It has hitherto been currently assumed by non-Mormons who profess to be conversant with the origin of that sect that their "Book of Mormon" was a plagiarism of a manuscript by Solomon Spaulding, written avowedly as a work of fiction, purporting to give the history of some extinct Indian tribes. As the manuscript was never published and soon disappeared, that theory was generally accepted, there being no opportunity for comparison. Quite recently, however, the Spaulding manuscript was discovered in the possession of Mr. L. L.Rice, of Honolulu, in consequence of a visit there by the President of the Oberlin, Ohio, University, Mr. Fairchild, who asked Mr. Rice (formerly an anti-slavery editor in Ohio) for such anti-slavery documentary relics as he would be willing to contribute to the Oberlin college library. When Mr. Rice was overhauling his papers for that purpose, he stumbled on this Manuscript, which purports to be a narrative of the migrations and conflicts of ancient Indian tribes occupying the territory which is now known as New York, Ohio, and Kentucky. On the last page is a certificate and signature giving the names of several persons known to the signor, who have assured him that to their personal knowledge the manuscript was the writing of Solomon Spaulding.

What the object of the certificate was does not appear. Mr. Rice has no recollection of how or when the manuscript came into his possession. It was enveloped in wrapping paper and endorsed in Mr. Rice's hand writing, "A Manuscript story.” The above is found in an article by Pres. Fairchild in the Bibliotheca Sacra—a long established orthodox, theological magazine of repute, published in New York.—[Oberlin, O., Ed.] Fairchild and Rice both examined the manuscript, compared it with the "Book of Mormon" and found the two to be totally unlike, both in style and subject, the only feature common to the two being that both professed to give a history of some, though not the same, Indian tribes.

Mr. Fairchild writes Joseph Smith (son of the founder of Mormonism and leader on the anti-polygamic Mormons): “Certainly the manuscript saw I was not the source of the Book of Mormon.” He adds, however, that since the discovery was made public it has been claimed that there were two manuscripts by Spaulding, one on the Indian and the other on the Hebrew tribes, the former being that discovered in Honolulu and the latter the source of the original J. Smith's inspiration. Nothing, however, seems to have been heard or circulated about any second manuscript until after the first (so termed) was discovered, which gives the hypothesis a decidedly ex post facto smack that some may call “fishy.”

Whatever may be the merits of Mormonism or the facts of its origin, it seems clear that the theory which derives it from Spaulding’s book will not hold water.—Watchman.