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What is "Manuscript Found"? xix
80. Some of the people were dark, others lighter.
81. The people had a great leader with four sons.
82. The last war was to be one of extermination. 23
More recently, in 1977, three researchers in California -- Howard A. Davis, Donald R. Scales, and Wayne L. Cowdrey -- claimed that knowledgeable handwriting experts had established a link between the Spaulding manuscript and twelve of the original handwritten manuscript pages of the Book of Mormon. "They obtained enlarged photocopies of the original manuscript of the Book of Mormon that are in archives in Salt Lake City. These reproductions and known specimens of Spaulding's handwriting were submitted to three prominent handwriting analysts with impressive credentials. Working independently, and unaware of the Book of Mormon connection, all three analysts concluded that Spaulding had written all the material they examined." 24
In an address given at the Church Educational System's Church History Symposium, 19 August 1977, Dean C. Jessee refuted this research, pointing out that all three experts came to Salt Lake City after the above statement was made to examine the original pages, which "indicated that final conclusions had not been reached, and each of them confirmed this verbally." 25 Jessee's comparison of the handwriting of the two documents shows several obvious and consistent differences between them. 26
A few critics have recently attempted to go beyond simple story parallels and have examined such things as writing style, thematic parallels, vocabulary, word construction, and word combinations, in an attempt to establish Spaulding's work as the basis of the Book of Mormon. Dale R. Broadhurst has said, "In my opinion the textual parallels are so numerous and so detailed that serious questions are raised as to a possible internal relationship of the two texts.... Incredible as it may seem, no previous writer on the subject
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23 M. D. Bown, "One Hundred Similarities Between the Book of Mormon and the Spaulding Manuscript" (N.P., 1937), 14-15, 22-23, 29, 33-35, 37.
24 Edward E. Plowman, "Who Really Wrote the Book of Mormon?" Christianity Today 21 (8 July 1977): 32-34.
25 Dean C. Jessee, "Solomon Spaulding and the Book of Mormon," CES Church History Symposium (Provo, Utah: Church Educational System, 1977), 59.
26 Ibid., 58-60.
xx What is "Manuscript Found"?
had ever subjected the Spaulding manuscript to even the most basic quantification methods prior to April 1979. Though literally hundreds of supposedly authoritative statements have been printed telling how the Oberlin manuscript does or does not resemble The Book of Mormon, none of these were based upon critical examinations of the texts themselves." 27 This approach to the Spaulding theory has neither been accepted widely nor used by many critics of the Book of Mormon.
Why Book of Mormon Critics Reject
the Spaulding Theory
With all its elements and variations, the Spaulding theory is tangled and complicated. The key points are speculative, and critics have failed to establish a solid connection between Joseph Smith and Sidney Rigdon prior to the publication of the Book of Mormon. They have also failed to establish the way in which Sidney Rigdon could have obtained a copy of the manuscript, how many manuscripts there were, or how Solomon Spaulding could have written even the historical parts of a work as complex as the Book of Mormon when his own manuscript was so poorly written. Many critics, when faced with the inconsistencies and weaknesses of the Spaulding theory, have rejected it and returned to simpler explanations. Although critics have provided a variety of explanations for Joseph Smith's ability to write the Book of Mormon, they generally reject the Spaulding theory.
One of the first critics of the Book of Mormon to reject the Spaulding theory was Davis H. Bays. He opted for Oliver Cowdery, not Sidney Rigdon, as the creator of the Book of Mormon. In 1897 he called the Spaulding theory a failure, although he still felt that Joseph Smith could not have written the Book of Mormon by himself.
The usual debater undertakes to trace the Book of Mormon to the Spaulding romance through Sidney Rigdon.
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27 Dale R. Broadhurst, "A New Basis for the Spaulding Theory: Parallels of Theme and Vocabulary in the Book of Mormon and the Spaulding Manuscript," Spaulding Research Project Working Paper No. 10, Revision 2 (Delaware, Ohio: Methodist Theological School, 1981), 4-5.
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