By Jerald and Sandra Tanner
In Mormonism—Shadow or Reality? pages 126-135, we demonstrated that the History of the Church which Church leaders always attributed to Joseph Smith himself was mostly compiled after his death. The evidence clearly shows that less than 40% was compiled during his lifetime. The remainder was not compiled until after Smith’s death in 1844. It was not completed, in fact, until 1856, and many important changes were made after that date. The fact that more than 60% of the History was not compiled until after Joseph Smith’s death invalidates the statement which appears on the title page of all six volumes: “History of Joseph Smith, the Prophet BY HIMSELF.”
In Mormonism—Shadow or Reality? we gave evidence which clearly showed that the writings of other people were changed to the first person to make it appear that they were the very words of Joseph Smith himself. This evidence has forced Mormon apologists into a very compromised position. Dr. Clandestine, for instance, has to admit that our charges are true:
They criticize the fact that deletions and additions were introduced into the original texts without acknowledgments in the printed history, that Joseph Smith’s autobiographical “History” was written in large part after his death, by clerks and “historians” who transformed third-person accounts by others than Joseph Smith into first-person autobiography of Joseph Smith, and that between the first serialized publication of the history (1840s-1860s) and the seven-volume edition of the History of the Church in the twentieth century, there have been thousands of deletions and additions not noted in the text or footnotes. This is certainly all true, and as an historian I regret the confusion that such editorial practices have caused. (Jerald and Sandra Tanner’s Distorted View of Mormonism: A Response to Mormonism-Shadow or Reality? page 42)
Since we now know that more than 60% of Joseph Smith’s History was not compiled until after his death, the question arises as to what were the sources which Mormon historians used to create the purported history. We know that they used newspapers and journals of other Mormon leaders and that much of the material came only from memory. (It was, of course, written in the first person to make it appear that Joseph Smith was the author.) We have always felt that Joseph Smith’s private diaries were used as a source in preparing the history, but we were denied access to them. Finally, in August, 1976, we were able to examine microfilm copies of these important documents. We can now see some of the reasons why the Mormon leaders suppressed Joseph Smith’s diaries.
The first thing we notice is that there are large periods of Joseph Smith’s life that are not covered by extant diaries—unless some of the diaries are still being suppressed. Only three of the last six years of Smith’s lifetime as it appears in the History of the Church can be checked against his diaries. The famous Rocky Mountain Prophecy, for instance, appears in the printed history under a date when Joseph Smith did not keep a diary. In Mormonism—Shadow or Reality? we demonstrated that this prophecy was not written in the original manuscript of the History of the Church until after Joseph Smith’s death (see also Answering Dr. Clandestine, pages 29-31). Dr. Clandestine has to admit that “the exact source for the account of Joseph Smith’s prophecy of August 6, 1842, is not clear” (Jerald and Sandra Tanner’s, Distorted View of Mormonism, page 15).
Unfortunately, Joseph Smith’s diaries do not contain the important information that we would expect to find about his life. Many pages are left blank or only contain information on the weather or some other trivial matters. The value of the diaries decreases even more when we learn that a large portion of the entries were not written in the first person, but rather by Joseph Smith’s Nauvoo scribe, Willard Richards. For instance, under the date of October 20, 1843, we read this entry in Joseph Smith’s Diary: “heard that Joseph went to Ramus yesterday has not returned.”
Our brief examination of the diaries reveals that although they were used as one of the sources for “Joseph Smith’s History,” there was no attempt to follow them faithfully. The Mormon leaders chose only the portions of the journals which served their purposes. For instance, in his diary Joseph Smith related a dream and its interpretation which tended to discredit his famous prophecy about the Civil War. This material was simply omitted in Joseph Smith’s History. We will have more to say about this matter in the chapter on false prophecy in the book which will be published by Moody Press [The Changing World of Mormonism].
In Mormonism—Shadow or Reality? we show that Joseph Smith frequently broke the Word of Wisdom—i.e., a revelation which forbids the use of tea, coffee, tobacco or alcoholic beverages (see Doctrine and Covenants, Section 89). Dr. Clandestine was unable to refute our evidence and had to admit that Joseph Smith had an “occasional glass of beer or wine” (Jerald and Sandra Tanner’s Distorted View of Mormonism, page 9, note 2). On page 7 of the same booklet he speaks of “Joseph Smith’s polygamy, smoking and drinking, ” He maintains, however, that the Mormon leaders have not tried to suppress the fact that Smith broke the Word of Wisdom. In Answering Dr. Clandestine, pages 28-29, we prove beyond any doubt that there was a deliberate cover-up on this matter. Joseph Smith’s diaries provide additional evidence concerning his disregard for the Word of Wisdom and the attempt to coverup the matter in the History of the Church. Under the date of January 20, 1843, the following was recorded in Joseph Smith’s Diary:
Elder Hyde told of the excellant white wine he drank in the east. Joseph prophesied in the name of the lord—that he would drink wine with him in that country.
These words were suppressed in the printed History of the Church.
The Mormon Church forbids the use of tea, but according to Joseph Smith’s Diary, March 11, 1843, Smith was fond of strong tea:
. . . in the office Joseph said he had tea, with his breakfast his wife asked him if it was good, he said if it was a little stronger he should like it better, when Mother Granger remarked, “It is so strong, and good, I should think it would answer Both for drink, and food.”
This was entirely omitted in the History of the Church (see vol. 5, page 302).
Another statement which was probably embarrassing to the Mormon leaders appeared in Joseph Smith’s Diary under the date of May 19, 1844: “eve I talked a long time in the bar Room . . .” in the History of the Church, vol. 6, page 398, this has been modified to read: “In the evening I talked to the brethren at my house, . . .”
In Mormonism—Shadow or Reality? page 408, we show that Joseph Smith sold liquor in Nauvoo, and that his wife Emma almost moved out when he installed a bar in the Nauvoo Mansion.
In Mormonism—Shadow or Reality? we show that on many occasions the Mormon leaders emphatically denied polygamy at the very time they were living in it. Some of Joseph and Hyrum Smith’s denials were so embarrassing to later Mormon leaders that they were altered in the History of the Church. Since publishing our book, we have learned that a statement in Joseph Smith’s History, which sanctions plural marriage was actually a condemnation of the practice before it was falsified. This statement was used by Joseph Fielding Smith, who later became the tenth president of the Mormon Church, in rebuttal to a member of the Reorganized LDS Church who claimed that Joseph Smith never endorsed the doctrine of plurality of wives:
Whether any such statement was ever printed in his lifetime or not I am not prepared to say. But I know of such evidence being recorded during his lifetime, for I have seen it.
I have copied the following from the Prophet’s manuscript record of Oct. 5, 1843, and know it is genuine:
“Gave instructions to try those persons who were preaching, teaching or practicing the doctrine of plurality of wives; for according to the law, I hold the keys of this power in the last days; for there is never but one on earth at a time on whom this power and its keys are conferred; and I have constantly said no man shall have but one wife at a time unless the Lord directs otherwise.” (Blood Atonement and the Origin of Plural Marriage, by Joseph Fielding Smith, page 55)
When Joseph Fielding Smith speaks of “the Prophet’s manuscript record” he is, of course, referring to the handwritten manuscript of the History of the Church. The same reference is printed in the History of the Church, vol. 6, page 46.
Now that we know that Joseph Smith’s History was not finished until after his death, it is obvious that it could not have been “recorded during his lifetime” as Joseph Fielding Smith claimed. According to a chart in Dean Jessee’s article in Brigham Young University Studies, Summer 1971, page 441, this material was not written until sometime between November 1854 and August 1855, which is about ten years after Smith’s death. In our research in Joseph Smith’s diaries we found that the entry in the manuscript record and the History of the Church is based on a statement recorded in Joseph Smith’s diary. When we compare the two, however, we find that the statement has been falsified so that the meaning is entirely changed. In Joseph Smith’s diary the statement flatly condemns polygamy and no exceptions are made for its practice:
. . . gave instructions to try those who were preaching teaching or practicing the doctrine of plurality of wives or this law—Joseph forbids it, and the practice thereof. No man shall have but one wife. (Joseph Smith Diary, October 5, 1843, Church Historical Department)
The reader will notice how this has been changed in the History of the Church, to make it appear that Joseph Smith has the “keys of power” to perform plural marriages if the Lord “directs otherwise”:
Gave instructions to try those persons who were preaching, teaching, or practicing the doctrine of plurality of wives; for, according to the law, I hold the keys of this power in the last days; for there is never but one on earth at a time on whom the power and its keys are conferred; and I have constantly said no man shall have but one wife at a time, unless the Lord directs otherwise. (History of the Church, vol. 6, page 46)
As we indicated before, in compiling the History of the Church, the Mormon leaders used only the parts of Joseph Smith’s diaries which suited their purposes. Where a portion did not say what they wanted, they altered it or ignored it completely, sometimes using an entirely different source. The diaries of Joseph Smith, then, tend only to deal another heavy blow to the credibility of “Joseph Smith’s History of the Church.” No wonder the Mormon leaders suppressed these diaries for about 130 years.
Publishing Smith’s Diaries
When we first started our work we became acquainted with M. Wilford Poulson who had taught at the Mormon Church’s Brigham Young University for many years. Professor Poulson sometimes boasted that he was one of a very limited number of people who had examined Joseph Smith’s 1832-34 Diary. He claimed that he was only allowed access to it because of his very special connections in the Historian’s Office. During the 1960s we exerted a great deal of pressure on the Mormon leaders to make the diaries of Joseph Smith available. The General Authorities, of course, resisted our efforts, but some of the Mormon scholars agreed with us on this issue and began to speak out against the suppression of important Church documents. Strange as it may seem, even Dr. Leonard Arrington spoke out against suppression before he was chosen as Church Historian:
It is unfortunate for the cause of Mormon history that the Church Historian’s Library, which is in the possession of virtually all of the diaries of leading Mormons, has not seen fit to publish these diaries or to permit qualified historians to use them without restriction. (Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, Spring 1966, pages 25-26)
When Dr. Arrington was appointed Church Historian it was reported that the diaries of Joseph Smith would finally be published. Dean C. Jessee was assigned to begin making the transcripts of these documents. Unfortunately, however, almost seven years have passed since Dr. Arrington took office and nothing has appeared in print—not even Joseph Smith’s first “1832-34 Diary.” We understand that when Dean Jessee was asked if he planned to have something in print by 1980, he replied that he hoped to have it out by the turn of the century. We do not know how serious Mr. Jessee was in making this statement, but as we pointed out before, it is a fact that Ezra Taft Benson and some of the other General Authorities are trying to stop Dr. Arrington’s projects. We believe that these men would be especially opposed to the publication of the diaries of Joseph Smith.
Although we have had access to a microfilm of the diaries since 1976 (as yet we do not have our own copy), we have waited to see if the Church would begin publication. We do not feel that members of the Church should have to wait until the millennium to find out the truth about these diaries. Therefore, we decided to begin by printing Joseph Smith’s 1832-34 Diary. H. Michael Marquardt freely volunteered his services and provided us with a typescript of this early diary. Although we were reluctant to do it, we have completed the project and it is now available at Modern Microfilm Co. We felt that the Mormon Church itself should have printed the diaries for its members. After all, they have the original volumes and it would have been much better to make a typescript from them. Mr. Marquardt, who does not have any access to records in the Church Historical Department, had to work from a microfilm and photocopies of Joseph Smith’s 1832-34 Diary. Although he has been very careful in his work, the original documents probably would have thrown much light on some portions that were hard to decipher. Mr. Marquardt does not put his work forth as a perfect transcript, but we feel that he has done a very good job. In printing the diary we have included a number of photographs of the original handwritten pages.
We feel that it is a very sad indictment on the Mormon leaders that we have to publish their own foundational documents and books. For instance, the Church suppressed Joseph Smith’s Egyptian Alphabet and Grammar for 130 years and it was not available to scholars until we published it in 1966. Joseph Smith’s first handwritten account of the First Vision was likewise suppressed until we printed it in 1965. Joseph Smith’s 1831 revelation on plural marriage as a means to make the Indians a “white” and “delightsome” people was kept hidden from the Mormon people until we published it in 1974. Many other examples could be cited, but the ones we have presented should be sufficient to convince the reader that the General Authorities do not want their people to become acquainted with the real Joseph Smith.
While Joseph Smith’s 1832-34 Diary is not as important as the diaries he wrote later in his life, Professor Poulson felt that it was useful in showing that Joseph Smith had the ability to write the Book of Mormon. He was certainly not the ignorant man that some have represented him to be. In any case, while Michael Marquardt is preparing the very revealing 1835-36 Diary, we can offer the reader Joseph Smith’s 1832-34 Diary for $2.00 a copy. In this publication we have also included the first photographs of all six pages of the document which contains Joseph Smith’s “strange account” of the First Vision. Mr. Marquardt has done a line-for-line transcription of this important document.
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