites eventually merged with the Nephites, who went on to populate most of North America and to construct great cities. Meanwhile, the Lamanites fell into displeasure with God and were thus cursed with dark skin and nomadic ways. It was from their fallen ways that the American Indian tribes were said to have come into being.

In the end, the Lamanites warred against the Nephites and destroyed them in a great battle near a small hill now called Cumorah some 1,100 years before Columbus rediscovered the continent. It was during this time that the angel Moroni, in his earthly incarnation, transcribed their history onto the golden tablets that were later found by Joseph Smith and published by him in 1830 as The Book of Mormon.

This entire narration makes for an exceedingly complex tale, and Mormon advocates have long argued that Joseph Smith, with his lack of formal education, could not possibly have created The Book of Mormon himself -- strengthening the case for the book’s divine origin. In a broader sense, however, such reasoning has little academic value because it seeks to exclude the very real possibility that Smith did not create this story, but merely adapted it, with the help of a few close associates, from an entirely fictional manuscript written by someone else.

All things considered, the real source of this much revered volume does not seem to have been the angel Moroni at all, but rather an obscure would-be author named Solomon Spalding, a well-educated but unfortunate former minister who, during extended periods of ill health, spent the last few years of his life composing historical fantasies.

Aside from the fact that Solomon Spalding, is almost certainly the real author of The Book of Mormon, his life offers little other claim to fame. He was born of old New England stock at Ashford, East Ashford Society, Connecticut, on February 20, 1761, and died on October 20, 1816, in Amity, Washington county, Pennsylvania, at age fifty-five. [5] Spalding was educated at the Plainfield Academy and later served in the Revolutionary army, entering service on January 8, 1778, as a private in Colonel Obadiah Johnson’s Regiment. [6] Afterward, Spalding read law with Judge Zephaniah Swift of Windham, Connecticut, but on change of spirit, sought the ministry and entered the sophomore class at Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, in 1782 to obtain a classical education.

Upon being awarded a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1785, Spalding studied divinity and was licensed to preach by the Windham Congregationalist Association on October 9, 1787. [7] About this time, probably in the spring of 1788, he applied for and was awarded a Master of Arts degree. [8] On February 21, 1795, he married Matilda D. Sabin (or Mathilda D. Sabine) of nearby Pomfret, Connecticut, [9] and soon moved to Cherry Valley, New York to join one of his younger brothers, Josiah, in the operation of a general store. During the first year, the business was left mostly to the care of his brother while Spalding served the local Presbyterian church as a supply pastor and became the first principal of the reestablished Cherry Valley Academy (originally founded in 1742), a school of some sixty Students (a remarkably large number for those times) and the first of its kind west of Schenectady. [10] After only one year, for reasons unknown but possibly owing to continuing ill health, he was replaced in both positions by the renowned Rev. Eliphalet Nott, and took up a more active, if sedentary, role in the mercantile business. In 1798 Spalding was appointed a justice of the peace for Cherry Valley, a position he probably gave up a year later when he and his brother moved the store about sixteen miles west to Richfield. [11] By all appearances, it was in the spring of 1803 that the two brothers, Solomon and Josiah, along with another younger brother, John, began purchasing large tracts of frontier land in western New York, northwestern Pennsylvania, and the Western Reserve of northeastern Ohio for investment purposes, hoping to make a financial killing by parceling it out, mostly on credit, to settlers.

The area known as the Western Reserve was bestowed upon Connecticut Colony in 1662 by King Charles II. Originally known as New Connecticut or The Connecticut Western Reserve, it comprised some 4 million acres of what is now Northeastern Ohio. Although the initial grant extended to the Pacific Ocean, Connecticut ceded all claims to charter lands west of the Reserve itself to the U.S. government in 1786. In May 1801, jurisdictional claim to the remaining 4 million acres was surrendered, with the Connecticut Land Co., a private entity, purchasing virtually the entire package. [12] Settlement was encouraged and land was sold for as little as three acres per dollar. About March of 1803, Solomon Spalding somehow managed to enter into a partnership with Gideon Granger, Jr., soon to be Thomas Jefferson’s Postmaster General, who, along with his partner, Oliver Phelps, were among the original grantees of the Connecticut Land Co. Many of the first settlers on the new land were from Connecticut. In Spalding’s case, his politically savvy investment-motivated partner gives every appearance of having used him as a convenient, if unwitting, means of furthering his own selfish ends. Once this usefulness had ended, Granger dumped Spalding and left him holding a very large bag which ultimately destroyed him.



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Gideon Granger, Jr.

(1767-1822)

In any case, it was as part of this process that Solomon Spalding went to Salem (sometimes called New Salem and, after 1834, known as Conneaut), Ohio, during the summer and autumn of 1803 in order to survey lots, complete legal arrangements for their sale, and begin planning the eventual construction of a forge at the mouth of Conneaut Creek (a project that he didn’t actually begin until the fall of 1809 and which ostensibly came to a sudden halt not long afterwards when he suffered a serious rupture caused by heavy lifting). His land dealings in that place having been concluded for the moment, Spalding returned to New York where he and Josiah continued their real estate speculations. Land transaction records indicate that he returned to Salem again for a few months in 1806.

Things were uneventful until the fall of 1809, when Solomon Spalding suffered a series of reversals caused by a political dispute between Pennsylvania and New York over boundary lines. This situation, coupled with the failure of some of his Ohio tenants to make timely payments, prompted Spalding to move his family to Conneaut in order to try to make the best of a bad situation. There, following a short stay with Oliver Smith’s family (apparently no relation to Joseph), Spalding began to reconstruct the small iron forge he had begun six years earlier. Eventually he took on a partner, Henry Lake, and the two started operations in March, 1811. [13] This was described as a long, low, shanty-like building of boards. In one end was his forge, and in the other he lived with his wife and kept a kind of grocery store. [14] Shortly thereafter, the Spaldings began construction of a New England-style log cabin. The coming of the War of 1812, however, seriously disrupted their already precarious situation and caused great losses. [15] The land involved in their speculation had been bought on credit and was being sold on credit, so the success of the Spaldings’ venture depended upon both the prompt sale of parcels to new settlers and the prompt payment of mortgages by purchasers, most of whom were pioneer farmers whose income was derived principally from crops, livestock, and related sources. Although a risky business, it may well have succeeded had not the war derailed the process by dissuading new settlers from purchasing land in a war zone, and by interfering with the ability of those already there to make scheduled payments because of the destruction or neglect of crops and livestock. Thus the bubble burst, leaving Solomon Spalding with nothing when the time came for him to satisfy his own creditors, to whom he now owed several thousand dollars. When his brother Josiah visited him at about this time, he "found him in poor health and low spirits, writing a work of fiction, suggested by the opening of [an Indian burial] mound, in which were discovered human bones and some relicks [sic] indicative of a former civilized race. He entitled his work A Manuscript Found, and in it imagined the fortunes of the extinct people." [16] It was because of deteriorating health that Spalding began to look to writing as a possible way of producing the income needed to cover his debts and provide for his family. Thus what had started as a hobby to pass the time would soon be transformed into the last vain hope of a dying man.



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Wedding Silhouettes of Solomon Spalding and his wife Matilda Sabin(e) Spalding - 1795

Solomon Spalding was described by one who knew him as being about six feet high, of rather slender build, with a dark complexion, black eyes, black hair, rather slow of speech, never trifling, pleasant in conversation, but seldom laughing aloud. His deportment was grave and dignified in society, and he was much respected by those of his acquaintance. [17] By the early autumn of 1812, he and his family had settled into a small suite of cheap rooms in Pittsburgh’s tawdry Virgin Alley just off Market Square where, to try to make ends meet, he reportedly sold pictures while Mrs. Spalding sewed clothing for soldiers. It was there that A Manuscript Found evolved into a lengthy romantic yarn, written in florid, semi-biblical English, similar to that found in the King James Bible. [18] According to those familiar with it, the book was based upon the idea that the North American Indians were descendants of the legendary Ten Lost Tribes of Israel. It gave an imaginary account of their journey from Jerusalem by land and sea until they arrived in America under command of ‘Nephi’ and ‘Lehi,’ and it made mention of a tribe of people called ‘the Lamanites.’ Two of the principal characters in the book were ‘Mormon’ and his son ‘Moroni.’ [19]

In addition, A Manuscript Found contained so many recurrences of the phrase And it came to pass that some of Spalding’s friends and neighbors lovingly referred to him as Old Come to Pass. [20] Even a cursory examination of The Book of Mormon’s text (as originally published in the 1830 edition -- not the more recent official revisions) shows an inordinate number of verses either beginning with or containing the phrase and it came to pass or some variant of it -- more than fifteen times as many as can be found in the entire 1611 King James Bible. [21]

Shortly after his move to Pittsburgh, Solomon Spalding offered A Manuscript Found to the book-selling and publishing firm of R. & J. Patterson. However, Spalding, who had found the living in Pittsburgh to be expensive and who had moved to the village of Amity in nearby Washington county about 1814 in order to save money, was never able to complete the necessary arrangements for publication, and a copy of A Manuscript Found remained on a shelf in the Pattersons’ print shop for an indeterminate period.

While there, the manuscript reportedly came to the attention of Sidney Rigdon, a young man from nearby St. Clair township who frequented Pittsburgh’s booksellers and print shops, and who would later become pastor of the First Baptist Church of Pittsburgh. During this time, it is asserted that Rigdon had free access to A Manuscript Found, took a great interest in it, and either stole it outright or surreptitiously borrowed it in order to make a copy for his own use.

Sidney Rigdon subsequently moved to Ohio, where he became a well-known fiery and flamboyant circuit-riding preacher whose territory covered much of Ohio’s Western Reserve country and spilled over into western Pennsylvania. It was during, this time, several years before the founding of the Mormon Church, that it is believed Rigdon became acquainted with Joseph Smith and formed the unusual partnership that would later grow into a new religion.



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Rev. Sidney Rigdon

(1793-1876)

LDS arguments against all of this are best summed up in the words of Mormon writer Sidney B. Sperry, who challenges, "We occasionally hear of some critic who claims that The Book of Mormon is based, at least in part, on... [a] Spaulding manuscript... now lost.... Let them first produce the manuscript in question; then we shall be glad to consider their claims." [23] Of course, it is only fair that this same argument should apply equally to Joseph Smith’s claimed Plates of Gold, evidence for the existence of which amounts to considerably less than what has been uncovered in support of the Spalding Enigma. This, however, typifies a problem of scholarship that has plagued the historical controversy surrounding the origin of The Book of Mormon from the very beginning -- the regrettable tendency of many Mormon advocates to subject unfavorable evidence to a more rigid academic standard than is applied to similar pro-Mormon material. At the same time, the credibility of pro-Mormon witnesses is often automatically assumed while that of non-Mormons (or gentiles) is routinely downplayed or dismissed because, as the argument usually goes, such people must have axes to grind. Unfortunately, many advocates of Mormonism fail to draw a distinction between non-Mormon and anti-Mormon.

A prime example of this double standard appears in Leonard J. Arrington and Davis Bitton, The Mormon Experience: A History of the Latter-day Saints (New York: Knopf, 1979), 11:

Assertions that the entire Smith family was lazy, openly dishonest, and vicious seem malicious in view of the fact that between 1823 and 1827 the Smiths cleared large portions of their farm, hired out as day laborers to various neighbors, and somehow managed to support themselves. When a difficulty about the title of the farm arose in 1825, a Mr. Robinson obtained some sixty signatures attesting to the family’s good character and industry.

What the casual reader is not told is that the only source for this information is Joseph Smith’s mother, Lucy Mack Smith; that she did not tell it until twenty years after the fact; that no one has ever produced or even claimed to have seen the document in question; and that history has never identified the solicitous Mr. Robinson. Also not mentioned is the fact that in all of the many dozens of interviews and statements given by Palmyra area residents on the subject of Mormonism and the Smith family since 1831, not one of them makes any reference to this event or to having signed the document Joseph’s mother speaks of.

A somewhat earlier example of this sort of bias can be found in a comment written by Mormon historian Brigham Henry Roberts (1857-1933) in reply to a lengthy pro-Spalding treatise published by Theodore Schroeder:

All history, and the well-known facts respecting human nature, warrant the conclusion that under such circumstances sectaries in support of their orthodoxy, and by way of reprisal for wrongs, real or imaginary, will stoop to the invention of adverse testimony; to misrepresentation; to the creation of a case, or a hurtful theory; will distort facts, in a word, will bear false witness. Such false or incompetent witnesses I declare those parties to be on whom Mr. Schroeder relies for the support of his case. [24]

In other words, since Schroeder’s witnesses weren’t Mormons, they must all have been part of a vast anti-Mormon conspiracy to invent evidence against the Church in order to bring about its downfall. This is hardly the sort of academic approach one would expect from any respectable historian. Naturally, the same thinking should apply equally in reverse, for if pro-Mormon church histories are not the product of sectarians supporting their orthodoxy, then what are they? Yet in reality, Mormon advocates seldom embrace such a balanced approach. Perhaps this explains why the Church often favors a you must believe this in your heart or an ask God to show you this is true strategy with potential converts. And surely it explains why Mormon faithful are repeatedly instructed to resist exposure to material which is considered anti-Mormon, lest they allow themselves to be led astray by it.

At this point, it should be noted that there is a distinct difference between historical evidence which is truly anti-Mormon, and that which originates with sources who are merely non-Mormon. In this light, most sources cited herein must be considered non-Mormon simply because no evidence exists that would tie them to any consistent pattern of anti-Mormon behavior. In essence, these are generally disinterested non-Mormon citizens whose recollections, by one means or another, have been carefully preserved for posterity. As such, just as in any other historical controversy, each piece of testimony deserves to be carefully weighed and considered upon its own merits.

Once the basic facts of the Spalding Enigma have been set forth, it becomes clear that the issue is whether evidence supporting a conspiracy by Joseph Smith and others to transform Solomon Spalding’s manuscript into The Book of Mormon is strong enough to overcome the inevitable question of reasonable doubt. With that in mind, let us begin by noting that present Mormon objections to the Spalding Enigma can be effectively reduced to a list of four basic points:

(1) The origin of the so-called Spalding Enigma can be traced to the vindictive designs of one Doctor Philastus Hurlbut, who engineered the entire myth as part of a personal vendetta against the Mormons for their having excommunicated him in 1833. Indeed, all of the statements of non-Mormon witnesses collected by Hurlbut and others like him between approximately 1830 and 1900 are unacceptable as evidence because of their anti-Mormon bias.

(2) Sidney Rigdon was neither employed by nor otherwise connected with any print shop in Pittsburgh. In fact, no evidence exists to indicate he was ever in Pittsburgh prior to his having moved there in 1822, six years after Spalding’s death (though his son, John Wycliffe Rigdon, does admit his father visited the city as early as 1818). Moreover, Sidney Rigdon denied any involvement in the Spalding Enigma in a strongly worded letter written in May 1839, in reply to allegations made by Spalding’s widow.

(3) Although The Book of Mormon was published in March 1830, no credible evidence exists to show that Joseph Smith and Sidney Rigdon had dealings with each other prior to December of that year, thus ruling out all possibility that Rigdon could have supplied Smith with the text for that work.

(4) Finally, comparisons of The Book of Mormon to an earlier Solomon Spalding work called Manuscript Story - Conneaut Creek, a copy of which was recovered in 1833 from an old trunk in Hartwick, New York, show no similarities whatsoever between the two works. In addition, Mormon advocates have consistently argued that no credible evidence exists to suggest Spalding ever wrote anything else, that Manuscript Story - Conneaut Creek and A Manuscript Found are one and the same, and that this alone is sufficient to dispel the Spalding Enigma.

In order to properly present Solomon Spalding’s case, and to demonstrate that all of the above objections are historically deficient, it will be necessary to examine these points individually and to carefully consider the facts surrounding each of them.

According to the version of the Spalding story preferred by most Mormon advocates and a few non-Mormon writers who maintain that The Book of Mormon cannot have originated with Solomon Spalding, it all began with Doctor Philastus Hurlbut (Doctor was his given name, not an academic title) [25] who, having been excommunicated from the Latter-day Saints in June 1833 for alleged improprieties involving members of the opposite sex:

…took to lecturing against the Mormons, holding forth first at Springfield, Erie county, Penn., some distance east of Conneaut. Finally visiting the Jackson settlement... he learned, from one of the Jacksons, of Solomon Spaulding, and that he had written a story called Manuscript Found. Not that any of these persons, says my authority... "had the most distant idea that his (Spaulding’s) novel had ever been converted into The Book of Mormon; or that there was any connection between them.

It was the conception of Dr. Hurlburt [sic] that this Spaulding manuscript could be used in concocting a country theory for the origin of The Book of Mormon -- a long felt want, by the way, among those who opposed the book and the work growing out of it. With the information he had obtained in the Jackson Settlement, Hurlburt repairs to Kirtland [Ohio], holds a public meeting, at which there is great joy, and enthusiasm among the anti-Mormons in that