JOSEPH AND THE HIEROGLYPHICS

Interesting Information Regarding Mormon Leader and Brass Plates

Editor of the Herald:

A greater fraud, humbug and impostor than Joseph Smith, the seer of Mormonism, has never been known among men. The proof on this point is clear and cumulative. In his diary, Monday, May 1, 1843, he had this to say: "I insert the fac similes of the six brass plates found near Kinderhook, in Pike county, Illinois on April 23, 1843, by Mr. R. Wiley and others, while excavating a large mound, the found a skeleton about six feet from the surface of the earth, which must have stood nine feet high. The plates were found on the breast of the skeleton and were covered on both sides with ancient characters. I have translated a portion of them and find they contain the history of the person with whom they were found. He was a descendent of Ham, through the loins of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and that he received his kingdom from the Ruler of Heaven and Earth" . . . How true was any of it?

1. the plates were a humbug. 2. They were made of copper, not of brass. 3. There were only humbug characters on them, of no antiquity whatever, and put there as a hoax. 4. There was no skeleton unearthed, and Joe merely lied about it from start to finish.

The Kinderhook plates were gotten up by Robert Wiley, Bridge Whitten and Wilbur Fugate. Mr. Whitton was a blacksmith and cut the plates from some pieces of copper, as he himself told William Owen and James Sangrier. He told them also that Mr. Wiley or Mr. Fugate could tell them the same—a fact which Mr. Wiley confirmed, although they failed to see Mr. Fugate, whom both Whitton and Wiley named as in the secret. Their report is very conclusive indeed.

In accordance with the request of Daniel Turney, William Pickering, John Garretron, and others, committee on archaeological research, we went to Kinderhook, Illinois, to investigate the matter of the six plates reported to have been unearthed there, April 23, 1843. We reached the village May 1, 1844, and remained several days interviewing the various citizens. At least we learned the facts. The plates were made by Mr. Bridge Whitton, under the direction of R. Wiley and W. Fugate, as a hox upon the Mormons. Mr. Whitton is a blacksmith, and told us that Wiley and Fugate placed the characters upon them, and made the artificial rust which gave them their oxidated appearance, and superintended their burial and resurrection. We found Mr. Wiley and he confirmed in most minute detail everything that Mr. Whitton the blacksmith, had told us. They both named Mr. Fugate, whom we did not get to see, as in the secret. The mound in which the plates were placed had a few human bones, apparently burned and much decomposed, but no skeleton. We, therefore, respectfully submit this report concerning the origin and contents of the Kinderhook plates [Fugate and other letters/sources then reproduced] . . .

With the facts before us, and the documents, we understand the case. Copper plates are passed off for brass—a brassy job; modern impressions are represented as ancient characters; and Seer Joseph could translate them, although the artists who made them could not.

Mormonism is a fraud. Joe's translation of the humbug hieroglyphics of the Kinderhook plates, is a test of his trustworthiness in general—a proof that he was considerable of a liar.