 | This scan page has been reconstructed from the following sources:
|
first place, I have found, since my return to England, a prodigious general ignorance of the "Mormon rule;" the mass of the public has heard of the Saints, but even well-educated men hold theirs
9. Incidents of Travel and Adventure in the Far West, by M. Carvalho, who accompanied Colonel Frémont in his last exploration. According to anti-Mormons, the account of the Saints is far too favorable (1856).
10. Geological Survey of the Territory of Utah, by H. Englemann. Washington, 1860.
The principal anti-Mormon works are the following, ranged in the order of their respective dates. The Cons, it will be observed, more than treble the Pros.
1. A brief History of the Church of Christ of Latter-Day Saints (commonly called Mormons), including an Account of their Doctrine and Discipline, with the reason of the Author for leaving the said Church, by John Corrill, a member of the Legislature of Missouri (50 pages, 8vo, St. Louis, 1839). I know nothing beyond the name of this little work, or of the nine following.
2. Addresses on Mormonism, by the Rev. Hays Douglas (Isle of Man, 1839).
3. Mormonism weighed in the Balances of the Sanctuary and found Wanting, by Samuel Haining (66 pages, Douglas, Isle of Man, 1839).
4. The Latter-Day Saints and Book of Mormon. By W. J. Morrish, Ledbury.
5. An Exposure of the Errors and Fallacies of the Self-named Latter-Day Saints. By W. Hewitt, Staffordshire.
6. Tract on Mormonism. By Capt. D. L. St. Clair. (1840.)
7. Mormonism Unveiled. By E. D. Howe. (1841.)
8. Mormonism Exposed. By the Rev. L. Sunderland. (1841.)
9. Mormonism Portrayed; its Errors and Absurdities Exposed, and the Spirit and Designs of its Author made Manifest. By W. Harris (64 pages, Warsaw, Illinois, 1841).
10. Mormonism in all Ages; or, the Rise, Progress, and Causes of Mormonism; with the Biography of its Author and Founder, Joseph Smith, junior. By Professor J. B. Turner, Illinois College, Jacksonville. (304 pages, 12mo, New York, 1842.)
11. Gleanings by the Way. By the Rev. John A. Clark, D.D. (352 pages in 12mo, Philadelphia, 1842), Minister at Palmyra in New York at the time when the New Faith arose.
12. The History of the Saints, or an Exposé of Joe Smith and Mormonism. By John C. Bennett (344 pages, 12mo, Boston, 1842). This is the work of a celebrated apostate, who, for a season took a prominent propagandist part in the political history of Mormondom. Defeated in his hopes of dominion, he has revenged himself by a volume whose title declares the character of its contents, and which wants nothing but the confidence of the reader to be highly interesting. The Mormons speak of him as the Musaylimat el Kazzáb—Musaylimat the Liar, who tried, and failed to enter into partnership with Mohammed—of their religion.
The four following works were written by the Rev. Henry Caswall, a violent anti-Mormon, who solemnly and apparently honestly believes all the calumnies against the "worthless family" of the Prophet; unhesitatingly adopts the Solomon Spaulding story, discovers in Mormon Scripture as many "anachronisms, contradictions, and grammatical errors" as ever Celsus and Porphyry detected in the writings of the early Christians, and designates the faith in which hundreds of thousands live and die as a "delusion in some respects worse than paganism, and a system destined perhaps to act like Mohammedanism (!) as a scourge upon corrupted Christianity" (sub. the American?). The Mormons speak of this gentleman as of a 19th century Torquemada: he appears by his own evidence to have combined with the heart of the great inquisitor some of the head qualities of Mr. Coroner W——— when insisting upon the unhappy Fire-king's swallowing his (Mr. W.'s) prussic acid instead of the pseudo-poison provided for the edification of the public. Mr. Caswall went to Nauvoo holding in his hand an ancient MS. of the Greek Psalter, and completely, according to his account, puzzled the Prophet, who decided it to be "reformed Egyptian." Moreover, he convicted of falsehood the "wretched old creature," viz., the maternal parent of Mr. Joseph Smith, called a mother in Israel, looked upon as one of the holiest of women, and who, at any rate, was a good and kind-hearted mother, that could not be reproached, like Luther's, with "chastising her son so severely about a nut that the blood came." It is no light proof of Mormon tolerance that so truculent a
