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Source: Church History Vol. 3 Chapter 34 Page: 658 (~1872)

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658 this that makes the task difficult. On the one hand, their friends are to be consulted if one is inclined to censure the acts of these men; and on the other, their enemies will object to too much praise.

"Joseph Smith was a man of like passions to those which moved Adam to his fall; like those which disturbed the equanimity of Moses at Meribah, and when he slew the Egyptian; like Peter when he wavered, and, like all of them in being subject to death. In all these things his brother Hyrum was like him. He was moreover like Adam in desiring salvation after sinning; and like Moses he became leader of the people favored by God. Like James, and John, and Paul, Joseph and Hyrum Smith labored for the good of man, and were willing to make and did make some sacrifices for that good. They steadfastly endured in the faith, and both died, slain by the hands of an irresponsible mob.

"As much as any other man can do, do we revere the memory of these men. Their self-sacrificing spirit we admire, and would emulate; their devotion was heroic, and worthy of praise; their steadfastness to the purpose for which they devoted their lives has seldom been excelled, and should now shame all waverers. We are not content, however, to be admirers of the steadfastness and devotedness of these men, and to shut our eyes to their faults, and their vices, if evidence shows they had vices.

"We do not feel it incumbent upon us to defend the evil deeds of either remote or near predecessors; nor do we recognize it as an obligation upon us to receive all the acts of those predecessors, because we believe them to have been good and true men; or because we are assured that they received and enjoyed the favor of communion with heavenly powers. If they were infallible, then all their teachings were true, and all their acts were correct. But it is not claimed that they were infallible; on the contrary, the idea of infallibility in man is indignantly denounced. If those men Adam, Moses, James, John, and Paul were fallible and might err, so might Joseph and Hyrum Smith err, they being fallible. We believe them to have been fallible, and liable to err; and we are inclined to believe that they did err.

(page 658)

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