New Witnesses for God (Volume 2 of 3)Roberts, B. H. (Brigham Henry)
Religion
New Witnesses for God (Volume 2 of 3)
Roberts, B. H. (Brigham Henry)
Book of Mormon; Smith, Joseph, Jr., 1805-1844
It may be thought that the care of the manuscript during the process of
printing was not only extraordinary but unnecessary. The experiences of
the prophet, however, in the matter of keeping possession of the plates
of the Book of Mormon, and the efforts that were made to take them
from him, together with the loss of the one hundred and sixteen pages
of manuscript he had for a short time entrusted to the care of Martin
Harris, taught him caution. It is well it did, for having failed in
their efforts to wrest the plates from him, several conspiracies were
formed by his enemies to obtain the manuscript of the book and prevent
its publication. [11] And notwithstanding all the precautions taken
an enemy nearly succeeded in publishing the Book of Mormon in garbled
form before the printing of the book was completed. An ex-justice of
the peace by the name of Cole started to publish a weekly periodical
which he called _Dogberry Paper on Winter Hill_. In his prospectus
he promised his subscribers to publish one form of "Joe Smith's Gold
Bible" each week, and thus furnish them with the principal part of the
book without their being obliged to purchase it from the Smiths. The
_Dogberry Paper_ was printed at Mr. Grandin's establishment, where the
Book of Mormon was being printed, and as the press was employed all
the time except at night and on Sundays, Mr. Cole printed his paper
at those times. The arrangement also enabled him to keep what he was
doing from the knowledge of the Prophet and his associates; and it
is said that several numbers of his paper containing portions from
the Book of Mormon which he had pilfered, were published before his
rascality was found out. Joseph, who was at Harmony, in Pennsylvania,
was sent for, and on arriving at Palmyra quietly but firmly asserted
his copyrights which he had been careful to secure, and Mr. Cole
gave up his attempt to publish the book or any portion of it. After
settling this difficulty Joseph again returned to Pennsylvania, only
to be again summoned to Palmyra to quiet the fears of his publisher,
Mr. Grandin, who had been made fearful that the Prophet would not be
able to meet his obligations for printing the book. The people in the
vicinity of Palmyra had held public meetings and passed resolutions not
to purchase the Book of Mormon, if it ever issued from the press. They
appointed a committee to wait upon Mr. Grandin and explain to him the
evil consequences which would result to him because of the resolutions
they had passed not to buy the books when published, which would render
it impossible for "the Smiths" to meet their obligations to him. They
persuaded him to stop printing, and Joseph was again sent for. On the
Prophet's arrival he called upon Mr. Grandin in company with Martin
Harris, and together they gave the frightened publisher such assurance
of their ability to meet their obligation to him that printing was
resumed; [12] and finally, in the spring of 1830, the book issued from
the press.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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