History of Utah, 1540-1886 - Brigham Young University

62 THE STORY OF MORMONISM.
the other hand, Mrs Davidson, Joseph Miller, Redick McKee, Rev. Cephas
Dodd, and Mrs Eichbaum are quite positive that either Rigdon worked in the
printing-office, or had access to the manuscript. 'These witnesses,' continues
Patterson, 'are all whom we can find, after inquiries extending through some
three years, who can testify at all to Rigdon's residence in Pittsburgh before
1816, and to his possible employment in Patters jn's printing-office or bindery.
Of this employment none of them speak from personal knowledge. In making
inquiries among two or three score of the oldest residents of Pittsburgh
and vicinity, those who had any opinion on the subject invariablv, so far as
now remembered, repeated the story of Rigdon's employment in Patterson's
office as if it were a well known and admitted fact; they could tell all about
it, but when pressed as to their personal knowledge of it or their authority
for the conviction, they had none.' Nevertheless he concludes, 'after an impartial
consideration of the preceding testimony, that Rigdon as early as 1S23
certainly had possession of Spaulding's manuscript; how he obtained it is
unimportant for the present purpose; that during his career as a minister of
the Disciples church in Ohio, he carefully preserved under lock and key this
document, and devoted an absorbed attention to it; that he was aware of the
forthcoming book of Mormon and of its contents long before its appearance;
that the said contents were largely Spaulding's romance, and partly such
modifications as Rigdon had introduced; and that, during the preparation of
the book of Mormon, Rigdon had repeated and long interviews with Smith,
thus easily supplying him with fresh instalments of the pretended revelation.'
In a letter to the editors of the Boston Journal, dated May 27, 1839, Rigdon
says: ' There was no man by the name of Patterson during my residence at
Pittsburgh who had a printing-office; what might have been before I lived
there I know not. Mr Robert Patterson, I was told, had owned a printingoffice
before I lived in that city, but had been unfortunate in business, and
failed before my residence there. This Mr Patterson, who was a presbyterian
preacher, I had a very slight acquaintance with during my residence in Pittsburgh.
He was then acting under an agency in the book and stationery
business, and was the owner of no property of any kind, printing-office or
anything else, during the time I resided in the city. ' Smucker s Mormons, 45-8.
In Philadelphia, in 1840, was published The Origin of the Spaulding
Story, concerning the Manuscript Found; with a short biography of Dr P. Hulbert,
the originator of the same; and some testimony adduced, showing it to be a
sheer fabrication so far as its connection ivith the Book of Mormon is concerned.
By B. Winchester, minister of the Gospel. The author goes on to say that
Hulbert, a methodist preacher at Jamestown, N. Y., joined the Mormons in
1833, and was expelled for immoral conduct, whereupon he swore vengeance
and concocted the Spaulding story. Hearing of a work written by Solomon
Spaulding entitled The Manuscript Found, he sought to prove to those about
him that the book of Mormon was derived from it, ' not that any of these
persons had the most distant idea that this novel had ever been converted
into the book of Mormon, or that there was any connection between them.
Indeed, Mr Jackson, who had read both the book of Mormon and Spaulding's
manuscript, told Mr H. when he came to get his signature to a writing testifying
to the probability that Mr S.'s manuscript had been converted into the
book of Mormon, that there was no agreement between them; for, said he,
Mr S. 's manuscript was a very small work, in the form of a novel, saying
not one word about the children of Israel, but professed to give an account
of a race of people who originated from the Romans, which Mr S. said he had
translated from a Latin parchment that he had found. ' Winchester states further
that Hurlburt, or Hulbert, wrote Mormonism Unveiled and sold it to
Howe for $500.
The Myth of the Manuscript Found; or the absurdities of the Spaulding
story; By Elder George Reynolds, was published at Salt Lake City in 18S3.
It is a 12mo vol. of 104 pages, and gives first the history of the Spaulding manuscript,
and names Hurlburt as the originator of the story. Chap. iii. is entitled
' the bogus affidavit, ' referring to the alleged sworn statement of Mrs