In the fourth place, the high pretensions of Joseph Smith in relation to the Book of Mormon must be regarded as most seriously damaged by the historical demonstration that, to a conspicuous degree, the groundwork of that book was borrowed from a romantic story of Solomon Spaulding entitled Manuscript Found. This was begun in 1811 or 1812 at Conneaut, Ohio, was left for a time in the printing office of Patterson in Pittsburgh, was probably taken thence to Amity, Pennsylvania, to be retouched, and was sent anew to Patterson's establishment shortly before the death of the author in 1816. As first planned, Spaulding's story contained an account of a party of voyagers who left Rome in the time of Constantine, and were driven ashore on the American continent, where one of their number left a narrative of their travels, as also of Indian wars and customs, which narrative Spaulding assumes to have discovered and translated. The story in this form came into the possession of E. D. Howe in 1834, and then passed out of sight until it accidentally fell into the possession of President Fairchild, of Oberlin, in 1884, and was deposited in the college library. In the later and better remembered form, as being that from which the author often read to his friends, the story was carried further back, the voyagers were represented as starting from Jerusalem, and an effort was made to reproduce the antique biblical style. In this respect the later form of the story was widely contrasted with the earlier. Several witnesses, shortly after the appearance of the Book of Mormon, affirmed, in the most explicit terms, that the Spaulding story to which they had listened had this peculiar cast. Moreover, the testimony of the brother of Solomon Spaulding, of his business partner, and of several others assures us that the story in this form represented the voyagers to America as being Jews and as starting from Jerusalem. Herein it corroborates the statement of Howe, who says that the Oberlin manuscript was shown to several of the witnesses whom he cites and was characterized by them as the earlier and discarded form of the Spaulding romance. It is utterly vain, therefore, for Mormon apologists, as they have been wont to do, to plead the unlikeness of the Oberlin writing to the Book of Mormon as disproving the obligations of Joseph Smith to Spaulding's manuscript. It affords not the slightest installment of a disproof of substantial obligations. The most that could alleged would be that its style is contrast with that of the Book of Mormon. The contrast, however, may be explained by the twofold fact that Spauldmg m the later version of his story wrote of set purpose in a peculiar style, and that Joseph Smith, in working over the materials furnished by Spaulding, conformed them to a very appreciable degree to his own habits of expression.

When the Book of Mormon began to be circulated those who had listened to the Spaulding story, with its peculiar names and its antique biblical style, were at once struck with the close resemblance between the two writings, and several of them have witnessed to that effect. John Spaulding, to whom his brother Solomon read passages of his Manuscript Found, says: "It was an historical romance of the first settlers of America, endeavoring to show that the American Indians are descended from 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 Levi. They afterward had contentions and quarrels and separated into two distinct nations, one of which he denominated Nephites and the other Lamanites. Cruel and bloody wars ensued, m which great multitudes were slain. ... 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." Joseph Miller of Amity, Pennsylvania, noting the fact that he often heard Spaulding read from his manuscript^ remarks: "I had the Book of Mormon in my house for about six months for the purpose of comparing it with my recollection of the lost Manuscript Founds and I unhesitatingly say that a great part of the historical part of the Book of Mormon is identical with the manuscript, and I firmly believe that the manuscript is the foundation of the whole concern." Henry Lake, who was partner with Solomon Spaulding in rebuilding a forge at Conneaut, spent many hours in hearing him read from his manuscript. "This book," he says, "represented the American Indians as 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 I find, to my surprise, it stands there just as he read it to me then. • . . I have no hesitation in saying that the historical part of the Book of Mormon is principally, if not wholly, taken from The 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 pass,' rendered it ridiculous." Hiram Lake, son of the foregoing, testifies: "My father told me that the Book of Mormon was unquestionably derived from the Spaulding manuscript. Since 1834 I have conversed with Aaron Wright, John N. Miller, and Nathan Howard, old residents here [Conneaut], now deceased, all of whom lived here in 1811 and 1812, and who had heard Spaulding's manuscript read, and they told me they believed the Book of Mormon was derived from Spaulding's Manuscript Found. Some or all of these persons made affidavits to this effect which were published in a book called Mormonism Unveiled, edited by E. D. Howe, of Painesville, Ohio." Hiram Gould, referring to the same persons, affirms: "I heard them all say that the Book of Mormon was undoubtedly taken from a manuscript written by Solomon Spaulding." Oliver Smith, to whom Spaulding, while stopping at his house, read one hundred or more pages of the romance, makes this statement: "When the Book of Mormon came into the neighborhood and I heard the historical part of it related, I at once said that it was the writing of Solomon Spaulding." Very significant is the exclamation which sprang from the lips of Squire Wright when, in 1832, the Book of Mormon was read in public at Conneaut: ''Old come to pass has come to life again!''

It amounts, we judge, to a historical demonstration that the manuscript story of Solomon Spaulding served as an antecedent and groundwork of the Book of Mormon. Considerable liberty may have been used by Joseph Smith, or by his accomplice, or by both in modifying details and introducing supplementary materials, but that the general framework and wide stretches of the subject matter of the Book of Mormon were borrowed from Spaulding is not open to reasonable doubt.

This conclusion holds whether or not any reliable evidence is at hand as to the medium through which Joseph Smith was brought into possession of the Spaulding manuscript, or enabled to use its contents very clearly in shaping the Book of Mormon. As other noted crimes have gone undetected, so might a carefully concealed theft m this connection. But, as a matter of fact, there is evidence as to the medium in question, which, if not demonstrative, affords a basis for a thoroughly probable inference. A sufficient list of data points to Sidney Rigdon as the man who helped Joseph Smith, by supplying him with the highly imaginative story of Spaulding, to pass on from his empty bluff about a Golden Bible to an appearance of a real discovery. That this preacher, who was primarily connected with the Baptists, and then affiliated with the Disciples, was none too conscientious for a performance of this kind, is indicated by the fact of his cooperation with Smith, as mentioned above, in an outrage upon the integrity of the biblical text. That he had the opportunity for the knavish performance is certified by his known access to the printing establishment of Patterson in Pittsburgh. He may not have been employed at any time in that establishment, but it is ascertained that he was on intimate terms with Lambdin, who was with Patterson from 1812 to 1823, and so in all likelihood had means of both knowing about and seeing the Spaulding manuscript. Among the evidences that he improved his chance to get the manuscript into his possession are the following: Joseph Miller of Amity, Pennsylvania, who acted the part of a friend in need to Spaulding in his last days, says he told him "there was a man named Sidney Rigdon about the office (of Patterson), and they thought he had stolen the manuscript."'- The conviction of Mrs. Spaulding, as expressed a number of years later, that the manuscript left among the effects of her deceased husband may be quoted in opposition to this report by Miller; but it is quite possible that she did not know, or had forgotten, the fact that the writing had been sent a second time to the office of Patterson. That Rigdon obtained possession of it is very definitely affirmed by John Winter, M.D. He says that Rigdon showed it to him while in his study in 1822 or 1823, The daughter of Dr. Winter testifies: "I have frequently heard my father speak of Rigdon having Spaulding's manuscript, and that he had gotten it from the printer to read as a curiosity."*Mrs. Amos Dunlap in 1826-27, while visiting at the house of Rigdon, saw him reading a manuscript which he was accustomed to keep locked up in a trunk, and heard him say, in response to the impatient remark of his wife that she would like to bum the thing up, ''It will be a great thing some day" There is no reason for supposing that this was other than the manuscript which Dr. Winter saw in Rigdon's study several years before. The Rev. Adamson Bentley wrote in 1841: "I know that Sidney Rigdon told me there was a book coming out, the manuscript of which had been found engraved on gold plates, as much as two years before the Mormon book made its appearance or had been heard of by me." This statement, though given to the public more than a score of years before the death of Rigdon, was never contradicted by him.' How should Rigdon at that date have had knowledge of the prospective forthcoming of the Book of Mormon? Taken in connection with the testimony as to his prior possession of the Spaulding manuscript, and the well-established indebtedness of the Book of Mormon to that writing, Rigdon's forecast is plain historical evidence that he had come into collusion with Joseph Smith and had supplied him with the specified writing as the groundwork of his fabulous Bible. This conclusion is confirmed by evidence that Rigdon was away from home for considerable intervals, and in the neighborhood of Smith, during the period in which the Book of Mormon was being made ready for publication. The remark of V. Rudolph is on record "that during the winter previous to the appearance of the Book of Mormon, Rigdon was in the habit of spending weeks away from his home, going no one knew where." Pomeroy Tucker, who was on the ground at the time, notes that a mysterious stranger was seen at the Smith residence in 1827 and again in 1828. Abel Chase, a near neighbor of Smith's, reports: "I saw Rigdon at Smith's at different times with considerable intervals between. " Lorenzo Saunders, another neighbor, says, "I saw Rigdon at Smith's several times, and the first visit was more than two years before the Book appeared."

To complete the historical demonstration of the complicity of Rigdon with Smith in concocting the Book of Mormon two points need to be added. In the first place, it is to be noticed that a strain of the Campbellite or Disciples' teaching, in which Rigdon had been indoctrinated, pervades the Mormon Bible. Such characteristic features as stress upon immersion as the sole legitimate form of baptism, great emphasis on the efficacy of baptism, while a very moderate view is taken of the virtue of the eucharist, and a rather pronounced expectation of the coming and millennial reign of Christ, are unequivocally reproduced. The second point concerns the subsequent relation of Rigdon to Smith. The former was shown considerable deference and in various relations was treated as only second to Smith. But, on the other hand, he was subjected to such humiliations as a high-spirited man could scarcely have endured who was not rendered comparatively helpless by consciousness of complicity in fraud. So Linn argues with a good show of reason. "The iron hand" he says, "with which Smith repressed Rigdon from the date of their arrival in Ohio affords strong proof of Rigdon's complicity in the Bible plot, and of the fact that he stood to his accomplice in the relation of a burglar to his mate, where the burglar has both the boodle and the secret in his possession."

As we have taken pains to state, proof of the indebtedness of the Book of Mormon to the romance of Solomon Spaulding is of much greater import than the determination of the question whether Rigdon served as the intermediary between the two writings. We cannot forbear the judgment, however, that the data which make for an affirmative answer to this question are really conclusive.

It should not be overlooked that the Spaulding manuscript enters into the case against Mormonism rather as an auxiliary than as a fundamental. It helps to explain how the young man who was given to the telling big stories, who made a pretense of handling magical instrumentalities who contradicted himself in his [unreadable] to the plates, and who later indulged in capital instances of down right faking, was furnished with idea, the framework, and to a considerable extent the specific contents of the Book of Mormon. In strictness, however, the supposed function of the given document in originating the Book of Mormon is no necessary basis of an adverse verdict. The proof of fraudulent pretense on the part of Joseph Smith is not dependent upon verifying that function. This will be made to appear in the remainder of this essay, and especially in the section immediately following.