| 613 In an editorial published in the Herald for December 8, 1888, President Joseph Smith explained the attitude of himself and associates as follows:
It was at one time an argument frequently used by the elders of the church in making their appeal for the attention of the people, that because our forefathers believed so and so, or worshiped [worshipped] thus and thus, it was really no more of an obligation upon us to follow in their footsteps in worship and belief, than it was incumbent upon us to plow our land with a forked stick from the forest, or carry grain to mill in one end of a sack with a stone in the other end, because our predecessors may have done so. Has time in its passing broken the force of that argument, or made the wisdom of the saying less?
We are led to ask this question because there is a class of believers in the latter-day work who seemed to be grieved at the course pursued by the sons of Joseph Smith, when upon attaining their majority and determining their own position in the religious controversies of the world, they have chosen to say that some things done by their father were, in their opinion, unwise, and that some other things which it is alleged he both said and did were not only unwise but were absolutely wrong, and
A.-I am eighty-two years old.
Q.-How long have you resided in this vicinity?
A.-About sixty years.
Q.-How closely were you related to Solomon Spalding?
A.-He was my father's brother.
Q.-How old were you the last time you saw your uncle?
A.-Between ten and eleven years of age.
Q.-Then you remember him well?
A.-Oh, yes. He was a very sickly man, and the last time I saw him was at Conneaut creek, just before he went to Pittsburg [Pittsburgh], where he died shortly afterwards.
Q.-What did your uncle do for a living?
A.-He was a land agent, and my father said he was a scoundrel and used to cheat the people out of their money and property.
Q.-Was he much of a scholar?
A.-No. He had some natural talent, but he was not very smart; but very lazy. Then he wrote the manuscripts that the Mormons call the Book of Mormon to make money out of it.
Q.-How did the Mormons get the manuscripts?
A.-I don't know. (Here his daughter a lady about fifty years old, replied, "His widow gave them to Joseph Smith, Jr.")
Q.-Is there not a story afloat that Sidney Rigdon stole them?
A-I had not heard that before.
Q.-Mr. Spalding, did you ever see the manuscripts? or the Book of Mormon?
A.-No.
Q.-What did Mr. Spalding write about?
A.-I heard my father say it was a story about the Indians.
Q.-Was your uncle a minister?
A.-He was not; neither did he belong to any church.
Q.-Then you do not know whether the Book of Mormon and the manuscript are the same or not?
A.-No. Only what I have heard people say; have not seen either.-The Saints' Herald, vol. 85, p. 820.
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