NEW LIGHT ON MORMONISM.

CHAPTER I.

Sketch of the Life of Solomon Spaulding and his authorship of a romance which he called "The Manuscript Found."

SOLOMON SPAULDING was born at Ashford, Conn., in 1761, of a highly respectable family of English extraction, some of whose members served as officers in the Revolutionary War.

He was educated at the Plainfield, Conn., Academy and at Dartmouth College, where he graduated in 1785, subsequently studying theology, and preached for a few years in some obscure New England town, but retired from the ministry, it is said, in consequence of ill-health. Soon after leaving Dartmouth he married Miss Matilda Sabine, of Pomfret, Conn. Next we hear of Mr. Spaulding at Cherry Valley, N. Y., where he became principal of an academy, and remained until, through the persuasion of his brother, John Spaulding, he removed to a little town in Ohio, west of Buffalo, called at the time Salem, but now known as Conneaut, Ashtabula Co. Here the Spauldings, with Mr. Henry Lake, were owners of an iron foundry, and were engaged in successful business until the War of 1812, which ruined. them financially.

Solomon Spaulding, being an invalid, remained much of the time in his own house, reading and writing. He was a peculiar man, of fine education, especially devoted to historical study, the writing of essays and romances, and given to talking to his neighbors of what he had read and written.

He was greatly superior to the people generally with whom he came in contact in that part of the country, both in mental capacity and education, possessed a commanding personal appearance-being over six feet in height-and had a pleasing, intelligent countenance. With all these advantages he was naturally looked upon as a man of consequence, and his opinions and conversation were listened to with earnest consideration by his acquaintances and neighbors.

He was in the habit of frequently reading to them something he had written for their amusement and benefit, and these unique entertainments made a vivid and lasting impression upon those who were so fortunate as to attend them.

In close proximity to the Spaulding residence there were some earth-mounds; they greatly interested him, and in order to have one of them investigated he had a large and vigorous tree cut down, which, on examination, turned out to be one thousand years old. Buried within the mound were various evidences of a prehistoric race, relics of a civilized condition, mingled with human bones, which were portions of gigantic skeletons. This discovery very greatly excited him and fired his imagination. He had been the very first person, it is said, to speculate and write on the origin of the various earth-mounds in the Mississippi Valley and that region, and had long had a theory as to the peopling of this country by a race which had inhabited the whole Continent, possessing the

refinements of civilization, and which had, in some unaccountable manner, perished. The relics secured by his workmen seemed to confirm this idea; here he found tangible proofs that his theories and conversations on the subject were not the mere vagaries of a distorted and fanciful imagination, and he immediately began to write

a new romance.

The extreme antiquity of the relics belonging to the race whose history he professed to give led him to adopt the most antique style of composition, and so he imitated the Scriptures, as the most ancient book in the world; and his knowledge of the classics and histories of the olden times enabled him to introduce the odd names which were noticed by his friends, and which were afterward easily distinguished by them. In common with all antiquarians, Mr. Spaulding was aware that the mound-builders are supposed to have been very religious, as well as superstitious; but as to the nature of their religion and superstitions it is impossible to determine aught, save their striking similiarity to the religion of the modern Indians, and to that of the ancient Magi of Persia, before the days of Zoroaster.

Mr. Spaulding conceived the idea that among the prehistoric mementoes discovered by his workmen some golden plates covered with hieroglyphical writing had been found, and that he merely translated the story of a people whose wanderings and sufferings had been thereon inscribed, and of which he had deciphered the interpretation. He altered the plot of his novel after writing a portion of it. The emigrant Jews, whose story he professed to narrate, were, in the first instance, fitted out at Rome for their travels; but after reflection he started them from Jerusalem, with Levi and his four sons, under divine direction. Years after, when his manuscript ro

mance was eagerly sought for at Harlwich, N. Y., the rejected beginning of his story was found.

Mr. Spaulding was a rapid writer, and as he progressed with his romance from day to day, he read it to his wife and neighbors, all of whom were greatly impressed with its peculiarities. He called it "The Manuscript Found" that is, a written history of a lost people, found in an earth-mound. It purported to be an account of the peopling of America by the lost tribes of Israel, the tribes and their leaders having very singular names; among them, Mormon, Moroni, Lamenite, and Nephi-names found nowhere else in literature. So much interest was awakened by this romance, and it was such a distinction, at the time, to write a book, that he determined to publish it. (Mr. Spaulding laughingly remarked to Nathan Howard, a neighbor, that probably in a century from that time his account of the early inhabitants of America would be accepted as a veritable history.) For this purpose he removed to Pittsburg, where he had a friend named Patterson, a publisher, to whom he gave his manuscript for inspection, hoping he would print it, believing that its publication would not only establish him as a successful author, but give him, in addition, a comfortable competence. The war had blasted all his hopes of bettered fortune at Conneaut ; but he now felt sanguine of success if his book could reach the public in proper form. A young printer, named Sidney Rigdon, was in Mr. Patterson's printing house; he had been there but a short time, and, from many indisputable facts, it is believed he had followed Mr. Spaulding from Conneaut, or its immediate neighborhood, and having heard him read "The Manuscript Found," and announce his plan for its publication, devised a treachery toward both author and publisher, which

the world has reason to remember. This same Sidney Rigdon figured prominently twenty years later as a preacher among the Mormons. After weeks of delay, during which time Mr. Spaulding's manuscript was left carelessly lying about in the office of the printing house, Mr. Patterson decided not to publish it. He admitted its cleverness, and said to the author, "Polish it up, finish it, and you will make money out of it." It is probable that Mr. Spaulding did not attempt to find another publisher, as he was disheartened and impecunious. It was a very different matter to publish a book at that time from the present era of books and bookmaking. Within a few months he seems to have abandoned his attempt to have his romance printed, and took his family to Amity, Washington Co., Penn., where he at one time kept a store, and then a public-house, and again became the centre of an admiring circle of listeners to his talk and writings. The author has recently received a letter (see Appendix No. 2) from a very aged man, still living near Amity, who distinctly remembers Solomon Spaulding and his "Manuscript Found." This same Mr. Miller testifies that he often heard the romance read, remembers many particulars in it, citing a description in the story where, before a battle, one of the armies painted their faces with red paint to distinguish them from their enemies, and that he afterward read the same description in the same connection in the "Book of Mormon.' Mr. Miller remeinbers distinctly, too, that Mr. Spaulding accused Rigdon of copying his manuscript while it was in Mr. Patterson's office, giving his reasons for such a belief. In 1816 Mr. Spaulding died of consumption at Amity, and was there buried in the village graveyard.

His friend Miller tells how he nursed him in his long