John Gilbert reports that Martin Harris told him he saw the plates with "spiritual eyes."
- Type
- Letter
- Source
- John Hulbert Gilbert CriticNon-LDS
- Hearsay
- 2nd HandLate
- Reference
John Gilbert, Letter to James T. Cobb, March 16, 1879, Schroeder Papers, Box 1, The New York Public Library
- Scribe/Publisher
- John Hulbert Gilbert
- Audience
- James T. Cobb
PDF- Transcription
Palmyra, N.Y.,
March 16, 1879
Mr. Ja T. Cobb,
Dear Sir—
. . .
I think Harris really believed that Jo found the plates on the commencement of the fraud, but changed his opinion before he left Palmyra. I asked Harris once if he had really seen the plates with his naked eyes? his reply was, no, but with spiritual eyes. I cannot learn from inquiring anything positive about the time Harris went to Kirtland, O. I think he went there in the fall of 1830, and came back in the spring of 1831—was backwards and forwards several times before he left Palmyra for good.
Perhaps Smith had some tin plates—cannot say—new idea to me.
Hope you will succeed in ferreting this humbug and fraud out, and explore the thing from beginning to end
Yours truly
J. H. Gilbert
- Citations in Mormonr Qnas
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