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A FAIR Analysis of: From Captain Kidd's Treasure Ghost to the Angel Moroni: Changing Dramatis Personae in Early Mormonism A work by author: Ronald V. Huggins
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Many critics who write about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are not content to portray the Church and its doctrines fairly. Some critics mine their sources by extracting quotes from their context in order to make the statement imply something other that what it was originally intended to mean. Other critics make statements that are self-contradictions—instances in which a critic says or writes one thing, and then makes another statement elsewhere that flatly contradicts their first statement.
These examples do not prove that these critics' arguments are without merit; they do suggest caution is warranted before accepting these authors or their works as reliable witnesses when they speak of their own experiences connected with "Mormonism." In particular, one should also be cautious about accepting their interpretation of primary sources without double-checking the original sources themselves.
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Within a month-and-a-half of the Book of Mormon’s first public appearance on the shelves of Grandin’s bookstore in Palmyra an article appeared in the Rochester Gem (May 15, 1830) describing an attempt by one of the Smith sons at finding Kidd’s treasure. It is not clear whether the ‘oracle’ referred to is Joseph or one of his brothers” |
The newspaper article certainly seems to offer support for Huggins’s point about the Smiths’ treasure-seeking activities and casts the family in a negative light. The trouble is, the article itself states quite plainly that it is not referring to the Joseph Smith Sr. family. After beginning with a description of the Book of Mormon, the author of the article goes on to say: “This story brings to our mind one of similar nature once played off upon the inhabitants of Rochester and its vicinity, near the close of the last war [of 1812]. . . . If we remember aright, it was in the year 1815, that a family of Smiths moved into these parts, and took up their abode in a miserable hut on the east bank of the river, now near the late David K. Carter’s tavern. They had a wonderful son, of about 18 years of age.” As noted, the Gem article ties the treasure-seeking episode quite specifically to the end of the War of 1812 in the early months of 1815. The Joseph Smith Sr. family was still in Vermont until at least 1816. Nor are they known to have spent any time in the Rochester area. The Smiths described in the article are not the Joseph Smith Sr. family, and the article makes that clear. Even Huggins’s source, Dan Vogel, states in his introduction, “this early report compares the coming forth of the Book of Mormon with the Rochester money diggers.” Huggins manifests a recklessness in handling the documents. |
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Commentary
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"‘I heard Joe tell my Mother and Sister how he procured the plates...When he took the plates there was something down near the box that looked some like a toad that rose up into a man which forbid him to take the plates’ ” |
“I heard Joe tell my Mother and Sister how he procured the plates. He said he was directed by an angel where it was. He went in the night to get the plates. When he took the plates there was something down near the box that looked some like a toad that rose up into a man which forbid him to take the plates.” |
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