The accepted theory of the origin of the "Book of Mormon" connects it with a manuscript written by Solomon Spaulding, purporting to set forth the origin and civilization of the American Indians, and to account for the ancient mounds and earthworks and other remains of the ancient inhabitants which are scattered over the land.

The first publication of this idea seems to have been made by the late E. D. Howe, of Painesville, in a volume published by himself at Painesville in 1834, and entitled "Mormonism Unveiled." He, with an associate, D. P. Hurlbut, of Conneaut, seems to have been the first to gather evidence on the subject from the original sources; and most later writers on Mormonism have depended essentially upon the material furnished by him. The theory of the connection of the "Book of Mormon" with Spaulding's manuscript has become traditional, and has found its way into all anti-Mormon literature and into the general cyclopædies, such as the Britannia, Chambers', Appleton's, McClintock & Strong's and probably others. Prof. George P. Fisher, in his work on general history, just published, adopts the theory.

The question whether or not the "Book of Mormon " is based upon a manuscript of Spaulding is intrinsically of little importance. It required only a very moderate degree of literary ability and invention to produce the book, and several of the original leaders of the fanaticism must have been adequate to the work. It is, perhaps, impossible at this day to prove or disprove the Spaulding theory.

The unquestionable facts bearing on the case are as follows:

Soloman Spaulding was born in Connecticut in 1761, graduated at Dartmouth College in 1785, was ordained to the ministry, and preached in New England a few years, taught an academy for a time in Cherry Valley, New York, or carried on mercantile business there and failed, and in 1809 removed to New Salem, now Conneaut, in Ohio, where in company with one Henry Lake he established an iron foundry. His business not prospering, he removed to Pittsburgh, or its vicinity, in 1812, and a year or two later, to Amity, Pennsylvania, where he died in 1816 at the age of fifty-five years. Spaulding had a literary tendency, and while living at Conneaut, he entertained himself with writing a story which purported to be an account of the original inhabitants of the country, their habits, customs and civilization, their migrations and their conflicts. From time to time, as his work went on, he would call in his neighbors and read to them portions of his manuscript, so that they became familiar with his undertaking. He talked with some of them about publishing his book, in the hope of retrieving his fortunes financially; and this appears to have been his purpose when he removed to Pittsburgh. There is evidence that he conferred with a printer, at Pittsburgh, by the name of Patterson, in reference to the publication, but the book never appeared.

Soon after the publication of the Mormon book in 1830, Mormon preachers appeared in considerable numbers in Northern Ohio, and attracted much attention in the neighborhood at Conneaut. At some of their gatherings where the new Bible was read, persons were present who had heard the Spaulding manuscript, and were struck with the resemblance between the two. Thus the opinion arose and was propagated that the Mormon book was written by Solomon Spaulding. It was the proper place for the testing of the theory. The fact that it obtained a foothold there affords a presumption in favor of the idea, and the testimony of parties on the ground, if fully trustworthy, establishes the fact beyond question. These testimonies were gathered in 1833, apparently with reference to their publication in Howe's book. As these are the entire basis of the theory, I will give from the book the essential portions of them, found on pages 278-87. The first is from the testimony of John Spaulding, the brother of Solomon:

In 1810 I removed to Ohio and found him (Solomon) engaged in building a forge. I made him a visit about three years after, and found that he had failed, and considerably involved in debt. He then told me he had been writing a book, which he intended to have printed, the avails of which he thought would enable him to pay all his debts. The book was entitled "The Manu. script Found," of which he read to me many passages. It was an historical romance of the first settlers of America, endeavoring to show that the American Indians are the descendants of the Jews, or the lost tribes. It gave a detailed account of their journey from Jerusalem, by land and sea, till they arrived in America, under the command of Nephi and Lehi. They afterwards had quarrels and contentions, and separated into two distinct nations, one of which he denominated Nephites and the other Lamanites. Cruel and bloody wars ensued, in which great multitudes were slain. They buried their dead in large heaps, which caused the mounds so common in this country. Their arts, sciences and civilization were brought into view, in order to account for all the curious antiquities found in various parts of North and South America. I have recently read the "Book of Mormon," and to my great surprise, I find nearly the same historical matter, names, etc., as they were in my brother's writings. I well remember that he wrote in the old style, and commenced about every sentence with "and it came to pass," or "now it came to pass," the same as in the "Book of Mormon," and according to the best of my recollection and belief, it is the same as my brother Solomon wrote, with the exception of the religious matter. By what means it has fallen into the hands of Joseph Smith, Jr., I am unable to determine.

Testimony of Martha, wife of John:

JOHN SPAULDING.

The lapse of tine which has intervened, prevents my recollecting but few of the leading incidents of his writings, but the names of Nephi and Lehi, are yet fresh in my memory, as being the principal heroes of his tale.

. . I have read the "Book of Mormon," which has brought fresh to my recollection the writing of Solomon Spaulding; and I have no manner of doubt that the historical part of it is the same that I read and heard read more than twenty years ago. The old obsolete style, and the phrases "and it came to pass, etc.," are the same.

MARTHA SPAULDING.

Testimony of Henry Lake, partner of S. Spaulding, Conneaut, September, 1833:

He (Spaulding) very frequently read to me from a manuscript which he was writing, which he entitled "The Manuscript Found," and which he represented as being found in this town. I spent many hours in hearing him read said writings, and became well acquainted with its contents. . . . This book represented the American Indians as the descendants of the lost tribes, gave an account of their leaving Jerusalem, their contentions and wars which were many and great. One time, when he was reading to me the tragic account of Laban, I pointed out to him what I considered an inconsistency which he promised to correct, but by referring to the "Book of Mormon," 1 find that it stands there just as he read it to me then. Some months ago I borrowed the "Golden Bible," put it into my pocket, carried it home and thought no more of it. About a week after, my wife found the book in my coat pocket as it hung up, and commenced reading it aloud as I lay upon the bed. She had not read twenty minutes till I was astonished to find the same passages in it that Spaulding had read to me more than twenty years before from his "Manuscript Found." I well recollect telling Mr. Spaulding that the so frequent use of the words "and it came to pass," "now it came to pase," rendered it ridiculous.

HENRY LAKE.

Testimony of Miller, an employe of Spaulding. Springfield, Pennsylvania, September, 1833:

While there I lodged in the family of Spaulding for several months. I was soon introduced to the manuscripts of Spaulding, and perused them as often as I had leasure. He had written two or three books or pamphlets on different subjects, but that which more particularly attracted my attention was one which he called the "Manuscript Found." From this he would frequently read some humorous passages to the company present. It purported to be the history of the first settlement of America before discovered by Columbus. He brought them off from Jerusalem under their leaders, detailing their travels by land and water, their manners, customs, laws, wars, etc... I have recently examined the "Book of Mormon," and find in it the writings of Solomon Spaulding, from beginning to end, but mixed up with scripture and other religious matter which I did not meet with in the "Manuscript Found." Many of the passages in the "Mormon Book" are verbatim from Spaulding, and others in part. The names of Nephi, Lehi, Moroni, and in fact all the principal names are brought fresh to my recollection by the "Gold Bible." JOHN N. MILLER.

Testimony of a neighbor, Aaron Wright:

When at his house one day he showed and read to me a history he was writing of the lost tribes of Israel, purporting that they were the first settlers of America, and that the Indians were their descendants. He traced their journey from Jerusalem to America, as it is given in the "Book of Mormon," excepting the religious matter. The historical part of the "Book of Mormon" I know to be the same as I read and heard read from the writings of Spaulding more than twenty years ago; the names, more especially, are the same without any alteration. In conclusion I will observe that the names of, and most of the historical part of the "Book of Mormon," were as familiar to me before I read it as most modern history.

AARON WRIGHT.

Testimony of O. Smith, a neighbor, with whom Spaulding boarded.

During the time he was at my house I read and heard read one hundred pages or more. Nephi and Lehi were by him represented as leading characters when they first started for America. Their main object was to escape the judgments which they supposed were coming upon the old world; but no religious matter was introduced, as I now recollect. This was the last I heard of Spaulding or his book until the "Book of Mormon came into the neighborhood. When I heard the historical part of it related, I at once said it was the writings of old Solomon Spaulding. Soon after, I obtained the book, and on reading it I found much of it the same as Spaulding had written more than twenty years before.

OLIVER SMITH.

Testimony of Nahum Howard. Conneaut, August, 1883: I first became acquainted with Solomon Spaulding in December, 1810. After that I frequently saw him at his house and also at my house. I once, in conversation with him, expressed a surprise at not having any account of the inhabitants once in this country who erected the old forts, mounds, etc. He then told me that he was writing a history of that race of people; and afterwards frequently showed me his writings, which I read. I have lately read the "Book of Mormon," and believe it to be the same as Spaulding wrote except the religious part.

Statement of Artemus Cunningham:

NAHUM HOWARD.

Before showing me his manuscripts he went into a verbal relation of its outlines, saying that it was a fabulous or romantic history of the first settlement of this country, and as it purported to have been a record found buried in the earth, or in a cave, he had adopted the ancient or Scripture style of writing. He then presented his manuscripts, when we sat down and spent a good share of the night in reading and conversing upon them. I well remember the name of Nephi, which appeared to be the principal hero of the story. The frequent repetition of the phrase, "I, Nephi," I recollect as distinctly as though it was yesterday, although the general features of the story have passed from my memory through the lapse of twenty-two years. The Mormon bible I have partially examined, and am fully of the opinion that Solomon Spaulding had written its outlines before he left Conneaut.

This testimony of Cunningham is without his signature, but is called his statement.

Of these eight witnesses, five distinctly state that the religious matter in the "Book of Mormon " was not contained in Spaulding's manuscript. The others state that the historical part of the "Book of Mormon" is the same as of Spaulding's "Manuscript Found."

Mr. Howe inquired of Mr. Patterson, the printer, at Pittsburgh, with whom it was represented that Spaulding conferred in reference to the publication of his manuscript, but Patterson had, at that time, no recollection of the subject, but in 1842, some eight years after the publication of Howe's book, Mr. Patterson signed a statement certifying that a gentleman had put into the hands of the foreman of his printing office," a manuscript of a singular work, chiefly in the style of our English translation of the Bible," that he (Patterson) read a few pages of it, but as the author could not furnish the means, the manuscript was not printed.

Mr. Howe sent a messenger, D. P. Hurlbut of Conneaut, to the widow of Solomon Spaulding (Mrs. Davison by a second marriage), who was then living with her daughter in Monson, Massachusetts, to ascertain farther about the manuscript and to procure it if it were still within reach. Mrs. Davison stated that her husband had a variety of manuscripts, one of which was entitled the "Manuscript Found," but of its contents she had no distinct remembrance; she thought it was once taken to Patterson's printing office in Pittsburgh, and whether it was ever returned to the house again she was quite uncertain. If it was returned, it must be with the other manuscripts in a trunk which she left in Otsego county, New York.

This was all that Mrs. D. knew of the manuscript in 1834, when Howe published his book; but in 1839, five years later, a statement was published in the Boston Recorder under her signature, in which she describes the manuscript very fully, states very definitely that Mr. Patterson took the manuscript, kept it a long time, was greatly pleased with it, and promised to publish it if Mr. Spaulding would make out a title page and preface, which Mr. S. refused to do. She further states that at her husband's death, the manuscript came into her possession and was carefully preserved. This seems to be a great enlargement of memory or of knowledge since 1834, and it is difficult to read the extended and elaborate statement without reaching the conclusion that Mrs. Spaulding-Davison had very little to do with it. Rev. Robert Patterson, son of Rev. Robert Patterson, the printer, now editor of the Presbyterian Banner of Pittsburgh, published some years since a paper on this question, and in quoting a paragraph from this statement of Mrs. SpauldingDavison, he says that it was made to Rev. D. R. Austin of Monson, Massachusetts, written down by him and published in the Boston Recorder.

Mr. Hurlbut, on his visit to Mrs. Davison, obtained from her permission to examine the old hair trunk at her cousin's in Hartwick, New York, in which the manuscript, if in existence, was to be found, and to carry it to Mr. Howe for comparison with the "Book of Mormon." He found but one manuscript, and this he delivered to Mr. Howe who describes it briefly, but somewhat inaccurately in his book, page 288.

The manuscript, lost sight of since the date of Howe's book, came to light at Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands, a year ago last August, in the possession of Mr. L. L. Rice, formerly State printer at Columbus, Ohio. I had asked Mr. Rice, who was an anti-slavery editor in Ohio many years ago, to examine his old pamphlets and papers and see what contributions he could make to the anti-slavery literature of the Oberlin college library. After a few days he brought out an old manuscript with the following certificate on a blank page:

The writings of Solomon Spaulding, proved by Aaron Wright, Oliver Smith, John N. Miller and others. The testimonies of the above gentlemen are now in my possession. D. P. HURLBUT.

The three men named are of the eight witnesses brought forward by Howe. This manuscript is now in my possession, and it is at hand this evening. The manuscript proves its own antiquity. It is soiled and worn and discolored with age. It consists of about one hundred and seventy pages, small quarto, unruled, and for the most part closely written -not far from forty-five thousand words. It has been printed by the Josephite Mormons of Lamoni, Iowa, from a copy of the manuscript taken since it came into my possession. As thus printed it makes one hundred and thirty-two pages of three hundred and twenty words each-equal to about one-sixth part of the "Book of Mormon." No date attaches to the manuscript proper, but on a blank page there is a fragment of a letter containing the date, January, 1812. Mr. Rice probably came into possession of the manuscript in 1839, when he succeeded Mr. Howe in the printing office at Painesville, but he has no recollection of ever having seen the manuscript until it came to his notice in Honolulu.

The manuscript has no resemblance to the "Book of Mormon," except in some very general features. There is not a name or an incident common to the two. It is not written in the solemn Scripture style. It is a story of the coming to this country, from Rome, of a ship's company, driven by a storm across the ocean, in the days of the Emperor Constantine. They never returned to their own land, but cast in their lot with the aboriginal tribes inhabiting the country; and it is chiefly occupied with an account of the civilization and conflicts of these tribes-the Delawares, Ohions, Kentucks, Sciotons, Chiaugans, etc., etc. The names of persons are entirely original, quite as remarkable as those in the "Book of Mormon," but never the same-such as Bombal, Kadocam, Lobaska, Hamboon, Ulipoon, Lamesa, etc. The introduction expresses the purpose or motive of the author in its composition, and is as follows-orthography uncorrected, and a few words lost by the crumbling of the manuscript:

Near the west bank of the Conneaught river there are the remains of an ancient fort. As I was walking and forming various conjectures respecting the character, situation and numbers of those people who far exceed the present Indians in works of art and inginuety, I happened to tread on a flat stone. This was at a small distance from the fort, and it lay on the top of a small mound of earth, exactly horizontal. The face of it had a singular appearance. I discovered a number of characters, which appeared to me to be letters, but so much effaced by the ravages of time, that I could not read the inscription. With the assistance of a leaver I raised the stone; but you may easily conjecture my astonishment when I discovered that its ends and sides rested on stones, and that it was designed as a cover to an artificial cave. I found by examining that its sides were lined with stones built in a conical form, with .

. . down, and that it was about 8 feet deep. Determined to investigate the design of this extraordinary work of antiquity, I prepared myself with the necessary requisites for that purpose, and descended to the bottom of the cave. Observing one side to be perpendicular nearly three feet from the bottom, I began to inspect that part with accuracy. Here I noticed a big flat stone fixed in the form of a doar. I immediately tore it down, and lo! a cavity within the wall presented itself, it being about three feet in diameter from side to side, and about two feet high. Within this cavity I found an earthern box, with a cover which shut it perfectly tite. The box was two feet in length, one and half in breadth, and one and three inches in diameter. My mind, filled with awful sensations which crowded fast upon me, would hardly permit my hands to remove this venerable deposit; but curiosity soon gained the ascendancy; the box was taken and raised to open. When I had removed the cover I found that it contained twenty-eight . . . of parchment, and that when .. appeared to be mannscripts written in eligant hand, with Roman letters and in the Latin language. They were written on a variety of subjects, but the roll which principally attracted my attention contained a history of the author's life and that part of America which extends along the great lakes and the waters of the Mississippi.

Solomon Spaulding's attitude toward the sacred Scriptures and Christianity is brought to light by a record, apparently a copy of a letter, on two loose leaves found in connection with the manuscript, written on paper of the same quality, and in the same handwriting; the statement is without beginning or end, but the substantial part remains, as follows:

But having every reason to place the highest confidence in your friendship and prudence, I have no reluctance in complying with your request in giving you my sentiments on the Christian religion, and so far from considering the freedom you take in making the request, impertinence, I view it as a mark of your affectionate solicitude for my happiness. In giving you my sentiments of the Christian religion, you will perceive that I do not believe certain facts and certain propositions to be true, merely because my ancestors believed them and because they are popular. In forming my creed I bring everything to the standard of reason. This is an unerring and sure guide in all matters of faith and practice. Having divested myself, therefore, of traditionary and vulgar prejudice, and submitting to the guidance of reason, it is impossible for me to have the same sentiments of the Christian religion which its advocates consider as orthodox. It is in my view a mass of contradictions, and an heterogeneous mixture of wisdom and folly, nor can I find any clear and incontrovertible evidence of its being a revelation from an infinitely benevolent and wise God.

It is true that I have never had the leisure nor patience to read every part of it with critical attention, or to study the metaphysical jargon of divines in its vindication. It is enough for me to know that propositions which are in contradiction to each other cannot both be true, and that doctrines and facts which represent the Supreme Being as a barbarous and cruel tyrant, can never be dictated by infinite wisdom. Whatever the clergy say on the contrary can have no effect in altering my sentiments. I know as well as they that two and two make four, and that the three angles of a triangle are equal to two right angles. But, notwithstanding, I disavow any belief in the divinity of the Bible, and consider it a mere human production, designed to enrich and agrandize its authors and enable them to manage the multitude; yet casting aside a considerable mass of rubbish and fanatical rant, I find that it contains a system of ethics or morals which cannot be excelled on account of their tendency to ameliorate the condition of man, to promote individual, social and public happiness, and that in various instances it represents the Almighty as possessing attributes worthy of a transcendant character; having a view, therefore, to those parts of the Bible which are truly good and excellent and sometimes speak of it in times of high commendation, and indeed, I am inclined to believe that, notwithstanding the mischiefs and injuries which have been produced by the bigoted zeal of fanatics and interested priests, yet that these evils are more than counterbalanced in a Christian land by the benefits which result to the great mass of the people by their believing that the Bible is of divine origin, and that it contains a revelation from God. Such being my view of the subject, I make no exertions to dissipate their happy delusion.

The only important question connected with this manuscript is, what light, if any, does it throw on the origin of the "Book of Mormon ?" This manuscript clearly was not the basis of the book. Was there another manuscript, which Spaulding was accustomed to read to his neighbors, out of which the "Book of Mormon" grew, under the hand of Sidney Rigdon or Joseph Smith, or both? If we could accept without misgiving the testimony of the eight witnesses, brought forward in Howe's book, we should be obliged to accept the fact of another manuscript. We are to remember that twenty-two years or more had elapsed since they had heard the manuscript read; and before they began to recall their remembrances they had read, or heard the "Book of Mormon," and also the suggestion that the book had its origin in the manuscript of Spaulding. What effect these things had upon the exactness of their memory is matter of doubt. No one was present to cross-question, and Hurlbut and Howe were intent upon finding the testimony to support their theory.

In its more general features the present manuscript fulfills the requirements of the "Manuscript Found." It purports to have been taken from an artificial cave in a mound, and thus was naturally called the "Manuscript Found." It sets forth the coming of a colony from the eastern continent, and is an account of the aboriginal inhabitants of the country, suggested by the mounds and earthworks in the vicinity of the author, and was written to explain the origin of these works. This purpose it pursues with a directness not found in the "Book of Mormon." These general features would naturally bring it to remembrance, on reading the account of the finding of the plates of the "Book of Mormon."

Of the eight witnesses brought forward by Howe, five are careful to except the "religious matter" of the "Book of Mormon," as not contained in the manuscript of Spaulding, and the theory is that this matter was interpolated by Sidney Rigdon, or some other man who expanded the manuscript into the book. This strikes me as an important circumstance. The "Book of Mormon " is permeated in every page and paragraph with religious and Scriptural ideas. It is first and foremost a religious book, and the contrast between it and the supposed manuscript must have been very striking to have led five of these witnesses to call this difference to mind and mention it, after the lapse of twenty years and more. The other three witnesses are careful to say that the "Book of Mormon," in its "historical parts," is derived from the Spaulding manuscript, thus implying the same exception expressed by the others. Now it is difficult -almost impossible, to believe that the religious sentiments of the "Book of Mormon" were wrought into interpolation. They are of the original tissue and substance of the document, and a man as self-reliant and smart as Sidney Rigdon, with a superabundant gift of tongue and every form of utterance, would never have accepted the servile task. There could have been no motive to it, nor could the blundering syntax of the "Book of Mormon" have come from Rigdon's hand. He had a gift of speech which would have made the style distasteful and impossible to him.

The minuter features of the testimony of these witnesses are obviously of more weight in their bearing upon the probability of another manuscript. When they speak of the Scripture style of the manuscript, the frequent recurrence of the expression, "and it came to pass," the names recalled, Nephi," "Lehi," and others, the remembrance seems too definite to be called in question. But it must be remembered that the "Book of Mormon" was fresh in their minds, and their recollections of the manuscript found were very remote and dim. That under the pressure and suggestion of Hurlbut and Howe, they should put the ideas at hand in place of those remote and forgotten, and imagine that they remembered what they had recently read, would be only an ordinary example of the fraility of memory, and it would not be unnatural or improbable that such an illusion should be propagated among Spaulding's old neighbors at Conneaut. This view must, of course, be purely hypothetical, and could have little force against the positive testimony.

There has been an attempt to support the testimony of these Conneaut witnesses by following the manuscript through Patterson's office, at Pittsburgh, to the hands of Sidney Rigdon. This theory is sustained by abundance of conjecture, but by very little positive evidence. It has come to be a tradition that Rigdon was a printer in Patterson's office when Spaulding went to Pittsburgh, and thus became acquainted with the manuscript, either stole it or copied it, and after brooding over it fifteen years brought out the Mormon Bible. This would be interesting if true; but there seems no ground to dispute the possitive testimony of Rigdon's brothers that he was never a printer, and never lived in Pittsburgh at all until 1822, eight years after Spaulding left, and then was there as pastor of a Baptist church.

Rigdon sent from Nauvoo, in 1839, to the Boston Journal, an indignant denial of the statement of Mrs. SpauldingDavison, already referred to. A sentence or two from this denial will be sufficient:

It is only necessary to say, in relation to the whole story about Spaulding's writings being in the hands of Mr. Patterson, who was at Pittsburgh, and who is said to have kept a printing office, etc., etc., is the most base of lies, without even the shadow of truth. . . If I were to say that I ever heard of the Rev. Solomon Spaulding and his hopeful wife until D. P. Hurlbut wrote his lie about me, I should be a liar like unto themselves.

The claim in reference to Rigdon's connection with the Spaulding manuscript seems to become more and more definite with every new statement of the case, and without any addition to the evidence. Mrs. Ellen E. Dickinson, a grandniece of Mrs. Solomon Spaulding, in her "New Light on Mormonism," recently published, finds it easy to put imaginings in the place of facts, in her statements in reference to Rigdon, as follows:

At an early age he was a printer by trade, and is known to have been in Conneaut, Ohio, at the time Spaulding read his "Manuscript Found" to his neighbors, and it is easy to believe the report that he followed or preceded Spaulding to Pittsburgh, knowing all his plans, in order to obtain his manuscript, or copy it, while it was in Patterson's printing house-an easy thing to do, as the fact of the manusctipt being left carelessly in the office for months, is not questionable.-P. 47.

Over against these fancies are the facts given in the testimony of Rigdon's brothers, published by Rev. Robert Patterson, of Pittsburgh, that when Spaulding was reading his manuscript to his neighbors in Conneaut, Rigdon was a boy seventeen or eighteen years of age, on his father's farm in Allegheny county, Pennsylvania; that he never was a printer, and did not live in Pittsburgh until 1822, six years after Spaulding's death.

Another example of the increasing definiteness of the tradition may be found in a volume just published at Cincinnati, giving an account of the various religious sects. Speakof the "Book of Mormon," the writer says: "Rigdon, who afterwards became Smith's right-hand man, is known to have copied this (Spaulding's) manuscript. A comparison of the Book of Mormon' with the original manuscript of this novel, satisfies all, except professing Mormons, that the Mormon bible is simply the old novel revised and corrected by Smith and Rigdon "-an illustration of the facility with which a shadowy tradition becomes definite history.

It does not appear that Smith and Rigdon had any acquaintance with each other until after the publication of the Mormon book. In Howe's book we have a full account of Rigdon's conversion to Mormonism at Mentor, in the autumn of 1830, when Parley P. Pratt introduced to him two Mormon missionaries from Palmyra, New York. In a pamphlet published by Pratt, in 1838, he gives a similar account of Rigdon's conversion and states positively that Smith and Rigdon never saw each other until early in 1831. So far as I am aware, there is nothing to disprove this statement.

A somewhat prevalent theory, which Mrs. Dickinson maintains, is that Hurlbut took two manuscripts from the old trunk in Hartwick, New York-one the genuine "Manuscript Found," which he treacherously sold to the Mormons, the other which he delivered to Howe, and which is present this evening. Of this there seems to be no proof. Howe intimates no such thing in his book. It is true that Mrs. Dickinson reports an interview of her own with Howe, in 1830, in which he expresses the opinion that Hurlbut had two manuscripts, one of which he sold to the Mormons, but in the appendix to her book (page 259) she publishes a letter from Howe to Hurlbut, written two or three months before the interview, in which he disclaims any such suspicion.

There are those who claim to know that the last manuscript is still in existence, and will be brought to light at some future day. It would not seem unreasonable to suspend judgment in the case until the new light shall come. Professor Whitsitt, of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, Louisville, Kentucky, has given much attention to the internal structure of the "Book of Mormon," and is about to publish a life of Sidney Rigdon in which he will maintain, and expects to prove, that Rigdon is responsible for the "Book of Mormon," and that he had Spaulding's manuscript as the basis of his work.

JAMES H. FAIRCHILD.

OBERLIN, OHIO.