Mormon History
Ezra Booth Letter #2 - 1831
The Ohio Star - October 20, 1831
MORMONISM.
The second letter of Mr. Booth, giving an exposition of this delusion, which has of late occupied no small share of public attention in this section of the country, will be found in this paper. We intended to have accompanied his first letter with some introductory remarks, which we considered necessary to enable our readers to understand the subject; but the circumstances at the time forbade. We therefore take this opportunity to say to those who are unacquainted with Mr. Booth, that he was formerly a highly esteemed preacher of the Methodist persuasion -- that he was one of the earliest subjects of the Mormon faith, in this county -- that under the influence of what he supposed to be a divine command, he was induced to leave his family and his home, and accompany the impostor Smith, and his deluded followers, to Missouri, in search of the "Land of Promise" -- that in process of time he became convinced of the duplicity of Smith and Co., and returned to his family and friends, deeply penitent and humble, under a sense of the errors into which he had been led and into which, in turn, he had been the instrument of leading others -- and that he feels now called upon by a sense of duty, to expose the fraud, and repair the injury his example has done, as far as in him lies.
We earnestly bespeak for Mr. Booth, the charity of our readers, so far as to believe him sincere in his former delusion, as well as in his present efforts to atone for it. We had an opportunity of conversing with him, soon after he embraced Mormonism; and we became entirely convinced of his sincerity, and uprightness of purpose; and the pain we felt at witnessing his delusion, was equal to the pleasure with which we heard of his recovery from it. In a private note accompanying one of his letters, Mr. Booth gives the following as his reasons for now writing upon the subject: "1st. To discharge a duty which I owe to God and the public. 2d. To rescue, if possible, the honest and conscientious who are involved in it. 3d. To prevent others from falling into it. 4th. To comply with the request of a number who have solicited an exposure of Mormonism."
Our readers are aware, that with the exception of a small article some time since copied from a neighboring paper, we have published nothing heretofore on the subject of Mormonism. A few words in explanation of this course, may not be amiss at the present time. We early became convinced that mormonism was one of those delusions which would receive no check, but rather the reverse, from newspaper opposition; and hence we resolved to let it take its course, blameless ourself of giving it notoriety, or of interfering with the faith of those who honestly embraced it. Most of the stories which have found their way into the papers, we have supposed about as extravagant in their details, as mormonism itself was false in its pretensions. The letters of Mr. Booth are of a different character. They are a kind of official exposition of the fraud, authentic and incontrovertible, by one who has enjoyed every opportunity of learning it by sad experience. We had much rather propagate sentiments thus authenticated, than give publicity to anonymous and at least questionable testimony from other sources. On reflection, we do not regret the course we have taken. While some may feel surprize that a man of Mr. Booth's good sense should be "taken in" by such an absurd piece of fraud as mormonism, others will perhaps regard it as a providential means of bringing to nought one of the most extraordinary devices of the great adversary, to ensnare the souls of men.
MORMONISM -- No. II.
REV. & DEAR SIR --Nelson, Portage Co. Oct. 2, 1831.
E. BOOTH.
REV. I. EDDY.
Note 1: Booth's remarks concerning the early Mormon teachings respecting the
Book of Mormon are intriguing. He says that Mormonism (then taking the Book of
Mormon as its basis): "is called the fulness of the Gospel to both Jew and
Gentile; and is the test by which every man's faith is to be tried." Thus, the
book was not merely a missionary tool, but it and the "system" in which it
came wrapped was an actual "voice of warning," proclaiming an imminent divine
judgment. Booth says: "Judgments are denounced against the sinners of this
generation; or in other words, all who reject the book of Mormon, are
threatened with eternal damnation." It goes without saying that acceptance of
the book and its message also entailed acceptance of the authority of the
Mormon priesthood, then headed (in practice, if not yet in legality) by Joseph
Smith, Jr.
Note 2: Booth says that "the City of Zion... is also to be a city of Refuge,
and a safe asylum when the storms of vengeance shall pour upon the earth, and
those who reject the book of Mormon, shall be swept off as with the besom of
destruction." This nearly forgotten tenet of early Mormonism taught that the
Latter Day Saints, joined by the converted and racially transformed American
Indians, would hold the region round about Independence, Missouri as a
divinely appointed stronghold in a coming war between the Saints and the
gentiles. During the course of that war terrible destruction would be wrought
upon the eastern half of the United States, and those among that nation's
inhabitants who chose Mormon "righteousness" over gentile "wickedness," were
assured of a place of refuge in the western "Kingdom of God."
Note 3: Booth also relates that the earliest Mormons believed, that in the
course of this war between "the righteous" and "the wicked," that "the riches
of the Gentiles" would be "consecrated to the Mormonites; they shall have
lands and cattle in abundance, and shall possess the gold and silver, and all
the treasures of their enemies." Such a doctrine might be construed from an
overly literal reading of millennial passages in the book of Isaiah -- and,
indeed, the Mormons reproduced exactly these sentiments in the pages of their
1838 Elders' Journal. Booth seems to allocate such a divinely mandated
"consecration" to the end of the civil war, much as the members of the
Middleton, Vermont Wood money-digging cult looked forward to such a
consecration of their neighbors' property unto themselves following God's
terrible judgments. The early Mormons appear to have moved the date of the
intended "consecration" up from the period following the civil war to a period
barely antedating its commencement -- at least such an understanding of
unwritten early Mormon doctrine would go far in explaining their reported
covert appropriation of gentile property in Daviess co., Missouri and in
Hancock co., Illinois.