in 1830, and its divine origin
was attested by a dozen persons--all relatives and friends of Smith.
Only these have ever pretended to see the original plates, which have
already become traditional. The plates have been frequently called for
by skeptics, but all in vain. Naturally, warm controversy arose
concerning the authenticity of the Book of Mormon, and disbelievers have
asserted that they have indubitable evidence that it is, with the
exception of various unlettered interpolations, principally borrowed
from a queer, rhapsodical romance written by an eccentric ex-clergyman
named Solomon Spalding.

Smith and his disciples were ridiculed and socially persecuted; but they
seemed to be ardently earnest, and continued to preach their creed,
which was to the effect that the millennium was at hand; that our
aboriginals were to be converted, and that the New Jerusalem--the last
residence and home of the saints--was to be near the centre of this
continent. The Vermont prophet, later on, was repeatedly mobbed, even
shot at. His narrow escapes were construed as interpositions of divine
providence, but he displayed perfect coolness and intrepidity through
all his trials. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints was
first established in the spring of 1830 at Manchester, N. Y.; but it
awoke such fierce opposition, particularly from the orthodox, many of
them preachers, that Smith and his associates deemed it prudent to move
farther west. They established themselves at Kirtland, O., and won there
many converts. Hostility to them still continued, and grew so fierce
that the body transferred itself to Missouri, and next to Illinois,
settling in the latter state near the village of Commerce, which was
renamed Nauvoo.

The Governor and Legislature of Illinois favored the Mormons, but the
anti-Mormons made war on them in every way, and the custom of "sealing
wives," which is yet mysterious to the Gentiles, caused serious
outbreaks, and resulted in the incarceration of the prophet and his
brother Hiram at Carthage. Fearing that the two might be released by the
authorities, a band of ruffians broke into the jail, in the summer of
1844, and murdered them in cold blood. This was most fortunate for the
memory of Smith and for his doctrines. It placed him in the light of a
holy martyr, and lent to them a dignity and vitality they had never
before enjoyed.

[520:1] When we speak of Jesus being _crucified_, we do not intend to
conv