On the 27th of June 1844, Joseph Smith Jr the founder of the sect of Latter-Day Saints, and who claimed to have been divinely commissioned as a “Prophet, Seer, and Revelator,” was killed by a mob at the jail in Carthage, Hancock County, Illinois.
Born in the State of Vermont, reared in Western New York, residing three or four years in Ohio, about as long in Missouri, and over five years in Illinois, he had adopted a policy which made him inimical to the people everywhere, and finally brought him to a violent and bloody death. Parallels to this man’s remarkable career have been sought in history. It has been likened to that of Mahomet. When at Mecca, in Arabia, the great founder of Islamism began his eventful career, he was doubtless honest in his purposes, which were to reform and improve the idolatrous worship of his people. But he was an enthusiast and a fanatic. With an ardent temperament and a restless and uneasy spirit, he could not brook opposition. His efforts met first with neglect, then ridicule and contumely, and finally with resistance and violence. Friends and neighbors turned to enemies, and their opposition increased till he was compelled to fly from his native city to save his life. The vindictive persecution and violence to which he was subjected, changed the character of the man, and henceforth revenge and ambition be- came his ruling passions. But his career, in whatever light it may be regarded, was a most remarkable one. Living amongst the idolatries of the Pagan, Jewish, and Christian systems, in one of the darkest of the Dark Ages of the world, he built up a system, which, to say the least, was superior to, and an improvement upon, anything by which he was sur- rounded. His successes were unprecedented in the world’s history. During his own lifetime and that of his faithful friend and co-worker, Abou Bekir, his creed, through his zeal—aided by the sword and scimitar, potent agents in the work of propagandism in all ages—had become the recognized faith through all Arabia, and was fast undermining all the other systems about him. The curious career of the Prophet of Mormonism has sometimes been contrasted with that of this great leader. But the contrast affords but slight parallel. When “Joe Smith”—as the Mormon Prophet was always designated in his youth (a title which stuck to him through life) —began his career at Palmyra in the State of New York, his motives were not honest, nor was he prompted by either revenge or ambition. His untutored and feeble intellect had not yet grasped at anything beyond mere toying with mysterious things. It is evident that he had at first no higher purpose in view. He was one of those indolent and illiterate young men, too numerous in all communities, who hope to shun honest labor, and who have imbibed the pernicious doctrine embraced in the phrase: “The world owes me a living.” Any means that would enable him to obtain that living he was ready to employ. Hence, we find him at an early age, trying his skill at little tricks to impose on the credulity of his ignorant associates. As he grew in years, searching for lost treasure became one of his favorite employments; for was it not better, he reasoned, to obtain the golden thousands from the nooks and crevices of the earth, where Captain Kidd and the pirates and robbers had secreted them, and live in ease and idleness, than to obtain a small competency by the slow and uncertain processes of honest labor? And thus, he plodded on, till accident opened a new career for him. A petty theft, by himself or one of his co-workers, placed the Spalding “Manuscript Found ” in his hands; and then it was that the idea of a new sect, a new creed, a new and deeper play upon popular ignorance and credulity, and consequent power, and place, and fortune, were gradually developed and boldly and persistently and most wickedly carried for- ward—aided by confederates as bad as himself and with similar purposes in view. No; the character and aims of these two false prophets afford but slight parallel; in their successful career, a stronger resemblance is to be traced. had its origin and incipient growth in Western New York, where it attracted little attention beyond the ridicule of sensible people and the gaping wonder of a few seekers after the new and the marvelous—and it sought fresh fields. In Northern Ohio it gained strength by contact with the world; and there, too, its leaders made the discovery that the way to notoriety and success was to create opposition; and an aggressive policy was boldly adopted, and aggressive tenets engrafted into the creed. In North Missouri it in- creased greatly in strength; but in its violent contests with its neighbors and the authorities, it became dismembered and broken, and was finally violently expelled from the State. Poor, dis- heartened, and scattered—its prophet and some other leaders in prison—all of its members who could muster courage and means made their way eastward across the State to Illinois, where their forlorn condition attracted the sympathy- and aid of all classes of people. Settling in the latter State, at Commerce, in Hancock County, in time the same aggressive policy was pursued; and after eight years of arrogant pretension, active proselytism, and stupendous folly, it met the fate it had encountered in Missouri, together with the loss of its daring prophet and leader. Later, under an equally daring and more able successor, it sought isolation and a home among the nigged crags and mountains and fertile valleys of Utah—where it has for more than a third of a century increased in an astonishing degree, and developed into what it now is, an ugly and troublesome excrescence on the body politic, and a disgrace to the nation and to civilization. While the “Latter-Day Saints” remained in Ohio, Missouri, or Illinois, the Mormon Question ” was only one of local or State concern. But since they have withdrawn to the wilderness, and there within the territory and under the jurisdiction and flag of the United States, have assumed an in- dependent position and arrayed themselves in open hostility to the government, the matter takes a new shape. From a State problem it has advanced to a National one, and one that is daily becoming of greater magnitude, now seriously agitating the minds of the best statesmen of our country. It bids fair to overshadow all other social questions. It is therefore highly important and necessary that the reading public should be fully in- formed, not only as to what Mormonism now is, but made acquainted with the origin, history and development of this the most wicked and dangerous folly of the Nineteenth Century, and with the life, character, and purposes of its founders. Such is the task before us, and to which these efforts are directed. The term “Mormonism” is a coinage of the present century. It is derived from the name of one of the chief writers of the so-called Book of Mormon (though why after Mormon, rather than Nephi, Moroni, Alma, Enos, or Lehi, it would be hard to tell) —a silly and little worthy, but in the eyes of its deluded believers, the most sacred of all books. It is less interesting and far feebler than the Koran, the holy book of Islam. Its chief ingredients are ignorance and arrogance, and it abounds in blasphemy; it is full of falsehood, in- justice toward man and impiety toward God. To accept the claims and adopt the teachings of its chief adherents, is to eschew holiness and goodness, and to dethrone the Almighty.