"Alderman said that he met Martin Harris in Mentor, Ohio in 1852, who 'in conversation told me he saw Jo Smith translate the 'Book of Mormon,' with his peep-stone in his hat. Oliver Cowdery, who had been a school-teacher, wrote it down. Sidney Rigdon, a renegade preacher, was let in during the translation. Rigdon had stolen a manuscript from a printing office in Pittsburgh, Pa., which Spaulding, who had written it in the early part of the century, had left there to be printed, but the printers refused to publish it, but Jo and Rigdon did, as the 'Book of Mormon.' Martin said he furnished the means, . . . .'"(1884?, Davis, Scales, and Cowdery, 1977, p. 145, or Dan Vogel, "Early Mormon Documents," Signiture Books, 1998, p.?)
(note: fatal questions are marked with an asterisk *)
Vogel introduces this statement with an editorial note: "A superficial reading of Alderman's affidavit might lead one to conclude that Harris also confessed seeing Sidney Rigdon during the Book of Mormon's translation and expressed a belief that Smith and Rigdon had plagiarized Solomon Spaulding's manuscript. A closer reading, however, reveals that Alderman does not clearly attribute the statements about Rigdon and Spaulding to Harris and that Alderman possibly interjected his own speculations into his account of the interview" (Vogel 1996, 2:294). However, if we eliminate the passages which Vogel objects to, we are left with this unremarkable statement: "Martin Harris was there, and in conversation told me he saw Jo Smith translate the 'Book of Mormon,' with his peep-stone in his hat. Oliver Cowdery, who had been a school-teacher, wrote it down. Martin said he furnished the means . . . ." The last sentence makes little sense, unless it was preceded by a reference to printing the Book of Mormon. If Martin actually said that Joseph and Oliver wanted to get the book printed, and he furnished the means, we would have to believe that Alderman deliberately altered Harris's statement. I am not sure that I can follow Vogel that far. Furthermore, Alderman's account is unlike previous explanations of the Spalding theory. E. D. Howe had claimed that Rigdon obtained Spalding's manuscript from Lambdin, who worked at the print shop, and had then rewritten it, before giving it to Joseph Smith. Alderman, however, said that Joseph and Oliver were writing the book and that Rigdon merely made an appearance during the "translation." Alderman did not claim, as others had done, that Rigdon was the primary author of the Book of Mormon, or reviser of Spalding's manuscript. Vogel might also have asked, what prompted this conversation? In the year preceding Alderman's interview with Harris, Orsamus Turner had published his book, claiming that those who knew the Smiths best believed that there was no truth to the Spalding theory and that the Book of Mormon was the production of the Smith family. It may be that the subject of the Spalding theory came up specifically because of Turner's book.
Last updated 06/30/01