Travels and Adventures of Monsieur Violet

by Frederick Marryat

  CHAPTER FORTY TWO.

  Nauvoo, the holy city of the Mormons, and present capital of theirempire, is situated in the north-western part of Illinois, on the eastbank of the Mississippi, in latitude 40 degrees 33 minutes North; it isbounded on the north, south, and west by the river, which there forms alarge curve, and is nearly two miles wide. Eastward of the city is abeautiful undulating prairie; it is distant ten miles from Fort Madison,in Iowa, and more than two hundred from St. Louis.

  Before the Mormons gathered there, the place was named _Commerce_, as Ihave already said, and was but a small and obscure village of sometwenty houses; so rapidly, however, have they accumulated, that thereare now, within four years of their first settlement, upwards of fifteenthousand inhabitants in the city, and as many more in its immediatevicinity.

  The surface of the ground upon which Nauvoo is built is very uneven,though there are no great elevations. A few feet below the soil is avast bed of limestone, from which excellent building material can bequarried, to almost any extent. A number of _tumuli_, or ancientmounds, are found within the limits of the city, proving it to have beena place of some importance with the former inhabitants of the country.

  The space comprised within the city limits is about four miles in itsextreme length, and three in its breadth; but is very irregular in itsoutline, and does not cover so much ground as the above measurementwould seem to indicate.

  The city is regularly laid out, the streets crossing each other at rightangles, and generally of considerable length, and of convenient width.The majority of the houses are still nothing more than log cabins, butlately a great number of plank and brick houses have been erected. Thechief edifices of Nauvoo are the Temple, and an hotel, called the NauvooHouse, but neither of them is yet finished; the latter is of brick, upona stone foundation, and presents a front of one hundred and twenty feet,by sixty feet deep, and is to be three stories high, exclusive of thebasement. Although intended chiefly for the reception and entertainmentof strangers and travellers, it contains, or rather will contain, asplendid suite of apartments for the particular accommodation of theprophet Joe Smith, and his heirs and descendants for ever.

  The privilege of this accommodation he pretends was granted to him bythe Lord, in a special revelation, on account of his services to theChurch. It is most extraordinary that the Americans, imbued withdemocratic sentiments and with such an utter aversion to hereditaryprivileges of any kind, could for a moment be blinded to the selfishnessof the prophet, who thus easily provided for himself and his posterity apalace and a maintenance.

  The Mormon temple is a splendid structure of stone, quarried within thebounds of the city; its breadth is eighty feet, and its length onehundred and forty, independent of an outer court of thirty feet, makingthe length of the whole structure one hundred and seventy feet. In thebasement of the temple is the baptisma font, constructed in imitation ofthe famous brazen sea of Solomon; it is supported by twelve oxen, wellmodelled and overlaid with gold. Upon the sides of the font, in panels,are represented various scriptural subjects, well painted. The upperstory of the temple will, when finished, be used as a lodge-room for theOrder Lodge and other secret societies. In the body of the temple,where it is intended that the congregation shall assemble, are two setsof pulpits, one for the priesthood, and the other for the grandees ofthe church.

  The cost of this noble edifice has been defrayed by tithing the wholeMormon church. Those who reside at Nauvoo and are able to labour, havebeen obliged to work every tenth day in quarrying stone, or upon thebuilding of the temple itself. Besides the temple, there are in Nauvootwo steam saw-mills, a steam flour-mill, a tool-factory on a largescale, a foundry, and a company of considerable wealth, fromStaffordshire, have also established there a manufacture of Englishchina.

  The population of the holy city itself is rather a mixed kind. Thegeneral gathering of the saints has, of course, brought together men ofall classes and characters. The great majority of them are uneducatedand unpolished people, who are undoubtedly sincere believers in theprophet and his doctrines. A great proportion of them consist ofconverts from the English manufacturing districts, who were easilypersuaded by Smith's missionaries to exchange their wretchedness at homefor ease and plenty in the promised land. These men are devotedlyattached to the prophet's will, and obey his orders as they would thoseof God himself.

  These aliens can, by the law of Illinois, vote after six months'residence in the state, and they consequently vote blindly, giving theirvotes according to the will of Joe Smith. To such an extent does hiswill influence them, that at the election in Nauvoo (1842) there werebut six votes against the candidates he supported. Of the Mormons, Ibelieve the majority to be ignorant, deluded men, really and earnestlydevoted to their new religion. But their leaders are men of intellect,who profess Mormonism because of the wealth, titles [see note 1], rank,and power which it procures them.

  As a military position, Nauvoo, garrisoned by twenty or thirty thousandfanatics, well armed and well supplied with provisions, would be mostformidable. It is unapproachable upon any side but the east, and therethe nature of the ground (boggy) offers great obstacles to any besiegingoperations. It is Smith's intention, to congregate his followers there,until he accumulates a force that can defy anything that can be broughtagainst him.

  Nauvoo is a Hebrew word, and signifies a beautiful habitation for a man,carrying with it the idea of rest. It is not, however, considered bythe Mormons as their final home, but as a resting-place; they onlyintend to remain there till they have gathered a force sufficient toenable them to conquer Independence (Missouri), which, according tothem, _is one of the most fertile, pleasant, and desirable countries onthe face of the earth, possessing a soil unsurpassed by any region_.Independence they consider their Zion, and they there intend to reartheir great temple, the corner stone of which is already laid. There isto be the great gathering-place for all the saints, and, in thatdelightful and healthy country, they expect to find their Eden and buildtheir New Jerusalem.

  What passed between Joe Smith and myself I feel not at liberty todisclose; in fact, publicity would interfere with any future plans. Iwill only say, that the prophet received me with the greatestcordiality, and confirmed the offers which his agents had made to mewhen I was among the Comanches. When, however, I came to the point, andwished to ascertain whether the Mormons would act up to the promises oftheir leaders, I perceived, to my great disappointment, that the meansat least, for the present--the operative means--were not yet ready to beput in motion. According to him, the Foxes, Osages, Winnebegoes, Sioux,and Mennomonie Indians would act for him at a moment's notice; and, onmy visiting the Foxes to ascertain the truth of these assertions, Idiscovered that they had indeed promised to do so, provided that,previously, the Mormons should have fulfilled certain promises to them,the performance of which I knew was not yet in the power of the Mormons.

  In the meanwhile, I heard from Joe Smith himself how God had selectedhim to obtain and be the keeper of the divine bible; and the reader willform his own idea of Joe Smith by the narrative. The day appointed wasthe 22nd of September, and Joe told me that on that day--

  "He arose early in the morning, took a one-horse waggon of some one thathad staid overnight at his house, and, accompanied by his wife, repairedto the hill which contained the book. He left his wife in the waggon bythe road, and went alone to the hill, a distance of thirty or fortyrods. He then took the book out of the ground, hid it in a tree top,and returned home. The next day he went to work for some time in thetown of Macedon, but about ten days afterwards, it having been suggestedthat some one had got his book, his wife gave him notice of it; uponwhich, hiring a horse, he returned home in the afternoon, staid justtime enough to drink a cup of tea went in search of his book, found itsafe, took off his frock, wrapt it round his treasure, put it under hisarm, and ran all the way home, a distance of about two miles. He saidhe should think that, being written on plates of gold, it weighed sixtypounds, but, at al
l events, was sure it was not less than forty. On hisreturn he was attacked by two men in the woods, knocked them both down,made his escape, and arrived safe at home with his burden."

  The above were the exact words of Smith, to which he adds, somewhere inhis translation of the book, that had it not been for the supernaturalvirtues of the stone he carried with him, virtues which endowed him withdivine strength and courage, he would never have been able to undergothe fatigues and conquer the obstacles he encountered during thatfrightful night.

  Thus Smith gets possession of his precious manuscript. But, alas 'tiswritten in Egyptian hieroglyphics. Joe calls to his assistance thewonderful stone, "the gift of God," and peeping hastily through it, hesees an angel pointing somewhere towards _a miraculous pair ofspectacles_!!! Yes, two polished pieces of crystal were the humblemeans by which the golden plates were to be rendered comprehensible. Bythe bye, the said spectacles are a heavy, ugly piece of workmanship ofthe last century; they are silver-mounted, and bear the maker's name,plainly engraved, "Schneider, Zurich."

  The Book of Mormon was published in the year 1830. Since that periodits believers and advocates have propagated its doctrines andabsurdities with a zeal worthy of a better cause. Through every Stateof the Union, and in Canada, the apostles of this wild delusion havedisseminated its principles and duped thousands to believe it true.They have crossed the ocean, and in England have made many converts;recently some of their missionaries have been sent to Palestine. Suchstrenuous exertions having been, and still being made, to propagate thedoctrines of this book, and such fruits having already appeared from thelabours of its friends, it becomes a matter of some interest toinvestigate the history of this strange delusion, and, although it doesnot deserve it, treat the subject seriously.

  The Book of Mormon purports to be the record or history of a certainpeople who inhabited America previous to its discovery by Columbus.According to the book, this people were the descendants of one Lehi, whocrossed the ocean from the eastern continent to that of America. Theirhistory and records, containing prophecies and revelations, wereengraven, by the command of God, on small plates, and deposited in thehill Comora, which appears to be situated in Western New York. Thus waspreserved an account of this race (together with their religious creed)up to the period when the descendants of Laman, Lemuel, and Sam, whowere the three eldest sons of Lehi, arose and destroyed the descendantsof Nephi, who was the youngest son. From this period the descendants ofthe eldest sons "dwindled in unbelief," and "became a dark, loathsome,and filthy people." These last-mentioned are the present AmericanIndians.

  The plates above mentioned remained in their depository until 1827, whenthey were found by Joseph Smith, junior, who was directed in thediscovery by the angel of the Lord. On these plates were certainhieroglyphics, said to be of the Egyptian character, which Smith, by thedirection of God, being instructed by inspiration as to their meaning,proceeded to translate.

  It will be here proper to remark, that a narrative so extraordinary asthat contained in the book of Mormon, translated from hieroglyphics, ofwhich even the most learned have but a limited knowledge, and that too,by an ignorant man, who pretended to no other knowledge of thecharacters than what he derived from inspiration, requires more thanordinary evidence to substantiate it. It will, therefore, be ourpurpose to inquire into the nature and degree of testimony which hasbeen given to the world to substantiate the claims of this extraordinarybook.

  In the first place, the existence of the plates themselves has eversince their alleged discovery been in dispute. On this point it wouldbe extremely easy to give some proofs, by making an exhibition of themto the world. If they are so ancient as they are claimed to be, anddesigned for the purpose of transmitting the history of a people, and ifthey have lain for ages deposited in the earth, their appearance wouldcertainly indicate the fact. What evidence, then, have we of the_existence_ of these plates? Why, none other than the mere _dictum_ ofSmith himself and the certificates of eleven other individuals, who saythat they have seen them; and upon this testimony we are required tobelieve this most extraordinary narrative.

  Now, even admitting, for the sake of argument, that these witnesses areall honest and credible men, yet what would be easier than for Smith todeceive them? Could he not easily procure plates and inscribe thereon aset of characters, no matter what, and exhibit them to the intendedwitnesses as genuine? What would be easier than thus to impose on theircredulity and weakness? And if it were necessary to give them theappearances of antiquity, a chemical process could effect the matter.But we do not admit that these witnesses were honest; for six of them,after having made the attestation to the world that they had seen theplates, left the Church, thus contradicting that to which they hadcertified. And one of these witnesses, Martin Harris, who is frequentlymentioned in the Book of Covenants--who was a high-priest of theChurch--who was one of the most infatuated of Smith's followers--whoeven gave his property in order to procure the publication of the Bookof Mormon, afterwards seceded from the Church. Smith, in speaking ofhim in connection with others, said that they were so far beneathcontempt, that a notice of them would be too great a sacrifice for agentleman to make.

  Some of the Mormons have said that a copy of the plates was presented toProfessor Anthon, a gentleman standing in the first rank as a classicalscholar, and that he attested to the faithfulness of the translation ofthe Book of Mormon. Now, let us read what the professor himself has tosay on this matter. In a letter recently published he expresses himselfthus:--

  "Many years ago, the precise date I do not now recollect, aplain-looking countryman called upon me, with a letter from Dr SamuelL. Mitchell, requesting me to examine and give my opinion upon a certainpaper, marked with various characters, which the doctor confessed hecould not decipher, and which the bearer of the note was very anxious tohave explained. A very brief examination of the paper convinced me thatit was not only a mere hoax, but a very clumsy one. The characters werearranged in columns, like the Chinese mode of writing, and presented themost singular medley I ever beheld. Greek, Hebrew, and all sorts ofletters, more or less distorted, either through unskilfulness or fromactual design, were intermingled with sundry delineations of half-moons,stars, and other natural objects, and the whole ended in a ruderepresentation of the Mexican zodiac. The conclusion was irresistible,that some cunning fellow had prepared the paper in question, for thepurpose of imposing upon the countryman who brought it, and I told theman so, without any hesitation. He then proceeded to give me thehistory of the whole affair, which convinced me that he had fallen intothe hands of some sharper, while it left me in great astonishment at hissimplicity."

  The professor also states that he gave his opinion in writing to theman, that "the marks on the paper appeared to be merely an imitation ofvarious alphabetic characters, and had no meaning at all connected withthem."

  The following letter, which I received, relative to the occupation ofJoe Smith, as a treasure-finder, will probably remind the reader of thecharacter of Dousterswivel, in Walter Scott's tale of the Antiquary.One could almost imagine that either Walter Scott had borrowed from Joe,or that Joe had borrowed from the great novelist.

  "I first became acquainted with Joseph Smith, senior, and his family, in1820. They lived at that time in Palmyra, about one mile and a halffrom my residence. A great part of their time was devoted to diggingfor money: especially in the night-time, when, they said, the moneycould be most easily obtained. I have heard them tell marvellous talesrespecting the discoveries they have made in their peculiar occupationof money-digging. They would say, for instance, that in such and such aplace, in such a hill, or a certain man's farm, there were depositedkegs, barrels, and hogsheads of coined silver and gold, bars of gold,golden images, brass kettles filled, with gold and silver, goldcandlesticks, swords, etcetera, etcetera. They would also say, thatnearly all the hills in this part of New York were thrown by humanhands, and in them were large caves, which Joseph, junior, could see, byplac
ing a stone of singular appearance in his hat, in such a manner asto exclude all light; at which time they pretended he could see allthings within and under the earth; that he could spy within theabove-mentioned caves large gold bars and silver plates; that he couldalso discover the spirits in whose charge these treasures were, clothedin ancient dresses. At certain times, these treasures could be obtainedvery easily; at others, the obtaining of them was difficult. Thefacility of approaching them depended in a great measure on the state ofthe moon. New moon and Good Friday, I believe, were regarded as themost favourable times for obtaining these treasures. These tales, ofcourse, I regarded as visionary. However, being prompted by curiosity,I at length accepted their invitation to join them in their nocturnalexcursions. I will now relate a few incidents attending these nocturnalexcursions.

  "Joseph Smith, senior, came to me one night, and told me that Joseph,junior, had been looking in his stone, and had seen, not many rods fromhis house, two or three kegs of gold and silver, some feet under thesurface of the earth, and that none others but the elder Joseph andmyself could get them. I accordingly consented to go, and early in theevening repaired to the place of deposit. Joseph, senior, first made acircle, twelve or fourteen feet in diameter: `This circle,' said he,`contains the treasure.' He then stuck in the ground a row ofwitch-hazel sticks around the said circle, for the purpose of keepingoff the evil spirits. Within this circle he made another, of abouteight or ten feet in diameter. He walked around three times on theperiphery of this last circle, muttering to himself something I couldnot understand. He next stuck a steel rod in the centre of the circles,and then enjoined profound silence, lest we should arouse the evilspirit who had the charge of these treasures. After we had dug a trenchof about five feet in depth around the rod, the old man, by signs andmotions asked leave of absence, and went to the house to inquire of theson the cause of our disappointment. He soon returned, and said, thatJoe had remained all the time in the house, looking in his stone andwatching the motions of the evil spirit; that he saw the spirit come upto the ring, and as soon as it beheld the cone which we had formedaround the rod, it caused the money to sink. We then went into thehouse, and the old man observed that we had made a mistake in thecommencement of the operation; `If it had not been for that,' said he,`we should have got the money.'

  "At another time, they devised a scheme by which they might satiatetheir hunger with the flesh of one of my sheep. They had seen in myflock of sheep a large, fat, black wether. Old Joseph and one of theboys came to me one day, and said, that Joseph, junior, had discoveredsome very remarkable and valuable treasures, which could be procuredonly in one way. That way was as follows:--that a black sheep should betaken on the ground where the treasures were concealed; that, aftercutting its throat, it should be led around a circle while bleeding;this being done, the wrath of the evil spirit would be appeased, thetreasures could then be obtained, and my share of them would befour-fold. To gratify my curiosity, I let them have the sheep. Theyafterwards informed me that the sheep was killed pursuant tocommandment; but, as there was some mistake in the process, it did nothave the desired effect. This, I believe, is the only time they evermade money-digging a profitable business. They, however, had constantlyaround them a worthless gang, whose employment it was to dig for moneyat night, and who, during day, had more to do with mutton than money.

  "When they found that the better classes of people of this vicinitywould no longer put any faith in their schemes for digging money, theythen pretended to find a gold bible, of which they said the Book ofMormon was only an introduction. This latter book was at length fittedfor the press. No means were taken by any individual to suppress itspublication; no one apprehended danger from a book originating withindividuals who had neither influence, honesty, nor honour. The twoJosephs and Hiram promised to shew me the plates after the Book ofMormon was translated; but afterwards, they pretended to have receivedan express commandment, forbidding them to shew the plates. Respectingthe manner of obtaining and translating the Book of Mormon, theirstatements were always discordant. The elder Joseph would say, that hehad seen the plates, and that he knew them to be gold; at other times hewould say they looked like gold; and at other times he asserted he hadnot seen the plates at all.

  "I have thus briefly stated a few of the facts, in relation to theconduct and character of this family of Smiths; probably sufficient hasbeen stated without my going into detail.

  "WILLIAM STAFFORD."

  The following is a curious document from one of the very individuals whoprinted the Mormon Bible:--

  "Having noticed in a late number of the _Signs of the Times_, a noticeof a work entitled `Mormon Delusions and Monstrosities,' it occurred tome that it might, perhaps, be of service to the cause of truth to stateone circumstance, relative to the authenticity of the Book of Mormon,which occurred during its publication, at which time I was a practicalprinter and engaged in the office where it was printed, and becamefamiliar with the men and their principles, through whose agency it was`got up.'

  "The circumstance alluded to was as follows:--We had heard much said byMartin Harris, the man who paid for the printing, and the only one inthe concern worth any property, about the wonderful wisdom of thetranslators of the mysterious plates, and we resolved to test theirwisdom. Accordingly, after putting one sheet in type, we laid it aside,and told Harris it was lost, and there would be a serious defection inthe book in consequence, unless another sheet, like the original, couldbe produced. The announcement threw the old gentleman into greatexcitement; but, after few a moments' reflection, he said he would tryto obtain another. After two or three weeks, another sheet wasproduced, but no more like the original than any other sheet of paperwould have been, written over by a common schoolboy, after having read,as they had, the manuscript preceding and succeeding the lost sheet. Asmight be expected, the disclosure of this trick greatly annoyed theauthors, and caused no little merriment among those who were acquaintedwith the circumstance. As we were none of us _Christians_, and onlylaboured for the `gold that perisheth,' we did not care for thedelusion, only so far as to be careful to avoid it ourselves and enjoythe hoax. _Not one_ of the hands in the office where the wonderful bookwas printed ever became a convert to the system, although the writer ofthis was often assured by Harris, that if he did not, he would bedestroyed in 1832.

  "T.N.S. TUCKER."

  GROTON, MAY 23, 1842.

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  Note 1. As I have mentioned the word _titles_: I must make myselfunderstood. There are certain classes of individuals in the UnitedStates who, by their own fortune, education, and social position, couldnot be easily brought over to Mormonism. Joe Smith, as a founder of asect, has not only proved himself a great man, but that he perfectlyunderstands his countrymen, and, above all, their greediness for anykind of distinction which can nominally raise them above the commonherd, for it is a fact that no people hate the word equality more thanthe American. Joe Smith has instituted titles, dignities, and officescorresponding to those of the governments in the Old World. He has notyet dared to make himself a king, but he has created a nobility thatwill support him when he thinks proper to assume the sovereign title.Thus he has selected individuals expressly to take care of the Church,these form the order of the Templars, with their grand masters,etcetera. He has organised a band of soldiers, called _Danites_, asacred battalion--the _celeres_ of Romulus--these are all _comites_ orcounts; their chiefs are _conductors_, or dukes. Then follow thepontiffs, the bishops, etcetera, etcetera. This plan has proved toanswer well, as it has given to Mormonism many wealthy individuals fromthe eastern states, who accepted the titles and came over to Europe toact as emissaries from Joe, under the magnificent titles of GreatCommander, prince of Zion, Comte de Jerusalem, Director of the HolyCollege, etcetera, etcetera.