VI DIALOGUE: A JOURNAL OF MORMON THOUGHT ern Christendom is in decline. The Huggins believes that "careful new centers arise in warmer climes, study" allows one "to trace the including Africa, the seat, we story's development from its ear- should remind ourselves, of the ear- lier to its later version" (19, 22). liest expansion of the faith. Huggins's work, however, All of which brings me back to hardly qualifies as a "careful this article, my experience in Haiti, study." He seems to be unaware, and a previous stint in East Africa. I for example, of Mark Ashurst- think we have not yet begun to real- McGee's definitive article "Mor- ize the implications of our boast of a oni: Angel or Treasure Guard- "world-wide" Church. The inter- ian?" Mormon Historical Studies 2, face of the Church with Haiti or, to no. 2 (2001): 39-75. a much greater extent, Africa, will Ashurst-McGee argues that the not leave either party unchanged. issue "requires an application of What we are witnessing in these the basic standards of source criti- parts of the world is a throwback to cism and good history": (1) First- an earlier age when the Saints were hand accounts take precedence accustomed to a much more over secondhand accounts; (2) free-flowing spirit, did not see effi- Sources composed closer to the ciency as the highest of organiza- time of the event take precedence tional values, focused on ritualistic over sources composed later on and charismatic aspects of the faith (48). as unifying factors, and found doc- Applying these standards, trinal purity a sometime thing. Ashurst-McGee analyzes primary A forbidding future? Maybe. But sources in chronological order. it will liven up the landscape. Huggins, in contrast, ignores Gary Huxford these standards and misses key Monmouth, Oregon documents. A prime example is the Willard Chase affidavit. Folklore Rebutted Huggins claims that Chase's ac- In "From Captain Kidd's Trea- count of the plates—featuring sure Ghost to the Angel Moroni: black clothes, a black horse, a dis- Changing Dramatis Personae in Early appearing book, and a toad that Mormonism," 36, no. 4 (Winter turns into a spirit—preserves "the 2003): 17-42, Ronald Huggins at- earliest version of the story" (22). tacks Joseph Smith by claiming that Only later, Huggins argues, did Jo- a "money-digger's yarn" was trans- seph speak of revelation and an formed into "restoration history." angel. Letters to the Editor vn The Chase document, however, ments, 5 vols. [Salt Lake City: Sig- fails both of Ashurst-McGee's tests. nature Books, 1998-2003], First, it is not a firsthand account. 1:496). Rather than hearing of the plates di- 3. Lorenzo Saunders's 1884 in- rectly from Joseph, Chase heard of terview. Saunders said that Joseph them from the Prophet's father. told him about the revelation, the Even if he recalled the conversation plates, and the angel "in the sum- accurately, his secondhand version mer before Alvin died" (EMD, at best represents the view of J o s e p h 2:159). Saunders thus pinpoints Sr. Second, multiple sources were his conversation with Joseph as composed before Chase's 1833 falling between the first visit of statement. A careful study should Moroni on September 22, 1823, look first at the early firsthand wit- and Alvin's death on November nesses and second at the early writ- 19, 1823. ten sources. 4-5. Joseph Knight's reminis- Firsthand accounts—in the order cence, ca. 1835-47, and Joseph these individuals spoke with Joseph Knight Jr.'s 1862 history. The Smith—include the following: Knights heard the story from Jo- 1-2. Lucy Mack Smith's 1844- seph Smith in November of 1826. 45 history and William Smith's Joseph said Joseph Smith had 1883 reminiscence. The Smiths been visited by a personage who heard of the plates from Joseph on instructed him to do the will of September 22 or 23, 1823. Lucy God in order to obtain the plates wrote that Joseph was contemplat- (EMD, 4:15). According to Joseph ing religious questions, that a bright Jr., the Prophet "had seen a vision, light entered the room, and that Jo- that a personage had appeared to seph "looked up and saw an angel him and told him
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