Mormonism and Wikipedia/Martin Harris

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An analysis of the Wikipedia article "Martin Harris (Latter Day Saints)"

A FairMormon Analysis of Wikipedia: Martin Harris (Latter Day Saints) A work by a collaboration of authors (Link to Wikipedia article here)

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Roger Nicholson,"Wikipedia’s Deconstruction of Martin Harris", FAIR Blog, (23 January 2013)

Upon reading the Wikipedia article about Martin Harris, we encounter quite a contrast from those things that we learn in church. The first thing that we learn about Martin is that he “was a prosperous farmer,” and that his neighbors “considered him both an honest and superstitious man.” The article then goes on in detail to note that Harris’s “imagination was excitable,” that he “once imagined that a sputtering candle was the work of the devil,” and that he was considered “a visionary fanatic.” The article continues by stating that “his belief in earthly visitations of angels and ghosts gave him the local reputation of being crazy,” and that “he was a great man for seeing spooks.” It is easy to see which aspects of Harris’s life the Wikipedia article attempts to emphasize. There are a few token mentions of honesty and prosperity, followed by extensive recitations of Harris’s superstitious qualities.

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The author(s) of Wikipedia article "Martin Harris (Latter Day Saints)" (1/18/2011 revision) make(s) the following claim:

Martin Harris (May 18, 1783 – July 10, 1875) underwrote the first printing of The Book of Mormon and also served as one of Three Witnesses who testified that they had seen the Golden Plates from which Joseph Smith said the Book of Mormon had been translated.

Early life

The author(s) of Wikipedia article "Martin Harris (Latter Day Saints)" (1/18/2011 revision) make(s) the following claim:

Martin Harris was born in Eastown, New York, the second of the eight children. According to historian Ronald W. Walker, little is known of his youth, "but if his later personality and activity are guides, the boy partook of the sturdy values of his neighborhood which included work, honesty, rudimentary education, and godly fear."

Author's sources: *Walker (1986) , p. 31

The author(s) of Wikipedia article "Martin Harris (Latter Day Saints)" (1/18/2011 revision) make(s) the following claim:

In 1808, Harris married his cousin Lucy Harris.

The author(s) of Wikipedia article "Martin Harris (Latter Day Saints)" (1/18/2011 revision) make(s) the following claim:

Until 1831, Harris lived in Palmyra, New York, where he was a prosperous farmer. Harris's neighbors considered him both an honest and superstitious man.

Author's sources: *More "than a dozen of Harris's Palmyra contemporaries left descriptions of the man that describe his honor, honesty, industry, peacefulness, and respectability, his hard-headed Yankee shrewdness and his wealth." Walker (1986) , p. 35

FAIR's Response

Fact checking results: This claim contains propaganda - The author, or the author's source, is providing information or ideas in a slanted way in order to instill a particular attitude or response in the reader

Note that the main body of the article states that Martin was "honest and superstitious," while the supporting citation only describes his "honor, honesty, industry, peacefulness, and respectability, his hard-headed Yankee shrewdness and his wealth." Also note that the subsequent paragraphs launch immediately into discussions of Martin's "superstitions," while totally ignoring any examples of his "honesty, industry, peacefulness, and respectability, his hard-headed Yankee shrewdness and his wealth". The Wikipedia article is attempting to portray Martin's superstitions and the most important part of his character, while ignoring everything else.

The author(s) of Wikipedia article "Martin Harris (Latter Day Saints)" (1/18/2011 revision) make(s) the following claim:

A biographer wrote that Harris's "imagination was excitable and fecund." For example, Harris once imagined that a sputtering candle was the work of the devil.

Author's sources: *"Once while reading scripture, he reportedly mistook a candle's sputtering as a sign that the devil desired him to stop. Another time he excitedly awoke from his sleep believing that a creature as large as a dog had been upon his chest, though a nearby associate could find nothing to confirm his fears. Several hostile and perhaps unreliable accounts told of visionary experiences with Satan and Christ, Harris once reporting that Christ had been poised on a roof beam." Walker (1986) , pp. 34–35

The author(s) of Wikipedia article "Martin Harris (Latter Day Saints)" (1/18/2011 revision) make(s) the following claim:

An acquaintance said that Harris claimed to have seen Jesus in the shape of a deer and walked and talked with him for two or three miles.

Author's sources: *John A. Clark letter, August 31, 1840 in EMD, 2: 271: "No matter where he went, he saw visions and supernatural appearances all around him. He told a gentleman in Palmyra, after one of his excursions to Pennsylvania, while the translation of the Book of Mormon was going on, that on the way he met the Lord Jesus Christ, who walked along by the side of him in the shape of a deer for two or three miles, talking with him as familiarly as one man talks with another." According to two Ohio newspapers, shortly after Harris arrived in Kirtland he began claiming to have "seen Jesus Christ and that he is the handsomest man he ever did see. He has also seen the Devil, whom he described as a very sleek haired fellow with four feet, and a head like that of a Jack-ass." Vogel,EMD 2: 271, note 32.

The author(s) of Wikipedia article "Martin Harris (Latter Day Saints)" (1/18/2011 revision) make(s) the following claim:

The local Presbyterian minister called him "a visionary fanatic."

Author's sources: *Walker (1986) , p. 34-35

The author(s) of Wikipedia article "Martin Harris (Latter Day Saints)" (1/18/2011 revision) make(s) the following claim:

A friend, who praised Harris as being "universally esteemed as an honest man," also declared that Harris's mind "was overbalanced by 'marvellousness'" and that his belief in earthly visitations of angels and ghosts gave him the local reputation of being crazy.

Author's sources: *Pomroy Tucker Reminiscence, 1858 in Early Mormon Documents 3: 71.

The author(s) of Wikipedia article "Martin Harris (Latter Day Saints)" (1/18/2011 revision) make(s) the following claim:

Another friend said, "Martin was a man that would do just as he agreed with you. But, he was a great man for seeing spooks."

Author's sources: *Lorenzo Saunders Interview, November 12, 1884, Early Mormon Documents 2: 149.

Book of Mormon witness

The author(s) of Wikipedia article "Martin Harris (Latter Day Saints)" (1/18/2011 revision) make(s) the following claim:

In 1828, Joseph Smith, Jr., another resident of Palmyra, said he had obtained a record of ancient inhabitants of the Americas engraved on golden plates and that he had been directed by the angel Moroni to translate this work. Harris assisted Smith both financially and by serving as his scribe. Mormon tradition holds that through the use of Urim and Thummim and/or a seer stone, Smith saw a translation of the writing on the plates and dictated the words to Harris.

Author's sources: *No source provided

The author(s) of Wikipedia article "Martin Harris (Latter Day Saints)" (1/18/2011 revision) make(s) the following claim:

Because Harris desired assurance of the work's authenticity, Smith transcribed characters from the plates to a piece of paper, perhaps the one now known as the Anthon transcript. Harris took this document to New York City, where he met with Charles Anthon, a professor of linguistics at Columbia College. Although Harris and Anthon later told conflicting versions about their encounter, the episode apparently satisfied Harris's doubts about the authenticity of the Golden Plates.

Author's sources: *See EMD 4: 377-86.

The author(s) of Wikipedia article "Martin Harris (Latter Day Saints)" (1/18/2011 revision) make(s) the following claim:

Nevertheless, Harris's wife continued to oppose his collaboration with Smith. After translating the first 116 pages of the manuscript, Harris asked Smith for permission to take the manuscript back to his wife in order to convince her of its authenticity. Smith reluctantly agreed. After Harris had shown the pages to Lucy and some others, the manuscript disappeared.

Author's sources: *Doctrine and Covenants 3

The author(s) of Wikipedia article "Martin Harris (Latter Day Saints)" (1/18/2011 revision) make(s) the following claim:

The loss temporarily halted the translation of the plates, and when Smith began again, he used other scribes, primarily Oliver Cowdery. Nevertheless, Harris continued to support Smith financially, and as the translation neared completion, Smith revealed that three men would be called as "special witnesses" to the existence of the Golden Plates. Harris, along with Cowdery and David Whitmer, was one of these Three Witnesses, although Joseph Smith clearly indicated that Harris's experience occurred separately from that of Whitmer and Cowdery.

Author's sources: *Joseph Smith-History, 1839.

The author(s) of Wikipedia article "Martin Harris (Latter Day Saints)" (1/18/2011 revision) make(s) the following claim:

Harris's attestation above what was implied to have been a joint testimony was printed with the book, and it has been included in nearly every subsequent edition.

Author's sources: *No source provided

The author(s) of Wikipedia article "Martin Harris (Latter Day Saints)" (1/18/2011 revision) make(s) the following claim:

In part due to their continued disagreement over the legitimacy of Joseph Smith and the golden plates, and because of the loss of his farm, which he had mortgaged to publish the Book of Mormon,

Author's sources: *In March 2007, Russell Martin Harris, great-great-grandson of Martin Harris, gave a leather wallet, said to have been the one that carried Harris's money to the printer, to the LDS Church so that the wallet could be displayed at the Museum of Church History and Art in Salt Lake City. AP story.

The author(s) of Wikipedia article "Martin Harris (Latter Day Saints)" (1/18/2011 revision) make(s) the following claim:

Harris and his wife separated. Lucy Harris was described by Lucy Mack Smith as a woman of "irascible temper," but Harris may also have abused her. Lucy Harris also suggested that her husband may have committed adultery with a neighboring "Mrs. Haggart."

Author's sources: *Lucy Mack Smith, 1853, in EMD 1: 367; "Lucy Harris statement," in EMD, 2: 34-36: "In one of his fits of rage he struck me with the butt end of a whip, which I think had been used for driving oxen, and was about the size of my thumb, and three or four feet long. He beat me on the head four or five times, and the next day turned me out of doors twice, and beat me in a shameful manner....Whether the Mormon religion be true or false, I leave the world to judge, for its effects upon Martin Harris have been to make him more cross, turbulent and abusive to me." In March 1830, a revelation from Smith warned Harris not to "covet thy neighbor's wife." D&C 19: 25.

LDS High Priest

The author(s) of Wikipedia article "Martin Harris (Latter Day Saints)" (1/18/2011 revision) make(s) the following claim:

Harris became an early member of the Church of Christ, which Joseph Smith organized on April 6, 1830. On June 3, 1831, at a conference at the headquarters of the church in Kirtland, Ohio, Harris was ordained to the office of High Priest and served as a missionary in the Midwest, Pennsylvania, and New York.

The author(s) of Wikipedia article "Martin Harris (Latter Day Saints)" (1/18/2011 revision) make(s) the following claim:

On February 17, 1834, Harris was ordained a member of Kirtland High Council, which was then the chief judicial and legislative council of the church. In response to the conflicts between Mormons and non-Mormons in Missouri, Harris joined what is now known as Zion's Camp and marched fruitlessly from Kirtland to Clay County, Missouri. Afterwards, Harris — along with Oliver Cowdery and David Whitmer — ordained a "traveling High Council" of twelve men that eventually became the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.

Author's sources: *Joseph Smith, B.H. Roberts (ed.), (1902) History of the Church, 2:186-87.

The author(s) of Wikipedia article "Martin Harris (Latter Day Saints)" (1/18/2011 revision) make(s) the following claim:

(Some early church leaders claimed that Harris, like Joseph Smith, Jr. and Oliver Cowdery, was ordained to the priesthood office of apostle;

Author's sources: *See, e.g., Heber C. Kimball, Journal of Discourses 6:29.

The author(s) of Wikipedia article "Martin Harris (Latter Day Saints)" (1/18/2011 revision) make(s) the following claim:

however, there is no record of this ordination, and Harris—as with Cowdery—was never a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.)

Author's sources: *No source provided

The author(s) of Wikipedia article "Martin Harris (Latter Day Saints)" (1/18/2011 revision) make(s) the following claim:

Lucy Harris died in the summer of 1836, and on November 1, 1836, Harris married Caroline Young, the 22-year-old daughter of Brigham Young's brother, John. Although he was thirty-one years older than his new wife, Harris and Caroline had seven children together.

The author(s) of Wikipedia article "Martin Harris (Latter Day Saints)" (1/18/2011 revision) make(s) the following claim:

In 1837, dissension arose in Kirtland over the failure of the church's Kirtland Safety Society bank. Harris called it a "fraud" and was among the dissenters who broke with Smith and attempted to reorganize the church. Led by Warren Parrish, the reformers excommunicated Smith and Sidney Rigdon, who relocated to Far West, Missouri.

Author's sources: *In 1838, Joseph Smith called the Three Witnesses Cowdery, Harris, and Whitmer "too mean to mention; and we had liked to have forgotten them." B.H. Roberts, ed. History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Salt Lake City: Deseret News, 1905), 3: 232.

The author(s) of Wikipedia article "Martin Harris (Latter Day Saints)" (1/18/2011 revision) make(s) the following claim:

Parrish's church in Kirtland took control of the temple and became known as The Church of Christ. In its 1838 articles of incorporation, Harris was named one of the church's three trustees. By 1839, Parrish and other church leaders had rejected the Book of Mormon and consequently broke with Harris, who continued to testify to its truth. By 1840, Harris returned to communion with Smith's church, which had subsequently relocated to Nauvoo, Illinois.

Strangite, Whitmerite, Gladdenite, Williamite, Shaker

The author(s) of Wikipedia article "Martin Harris (Latter Day Saints)" (1/18/2011 revision) make(s) the following claim:

Even before he had become a Mormon, Harris had changed his religion at least five times.

Author's sources: *Harris had been a Quaker, a Universalist, a Restorationist, a Baptist, a Presbyterian, and perhaps a Methodist. Walker (1986) , pp. 30–33

The author(s) of Wikipedia article "Martin Harris (Latter Day Saints)" (1/18/2011 revision) make(s) the following claim:

After Smith's death, Harris continued this earlier pattern, remaining in Kirtland and accepting James J. Strang as Mormonism's new prophet, a prophet with his own set of supernatural plates and witnesses to authenticate them.

Author's sources: *In August 1846, Harris traveled on a mission to England for the Strangite church.

The author(s) of Wikipedia article "Martin Harris (Latter Day Saints)" (1/18/2011 revision) make(s) the following claim:

By 1847, Harris had broken with Strang and accepted the leadership claims of fellow Book of Mormon witness, David Whitmer. Mormon Apostle William E. M'Lellin organized a Whitmerite congregation in Kirtland, and Harris became a member. By 1851, Harris accepted another Latter Day Saint factional leader, Gladden Bishop, as prophet and joined Bishop's Kirtland-based organization.

Author's sources: *Walker (1986) , pp. 29–30

The author(s) of Wikipedia article "Martin Harris (Latter Day Saints)" (1/18/2011 revision) make(s) the following claim:

In 1855, Harris joined with the last surviving brother of Joseph Smith, William Smith and declared that William was Joseph's true successor. Harris was also briefly intrigued by the "Roll and Book," a supernatural scripture delivered to the Shakers.

Author's sources: *A pro-Mormon defense of Harris's behavior with regard to the Shakers. Harris never actually joined the Shakers; they advocated celibacy, and Harris was married. But Phineas H. Young told Brigham Young that Harris' testimony of Shakerism was "greater than it was of the Book of Mormon." Letter of Phineas H. Young to Brigham Young, Dec. 31, 1844.

The author(s) of Wikipedia article "Martin Harris (Latter Day Saints)" (1/18/2011 revision) make(s) the following claim:

By the 1860s, all of these organizations had either dissolved or declined. In 1856, his wife Caroline left him to gather with the Mormons in Utah while he remained in Kirtland and gave tours of the temple to curious visitors.

Author's sources: *EMD, 2: 258.

Rebaptism into the LDS faith

The author(s) of Wikipedia article "Martin Harris (Latter Day Saints)" (1/18/2011 revision) make(s) the following claim:

In 1870, at age 87, Harris moved to the Utah Territory and shortly thereafter was rebaptized into The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church). Harris, who had been left destitute and without a congregation in Kirtland, accepted the assistance of members of the LDS Church, who raised $200 to help him move west to Utah. Harris lived the last four and a half years of his life with relatives in Cache Valley. He died on June 10, 1875 in Clarkston, Utah and was buried there. A pageant about Harris called "Martin Harris, The Man Who Knew", sponsored by LDS Church, is performed every other year in August in Clarkston.

Author's sources: *Martin Harris Pageant

Testimony to the Book of Mormon

The author(s) of Wikipedia article "Martin Harris (Latter Day Saints)" (1/18/2011 revision) make(s) the following claim:

Although he was estranged from the LDS Church for most of his life, Harris continued to testify to the truth of the Book of Mormon. Nevertheless, at least during the early years, Harris "seems to have repeatedly admitted the internal, subjective nature of his visionary experience."

Author's sources: *Vogel, EMD, 2: 255.

The author(s) of Wikipedia article "Martin Harris (Latter Day Saints)" (1/18/2011 revision) make(s) the following claim:

The foreman in the Palmyra printing office that produced the first Book of Mormon said that Harris "used to practice a good deal of his characteristic jargon and 'seeing with the spiritual eye,' and the like."

Author's sources: *Pomeroy Tucker, Origin, Rise, and Progress of Mormonism (New York: D. Appleton and Co., 1867), 71 in EMD, 3: 122.

The author(s) of Wikipedia article "Martin Harris (Latter Day Saints)" (1/18/2011 revision) make(s) the following claim:

John H. Gilbert, the typesetter for most of the book, said that he had asked Harris, "Martin, did you see those plates with your naked eyes?" According to Gilbert, Harris "looked down for an instant, raised his eyes up, and said, 'No, I saw them with a spiritual eye."

Author's sources: *John H. Gilbert, "Memorandum," 8 September 1892, in EMD, 2: 548.

The author(s) of Wikipedia article "Martin Harris (Latter Day Saints)" (1/18/2011 revision) make(s) the following claim:

Two other Palmyra residents said that Harris told them that he had seen the plates with "the eye of faith" or "spiritual eyes."

Author's sources: *Martin Harris interviews with John A. Clark, 1827 & 1828 in EMD, 2: 270; Jesse Townsend to Phineas Stiles, 24 December 1833, in EMD, 3: 22.

Question: Did Martin Harris tell people that he did not see the plates with his natural eyes, but rather the "eye of faith"?

A former pastor, John A. Clark, said that a "gentleman in Palmyra" told him that Harris said that he saw the plates with the "eye of faith"

John A. Clark, a former pastor who considered Joseph Smith a fraud and the Book of Mormon “an imposture,” states,

To know how much this testimony [of three witnesses] is worth I will state one fact. A gentleman in Palmyra, bred to the law, a professor of religion, and of undoubted veracity told me that on one occasion, he appealed to Harris and asked him directly,-”Did you see those plates?” Harris replied, he did. “Did you see the plates, and the engraving on them with your bodily eyes?” Harris replied, “Yes, I saw them with my eyes,-they were shown unto me by the power of God and not of man.” “But did you see them with your natural,-your bodily eyes, just as you see this pencil-case in my hand? Now say no or yes to this.” Harris replied,-”Why I did not see them as I do that pencil-case, yet I saw them with the eye of faith; I saw them just as distinctly as I see any thing around me,-though at the time they were covered over with a cloth.

John A. Clark did not interview Martin Harris - he was repeating what someone else told him

The source cited is “Martin Harris interviews with John A. Clark, 1827 & 1828,” Early Mormon Documents 2:270. However, rather than being an interview between Clark and Harris, as implied by the title of reference work using in the citation, Clark’s actual statement clearly says that he received his information from a “gentleman in Palmyra…a professor of religion,” who said that he had talked with Harris. This is not an interview between Clark and Harris.

Larry E. Morris notes that the “claim that ‘Harris told John A. Clark’ is not accurate. This is not secondhand testimony but thirdhand—’he said that he said that he said.’….As if that weren’t enough, Clark does not name his source—making it impossible to judge that person’s honesty or reliability. What we have is a thirdhand, anonymous account of what Martin Harris supposedly said.” (Larry E. Morris, FARMS Review, Vol. 15, Issue 1.)

Clark's account mixes elements from both before and after Harris viewed the plates as one of the Three Witnesses and portrays Harris as contradicting himself

The two elements that are mixed together in Clark's account are the following:

1. Martin Harris said that he only saw the plates through the "eye of faith" when they were covered with a cloth prior to his experience as a witness.
2. Martin Harris saw the plates uncovered as one of the three witnesses.

Note also that the date assigned to these comments places them prior to the publication of the Book of Mormon, yet Clark’s statement appears to include elements from both before and after Harris viewed the plates as a witness. Harris “saw them” with his eyes when he acted as one of the Three Witnesses, but he only saw them through the “eye of faith” when they were covered with a cloth prior to his being a witness. Clark’s third-hand hostile relation of another hostile source, makes no distinction between these events, and instead portrays Harris as contradicting himself.

When Martin Harris said that he had seen the angel and the plates with his "spiritual eyes" or with an "eye of faith" he may have simply been employing some scriptural language that he was familiar with. Such statements do not mean that the angel and the plates were imaginary, hallucinatory, or just an inner mental image—the earliest accounts of Martin Harris' testimony makes the literal nature of the experience unmistakable.

Rather than being hallucinatory or "merely" spiritual, Martin claimed that the plates and angel were seen by physical eyes that had been enhanced by the power of God to view more objects than a mortal could normally see (cf. D&C 76꞉12; D&C 67꞉10-13).

Question: Why would Martin Harris use the phrases "eye of faith" or "spiritual eye" to describe his visionary experience?

Martin Harris was using scriptural language to describe his visionary experience

Why did Martin Harris use the particular phraseology that he did in describing his experience? Perhaps the answer lies in another passage found in the book of Ether 12꞉19.

And there were many whose faith was so exceedingly strong, even before Christ came, who could not be kept from within the veil, but truly saw with their eyes the things which they had beheld with an eye of faith, and they were glad.

Here it is noted that those people who have "exceedingly strong" faith can see things "within the veil." But even though they see things in the spiritual realm "with their eyes" it is described as beholding things with "an eye of faith."

Another possibility can be seen in the text of Moses 1꞉11. It reads:

But now mine own eyes have beheld God; but not my natural, but my spiritual eyes, for my natural eyes could not have beheld; for I should have withered and died in his presence; but his glory was upon me; and I beheld his face.

This dovetails nicely with the description of David Whitmer who "explained that he saw the plates, and with his natural eyes, but he had to be prepared for it—that he and the other witnesses were overshadowed by the power of God."

Question: Do Martin Harris's statements related to the "spiritual eye" or "eye of faith" contradict the reality of his witness?

Some wish to make it appear as though the statements made by Martin Harris about the Three Witnesses’ manifestation discount its reality. Doing so pulls Harris’ statements out of their proper context. This vital viewpoint can be regained by simply taking a look at several passages from the Book of Mormon and the Doctrine and Covenants—which all predate Martin’s public statements about the nature of his experience.

The scriptural witnesses

Ether 5꞉2–3

This prophetic passage had a direct application to Martin Harris as one of the Three Witnesses. It said: “the plates . . . . unto three shall they be shown by the power of God”

D&C 5꞉11,13,24–26

“unto [three of my servants] I will show these things . . . . I will give them power that they may behold and view these things as they are.” Speaking specifically of Martin Harris: “then will I grant unto him a view of the things which he desires to see. And then he shall say unto the people of this generation: Behold, I have seen the things which the Lord hath shown unto Joseph Smith, Jun., and I know of a surety that they are true, for I have seen them, for they have been shown unto me by the power of God and not of man. And I the Lord command him, my servant Martin Harris, that he shall say no more unto them concerning these things, except he shall say: I have seen them, and they have been shown unto me by the power of God; and these are the words which he shall say.”

D&C 17꞉1–3,5

All three of the witnesses were told: “you shall have a view of the plates . . . . And it is by your faith that you shall obtain a view of them, even by that faith which was had by the prophets of old . . . . And after that you have obtained faith, and have seen them with your eyes, you shall testify of them . . . . And ye shall testify that you have seen them, even as my servant Joseph Smith, Jun., has seen them; for it is by my power that he has seen them, and it is because he had faith”

From these scriptural texts it is evident that:

• The Three Witnesses were required by God to exercise faith like “the prophets of old” in order to view the angel and the plates (cf. Moroni 7꞉37; D&C 20꞉6).
• God would exercise His power to enable the Three Witnesses to see things that were not usually visible to mortal eyes.
• Nevertheless, the Three Witnesses would see the angel and the plates “with [their] eyes” and “as they are” in objective reality.

Contemporary witnesses

Joseph Smith was an eyewitness to what Martin Harris said at the exact moment that the manifestation took place. He reported that Martin's words were: "Tis enough; mine eyes have beheld". Another eyewitness, named Alma Jensen, saw Martin Harris point to his physical eyes while testifying that he had seen both the angel and the plates.

Oliver Cowdery wrote a letter to a skeptical author in November 1829, and spoke for both himself and Harris on the question of whether there was some trickery or "juggling" at work:

"It was a clear, open beautiful day, far from any inhabitants, in a remote field, at the time we saw the record, of which it has been spoken, brought and laid before us, by an angel, arrayed in glorious light, [who] ascend [descended I suppose] out of the midst of heaven. Now if this is human juggling—judge ye".

The author(s) of Wikipedia article "Martin Harris (Latter Day Saints)" (1/18/2011 revision) make(s) the following claim:

In 1838, Harris is said to have told an Ohio congregation that "he never saw the plates with his natural eyes, only in vision or imagination."

Author's sources: *Stephen Burnett to Lyman E. Johnson, 15 April 1838 in EMD, 2: 291.

The author(s) of Wikipedia article "Martin Harris (Latter Day Saints)" (1/18/2011 revision) make(s) the following claim:

A neighbor of Harris in Kirtland, Ohio, said that Harris "never claimed to have seen [the plates] with his natural eyes, only spiritual vision."

Author's sources: *Reuben P. Harmon statement, c. 1885, in EMD, 2: 385.

The author(s) of Wikipedia article "Martin Harris (Latter Day Saints)" (1/18/2011 revision) make(s) the following claim:

In March 1838, disillusioned church members said that Harris had publicly denied that neither he nor the other Witnesses to the Book of Mormon had ever seen or handled the golden plates—although he had not been present when Whitmer and Cowdery first claimed to have viewed them—and they claimed that Harris's recantation, made during a period of crisis in early Mormonism, induced five influential members, including three Apostles, to leave the Church.

Author's sources: *Stephen Burnett to Luke S. Johnson, 15 April 1838, in Joseph Smith's Letterbook, Early Mormon Documents 2: 290-92.

The author(s) of Wikipedia article "Martin Harris (Latter Day Saints)" (1/18/2011 revision) make(s) the following claim:

Even at the end of his long life, Harris said that he had seen the plates in "a state of entrancement."

Author's sources: *Metcalf in EMD, 2: 347.

The author(s) of Wikipedia article "Martin Harris (Latter Day Saints)" (1/18/2011 revision) make(s) the following claim:

Nevertheless, in 1853, Harris told one David Dille that he had held the forty- to sixty-pound plates on his knee for "an hour-and-a-half" and handled the plates with his hands, "plate after plate."

Author's sources: *Martin Harris interview with David B. Dille, 15 September 1853 in EMD 2: 296-97.

The author(s) of Wikipedia article "Martin Harris (Latter Day Saints)" (1/18/2011 revision) make(s) the following claim:

Even later, Harris affirmed that he had seen the plates and the angel with his natural eyes: "Gentlemen," holding out his hand, "do you see that hand? Are you sure you see it? Or are your eyes playing you a trick or something? No. Well, as sure as you see my hand so sure did I see the Angel and the plates."

Author's sources: *Martin Harris interview with Robert Barter, c. 1870 in EMD, 2: 390.

The author(s) of Wikipedia article "Martin Harris (Latter Day Saints)" (1/18/2011 revision) make(s) the following claim:

The following year Harris affirmed that "No man heard me in any way deny the truth of the Book of Mormon [or] the administration of the angel that showed me the plates."

Author's sources: *Letter of Martin Harris, Sr., to Hanna B. Emerson, January 1871, Smithfield, Utah Territory, Saints' Herald 22 (15 October 1875):630, in EMD 2: 338. See also Richard Lloyd Anderson, Investigating the Book of Mormon Witnesses (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Company, 1981), 118.

Citations

• Walker, Ronald W., (1986), Martin Harris: Mormonism's Early Convert off-site .

Further reading

• Richard L. Anderson, Investigating the Book of Mormon Witnesses, (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1989).
• Susan Easton Black, Who's Who in the Doctrine & Covenants (1997) ISBN 1-57008-292-8
• Nathan Harris and Rhoda Lapham Family, parents of Martin Harris, annotated genealogy.
• William O. Lewis III, "Martin Harris," on Grampa Bill's G.A. Pages
• H. Michael Marquardt, (Fall 2002), "Martin Harris: The Kirtland Years, 1831-1870", Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought
• Dallin H. Oaks, "The Witness: Martin Harris"
• Edward Stevenson, (1882), "One of the Three Witnesses: Incidents in the Life of Martin Harris,", The Latter Day Saints' Millennial Star, 78–79, 86–87
• Ron Romig, Martin Harris's Kirtland (John Whitmer Books, 2007) ISBN 1934901040
• Dan Vogel, "Introduction to Martin Harris Collection," in Early Mormon Documents (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1998), 2: 253-59.

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