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Rev. Clark Braden (1831-1915)
"Braden-Kelley Debate"
(1st edition: Cincinnatti, 1884)
Part 1 of 7 Parts
pages 002-035
Rev. Clark Braden(Disciples of Christ) |
Elder Edmund L. Kelley(Reorganized LDS Church) |
Comments and Info on Clark Braden | Tabulated Links (in lieu of contents)
Title-Page | Preface | Sampler Section of Excerpts on the Spalding Authorship Controversy
Prop. 1: 1Ke 1Br 2Ke 2Br 3Ke 3Br | 4-7 | 8-10 | 11-16 | 17-20 | Prop. 2 | Prop. 3
This e-text is still under construction.
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PUBLIC DISCUSSION OF THE ISSUES BETWEEN THE REORGANIZED CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST OF LATTER DAY SAINTS AND THE CHURCH OF CHRIST [DISCIPLES], HELD IN KIRTLAND, OHIO, Beginning February 12th, and Closing March 8th, 1884, BETWEEN
ST. LOUIS, MO.: C L A R K B R A D E N, P u b l i s h e r. 1884. |
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BRADEN - KELLEY DEBATE -- C O N T E N T S -- Proposition 1:
Proposition 2
Proposition 3
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THE BRADEN AND KELLEY DEBATE. 31
MR. BRADEN'S THIRD SPEECH.
My opponent cannot appeal to one particle of the first line of proof. He can trace his book no farther back than to Impostor Joe Smith. It has not one particle of framework of corroborating history, geography literature and customs into which it interlocks. It stands on the naked assumption that Impostor Joe was inspired and on that alone. If he was inspired, then we should believe that he translated the Book of Mormon by inspiration, and of course it is true, and of divine origin. The Book itself has not one iota of interlocking corroborating, or collateral evidence. It steps out into human life from the hand of Impostor Joe as the Goddess Minerva burst from the head of Jupiter. He claims that he received it from an angel by miracle and that he translated it by inspiration. Therefore it is of divine origin and mankind should accept it. There are no monumental institutions no literature based on it. It has had no career in the life of our race of which we have one particle of knowledge or proof except the assertions of the book itself. If my opponent appeals to the Bible, as Jesus appealed to the Old Testament, he must show that the Bible, in its history, narrates the same events as are found in the Book of Mormon. It does not hint one of them, except what the Book of Mormon steals from the Bible. Or that the Bible foretells the events recorded in the Book of Mormon. He has attempted this, and oh how weak an attempt. I can prove that the Bible foretells the Koran or Swedenborg's writings just as clearly. The false prophets and false Messiahs of Israel furnished far more proof from prophecy than he has produced. Even if the Bible foretold the events narrated in the Book of Mormon, that would not prove that the Book of Mormon is of divine origin. The Bible foretells events narrated in Assyrian and Egyptian history. That does not prove that the books recording what the Bible foretells are of divine origin. Do the prophecies he quotes, even if we admit his fanciful application, prove that the Book of Mormon is of divine origin, one particle more than the prophecies in the Bible of events recorded in Egyptian history , proves that the Egyptian books were of divine origin? Where does the Bible prophesy in such a way as to prove that the Book of Mormon is of divine origin? The only proof of the divine origin of the Book of Mormon is the pretended inspiration of Impostor Joe Smith. If Impostor Joe was inspired, then of course he translated the Book of Mormon by inspiration, as he claimed, and we can believe his story that he received it from an angel by miracle, and that the angel told him that the Book of Mormon is what it pretends to be, and true. If he was not inspired, we have not a shadow of proof of the divine origin of the Book of Mormon. My opponent can establish that Impostor Joe was inspired by proving that he wrought miracles, as nearly all of the inspired men of the Bible did; or that he foretold future events, as Noah, John the Baptist and others did, who wrought no signs, or that he had superhuman wisdom, and revealed what men could not know, as the inspired men of the Bible did, or that his character was such that he would not 32 THE BRADEN AND KELLEY DEBATE. claim to be inspired. If it were not so, as we show in the case of Christ. If he appeals to the Bible as Jesus and the apostles appealed to the Bible, let him produce from the Bible the proof they did. Let him prove that the Bible prophesies directly and clearly of Impostor Joe, his work and his book. Let him show that the work of Impostor Joe and the Book of Mormon are a clear fulfillment of Bible prophecies. The appeals to prophecy, made by Christ and his apostles, were clear direct positive and overwhelming. They were not such far fetched fanciful distortions and perversions of the Bible, as we hear from Mormonism. He seems to be afraid to affirm and defend the inspiration of Impostor Joe. If he abandons that, he abandons the sole basis of his claim for his book. The only basis for the claim for the divine origin of the Book of Mormon is two assertions. I. An angel revealed to Impostor Joe the existence of certain plates and gave them to him and told him that the contents were true. II. That Impostor Joe translated these plates, and we have in the Book of Mormon the contents of the plates. Prove that you establish the divine origin of the Book of Mormon. Fail in that and you utterly fail to establish such claim. My opponent attempted to prove the divine origin of his book by appealing to these facts: I. It claims to come from the right source. So does the Koran. II. It claims to be a proper message to mankind. So do the Shasters of India. III. Its object is good, the salvation of mankind. The same can be said of the revelations of Anni Lee. IV. Its teachings are good. So were the sermons of Stephen Burrows, the greatest scoundrel that ever lived. He, a vile impostor, stole and uttered the teachings of the Bible. So did Joe Smith and the Book of Mormon. If Impostor Joe was inspired, and his book a revelation Burrows was also inspired and his sermons revelations, on precisely the same ground. My opponent asserts that I should follow him in argument. That depends on where and how he leads. If he presents the issue clearly and fully, and any proof of his position, I will follow him. If he does not, I will present the issues myself, and refute his system, whether he presents it or not. I am surprised that one who claims to be a lawyer, as does my opponent, should be ignorant of the rules of debate, that the negative is free to pursue two courses. I. Reply to the attempted arguments of the affirmative. II. Or by an independent line of argument prove that his affirmative is untrue. If he pursues the latter course, he completely overturns the affirmative's position, if he never notices one of his pretended arguments. My opponent's feelings seem to be very badly hurt by my calling Smith an impostor, a deceiver, a scoundrel. If I prove that he pretended to be inspired and was not, that his book was a fraud, I prove him to be an impostor, a scoundrel of the blackest dye. A woman once declared, "I don't like Mr. Brown. He called my husband a liar. And that was not the worst of it. He proved it." Mormons will have the same reasons to dislike Mr. Braden. I have called Joe Smith an impostor, a scoundrel and I will prove it. My opponent reminds me that the Jews called Jesus a drunkard, a glutton, a lover of harlots and vile persons. Will he answer one question? If the charges of the Jews had been true, would it not have proved that Jesus was an impostor? That he was neither inspired nor divine. If I prove that Joe Smith was a vile character, will it not prove that he was not inspired? Now answer if you dare. The fallacy of the Jews, was not in using the wrong argument, but in making a false accusation. Jesus admitted that if their charges had been true, it would utterly destroy his claim to be sent of God and divine, when he challenged them "Who of you have convicted me of any wickedness?" In that question, Jesus flatly contradicts the nonsense my opponent uttered last night. He appeals to the errors and sins of men that the Bible says were inspired. When he proves that they were ever inspired while living in such sin, while committing or practising it, we will notice his argument. What portion of the Bible was uttered or written by a man, while committing these vile sins? What inspired act or utterance of David, Solomon, Moses or Paul, have we that was acted or uttered while they were committing vile sins? He admits that he who transgresses the teachings of Christ is not of God. That admission overturns all his special pleadings, in appealing to the sins of Bible characters. While in transgressions, they were not of God, not inspired, nor were their acts or utterances revelations. Then comes the one everlasting text of Mormonism "He that hath the teachings of the Christ hath both the Father and the Son." He assumes that if they have the Father and the Son, they are of God. True but that does not prove that they are inspired, nor that what they say or write is a revelation. Even if Joe Smith has been a good man, it would not prove that he was inspired, or that his book was a revelation, any more than the fact that Wesley was a good man, proves that he was inspired, and his sermons revelations. "But Joseph Smith claimed to be inspired. If a good man makes such a claim it must be true." No, a good man may be deceived. Hundreds of good men have been deceived in believing that they were inspired and that the stuff they uttered were revelations. The gross absurdity of the use that Mormons make of that passage will be seen if my opponent well answer [my] question. How must a man have the teaching of Christ in order to have the Father and the Son? In mere preaching alone? Or in living them out in life? When the scoundrel Burrows had the doctrine of Christ in his sermons, did he have the Father and the Son? Would not the fact that he was a hypocrite, an impostor and a scoundrel, prove that he THE BRADEN AND KELLEY DEBATE. 33 did not have the Father and the Son, no matter what he preached? Does the fact that Joe Smith stole and put the teachings of the Bible into the Book of Mormon, prove that he had the Father and the Son, that he was a good man, that he was inspired, that his book was a revelation? When the devil quoted the words of God to our Saviour, did it prove that he had the Father and the Son? That he was inspired and that his utterances were revelation? Even if the moral and religious sentiments of the Book of Mormon, that are stolen from the Bible, are good, it does not prove that its statements of pretended facts are true, and much less does it prove that the book is a revelation, that Joe Smith was inspired, or even a good man. Language can hardly express the idiocy of this pet argument of Mormonism. It would prove that when the devil transforms himself into an angel of light, and utters, hypocritically and to deceive, good sentiments, he is good, inspired, and his utterances revelations, just as clearly as it proves that Impostor Joe had the Father and the Son, was a good man, inspired and his book a revelation, because it stole good teaching from the Bible, and hypocritically gave it to the world, in the Book of Mormon, lying and claiming that his fraud was a revelation. The question from Acts 17, no more proves or hints the divine origin of the Book of Mormon than a repetition of the multiplication table. Neither does the quotation from Acts 10. The quotation from John 10:14-16, teaches the opposite to what he claims it teaches. In Gen. 17:15, we read: "The uncircumcised person shall be cut off from my people. He has broken my covenant." Circumcision was the mark of the flock. If the Nephites were circumcised, they were of the same flock as those Jesus was addressing. If they were not circumcised, they had ceased to be Israelites, and not a prophecy that my opponent quotes can have any reference to them. Neither the Bible, nor the Israelites, nor Jesus ever speak of Israelites outside of Palestine, as belonging to a fold separate and different from those in Palestine. If the Nephites of the Book of Mormon were circumcised Israelites, they were as much members of the fold Jesus was addressing, as the Israelites in Egypt or Palestine. The sheep that were not of that fold of which Jesus was speaking, were not circumcised Israelites in Egypt or America or any other place, for all circumcised Israelites were of one fold. The other sheep that were not of that fold, that was made up entirely of circumcised Israelites, were Gentiles. The language has reference to the breaking down of a wall of partition between Jew and Gentile, and making Jews and Gentiles one fold in Christ. The quotation from Ezekiel 84, "My sheep were scattered upon all the face of the earth" proves nothing for in such phraseology, often the Bible means no more than that they were widely scattered, and it never refers to more than the old continent which was all that the Israelites knew anything about. The quotation from the highly poetical figurative language of Jacob's blessing on Joseph, with its hold hyperbole, proves nothing. The Mormon interpretation is an unnatural one, foreign to the subject, and forced on to the language to sustain a theory. There is nothing in the language that was not fulfilled in Palestine, as much as the hyperbole of many other prophetic promises, that all admit did not extend beyond the land of Palestine. Even if it did extend beyond the land of Palestine, it need include no more than the old continent. It need not extend beyond the Josephites in Europe, Asia and Africa. My opponent reverses the order of the line of argument. He must prove that the Josephites migrated beyond the old world, to America, before he can extend the language of the prophecy to America. He absurdly assumes that the language must extend beyond the old world to America, in order to prove that the Josephites came to America. ORIGIN OF THE BOOK OF MORMON I propose now to refute the claim made by my opponent that the Book of Mormon is of divine origin, by proving that it had a very base human origin, about seventy years ago. If I can show that it was gotten up by three men, in the first half of the present century, through base motives, and for the purpose of fraud, and gain by fraud and deception, I utterly explode all claim to divine origin. I propose now to trace out such origin, for the Book of Mormon, as clearly as a chain of title to a piece of land, Let us first state what the Book of Mormon professes to be. It purports to be a history of America from the time of its first inhabitants entered it, just after the confusion of tongues at the tower of Babel, till about A.D. 400, a period probably of nearly 4000 years. It asserts that this continent was peopled by three different families. I. The family of Jared, who emigrated from the Tower of Babel, over 3000 years before the birth of Christ, and whose descendants were exterminated, one portion of the book declares about 600 years before Christ; another portion of the book declares about 250 years before Christ. II. The family of Lehi, a Manassehite, who emigrated from Jerusalem. 600 years before Christ, early in the reign of Zedekiah king of Judah. His descendants divided into two nations, the Nephites, the righteous portion; and the Lamanites, the wicked portion; III. The people of Zarahemla, Judahites who left Jerusalem about eleven years after Lehi. The descendants of these Judahites were destroyed in war or absorbed by the Nephites. In war, the Nephites were exterminated by the Lamanites, about A.D. 384. The Lamanites remained sole possessors of the continent, and are the American Indians. I wish the reader to notice that, according to the Book of Mormon, not an Ephraimite, ever came to America. How then can the prophecies in regard to Ephraim34 THE BRADEN AND KELLEY DEBATE. apply to the aborigines of America, even if the history in the Book of Mormon be true? According to the Book of Mormon the deeds of this people were, by divine direction, engraved by their prophets, on plates of gold, brass, and ore (what ever that nondescript substance may mean). These plates were religiously preserved by divine direction. The Book of Mormon tells us, on almost every page, with painful iteration and reiteration, of plates, of how they were prepared, preserved and revised, handed down from generation to generation -- how careful the Lord was to see that this was done, until they fell into the hands of one Mormon, who about A. D. 384 made an abridgment and buried the originals, together with certain relics, in a hill which is now near Manchester Ontario Co., New York. He handed this abridgment "these few pages," to his son Moroni, providentially leaving a few pages for him to use in finishing the abridgment. Moroni finishes, by engraving on the few pages left by his father, what happened after his father revised his record. Then he writes, and on nothing, for he tells us that his plates are full, and he had nothing to make plates of and is alone, an abridgment of the history of the Jaredites. Moroni then boxes up these few plates containing the abridgment made by his father, and his appendix to it, written on the few pages his father left him for that purpose, and buries them in a hill, Cumorah, that was in what is now Manchester, N.Y. He buried only "these few plates," and nothing with them for Mormon had buried everything else years before, in an entirely different locality. "These few plates" remained in this box, till September, 22m 1823, when Moroni, then an angel appeared to Joe Smith, and revealed to him the existence of these plates, their place of burial, and a summary of their contents. September, 22, 1827, Moroni delivered the plates to Joe Smith, who by means of a peep stone that he had stolen from the children of Willard Chase, translated them, and gave their contents to the world, in the Book of Mormon. The Book of Mormon mentions a perfect museum of relics that are "hid up" somewhere near Palmyra, New York. We give the list that our readers may see how careful the Lord was to have the records and the relics preserved. We cite the pages of the Book of Mormon. English edition, where they are mentioned. It shows with what iteration and reiteration "plates" are mentioned and how much pains the authors take to convince the skeptical, that these records were so carefully preserved, there can be no doubt about the accuracy of the Book of Mormon. I. Plates of Laban, pp. 9-11-144-145. II. Brass genealogical plates, p. 11. III. Brass plates of Lehi, after abridged by Nephi, pp. 3-44-62. IV. Brass plates of Nephi containing "the more part of the history" (shades of Murray, what English) pp. 16-138. V. Brass plates of Nephi containing "the more part of the ministry" (shades of Addison, forgive the English of the fullness of Mormon inspiration) pp. 16-44. VI. Ore (what nondescript substance is that?) plates of Nephi "containing mine own prophecies" p. 44. VII. Plates of Zarahemla containing genealogy, p. 140. VIII. Plates of Mormon, containing an abridgment of Nephi's plates that contained "the more part of the ministry," p. 141. IX. Plates containing a record from priest Jacob to king Benjamin, p. 141. X. Plates containing record of Zeniff, p. 161. XI. Golden plates of Ether, pp. 161-312-516. XII. Plates containing Alma's account of "his afflictions," p. 196. XIII. Plates Jared "brought across the great deep," p. 530. XIV. Copies of Scriptures "out of which the sons of Mosiah studied 14 years," pp. 255-271. XV. Many records kept by people "who went north-west," pp. 394-395. XVI. Twelve epistles by different prophets on different themes. The Book of Mormon gives us only an abridgment of these. The originals are "hid up." XVII. The liahona -- the sacred brass globe called the brass compass or brass director of Lehi, pp. 38-314. XVIII. The record of Laban, pp. 142-143-145. XIX The engraved stone of Coriantumr p. 140. XX. The sixteen stones that God touched with his fingers, p. 20. XXI. The two stone interpreters of Moroni, pp. 162-204. XXII The two stone interpreters of Jared's brother, pp. 522-523. XXIII. A white stone Gazelem, p. 212. XXIV. A brass breastplate found with Ether's plates, p. 161, Besides all these Smith and other Mormons describe articles different from these enough to increase the number indefinitely. Mormon tells us p. 492, that he hides all of three relics, and hands only "these few plates" containing his abridgment to his son Moroni. They are "hid up" no one knows where. The reader will observe have piles of plates, a score of them, mentioned scores of times. No one are deny the accuracy of records kept on metallic plates, imperishable material, with such constant care, and by divine direction, and inspiration. It is our purpose to prove that the Book of Mormon originated with Solomon Spaulding, was revamped by Sydney Rigdon, and given to the world by Impostor Joe Smith. We shall give first a sketch of Spaulding, and his work until he came in contact with Rigdon. Then a sketch of Rigdon and of his work, until he confederated with Impostor Joe, to give his stolen fabrication to the world, by means of his stolen peepstone. Solomon Spaulding was born in Ashford Connecticut in 1761. He graduated at Dartmouth College in 1785, with the degree of A.B. He studied theology and graduated in theology in 1787 and received the degree of A.M. He preached until after 1800. On account of failing health he went into business in Cherry Valley, New York. He failed in merchandizing and moved to Conneaut, Ohio, in 1807 or 08. Here he went into the foundry business and failed again. There were in the township of Conneaut a great THE BRADEN AND KELLEY DEBATE. 35 many mounds and other relics of an extinct race of people. Mr. Spaulding became very much interested in these antiquities. In 1809 he began a romance, in which he assumed that the ancestors of the Indians were Romans. After writing forty or fifty pages, he abandoned this idea, because, as he said, the Romans were too near the time in which he was writing. This MS was the only one Philastus Hurlbut said he found in the trunk, supposed to contain all of Spaulding's MS's, when they examined the trunk at Mr. Clark's house, in 1834. This MS we will designate as Roman MS or MS No. 1. Ever since the European missionaries began to labor among the Indians, as early as the year 1500, Spanish, French, English and Portuguese Missionaries had observed certain things among the Indians, that led some of them to believe that the Indians were of Israelite origin, descendants of the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel. Such ideas can be found in the writings of the Spanish, Portuguese, and French Monks, and in the writings of Elliott, Cotton Mather and scores of American writers, before the commencement of the present century. Mr. Spaulding was a firm believer and earnest advocate of this theory. He began to write a romance, in which he assumed, that the aborigines of America, and the authors of its mounds and other antiquities were Israelites. He commenced writing this MS as early as 1809. His brother, J. Spaulding, certifies that he visited his brother Solomon in 1810, and found him writing a book which he called, "The Manuscript Found," which he intended to publish, and hoped by the sales to pay his debts. He described it as follows. "It was a historical romance of the first settlers of America, and endeavored to show that the American Indians are the descendants of the Jews, or the Ten Lost Tribes. It gave a detailed account of their journey from Jerusalem, by land and sea, until they arrived in America, under the command of Lehi and Nephi. They afterwards had quarrels and contentions, and separated into two distinct nations, one of which he denominated Nephites, 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 all brought into view, in order to account for all the curious antiquities found in various parts of Northern and Southern America. I well remember that he wrote in the old style, and commenced almost every sentence with "And it came to pass," or "Now it came to pass." I will leave it to the reader, if the average Mormon can give a better synopsis of the historical part of the Nephite portion of the Book of Mormon, then John Spaulding gives in describing his brother's romance the "Manuscript Found." Martha Spaulding, wife of John Spaulding, and sister-in-law of Solomon Spaulding, testifies: "I was at the house of Solomon Spaulding shortly before he left Conneaut. He was then writing a historical novel founded on the first settlers of America. He represented them as an enlightened and warlike people. He had for many years contended that the aborigines of America were the descendants of some of the Lost Tribes of Israel; and this idea he carried out in the book in question. The lapse of time which has intervened prevents my recollecting but few of the leading incidents of his writings; but the names Lehi and Nephi and are yet fresh in my memory as being the principal heroes of his tale. They were officers of the company which first came off from Jerusalem. He gave a particular account of their journey by land and sea, till they arrived in America, after which disputes arose between the chiefs, which caused them to separate into bands, one of which was called Lamanites and the other Nephites. Between these were recounted tremendous battles, which frequently covered the ground with the slain and their being buried in large heaps was the cause of the many mounds in the country. Some of these people he represents as being very large." Again I ask the reader if an average Mormon could give a better outline of the historical part of the Nephite portion of the Book of Mormon than Mrs. Spaulding gives in describing the "Manuscript Found" of her brother-in-law Solomon Spaulding. Henry Lake, Solomon Spaulding's business partner testifies: "Solomon Spaulding 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 their contents. The Book represented the American Indians as being the descendants of the Lost Tribes of Israel, and gave an account of their having left Jerusalem, and of their contentions and wars, which were many and great. I remember telling Mr. Spaulding, that the so frequent use of the words "And it came to pass," "Now it came to pass," rendered the book ridiculous." Aaron Wright testifies: "One day when I was at the house of Solomon Spaulding, 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. He told me his object was to account for the fortifications, etc. that were to be found in this country, and said that in time it would be fully believed by all except learned men and historians." Oliver Smith testifies: "Solomon Spaulding boarded at my house six months. All his leisure hours were occupied in writing a historical novel, founded upon the first settlers of this country. He said he intended to trace their journey from Jerusalem by land and sea till their arrival in America, and give an account of their arts, sciences, civilization, laws and contentions. In this way he would give a satisfactory account of all of the old mounds, so common to this country. Nephi and Lehi, were by him represented as the leading characters, when they first started for America. Their main object was to escape the judgments which they supposed were coming on the old world." Nahum Howard testifies: "In conversation with Solomon Spaulding I expressed my surprise that we had no account of the people once in this country, who erected the old forts, mounds, etc. He told me he was writing a history of that people." Artemus Cunningham testifies: "Solomon Spaulding described to me his book. He said that it was a fabulous or romantic history of the first settlement of this country, and it purported to be a record found buried in the earth, or in a cave. He had adopted the ancient or Scriptural style of writing. He then read from his manuscript. I remember the name of Nephi, who appeared to be the principal hero of the story. The frequent repetition of the phrase, "I Nephi," I remember distinctly as though it were yesterday. He attempted to account for the numerous antiquities which are found upon the continent." John N. Miller who was a member of Solomon Spaulding's household for many months testifies: "I perused Spaulding's manuscripts as I had leisure more particularly the one he called his "Manuscript Found." It purported to be a history of the first settlers of America. He brought them off from Jerusalem under their leaders detailing their travels by land and by sea." go to: page 36: Kelley's 4th speech |
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Index of Sample Excerpts The record of the Braden-Kelley Debate contains citations of and references to numerous unique statements relating to the Spalding claims for Book of Mormon authorship. A few of these references are tabulated below. The statement names shown in red lettering are apparently original to the debate record and are not known to have been published prior to 1884:
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"Sampler" of Excerpts
Clark Braden was a leading minister for the Disciples of Christ. He published and distributed a copy of the entire Braden-Kelley debate (apparently at his own expense) shortly after it concluded. [pg. 31] MR. BRADEN'S THIRD SPEECH ...My opponent cannot appeal to one particle of the first line of proof. He can trace his book no farther back than to Impostor Joe Smith.... The Book itself has not one iota of interlocking corroborating, or collateral evidence. It steps out into human life from the hand of Impostor Joe as the Goddess Minerva burst from the head of Jupiter.... [pg. 33] ORIGIN OF THE BOOK OF MORMON I propose now to refute the claim made by my opponent that the Book of Mormon is of divine origin, by proving that it had a very base human origin, about seventy years ago. If I can show that it was gotten up by three men, in the first half of the present century, through base motives, and for the purpose of fraud, and gain by fraud and deception, I utterly explode all claim to divine origin. I propose now to trace out such origin, for the Book of Mormon, as clearly as a chain of title to a piece of land... [pg. 34] It is our purpose to prove that the Book of Mormon originated with Solomon Spaulding, was revamped by Sydney Rigdon, and given to the world by Impostor Joe Smith. We shall give first a sketch of Spaulding, and his work until he came in contact with Rigdon. Then a sketch of Rigdon and of his work, until he confederated with Impostor Joe, to give his stolen fabrication to the world, by means of his stolen peepstone. Solomon Spaulding was born in Ashford Connecticut in 1761. He graduated at Dartmouth College in 1785, with the degree of A.B. He studied theology and graduated in theology in 1787 and received the degree of A.M. He preached until after 1800. On account of failing health he went into business in Cherry Valley, New York. He failed in merchandizing and moved to Conneaut, Ohio, in 1807 or 08. Here he went into the foundry business and failed again.... [pg. 35] ...In 1809 he began a romance, in which he assumed that the ancestors of the Indians were Romans. After writing forty or fifty pages, he abandoned this idea, because, as he said, the Romans were too near the time in which he was writing. This MS was the only one Philastus Hurlbut said he found in the trunk, supposed to contain all of Spaulding's MS's, when they examined the trunk at Mr. Clark's house, in 1834. This MS we will designate as Roman MS or MS No. 1.... [pg. 42] MR. BRADEN'S FOURTH SPEECH. ...We propose now to introduce Sidney Rigdon himself. Rev. John Winter, M.D. was teaching school in Pittsburgh, and was a member of the First Baptist church when Rigdon was its pastor and was intimate with Rigdon. He testifies that In 1822 or 3 Rigdon took out of his desk in his study a large MS, stating that it was a Bible romance purporting to be a history of the American Indians. That it was written by one Spaulding, a Presbyterian preacher whose health had failed and who had taken it to the printers to see if it would pay to publish it. And that he (Rigdon) had borrowed it from the printer as a curiosity.James Jeffries, an old and highly respected citizen of Churchville, Hartford Co., Maryland, testifies, in a statement he dictated to Rev. Calvin D. Wilson, Jan. 20th, 1884, in the presence of his wife and J. M. Finney, MD; and attested by Dr. Finney, Rev. Wilson and Mrs. James Jeffries: Forty years ago I was in business in St. Louis. The Mormons then had their temple in Nauvoo Illinois. I had business transactions with them. I knew Sidney Rigdon. He acted as general manager of the business of the Mormons (with me). Rigdon told me several times in his conversations with me, that there was in the printing office with which he was connected in Ohio, a MS of the Rev. Spaulding, tracing the origin of the Indians from the lost tribes of Israel. This MS was in the office several years. He was familiar with it. Spaulding wanted it published but had not the means to pay for printing. He (Rigdon) and Joe Smith used to look over the MS and read it on Sundays, Rigdon said Smith took the MS and said "I'll print it," and went off to Palmyra New York."Forty years ago" would be the fall of 1844, just after Rigdon had been driven out of Nauvoo. The Times and Seasons assailed him bitterly that fall and winter, for exposing Mormonism. On his way from Nauvoo to Pittsburg, he called on his old acquaintance, Mr. Jeffries, in St. Louis, and, in his anger at the Mormons, he let out the secrets of Mormonism, just as he told the Mormons he would, if they did not make him their leader. George Clark, son of Jerome Clark of Hartwicke, N.Y., testifies that Mrs. Davidson left the trunk containing her first husband's MSs. at his fathers, before she went to Munson Mass., to live with her daughter. He says: "Shortly before Hurlbut got the MS. from fathers, during a visit to fathers, Mrs. Davidson gave to my wife to read a MS. written by her husband, Spaulding: remarking as she handed her the MS.: 'The Mormon Bible is almost a literal copy of this MS'"It was this MS. Hurlbut obtained from Jerome Clark, and which he never delivered to Howe. He retained it and gave to Howe a few leaves, the beginning of an entirely different MS. [pg. 43] ...From all these facts we gather these conclusions. Spaulding wrote, at first, only the historic part of the Nephite portion of the Book of Mormon. This was his second manuscript which we will call manuscript No. II, or Mormon Manuscript No. I. It was this small manuscript that Mrs. Martha Spaulding, his daughter, saw in the trunk at W. H. Sabin's, her uncle's, in Onadago Valley, N.Y. about the year 1823. From the amount of writing Spaulding did during the seven years, and from Miller's description, it is evident that he prepared a more complete manuscript, adding the Zarahemla emigration. This we will call manuscript No. III, Mormon manuscript No. 2. In 1812 Spaulding moved to Pittsburg, for the purpose of publishing his book, intending, as he told Oliver Smith, to lead a retired life and rewrite it for the press. He showed it, his daughter testifies, to Mr. Patterson, a publisher in Pittsburg, who told him to rewrite it for the press and he would publish it. He did so and added the Jaredite emigration. Mrs. Spaulding, his wife, and Miss Spaulding, his daughter, testify that he sent the manuscript to Patterson's publishing house. Mr. Miller, Mr. McKee and Dr. Dodd of Amity, Pa., testify that Spaulding told them be had done so. In 1814 Spaulding, then in very poor health, went to Amity, Washington Co., Pa. His wife kept tavern and supported the family. Spaulding continued to write on his manuscript and read it to all who would listen to him until his death Oct. 20th, 1816. His wife and daughter put his manuscript and papers that they found into a trunk, and took it with them to the residence of a brother of Mrs. Spaulding, W. H. Sabin, Onandago Valley, Onandago County, N.Y. In 1820 Mrs. Spaulding went to Pomfret Conn. Sometime afterwards she married a Mr. Davison of Hartwicke, Otsego County, N.Y. and went there to live. She left her daughter, Miss Martha Spaulding, with her uncle, Mr. Sabin, and left the trunk containing the manuscripts in her care. Miss Spaulding testifies that she read one of the manuscripts, a small one, either Spaulding's first draft of the story, or his Mormon manuscript No. 1 -- the one he wrote in 1809-10. She also testifies that while she was at her uncle's Joseph Smith worked as [a] teamster for her uncle, and learned of the existence of the manuscript. Impostor Joe places his first vision concerning the plates, Sept. 1823. As this is his way of dressing up his first knowledge of the manuscript, he worked for Sabin in September 1823 and learned of the existence of the manuscript then. Sometime after her moving to Hartwicke, and after Sept. 1823, Mrs. Davidson sent for the trunk and it was sent from Onandago Valley, to the house of Mr. Davidson in Hartwicke. In 1828 Miss Martha Spaulding married Dr. McKinstry and went to Munson Mass. to live. In 1830 Mrs. Davidson left Hartwicke and went to Munson to live with her daughter, Mrs. McKinstry. She left the trunk containing the manuscript and papers -- that is all she and her daughter found after Spaulding's death, in care of her brother-in-law, Jerome Clark, in Hartwicke. Here it stayed until it was opened by Philastus Hurlbut and Jerome Clark in 1834. Hurlbut had visited Mrs. Davidson and Mrs. McKinstry in Munson, and obtained an order from them authorizing him to open the trunk, and examine the contents. We are ready now to introduce the person who was instrumental in giving to the world the "Book of Mormon." Sidney Rigdon... [pg. 044] ...Mr. Patterson remembers nothing of him. On the other hand Mrs. Davidson, Spaulding's wife, declares positively that he was connected with the office. Mr. Miller of Amity, Mr. McKee, and Dr. Dodd testify that Mr. Spaulding so informed them. There must have been some foundation for such positive impressions on the part of Mr. and Mrs. Spaulding, and many others. I think Mrs. Eichbaum who was clerk in the post office, in Pittsburg, from 1812 to 1816, gives the key to the matter. A young man by the name of Lambdin was in Mr. Patterson's employ and became his partner in 1818. She states that Rigdon and Lambdin were very intimate and that Mr. Engle [sic] foreman of Patterson's printing office complained that Rigdon was loafing around the office all the time; that Rigdon was working in a tannery at the time. The explanation then is that Rigdon was intimate with Lambdin one of the leading employees of Patterson, while he was working in a tannery in Pittsburg, and from this intimacy, persons supposed that he was in Patterson's employ; especially when he was around the office so much... Dr. Dodd who took care of Spaulding in his last illness declared that Spaulding's manuscript had been transformed into the Book of Mormon, and that Rigdon was the one who did it. He made this statement years before Howe's book appeared, the first public statement of such a theory. He did it on account of what he had heard of the Spaulding manuscript, and what Spaulding had told him. Mrs. Spaulding positively declares that Rigdon was connected with Patterson's office, when the manuscript was there, and that he copied it. That the manuscript was a subject of much curiosity and interest in the office. That it was well known that he had a copy of it... Mrs. Eichbaum's statement is confirmed by the fact that Rigdon went to work in a tannery when he quit preaching in 1824. He had learned the trade in 1812 to 1816. That Rigdon was in Pittsburg, when Spaulding's manuscript was in Patterson's office, learning the tanner's trade. He was intimate with Lambdin, an employee of Patterson. He was about the office so much that Engles complained that he was always hanging about. He was just such a person as would be excited over Spaulding's manuscript. He took great interest in it. That was what made him hang around the office. The manuscript was stolen and Spaulding said that Rigdon was suspected of taking it. Rigdon joined the Baptist church on Piney Fork of Peters creek May 31, 1817.... He embraced many of the teachings of Campbell and Scott. His church and Scott's often met together in worship. He was arraigned for such doctrinal errors and excluded Oct. 11, 1823. He preached for his adherents in the courthouse till the summer of 1824. Then for two years did no regular preaching. He says he studied the Bible and worked in a tannery... [pg. 045] ...In June 1826 Rigdon was invited to preach the funeral sermon of Warner Goodall of Mentor Ohio, and so pleased the congregation that they chose him their preacher and he became a Disciple preacher.... His favorite theme was the millennium, on which he was fond of declaiming, and entertained the ideas now found in the Book of Mormon. He was always talking of some great time coming, some great thing going to happen. He brought with him many of his Baptist ideas, and never accepted all Disciple teaching. His power in revivals and his love of revival excitement inclined him to the idea then popular in all churches, except the Disciples, of direct and immediate or miraculous power of the Holy Ghost.... His imagination and love of the marvelous lead him constantly into exaggerations, that often were absolute falsehoods.... He was a vain and showy pulpit orator but never was a trusted preacher among the Disciples. We propose now to show that Rigdon knew of the appearance of the Book of Mormon before it appeared, and knew of and described its contents. Adamson Bentley Rigdon's brother-in-law and one of the most reliable men that Ohio has ever known, declares... "I know that Sidney Rigdon told me as much as two years before the Mormon Book made its appearance, or had been heard of by me, that there was a book coming out, the manuscript of which was engraved on gold plates." We will now introduce Darwin Atwater of Mantua, who testifies: Sidney Rigdon...knew beforehand of the coming of the Book of Mormon is to me certain, from what he said during the first of his visits at my father's some years before (in 1826). He gave a wonderful description of the mounds and other antiquities found in some parts of America, and said that they must have been made by the aborigines. He said there was a book to be published containing an account of those things......Zebulon Rudolph, Mrs. Garfield's father testifies: "During the winter previous to the appearance of the Book of Mormon, Rigdon was in the habit of spending weeks away from home, going no one knew whither. He often appeared preoccupied and he would indulge in dreamy visionary talks which puzzled those who listened. When the Book of Mormon appeared and Rigdon joined in the advocacy of the new religion the suspicion was at once aroused that he was one of the framers of the new doctrine, and that probably he was not ignorant of the authorship of the Book of Mormon.John Rudolph, brother to Z. Rudolph, says: For two years before the Book of Mormon appeared, Almon B. Green, well known in Northern Ohio, says: In the Annual Meeting of the Mahoning Association held in Austintown in August, 1830, about two months before Sidney Rigdon's professed conversion to Mormonism, Rigdon preached Saturday afternoon. He had much to say about a full and complete restoration of the ancient gospel. He spoke in his glowing style of what the Disciples had accomplished but contended that we had not accomplished a complete restoration of Apostolic Christianity. He contended such restoration must include community of goods -- holding all in common stock, and a restoration of the spiritual gifts of the Apostolic Age. He promised that although we had not come up to the apostolic plan in full yet as we were improving God would soon give us a new and fuller revelation of his will. After the Book of Mormon had been read by many who heard Rigdon on that occasion they were perfectly satisfied that Rigdon knew all about that book when he preached that discourse... Scores of others who were present have made similar statements hundreds of times. Eri M. Dille testifies: In the Autumn of 1830 Sidney Rigdon held a meeting in the Baptist meeting-house on Euclid Creek. I was sick and did not attend the meeting, but my father repeatedly remarked while it was in progress that he was afraid that Rigdon was about to leave the Disciples for he was continually telling of what marvelous things he had seen in the heavens and of wonderful things about to happen, and his talks indicated that he would leave the Disciples . . . [pg. 052] MR. BRADEN'S FIFTH SPEECH ...I have here two books. One is "The Wonders of Nature and Providence," written by Josiah Priest, and copyrighted by him June 2d, 1824...It was from priest's book that Rigdon and the Pratt stole their arguments.... That ends all claim that Joe Smith must have obtained the idea by revelation. It shows that not only did Rigdon steal the book, but Mormons stole their arguments from Priest... [pg. 055] ...Rigdon visited Smith in the spring of 1827. The two concocted their scheme. Smith was to pretend to have a "Golden Bible," a book made of plates of gold, and pretend to translate it with his stolen peep stone. Spaulding had intended to pretend that his fabrication had been found in a mound, or in a cave... Rigdon always spoke of his fraud, when prophesying of its appearance, as a "Golden Bible." Smith, however, in publishing it, changed the name to the "Book of Mormon." ...In their conferences Impostor Joe told Rigdon of the existence of the other Spaulding manuscripts, then at Hartwicke, New York, in the house of Mrs. Davidson, formerly Spaulding's wife and widow. The two concocted a scheme to steal them and thus destroy all likelihood of detection of the theft of the Spaulding manuscript, and exposure of the fraud... Having, in possession, they supposed, all means of exposing their fraud, the confederates now went to work... What he actually did, was to read from Rigdon's manuscript which was a remodeling of Spaulding's Manuscript No. III... [pg. 056] ... Mrs. Harris took the manuscript and burned it, one night while her husband was asleep. There was dire consternation, and Rigdon appears on the stage. I want to call the reader's attention to a singular coincidence here. Mr. Lake, Spaulding's partner testifies that when Spaulding read to him his romance, Mormon Manuscript No. 1, he pointed out an inconsistency in the story of Laban which Spaulding promised to correct, but the same blunder is in the Book of Mormon. That can be explained. Spaulding no doubt did correct it in the manuscript prepared for the press, but when Mrs. Harris destroyed the 118 pages, Rigdon had to restore the stolen portion from an older manuscript, in which the blunder had not been corrected... [pg. 061] MR. BRADEN'S SIXTH SPEECH ...We have proved that Solomon Spaulding was an enthusiast in American antiquities, believed that the Indians were descendants of the Israelites. As an earnest advocate of such theories, and as an enthusiast in American antiquities, he was well versed in the literature of the subject, Seventeen witnesses of the highest character testify that he wrote his "Manuscript Found" assuming all of these facts and theories, pretending to give a history of the people who were the authors of these ruins and antiquities several years before the Book of Mormon appeared. That Rigdon stole his manuscript and interpolated the religious matter... [pg. 062] In the meantime Rigdon was preaching and working constantly to prepare the way for his scheme. He preached extravagant ideas of the millennium, such as are in the Book of Mormon -- community of goods -- restoration of miraculous gifts -- new revelations, and that something wonderful was going to happen... In June 1830 Rigdon attended the Annual Meeting of the Mahoning Association in Austintown. In an address he presented his hobbies in regard to return to community of goods, and restoration of spiritual gifts, a restoration of everything in the apostolic churches. He was signally defeated in discussion by Campbell... Rigdon returned home to Mentor. He sent for Pratt who came through Mentor in August, and went from Rigdon straight to Manchester, in the wilds of New York... Then he and Cowdry and Whitmer returned to Mentor. After weakly pretending to be ignorant of the scheme, and to oppose it, Rigdon is miraculously converted, by a vision, embraces Mormonism, goes to New York, he and Impostor Joe have a revelation, that Joe is the Moses, Sidney the Aaron of the movement... [pg. 064] There has been some controversy over Spaulding's motives and object in writing his Manuscript Found... He intended to assert that his book was copied from a manuscript dug out of the earth, or found in a cave. He expected to deceive the world except the learned few... No wonder he concealed his purposes from his wife and daughter. Howe says on page 289 of his history, that he has a letter in his possession that proves that Spaulding was skeptical (on religion) in his last days. If so we can understand his caricaturing the Bible in the way he did, in his romance. The Book of Mormon was in its inception a deliberate fraud, conceived by a backsliden preacher, who intended to foist it onto the world, the fraud by falsehood, stolen by another renegade preacher, who increased the blasphemy of the fraud by plagiarizing the Bible, so as to deceive the world by it as a revelation.... Mrs. Davidson declares that Hurlbut wrote to her from Hartwicke that he found the Manuscript and would return it to her when through with it.... [pg. 065] [Hurlbut came to Howe] with a lie and told him he only found a portion of an entirely different manuscript. He sold the manuscript to Rigdon and Smith, took the money and went to Western Ohio and bought a farm, and Mrs. Davidson and her daughter, Mrs. McKinstry, could never get a word of reply from him although they sent several letters to parties who wrote, they gave the letters to Hurlbut. This answers the Mormon "Why did not the Spauldings publish the 'Manuscript Found'?" Because Mormons had gotten it into their possession by bribing Hurlbut. ... the manuscript brought by Hurlbut was not what the ones sending him to search the trunk expected him to bring. It explains how the 116 pages of stolen manuscript were replaced. They were replaced from another Spaulding manuscript, probably Mormon manuscript No. II.... SUMMARY OF EVIDENCE original source: pages 065-066 [List of similarities between Spaulding's writings and the Book of Mormon, with references back to various witnesses] [pg. 067] ... We will now notice some of the retorts of Mormonism to this testimony. I. It is "the Spaulding story." ... [The Mormon Church] says there is a collusion in the [8 Conneaut witnesses'] testimony... There never were seventeen witnesses whose testimony was more independent, and marked with each one's personality than these.... The contents of the manuscripts were so peculiar that they would be remembered and recognized.... There was no suggestion of an attempt at religious persecution. Nor do the statements show any such spirit. They are remarkably calm and unsectarian in tone. [pg. 073] MR. BRADEN'S SEVENTH SPEECH ...We wish to call the attention to a fact strangely overlooked by former writers -- that Spaulding wrote several manuscripts.... When Mrs. Harris destroyed 118 pages Rigdon was sent for and he replaced them from another Spaulding manuscript... [pg. 074] ...We have proved that one of the accused, Rigdon, was around the place where the manuscript Spaulding had prepared for the press was last seen. That he took a deep interest in it. That Spaulding told James Miller and McKee and Dr. Dodd that his manuscript had been stolen and Rigdon was suspected of the theft. We have proved that Rigdon in 1822 or 3 showed the manuscript to Dr. Winters, stating that it was a manuscript that Spaulding a Presbyterian preacher had left with a printer, for publication, and that he had borrowed it from the printer to read as a curiosity .... [pg. 075] MORMON CHRONOLOGY original source: pages 075-077 [Braden's chronology of the coming forth of the Book of Mormon as it was adapted from Spaulding's works] [pg. 095] MR. BRADEN'S NINTH SPEECH ...In that first romance Spaulding assumed that the Indians round the Great Lakes were descendants of ship-wrecked Romans. He abandoned this theory and began the Manuscript Found, in which he assumed the aborigines of America and the ancestors of all Indians were Israelites. Howe does not say that he received the Manuscript Found and that the Manuscript Found was not what he expected it to be, as Kelley falsely asserts he says. He says that he did not receive the Manuscript Found but the manuscript of an earlier and entirely different story... [pg. 096] [In a letter written to] J. E. Gaston in 1842, Mrs. Davidson says that shortly after Hurlbut left Munson with the order from her to get the manuscript of the "Manuscript Found" from the trunk at Mr. Clark's at Hartwicke, N. Y., she received a letter from Hurlbut, in which he told her that he had obtained from the trunk what he had come for, the manuscript of "Manuscript Found," and that when he had taken it to the parties that sent him, and it had been used for the purpose for which they wanted it, that is published to expose the plagiarism of the Book of Mormon from it, he would return it to her. Hurlbut came to the people at Conneaut and Howe, and lied, and said that the only manuscript he found was the part of the manuscript we have described above [the Roman MS]. Up to this time he had been very active in getting up the book Howe published; he had spent months and much money in collecting the evidence used in it; now he suddenly abandons all, takes no further part or interest in it and goes to Western Ohio and buys a farm; when, before he had not money enough to pay his traveling expenses. Mrs. Davidson, on reading Howe's book and Hurlbut's statement as given in it, was amazed and wrote to him reminding him of what he had written to her and that the Clark's had written that he had got the manuscript of "Manuscript Found." She demanded that he return the manuscript to her.... The Rev. J. A. Clark published in the "Episcopal Recorder" that the Mormons in Missouri said they paid Howe [Hurlbut?] $400.00 for the manuscript. The Rev. Storrs in a letter published in "Gleanings by the Way" states that he [Hurlbut] made $400.00 out of the manuscript. He sold it to the Mormons in Kirtland. These charges Hurlbut never met.... Howe, the publisher, betrayed them and sold it to the Mormons. Hurlbut's false and contradictory statements and absurd stories to Mr. Patterson in 1880 proved that he was guilty of what he was charged with and was trying to lie out of it.... [pg. 109] [BRADEN'S 10th SPEECH] ... From [Book of Mormon] page 17 to page 32 Rigdon makes Nephi; and Lehi talk like preachers of the nineteenth century. They foretell the history of John the Baptist, Mary the mother of Jesus, and the ministry of Jesus, giving names of persons and places with great minuteness... Rigdon makes Nephi and Lehi discourse like Disciple preachers. They discuss all the leading topics of the gospel as Disciple preachers do, and discuss many themes of modern theology. They plagiarize Paul's parable of the olive tree. Lehi declares he has the Holy Spirit in the name of Christ and through faith in Christ 800 years before Christ came. Rigdon airs one of his hobbies that he retained from the Baptists and in which he differed from the Disciples. John tells us that the Holy Spirit was not given in that way till after Jesus was glorified... Rigdon tells us that Lehi and Nephi knew all about them 600 years before Paul lived [and] ... settles several questions of modern theology, and always in harmony with Rigdon's ideas... [pg. 111] ...These Nephites preached the Gospel of Christ as clearly as Sidney Rigdon could preach it, and as he preached it; and enjoyed every blessing of the Gospel as fully as Rigdon could... ...Who is such a sodden idiot as to believe that men in America preached all the doctrine of Christ and his apostles 600 years before they uttered it, in the exact words in which they uttered it, rather than that Sidney Rigdon interpolated these quotations into the manuscript he had stolen from Spaulding when he was remodeling it to make a "big thing of it" as a new revelation? ... [pg. 119] [BRADEN'S 11th SPEECH] ... If Mrs. Salisbury lied, as we have proved she did, in saying that Joe was at their father's, when he was not there, she would have lied in saying Rigdon was not there, when he was. Tucker, Mrs. Eaton, McAuley, Chase and Saunders say that he was there, and some say at least eighteen months before the Book appeared... [pg. 120] ... On page 119 King Jacob, alias Sidney Rigdon, preaches, and has a perfect knowledge of the atonement and modern theological speculations concerning it... The terse, beautiful parables of our Savior concerning the unfruitful tree, the husbandman and his vinyard, and Paul's parable of the olive tree, that would not cover a page of the Book of Mormon, are diluted, caricatured, and mixed and spread over eight pages, as only hifaluting Sidney could do it... [pg. 121] ... In the next chapter we have a debate between Jacob and a Deist, in which the mediatorship of Christ, the atonement, and kindred New Testament ideas and modern theological speculations are discussed, very much after the manner they were in controversies between Rigdon and a skeptical Justice of the Peace in Beaver County, Pa., to which my father [Mr. Braden] listened about sixty years ago.... ... Seriously, now, as persons of sense, shall we believe that an Israelite, under the law of Moses, preached in that way, 150 years before the birth of Christ? Or that Rigdon interpolated these sentences from the New Testament, these phrases from modern theology, the revivalisms of his own, into the MS he stole from Spaulding -- when he was fixing it up to make "a big thing" out of it as a new revelation? [pg. 122] ... On page 277 we have doctrine taught that is as clearly the work of Rigdon as is his blackguard letter to the "Boston Journal," or his glorification of King Ahasuerus' horse. Immersion for the remission of sins is preached over 100 years before John the Baptist, and in the name of Christ, more than 150 years before the days of Pentacost, just as Disciple preachers preach it; and to clinch the matter, that it is Rigdon, immersion in the name of Christ is for the miraculous gift of the Holy Spirit, what Rigdon believed and brought from the Baptists, and the Disciples do not believe. Observe the teachings agrees with the Disciples as far as Rigdon agreed with them, and disagrees with them, just where he differed from them. ... This was followed by a regular series of Rigdonish revivals, under preachers preaching like Rigdon, the gospel in all of its fullness, according to Rigdon's notions... Let me ask any person of common sense which do you believe, that an Israelite, under the law of Moses, preached in that way, in the exact words of Christ and his apostles, more than 100 years before Christ? Or has Rigdon interpolated one of his exhortations into the manuscript he stole from Spaulding when he was making "a big thing," in the shape of a new revelation out of it? Old acquaintances of Rigdon in this audience can almost hear hifalutin, spread eagle Sidney in one of his revival exhortations, as they hear that language. [pg. 128] MR. BRADEN'S TWELFTH SPEECH ... that settles the vexed question in favor of a literal resurrection. God inspired the Nephite Amalek, long before the birth of Christ, to explain the resurrection and temporal death and spiritual death, just as Rigdon believed. On page 238 a soul-sleeper is silenced with [Rigdon's ideas on eschatology]... [pg. 129] ...and what is more miraculous, these Nephites always agree exactly with Rigdon's theology in their revelations.... ... Walter Scott and others [Campbellites] insisted that they should be called "Christians," and that the Church should be called "the Church of God" or "Church of Christ." Rigdon agreed with Scott.... inserting into his stolen manuscript his ideas, he contradicted the New Testament concerning the time the name Christian was first given... the most singular fact is that the Lord agreed with Rigdon in all of these revelations that he gave these highly favored Nephites. How highly favored these old prophets were in receiving, by inspiration from God, all of Rigdon's theology 1800 years before the advent of Sidney. [pg. 130] ...After this our Savior, who has been resurrected at Jerusalem, appears on this continent and preaches one of Sidney Rigdon's discourses to them, and commands them to use Sidney Rigdon's baptismal formula, "Having authority given me of Jesus Christ, I baptize you in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost." By the way, Sidney dropped the Disciple peculiarity of saying "Spirit" instead of "Ghost," and went back to his old Baptist formula... ... Then Sidney goes for the Disciples who would not accept the Baptist idea of a direct and miraculous influence of the Holy Spirit. We have Sidney's ideas for several pages and one of his exhortations in his most approved camp meeting style... [pg. 131] ...When Spaulding went to Pittsburg, at Patterson's request, he rewrote the romance, writing Mormon Manuscript No. III and adding the Jaredite portion. He overlooked this language of Moroni [that the plates were full] with which he had appropriately closed the Manuscript No. II and as the Book of Mormon now stands, Moroni wrote 56 pages -- the whole of the Jaredite portion [on] nothing, for his plates were full, and he could write no more. That one blunder is enough to condemn this fraud.... [pp. 141-143] [BRADEN'S 13th SPEECH. ] Mormon out in the wilds of America... preaches Sidney Rigdon's sermon against infant baptism and quotes scores of passages and phrases from the New Testament. What an insult to common sense to ask us to believe that an Israelite, in the wilds of America, over one thousand years after his people had any communication with the old continent or knew about its troubles over "infant baptism" just beginning, preached in America, 1400 years before Rigdon was born, Rigdon's rant against infant baptism.... The Holy Ghost says to Moroni "Listen to the words of Christ," and then we have over twenty quotations of the sentences and phrases from the New Testament. No, Sidney, the Holy Ghost never said that to Moroni. You used to say just such things to your hearers in your sermon on infant baptism, and you have interpolated your sermon into the manuscript you stole from Spaulding. [pg. 151] [BRADEN'S 14th SPEECH] Sidney Rigdon was famous for his power in revival excitements. He had his revival expressions common to the camp meeting style of his day. The Book of Mormon is full of them, such as "I am encircled about eternally in the arms of his love," . . . "Have ye been spiritually born of God:" "If he have experienced a change of heart:" "If ye have felt to sing the songs of his redeeming love:" "For the arms of mercy are extended towards you." The last expression occurs several times in the book. "Ye shall awake to a sense of your awful condition," . . . "Many died firmly believing that their souls were redeemed by the Lord Jesus Christ," . . . "Have they not revealed the plan of salvation?" . . . Disciple all over . . . Rigdon all over . . . "I glory in my Jesus, for he has saved my soul from hell." "Enter into the narrow gate and walk in the straight way which leads to life." A Regular Baptist experience and exhortation . . . We might quote Rigdon's pet revival expressions by the page. [pg. 161] [BRADEN'S 15th SPEECH] We have proved by historic evidence that Rigdon remodeled Spaulding's manuscript, interpolating the religious portion . . . We have proved by the Rigdonisms in the Book of Mormon that it is his work. His belief in immersion, believer's baptism, baptism for the remission of sins, free grace, opposition to infant baptism, opposition to the doctrines of total hereditary depravity that borders on Pelagianism. These were the ideas of the Disciples then. His opposition to secret societies, denunciation of sectarianism. When he agreed with the Disciples we have Disciples teaching, but when he differed, their teaching is bitterly opposed. He contends for community of goods. He retained the Baptist idea of direct and miraculous power of the Holy Spirit. This led him to contend for baptism of the Holy Spirit, baptism to receive miraculous gifts of the Holy Ghost. Imparting spiritual gifts by laying on of hands. Restoration of miracles, revelations and spiritual powers of the Apostolic church. We also have the fall down power of Rigdon's revivals, and that he was subject to himself, When he agreed with the Disciples, the Book of Mormon agrees with them. When he differs from them it differs bitterly. Take for instance his bitter denunciation of those who say, "We have the Bible, we need no new revelation." He is especially bitter over this, and his book is full of instances of the miraculous power of the Holy Spirit, such as he contended for. We have his pet expressions, his revivalisms, his baptismal formula, his rant against infant baptism. The child is not more clearly the offspring of his parent than the religious portion of the Book of Mormon is the work of Sidney Rigdon... [pg. 170] [BRADEN'S 16th SPEECH] ... The prophecies in the Book of Mormon begin with Christ's mother's name, and they foretell every incident of his career with the minuteness of history. They even foretell his exact language, a thing the Bible does not do in a single instance, and close with his ascension. We have as exact history as we have in the New Testament. Rigdon was determined that his prophecies should excel the Bible, and he copied the New Testament to such an extent that the fraud is as impudent... ... The arguments of those who contended, as the Disciples did with Rigdon, that we have a perfect revelation in the Bible, are elaborately stated and answered with all the bitterness that Rigdon felt against the Disciples because they rejected his fanatical hobbies.... [pg. 192] [BRADEN'S 18th SPEECH] ... Rigdon's letter to the Boston Journal showed, in misspelled words, grammatical blunders, lack of capitals and punctuation, that he was illiterate. That Rigdon preached the peculiarities of Mormonism for two or more years before he joined them is notorious. Darwin Atwater mentions it. So does Campbell, Bentley, Zeb Rudolph, John Rudolph, and A.B. Green and Dille. He advocated community of goods, and especially the idea that a restoration of the apostolic church must include spiritual gifts, miracles and revelations, the pet hobby of Mormonism. My opponent himself has stated that Rigdon had a contest with Campbell over these peculiar doctrines of the Book of Mormon before he joined the Mormons... [p. 193] ...We have proved that all that my opponent can cite in the Book of Mormon, as sustained by research, is just what the witnesses say Spaulding knew and put into his romance. The [8 Conneaut] witnesses are not witnesses that mentioned their evidence, as was the case with Mrs. Salisbury and the witnesses of my opponent, or they would have claimed to know more than they did. They repudiate the religious portion of the Book of Mormon as an addition to Spaulding's romance. They do not mention the Jaredite portion; but one mentions the Zarahemlite portion. They do not exaggerate their recollection of the historic part of the Nephite portion. If ever there were cautious, conscientious witnesses they are... [p. 216] ...We proved by the concurrent testimony of seventeen witnesses, one of them Rigdon himself, that Solomon Spaulding wrote a romance called the "Manuscript Found;" that he wrote three drafts or manuscripts of this romance and part of another before his death. We have proved that the "Manuscript Found" had in it these features found in the Book of Mormon, and found in no other books but the Book of Mormon and the "Manuscript Found" [27 points of identity: original source, pp. 216-217] [pg. 217] ...We proved by Atwater, Dille, Z. Rudolph, John Rudolph, Green, and by Kelley himself, that Rigdon preached and advocated the doctrines in which the Book of Mormon differs from the Disciples, the peculiar ideas of the Book. That he so indoctrinated all his hearers, where he could, that every Rigdonite became a Mormon, when he became one.... ...We then gave a chronology of Mormonism showing that our history of the book accorded exactly with every demand of history. We then proved by the Rigdonisms in the Book of Mormon that Rigdon is its author. We found that no one but a Disciple preacher of the time when it appeared, could have been its author, used its language, and uttered its teachings. We showed that where Rigdon agreed with the Disciples, the Book agreed with them. Where he disagreed it disagreed and very bitterly too. That it advocates Rigdon's ideas on community of goods, restoration of spiritual gifts, new revelations, his fall-down power to which he was subject.... [pg. 218] ... it contains his baptismal formula, his revival expressions, his rant, bombast, fustian and spread-eagle. That it has every mark of being arranged by one mind, not many, as Mormons claim. The style is a unit, not diverse as is the case in the Bible. That one mind is Rigdon... [pg. 356] PROPOSITION 3: MR. BRADEN'S SIXTH SPEECH ...The real originator of Mormonism was Sidney Rigdon, who only intended to use Smith as his tool, to get the fraud before the world, as a miracle and revelation, through his stolen peep-stone. But Smith proved to be a deeper schemer than even Rigdon. When Rigdon allowed Joe to go before the world first, to usher in, and conduct the movement for months, as his prophet, and [Rigdon] came in only as a convert, he gave away his chances to be leader... Smith always held Rigdon in the position he assumed when he embraced Mormonism openly, that of a mere convert, and never allowed him to assume his real position, the author of the whole fraud and the one who intended to be leader... ... Since the discussion began I have come in possession of the following facts: James Jeffery of Churchville, Hartford Co., Maryland, in a statement dictated to Rev. Calvin D. Wilson, in the presence of his wife, declares: Forty years ago I was in business in St. Louis. The Mormons then had their temple in Nauvoo, Ill. I had business transactions with them. I knew Sidney Rigdon. He acted as general manager of the business of the Mormons (with me). Rigdon told me several tines in his conversations with me, that there was in the printing office with which he was connected in Ohio, a manuscript of the Rev. Solomon Spaulding's, tracing the origin of the Indian race from the lost tribes of Israel. This manuscript was in the office several years. He was familiar with it. Spaulding wanted it published, but had not the means to pay for the printing. He (Rigdon) and Joe Smith used to look over the manuscript and read it on Sundays: Rigdon Said Smith took the manuscript and said "I'll print it," and he went off to Palmyra, N.Y. [pg. 357] [Rigdon, on Sept. 14. 1844] was called by a committee of the Twelve Apostles. In the conversation with them he told them that they dare not reject him. If they did, he would reveal their secrets. On the 15th and 16th Brigham Young and others denounced him for such threats. They rejected him and expelled him September 16th. In an article in the "Times and Seasons" of May 1st, 1845, reprinted from the Kalamazoo Gazette, and signed E. M. Webb, Rigdon is bitterly denounced for his exposures of Mormonism. In a conversation with Dr. Silas Sheppard, some time after his return to Pennsylvania from Nauvoo, in response to Dr. Sheppard's request that he would now, since he had, as he declared to Dr. Sheppard, renounced all connection with Mormonism forever, tell him, Dr. Sheppard, the truth, in regard to the Book of Mormon; Rigdon replied, "Dr. Sheppard, my mouth is forever sealed on that subject." ... Now let us collate the facts, I. Rigdon becomes intimate with Mr. Jeffery, while acting for the Mormons in business transactions. II Rigdon threatens the Mormons in the Fall of 1844, that he would divulge their secrets, if they reject him in his attempt to be President. III They reject him. IV On his way back East, and while in St. Louis, he fulfills his threats, and tells Mr. Jeffery that Spaulding's manuscript was taken to a printing office. That he got it from the office. That he and Smith examined it together. That he gave it to Smith to publish. V About the same time Mormon papers are denouncing him bitterly for his exposures. VI A change comes over the spirit of his dream. He announces that he has renounced Mormonism forever, but that his mouth is forever sealed in regard to matters that he had been freely making public. The key to the matter is, Rigdon had failed to get a party to follow him. He could make nothing out of Mormonism. He began to tell their secrets as he declared (he) would. Mormon agents visited him. They could not let him talk any more. They offered him two alternatives. Money and silence, or Danite vengeance. Rigdon had sent the Danites on their murderous errands too often not to know what they meant. He took the bribe, and his mouth was forever sealed... ...[Rigdon] was expelled from the Baptist church and preached a short time to his malcontents in the [Pittsburgh] court house. He resumed working at his trade, a tanner, and began to fix up the manuscript he had stolen from the printing office. During this time he resumed his infidelity and talked it openly and freely, as old citizens of Pittsburg and Pennsylvania testify. On a visit to a relative near where the author's [Braden's] father had charge of a stone yard, he used to spend hours in sitting near the author's father and talking his doubts and skepticism... [pg. 367] [BRADEN'S 7th SPEECH] ...We have already exposed the violence and intolerance exhibited by Mormonism. It began in abuse of all who would not accept the fraud, and has since been carried on by violence, denunciation and vilification of all who oppose it. It began with abuse of all who opposed it in New York. This was carried to violence and plotting assassination in Kirtland.... [pg. 391] ... APPENDIX, No. 2. Evidence of Witnesses produced on the Part of E. L. Kelley Reuben P. Harmon, being duly sworn, testifies as follows:... [pg. 392] ...I heard [Rigdon] preach a funeral sermon in 1829. I heard him preach frequently after that. He is a man, I should judge, who had acquired a classical education. I would regard him as a good English scholar, and, perhaps, as well versed in the Bible and history as any other man that I ever heard speak; having read Grecian and Roman history, he frequently used descriptions from these authors. He was eloquent in language, and an excellent speaker, and carried an audience with him. He established a church in Mentor, also came and held a revival in Kirtland. The meeting-house, a one-story building, was completed in Mentor at the time when Oliver Cowdery and Parley P. Pratt come on here. I heard Sidney Rigdon (in) the last speech that he made while he officiated as a Disciple preacher. He said he had been mistaken all his life-long, and he quit preaching and went into Mr. Morely's field and went to plowing. Worked at common labor for some time, until he took up the Latter Day Saint doctrine and began to preach it. He did not go to preaching right away after he left the Disciple church. I heard him make the remark that he never expected to speak in public again. There was quite a church of the Disciples here in Kirtland, and he carried a portion of them with him into the Latter Day Saints' church... [pg. 393] ... [Hurlbut] went on and got affidavits. The meeting was held in the Presbyterian church... He did not get the manuscript at all, that I know of. I never saw the manuscript. He said he saw a man who had read the Book of Mormon, and that he said that it resembled the manuscript.Q. Did you see him after he returned from the widow of Solomon Spaulding, where he went to get the manuscript? A. No, sir... |
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"Sampler" of Excerpts
Edmund L. Kelley was the brother of William H. Kelley, who was made an RLDS Apostle in 1873. Edmund was a prominent member of the RLDS First Quorum of Priests, prior to his being chosen a counselor to President Joseph Smith III in 1897. Edmund became the RLDS Presiding Bishop in 1902. Edmund continued his interest in the Spalding authorship claims by visiting Oberlin College's President James H. Fairchild in July of 1885 and obtaining a copy of the Oberlin Spalding manuscript (which the RLDS published later that same year). [pg. 047] MR. KELLEY'S FIFTH SPEECH ... The Spaulding Romance no doubt will still be the means of entertaining you upon the part of the negative, as it seems to be a much easier task for him to spin out that yarn, than to attempt to answer the arguments of the affirmative. I will promise you one thing however, that is, that the Spaulding tale shall not go unanswered, if the arguments of the affirmative are. I will show you before the close of the discussion of this question, if the negative holds out the time agreed upon, that, that thing is so rotten and deceitful in conception, so false and malicious in publication, so absurd and ridiculous in belief, that you shall in your hearts feel ashamed that you ever entertained the thought, that there might be something in it.... [pg. 068] [KELLEY'S 7th SPEECH] ... it was speculative, long prior to the publication of the Book of Mormon, that the ten lost tribes of Israel had been led to this country, and that afterwards they had dwindled into barbarism... that was one of the main theories at the time of the publication of the Book of Mormon. ... There was one English publication in 1822 [on the high state of extinct Meso-American ancient civilizations]... suppose that they had heard of the publication of the work and that it had been all over the country in 1822, and that it contained anything of these great cities: -- what would it benefit my opponent in this argument? His claim is that this "Romance" was written by one Solomon Spaulding in 1811. Well, if it was written in 1811, and the historical part of it gotten up by Mr. Spaulding, could Mr. Spaulding write correctly of these things when he (in 1811) did not know about them unless he was a prophet? Why not God inspire Smith to write and antedate these discoveries as well as Spaulding? The argument is, that neither Smith nor Spaulding could get these things out, for the manuscript of the Book of Mormon as they are described therein as early as the year 1829, (or 1811), and as they have since been found correct by the best authors.... [pg. 069] ...A few persons under the guidance and leadership of one Philaster Hulburt, who, at the time had been cut off from the church of the Latter Day Saints for bad conduct, and who had publicly confessed his crime and had been taken back upon his profession of repentance... and was again cut off; and a few others at Conneaut, Ohio, of a like stamp, got together in 1833, with the Book of Mormon in their hands and vengeance and hatred in their hearts and got up some affidavits as to a story which it was surmised had been written before by Solomon Spaulding, a broken down clergyman of that place... ... A few of the best citizens of Ohio, at Conneaut, got together one night and appointed one of their number, to wit, the said Dr. Hulburt, who had before been ostracized from the Latter Day Saints for an open insult to a young lady in Kirtland, to go to New York, Pennsylvania, and other places, to get statements... [pg. 070] ... It is said... that at one time a niece of Sidney Rigdon once saw him go to an old trunk, take out a manuscript, go to the fireplace and read it... Rigdon might have a hundred manuscripts and read them... and each and every one of them altogether different from the Spaulding manuscript... Mr. Rudolph says, so Braden says, that one time during the year 1827, Sidney Rigdon, who was their pastor at Mentor, Ohio, went off some place and was away two or three weeks and they did not know where he went to. It might have been over to Hiram, down to Mantua, to Cleveland or Cincinnati.... Where is his witnesses showing where Rigdon was at this time, or that he was in New York? There is none... when I come to ask for the evidence, I find out the whole thing is trumped up to defeat Sidney Rigdon because he left their [Campbellite] church.... [pg. 080] [KELLEY'S 8th SPEECH. ...did Spaulding ever write such a manuscript (of the Book of Mormon)? I claim that he did not.... The manuscript Spaulding is said to have written was too meager a thing to in any sense compare with a manuscript that would make a book the size of the Book of Mormon... the character of the "Manuscript Found" which is the one all rely upon as the romance was entirely different from the Book of Mormon.... He was such an invalid at the time it is alleged he wrote his manuscript, that it would have been impossible for him... to have written such a manuscript... [pp. 082-83] ... Then the following interview with Mrs. McKinstry on April 4th, 1882, in Washington City: -- Q. Mrs. McKinstry, have you the "Manuscript Found" Mr. Solomon Spaulding is said to have written, in your possession?*[Kelley's notes]: That is the way she identified it -- on account of the word Lehi beginning with a very fancy capital letter. Suppose instead of being Lehi the word had been Levi. Would not the capital letter have been just the same and might there not have been the same fancy about it? . . . ** These parties were the old neighbors Aaron Wright, Miller, etc. [pg. 083] August, 1883, is another important interview. I will give the evidence of Mr. Howe, but not claim it as evidence if my friend upon the other side of the question will put him on the stand here for cross-examination. It is as follows: -- Q. Mr. Howe, did Hulburt bring the manuscript to you he got of Mrs. (Spaulding) Davidson?Now, who has got the stolen property that he has made such a parade over? These other parties who are seeking for evidence in order to show that Mr. Smith has stolen property in his possession go and get the original manuscript -- the manuscript in the handwriting of Solomon Spaulding -- in the penmanship of Solomon Spaulding, and they bring it here to Painsville, Ohio and it is traced into the hands of Mr. Howe and Mr. Hulburt, the ones that are determined to crush out the faith of the church: -- And what do they do? Publish it? Keep it? Preserve it? Oh no! "They did not use it," Why did they not use it? The reason is too evident to require naming. Ten words preserved in Mr. Spaulding's handwriting would have been sufficient to have identified the two if the Book of Mormon was the same. And these opposers, both sworn enemies of Mr. Smith and the Book of Mormon . . . deliberately destroyed the "Manuscript Found," which they got from Mrs. (Spaulding) Davidson, and published their statements and affidavits, instead of the manuscript they got... But now I will continue with Mr. Howe's statement of last summer: [Q.] What do you know personally about the Book of Mormon and the Spaulding story being the same? [pg. 091] [KELLEY'S 9th SPEECH.] Hulburt and Howe in their madness had before this, skulked down to Conneaut for a few of these ready witnesses who were embittered against the Saints (for a large number of people had accepted the faith about Conneaut, Mantua and other places, and thus made the sects rage), got the parties to sign their stuff which they had garbled from the Book of Mormon... [pp. 100-101] MR. KELLEY'S TENTH SPEECH ... Rigdon had been an enthusiastic and constant laborer in the "Reform Movement," as it was then called... and his time so occupied in his ministerial labors that it was not possible for him to have left his work and duties to visit Smith... ... I, Katherine Salisbury, being duly sworn, depose and say, that I am a resident of the state of Illinois, and have been for forty years last past; that I will be sixty-eight years of age, July 28th, 1881....The persons [at Conneaut] who had the manuscript in their possession and claimed that their affidavits were true, were the very ones who destroyed the manuscript lest it destroy their affidavits... In the very places where they say Spaulding's manuscript was best known is where the Saints gathered many converts and were the most successful in disproving these stories... ... John Spaulding, nor no other Spaulding, ever arose in any meeting of the Saints and made any such claim. It would never have been done without the Minister reporting it to the society and none was ever made. John Spaulding never placed himself where he could be cross-examined on this matter,... Smith, he [Braden] says, worked for Sabine in 1823 or 1824, and this is when the second revelation came out. He had access to the Spaulding story... Mrs. Spaulding and her daughter were at Sabine's till 1820, when Mrs. Spaulding got married to Davidson. Then they leave and order their trunk sent to Jerome Clark... [But] Smith did not work for Sabine as they claim in 1823 or 1824. He was then a boy in Wayne County, New York, at least 50 miles from where Sabine lived... [pg. 115] I cannot take as evidence anything that has passed through such hands as Mr. Hulburt and Howe, unless I have the original statement to compare, or it can be proven outside in some way that these statements that he [Braden] has been referring to... are unaltered and genuine... Here is where he gets his John Spaulding, Martha Spaulding, Henry Lake, John Miller, Aaron Wright, Oliver Smith and Nahum Howard. Do you want me to swallow their contradictory, self-accusing, wholly improbable, malicious falsehoods rather than accept the truth...? [pg. 124] [KELLEY's 12th SPEECH] This [Adamson Bentley's 1841 letter to Scott] is a genuine Campbellite letter... He is Sidney Rigdon's brother-in-law... intimate with Rigdon all along; during the years 1823-30; the two working together, preaching together; and Bentley knew perfectly well that Rigdon could have had no more to do in getting up the Book of Mormon than he had and yet because Rigdon held united with the Saints he was mad and wanted to destroy him... [pg. 125] . . . Suppose the memory of Mr. Campbell to be entirely correct... [and] Sidney Rigdon stated in his presence in the year 1826 or '27... that some plates of gold had been dug up in that State [NY], giving an account of the aborigines of this country and stating that the Christian religion had been preached in this country... what have we? Simply that Sidney Rigdon stated in his presence in the year 1826 or '27 that there was a claim made by some person in New York State, not even the name of the party then known to him it seems, that some plates of gold had been dug up in that State, giving an account of the aborigines of this country and stating that the Christian religion had been preached in this country just as... [by the Campbellites] on the Western Reserve. [pg. 133] MR. KELLEY'S THIRTEENTH SPEECH ... these persons [Spalding claims supporters] never get his -- Patterson' s -- statement, although he lived 20 years after they started the story... However, Wm. Small, of Camden, N. J., in the meantime goes to this same Patterson in Pittsburg, and he makes affidavit to the fact that he never knew anything about such a manuscript... [pg. 134] And Howe writes Mrs. Davidson a letter... saying, "It did not read as we expected, and we did not use it:" but never once hints that it was the wrong manuscript... he never once in his letter to them asks if they did not have another manuscript somewhere of Spaulding's, or if they had any means of telling whether he had the right one or whether Hulbert had played off on him and given him the wrong one... ... the copiers of the pretended statements must have taken [their statements' information] from the Book of Mormon, as this was four years after its publication, and done when they have the book before them... [pg. 135] ... this same Robert Patterson [Junior], in 1882, suppresses in his publication this claim of his father, and gives the purported statement as obtained from one, Rev. (?) Samuel Williams who wrote up a list of stories for publication against the Saints, when the first three lines of the statement clearly show that it is a fraud, and that Patterson never had anything to do with it whatever. It is as follows: -- "R. Patterson had in his employment Silas Engles at the time, a foreman printer," etc., then signed at the bottom, "Robert Patterson." This is certainly enough on this. The statement of Mrs. [Maria S.] Hulburt, made on Tuesday, February 5th, 1884, I now submit to you: -- She said that, Mr. Hurlbut never obtained but one manuscript from Mrs. Davison. That one he let E. D. Howe have. When Mrs. (Spaulding) Davison let him have it, he said he promised to return it; and when he let Howe have it, Howe promised to restore it to Mrs. Spaulding, but he never did. Hulburt spent about six months time and a good deal of money looking up the Spaulding manuscript and other evidence, but he was disappointed in not finding what he wanted. This was the reason he turned the whole thing over to Howe. He never was satisfied with what he found, and while on his death-bed he would have given everything he had in the world, could he have been certain there was ever a "Manuscript Found," as claimed, similar to the Book of Mormon.This is overwhelming proof, showing there was never any such manuscript as they claimed Spaulding wrote, and that they got the quire of paper upon which he did write. It is the confirming proof, too, of Howe's guilt. Why did he not do as he agreed, send the manuscript which he got back to Mrs. Davison? The reason is too plain to be concealed for a moment. He is so anxious to have it destroyed that he violates his agreement to return "as soon as used." Why did he not return it when "it did not read as they expected," at the time he wrote to Mrs. Davidson? Shame on such trickery! I might also introduce the emphatic statement of Mrs. Emma Smith, wife of Joseph Smith the Seer. She positively states: "That no acquaintance was formed between Sidney Rigdon and the Smith family till after the church was organized in the year 1830. That neither (her husband nor herself) ever saw Sidney Rigdon until long after the Book of Mormon was in print.".... Also the positive declaration of David Whitmer, made at Richmond, Mo., April 1882, in answer to a question asked him in the presence of a number of persons... "That the Book of Mormon was published long before Sidney Rigdon was known to our [the witnesses'] family, or the Smiths; that I know that the story told of the Spaulding romance in connection with the Book of Mormon is false." [pg. 136] Add to this the statement of Braden's witness, Gilbert, who said in my presence, that he had tried for 50 years or near that long to find out something that would connect Rigdon and Smith together in some way, he living at Palmyra, N.Y., all this time as shown in his testimony, and who stated at the same time, that "they could not find out that Rigdon was ever about here or in this state until sometime in the fall of 1830,"... [pg. 155] [KELLEY'S 15th SPEECH] Tell me the faith that is a living active principle as taught in the Book of Mormon was taken from the Campbellites! They never believed or taught the principle of restoration in repentance as set forth in the Book of Mormon: Nor did Sidney Rigdon till after his conversion to the faith the last part of the year 1830. They never taught or believed in the baptism of the Holy Spirit except as a thing of the past, nor did Rigdon till after 1830. They never believed in contending for the faith once delivered to the Saints as [p. 156] that book teaches; but they contended only a part of it, a very small part at that; neither did Rigdon till after his conversion in 1830. They never believed in a divine call to the ministry, nor do they now, claim that their ministers are so called; nor did Sidney Rigdon till after his conversion in 1830. They do not believe in the laying on of hands for the gift of the Holy Spirit, nor did Rigdon till after his conversion in 1830. They do not believe in God answering the penitent child for wisdom by any communication directly to him, or by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, nor did Rigdon till 1830. They do not believe in the signs of the Gospel as spoken of by Jesus attending the believer, nor did Rigdon till 1830. They do not believe in the organization of the Church as spoken of in the 12th of Cor., 10th of Matt., and 4th of Eph., nor did Rigdon till 1830... [pg. 167] . . . Mr. Braden's reasoning is like this: Joseph Smith was an unlearned boy, with a limited vocabulary of words, as the vocabulary of all unlearned persons is of few words when compared with the scholarly. The Book of Mormon is in the language of such an unlearned and illiterate boy; Sidney Rigdon and Solomon Spaulding were educated, able and well-informed men, and ministers... Sidney Rigdon, so far as the use of language is concerned, was one of the most eloquent men that this nation has ever produced... [pg. 364] [THIRD PROPOSITION] KELLEY'S 7th SPEECH] ... Gilbert tried to get his [Orlando's] brother, Lorenzo Saunders, who was only 9 years of age in 1830, to swear that he saw Sidney Rigdon at Smith's in 1827, and he refused to make the statement; and yet, Braden has reported it in this discussion as though it was true... [pg. 365] Next I turn to his new witness, Jeffries, who got acquainted with Rigdon in 1844, when Rigdon did business for the Mormons in Nauvoo, so he says; but Rigdon did not do the business for them neither in 1844, 1843 or any other time... He never told Jeffries such thing at any time, and never at any time in his life claimed or pretended to claim he ever knew anything about Joseph Smith until after October, 1830... |
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Transcriber's Comments
Rev. Clark Braden Biographical Sketches of the Rev. Clark Braden (1831-1915) CLARK BRADEN was born in the Disciples of Christ stronghold of Gustavus township, Trumbull Co., Ohio, in 1831. His father Robert Braden, was then living not far from the residence of Erastus Cowdery, elder brother of Oliver Cowdery. Clark Braden's father had known Sidney Rigdon during Rigdon's Pittsburgh years and no doubt he monitored the famous "Reformed Baptist" preacher's progress as a Mormon during the 1830s in northern Ohio. Clark Braden married Sarah Northway on Nov. 2, 1856 in Rome, Ashtabula Co., Ohio. Their son was Bion Braden, born in 1858 in Rome. From 1866 to 1870 Clark Braden served as the first President of Southern Illinois College at Carbondale. Rev. Braden also served as the editor of the Disciple newspaper, Herald of Truth. He moved his family to Pawnee City, Nebraska in 1870: Sarah Northway Braden died there late in 1870 or early in 1871. Clark Braden next married Mary Elizabeth Edson, on Jan. 26, 1872, at Galva, Henry Co, Illinois. He briefly served as the pastor of the Disciple congregation in Bloomington, Illinois in 1873. The couple had one son, Clark Edson Braden, born Jul. 30, 1875, at Abingdon, Knox Co, From 1876 to 1877 Clark Braden served as President of Abingdon College. (Between late 1873 and late 1875 Clark Braden apparently served briefly in that same capacity at "Christian College" in Abingdon). Mary E. Braden died Sep. 8, 1878, at Abingdon. Rev. Braden spent much of the 1880s and 1890s engaging in public debates on religious topics. From 1899 to 1900 he returned to the academic world for a short time, filling the presidency at Southern Illinois Christian College. He died on Mar. 6, 1915, at the home of his son in Carbon, California. from: Warren's 1910 Centennial Convention Report Clark Braden was born Aug. 8, 1831, in Gustavus, Trumbull Co., O. He was immersed by Calvin Smith, Feb. 28, 1855, in Rome, Ashtabula Co., O. He has been preaching nearly fifty-five years. He has been what is called "pastor" for twenty-five congregations, and has been regular preacher for as many more. He has taught school sixty-nine terms of three months. He, has been president of Elgin College, Abingdon College, Southern Illinois College and Southern Illinois Christian College. He edited a Christian paper, the Herald of Truth. He is author of the "Braden-Hughey Debate," the "Braden-Kelly Debate," the "Problem of Problems," "Ingersoll Unmasked," "Errors in Regard to the Trial and Crucifixion of Christ."He has delivered more than three thousand lectures in nearly every State in the United States and Provinces of Canada. He can give time, place, proposition and opponent of more than 130 regular debates that had moderators and two written debates. He has held more debates than any other member of the churches of Christ. J. S. Sweeney comes next with 113 debates. He has held forty debates with champions of both wings of infidelity, materialism and spiritism -- more debates than any other man living or that has lived. He has met in debate B. F. Underwood, the American champion; Charles Watts, the British champion of materialism, and Moses Hull, the champion of spiritism. He has debated the action, subjects and design of baptism, the work of the Holy Spirit, human creeds, justification by faith only, church organization, soul-sleeping, kingdom-come-ism, Seventh-day-ism, and Universalism. He has held eighteen debates with Mormons. He was challenged three times to debate with Ingersoll. Ingersoll was challenged three times to debate with Clark Braden. And six times Ingersoll backed out. He gave as his reason, and I beg your pardon for saying this, "I'll be G-- d----d if Bob don't know what he's doing. I am not such a G-- d----d fool as to place myself on the platform for six nights of debate with that fellow. Why, d--n it, he would wear me out." When S. P. Putnam, president of the Infidel Leagues of America, refused to debate with Clark Braden, Clark Braden chased him and replied to him until infidels, disgusted with Putnam's cowardice, forced him to quit the field. Charles Watts backed out of defiant challenges and left the Maritime Provinces of Canada when Clark Braden was selected to meet him. The Infidel Leagues of Canada backed out of challenges when Braden was selected to meet them. In 1889, in the last of eleven debates with Clark Braden, B. F. Underwood backed out in the middle of the debate, and took the first train next morning. Infidels withdrew their indorsement of Jamieson and closed the last debate with Jamieson. Last August, Elbert Hubbard, whom infidels regard as the successor of Ingersoll, and their champion, in the most cowardly and disgraceful manner backed out of a positive agreement, when he learned that he would have to meet Clark Braden. During the last twenty years, every prominent champion of infidelity has backed out of debating with Clark Braden. So have champions of Mormonism, soul-sleeping, Seventh-day-ism, spiritism and kingdom-come-ism. The speaker does not make these statements in a spirit of personal vainglory, but simply to demonstrate the invincibility of the truth in fair contest with error.... from: Haynes' 1915 History of the Disciples of Christ in Illinois Mr. Braden graduated from Farmers College, Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1860. No one aided him by a dollar after he left the country district school. For ten years he labored, taught and attended school as he could. Aiding his younger brothers and sisters, in their struggles for an education, delayed the completion of his own course. His father and mother were pioneer Abolitionists and active teetotaler -- temperance advocates from 1835 to 1855. Mr. Braden was himself in line with the enemies of slavery from his youth. He cast his first vote for Freesoil in 1852. He stumped and voted for Fremont in 1856, and for Lincoln in 1860. In this work his life was twice in peril from friends of the saloons and thrice by Mormons. He made war speeches and carried a gun as a soldier in the 127th Illinois Volunteer Infantry.Many years of his life have been given to educational work. In this field he filled many positions, from the teacher of a "deestrick skule and board round" to the presidency of three colleges. He has served in the Christian ministry for fifty-seven years and has been pastor of thirty-five churches. He has been a voluminous writer and has edited one political and one religious paper. He has delivered more than six thousand lectures. He has conducted 133 public discussions, on nearly all topics agitating the public mind. Twenty-six of these discussions were in Illinois. He was endorsed for more than one hundred other debates at which his opponents failed to appear, including "Seventh-dayists," infidels and Mormons. For more than twenty years it was a standing formula with these errorists, when they challenged for a debate, to condition, "any one except Braden." Some of his opponents, when hard pressed by Mr. Braden, unceremoniously fled from the halls where the discussions were in progress, amid the jeers and hisses of audiences. His debates and lectures have reached through many States and Provinces of Canada. In April, 1872, Mr. Braden sent a challenge to the great agnostic, Robert G. Ingersoll, to debate in Peoria. When asked by Colonel Wright, "Why do you not accept?" he replied, "I am not such a fool as to debate. He would wear me out." Mr. Braden's last public discussion was successfully conducted in his seventy-eighth year. A prominent minister declared in a church paper that Mr. Braden, by his assaults upon errors and his earnest advocacy of the truth, had saved the Pacific Coast from a tidal wave of infidelity. Mr. Braden was sometimes criticized for his neglect or disregard of the social amenities of life. However, he was always a companionable man, when he had time. A fine physique has enabled him to do the work of two or three men. He has been "a crank all his life and grows no better," for he is now an active advocate of Christian socialism. The storms of eighty years have not cooled the ardor of his love for "the truth as it is in Jesus." For more than sixty years he has studied, investigated, written, taught and debated, and through these six eventful decades his master aim has been, "Accept the Christ's teachings, live the Christ life, realize the Christ character."
A fanatical theological gospel of the Holy Ghost was preached instead of the gospel of Christ. The Holy Ghost was mentioned, in preaching, prayer and religious talks and narrations of experience, a score of times for each mention of Christ. From early childhood the writer heard and witnessed the most fanatical and extravagant conduct, language and scenes, in camp-meetings, revival meetings, prayer-meetings, class meetings and other religious gatherings. He has stood in the door of a meeting-house and heard a crowd of mourners around the altar agonizing, shouting and screaming at the top of their voices, to the Holy Ghost to come down into their hearts. and work the miracle that they had been taught to expect as conversion, and a crowd of others around them agonizing, shouting and screaming at the Holy Ghost to come down and do such work; and a score or more stretched out on the floor in trances. He has seen men and women running frantically over the house, or campground, shouting, screaming, leaping, clapping their hands, like the inmates of a lunatic asylum. He has seen the floor of a meeting-house, or camp-ground, covered with scores of men and women stretched out in trances. He has listened to the most extravagant and frenzied experiences, all tales of miraculous experiences. He has known these frenzies to continue until daylight. In class-meeting, prayer-meeting, regular services, camp-meeting, and all religious gatherings, the great aim and work seemed to be to work up these manifestations of what was called "the power of the Holy Ghost." and such frenzies were regarded as the all-in-all of religion. The meeting in which there were no such displays was denounced as dead, and destitute of the power of the Holy Ghost, heart-felt religion. The conversion and experience of one who did not boast of such miraculous experiences, were regarded with grave suspicion. As he writes, the memory of the writer is flooded with recollections of such scenes. Such was what he heard and witnessed, as the all-in-all of religion. In the childhood of the writer, C. G. Finney held great meetings in New York and northeastern Ohio. His one great hobby was what was then called "perfection" or "sanctification;" since then dubbed :holiness," "sinlessness," "higher life," "second blessing." The meetings held to attain this ne plus ultra of religious experience, were, if possible, attended with more extravagant frenzies than any other meetings; and the experiences told were, if possible, more extravagant and monstrous, and sinless angels could scarcely rival the claims made. Even in early childhood, the writer began to compare the lives and conduct of those who boasted of such wonderful experiences in conversion, and such miraculous blessings in sanctification, with their boasts, professions and claims. Their professions and claims compelled such comparisons. He saw that, in many instances, the lives and conduct of those who led in such frenzies, and made their loudest boasts, fell far below, in honesty, truthfulness, decency and morality, the lives and conduct of those that they denounced as sinners and infidels. He saw that such experiences rarely produced a change for the better, in life or conduct. He saw that the most excitable, irritable, quarrelsome, untrustworthy persons were most prone to such frenzies, and often led in them. The first sermon on sanctification he heard was preached by a man convicted of buying with a measure larger, and selling with one smaller than legal, yet he boasted that he had been perfectly sanctified for seven years and had not sinned for six months. The writer was one of a group of laborers who dug up the bones of the illegitimate offspring of the chief apostle of sanctification and his most brilliant convert and chief assistant. The editor of the organ of "holiness," also president of a college that made "perfection" a hobby, was convicted of lewdness. The writer can enumerate scores of such cases. In later youth, the writer witnessed the same manifestations in spiritual seances, and in displays of hypnotism. He has learned that such phenomena have been a part of all religions and superstitions, in all ages and lands... From fourteen to twenty-four the writer was a confirmed skeptic. When persons assert that there never has been one who was really, honestly, at heart a skeptic, the writer knows from personal experience that such talk is nonsense. The writer did not hear those people nicknamed "Campbellites" until he was eighteen. He remarked that they put more sense into the Bible than he had any idea could be done. He is well satisfied that he had heard from the first, the full, clear, plain, common sense of the Bible, that our preachers so earnestly preached in the beginning of our work, it would have saved him from years of infidelity. In the fall of 1854, while attending the old Tuckerman Academy, in Orwell, Ashtabula County, the writer had his first public discussion, in which, almost alone, he contended with the rest of the debating club, in an open, unsparing attack of the Bible. A. J. Marvin, of Cleveland, and his brother, J. A. Marvin, were his principal opponents. The debate caused great excitement in the school, town and surrounding country. The writer delivered his first lectures that fall, and against the Bible. That brought down on him odium and denunciation. During the winter of 1854 and 1855, the writer taught a high school, in the old academy building that stood at the center of Rome, Ashtabula County. Calvin Smith, our first great revivalist, began a meeting in Rome. He invited all who wished, to present questions, and the writer handed in a list of questions... For about three weeks, Calvin Smith and the writer read the Bible together and reasoned together over its teachings. The inquiries were, "What does the Bible, when properly interpreted, teach? Are such teachings reasonable and true?" The writer did not accept a thing as true because it was in the Bible. He accepted what was in the Bible when convinced that it was reasonable and true. The writer became satisfied that what he had rejected, what had caused his skepticism, were theological barnacles, that theologians had fastened upon the Bible, that had concealed the Bible from his sight. That when the Bible is studied and interpreted, using the same common sense that is used in interpreting other books, its teachings are reasonable and therefore true. Before a great audience at the close of the night service, Feb. 22, 1855, the writer confessed his faith in Jesus as the Messiah and his Saviour, and was immersed the next day. The weather was intensely cold and the ice was more than two feet thick, but neither the writer nor any one of more than eighty that were immersed were injured in the least. As soon as he was immersed, the writer began contending for the faith he once sought to destroy. From childhood it had been his intention to practice law; but as he earned every dollar spent, directly or indirectly, in getting an education, he was compelled to teach, to educate himself, and graduated at the age of twenty-nine. Though he read law, because he could make more teaching than in preliminary law practice, he continued to teach until he taught sixty-nine terms of three months each, and had been president of four different colleges, and had held nearly every position in private and public schools. While teaching he usually preached from two to four times each week, and also lectured and debated, until the "Campbellite" champion could no longer secure a position as teacher, and had preached and debated himself out of his profession, into the pulpit and on to the rostrum. In his stormy career, the writer has held over 130 regular public discussions, and has been selected and endorsed for a larger number, when his opponents did not materialize. He has delivered more than six thousand lectures, on nearly every topic agitating the public mind; and of these more than five thousand against infidelity. He has preached at least as many sermons, and has spoken in nearly every State and Province in the United States and Canada. He has met the leading champions of both wings of infidelity, Spiritism and materialism of America and Britain; in forty public discussions. The writer regrets his years of skepticism, and his work against the Nible. He has none of that purient desire for base notoriety displayed by persons of coarse taste... RAVENNA, O. from: "Clark Braden" by John W. Allen, Southern Illinois University Centralia Sentinel June 11, 1965. Prominent Pioneer Educator Was School Superintendent Here in 1860s CARBONDALE -- ... It was the Rev. Mr. Braden who helped fully as much as any other man in establishing Southern Illinois Normal University. This college through successive changes became Southern Illinois University. Calling him to mind made us want to know more about the man. Much of the following information is in a 1942 letter written by the Rev. Mr. Braden's son, Bion, then 84 years old. From it we learn that Clark's grandfather brought his seven sons and two daughters to America from County Armagh, Ireland, in 1804. The youngest of the Braden sons was four-year old Robert Anderson. When grown up, Robert married Jeanette Clark, also of Irish descent. Clark, third of their 13 children, was born in Ohio and later married Sarah Maria Northway of Holland Dutch and Oneida Indian stock. As a young man, Clark alternated between being a day laborer and a student at College Hill Seminary, Cincinnati, where he was graduated after the birth of his second child. From Cincinnati he moved to Elgin, where he and Mrs. Braden taught in Wheeler Academy until the Civil War. Braden then enlisted in the 127th Illinois Volunteer Infantry. After active service in the vicinity of Vicksburg, he was sent to the hospital at Holly Springs. There he was captured and paroled by General Van Doren's men. Upon his return to Elgin, Clark was elected county superintendent of schools for Kane County. He left at that office to become principal of East Side School in Centralia and to serve as pastor of the Christian Church there. From Centralia the Bradens moved to Carbondale in September of 1866. Here, he became president of Southern Illinois College which was then located on the grounds where Lincoln Junior High School now is. Mrs. Braden became preceptress. Apparently a restless and wandering educator, the Rev. Mr. Braden made his most successful halt in Carbondale. Here he opened a college that had been chartered for DeSoto, six miles north. When Carbondale College, founded by the Presbyterians, became insolvent and its property in Carbondale was offered for sale the Christian Church bought it on Sept. 8, 1866, and the Rev. Mr. Braden became president. Opening of the school was announced for Oct. 6, 1866. When Braden and five students met on that day, it was decided that a clean-up program was in order. The opening accordingly was delayed a week while all gave a hand to make the place usable. On Monday, Oct. 13, 1866 the school began. Eight additional students appeared to make the total enrollment thirteen. (No superstition evident here.) During the fall term enrollment reached 54 and increased the winter term to 75. During the first year 142 individuals were enrolled. During the second year, 1867-68, 315 enrolled. Exact figures are not available for the next year. Apparently there were 370 individuals enrolled during the year. The students produced school plays, published at least four literary journals and had formal commencements, one being addressed by General John A. Logan. All the while Braden had strongly advocated a state school at Carbondale. When assurance of its establishment came, Southern Illinois College closed. Why support Southern Illinois College when the state was to supply its need? It was a good 25 years before Southern Illinois Normal University grew to equal the deceased Southern Illinois College. Braden remained in Carbondale until June, 1870, when he went to Pawnee City, Neb., where Mrs. Braden died. He taught in a private school there until June, 1872. This school became Cotner University. After that he served as pastor of Christian churches in Illinois at Bloomington and Perry. He next moved to Abingdon, where he served as president of the Christian College until 1873. At another time he was president of Christian University at Alpha and later he served as pastor if the Christian Church at Meaford, Canada. Braden was the author of several books, pamphlets, and newspaper articles. He also was a great debater on doctrinal and theological subjects with almost anyone who would debate. In his last years he went to live with his youngest son near Mills City, Calif., where he died in 1912 [sic]. Rev. Clark Braden's Debates The Rev. Clark Braden participated in at least 133 different public debates upon religion between 1866 and 1903. Below are listed some of his more well known debates:001. J. P. Den (Methodist Episcopal); Richview, IL; 1866; baptism 002. H. V. Spencer (?); Richview, IL; Bible revision 003. Jacob Ditzler (Methodist Episcopal); De Soto, IL; 1866; baptism 004. R. C. Dennis (Infidel); Duquoin, IL; 1868 005. G. W. Hughey (Methodist); Vienna, IL; August 18-27, 1868; baptism, Holy Spirit, Methodist Episcopal Discipline, human creeds; 9 days. Book publication: Debate on the Action of Baptism, the Design of Baptism, the Subjects of Baptism, the Work of the Holy Spirit, the Discipline of the M. E. Church, and Human Creeds. Cincinnati, OH: Franklin & Rice, 1870. 006. B. F. Underwood (Atheist); Duquoin, IL; 1870; Christianity and materialism 007. Samuel Binns (Cumberland Presbyterian); Casey, IL; 1870; baptism 008. B. F. Underwood (Atheist); Time, IL; 1871; Christianity and materialism 009. B. F. Underwood (Atheist); Bushnell, IL; 1871; Christianity and materialism 010. Sam Binnus (Universalist); Reynoldsburg, OH; 1871 011. B. F. Underwood (Atheist); Washington, IL; 1872; Christianity and materialism 012. John Hughes (Universalist); LaFayette, IL; 1872 013. C. R. Sanborn (Free Congregationalist); Bloomington, IL; 1873; infidelity 014. C. H. Bliss (Seventh-day Adventist); Lovington, IL; 1874 015. B. F. Underwood (?); Jacksonville, IL; summer 1876 016. John Hughes (Universalist); Lewistown, IL; 1877 017. W. F. Jamison (?); Salem, IL; 1878; Christianity and materialism 018. E. L. Kelley (Reorganized Latter-day Saints); Wilber, NE; November 7-_, 1883 019. E. L. Kelley (Reorganized Latter-day Saints); Kirkland, OH; February 12 - March 8, 1884. Book publication: Public Discussion of the Issues Between the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and the Church of Christ (Disciples). St. Louis, MO: Clark Braden, 1884. 020. J. W. Gillen (Reorganized Latter Day Saints); Stewartsville, MO; December 1884 021. E. L. Kelley (Reorganized Latter-day Saints); Bellair, IL; 1889 022. E. L. Kelley (Reorganized Latter-day Saints); Bellair, IL; March 6-13, 1890; Book of Mormon, Scriptures 023. John Williams (First-day Adventist); Chicago, IL; 1894 024. A. J. Fishback (Spiritualist); Sturgis, MI 025. Thomas Williams (Christadelphian); 1896; 7 nights. Book publication: Chicago, IL: Advocate Printing Co., 1897. 026. I. N. White (Reorganized Latter-day Saints); Orchardville, IL; 1898 027. Joe S. Warlick (Christian); Dallas, TX; ?April, 1898; instrumental music in worship; 4 sessions 028. I. N. White (Reorganized Latter-day Saints); Alma, IL; 1899; Mormonism 029. C. H. Bliss (Seventh-day Adventist); St. Elmo, IL; 1899 030. Joe S. Warlick (Christian); written; instrumental music in worship 031. Rev. Hicks (Baptist); Nebo, IL; 1901; church 032. W. G. Roberts (Christian); Belmont, IL; November 1902 033. A. P. Roberts (?); Olney, IL; 1903 034. D. B. Turney (Protestant Methodist); Wayne City, IL; 1903; baptism
Clark Braden as an Anti-RLDS Debater
The Saints' Herald reports eleven debates in which Clark Braden of the Disciples of Christ was the opponent. By 1901, however, Braden was claiming fifteen debates... with eight different RLDS debaters, in addition to many, many last minute back-outs by RLDS ministers... Braden probably ranks with John C. Bennett, Brigham Young, and R. C. Evans as characters of almost mystic proportions, characters whom RLDS love to hate. Even though Braden never was affiliated with the Joseph Smith Restoration, many RLDS followed his career closely with almost purient fascination. In 1883 a debate took place between Braden and E. L. Kelley in Nebraska on the standard propositions. This was the first mention in the RLDS press. The reporter claimed that at one point Brother Kelley so completely overturned the argument of Braden that in his last speech Braden stood silent as if dumb (Saints' Herald, Nov. 24, 1883.) When his silence became painful to all present, Brother Kelley broke the spell by requesting the moderators not count the time lost against him. Naturally, Braden's recollection of this debate differs. In the following year, 1884, occurred the Great Kirtland Debate between E. L. Kelley and Braden, a debate that was reported verbatim in the Saints' Herald, and then published by Herald House in a book that remained a best seller for decades. No good word was ever said about Clark Braden in the RLDS press. Page after page are devoted to his evil exploits, especially his unfair debating practices. One particularly unforgiving article in the Herald called Braden the man with the big knife dealing deathly blows to the undaunted, unsullied, and stargemmed brow of the kingdom of Christ... (Saints' Herald, Dec. 19, 1894.) Church leadership recommended that RLDS ministers not debate Braden because of his dirty tricks and unscrupulous debating methodology.... Note: the above excerpt and the paper from which it was taken are copyright © 1987 by Wayne A. Ham, all rights reserved. |
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