Appendix 3 — Extract from a letter written by Stephen Burnett to Lyman E. Johnson, regarding the testimony of Martin Harris viewing the Book of Mormon Plates1
Orange Township, Geauga Co., Ohio
15th April 1838
Br[other]. [Lyman E.] Johnson — Dear Sir I have with
pleasure just received your favor post marked 26th ult and
now you see I take a large sheet that I may have ample room
to write — my heart is sickened within me when I reflect
upon the manner in which we with many of this Church have
been led & the losses which we have sustained all by means
of two men in whom we placed implicit confidence, that
Joseph Smith & Sidney Rigdon are notorious liars I do not
hesitate to affirm, & can prove by a cloud of witnesses &
this is not all, Joseph [Smith] has prophecied [prophesied]
in a public congregation lies in the name of the Lord & by
undue religious influence he has filched the monies of the
Church from their pockets and brought them nigh unto
distruction [destruction], leaving helpless innocence
[innocents] destitute of a confortable [comfortable] support
while he has squandered the hard earnings of these to whom
it justly belonged.
I have reflected long and deliberately upon the history of
this church & weighed the evidence for & against it — loth
to give it up — but when I came to hear Martin Harris state
in a public congregation that he never saw the plates with
his natural eyes only in vision or imagination, neither
Oliver [Cowdery] nor David [Whitmer] & also that the eight
witnesses never saw them & hesitated to sign that
instrument2 for that reason, but were persuaded to do it,
the last pedestal gave way, in my view our foundations was
sapped & the entire superstructure fell a heap of ruins, I
therefore three week[s] since in the Stone Chapel3 gave a
full history of the church since I became acquainted with
it, the false preaching & prophecying [prophesying] of
Joseph [Smith] together with the reasons why I took the
course which I was resolved to do, and renounced the Book of
Mormon with the whole scene of lying and deception practiced
by J[oseph]. S[mith] & S[idney]. R[igdon] in this church,
believing as I verily do, that it is all a wicked deception
palmed upon us unawares.
I was followed by W[arren]. Par[r]ish[,] Luke Johnson & John
Boynton all of who concurred with me, after we were done
speaking M[artin] Harris arose & said he was sorry for any
man who rejected the Book of Mormon for he knew it was true,
he said he had hefted the plates repeatedly in a box with
only a tablecloth or a handkerchief over them, but he never
saw them only as he saw a city through a mountain. And said
that he never should have told that the testimony of the
eight [witnesses] was false, if it had not been picked out
of [h]im but should have let it passed as it was — Now
br[other] Johnson if you have any thing to say in favour
[favor] of the Book of Mormon I should be glad to hear it.
* * *
there are in Kirtland Esqrs [Cyrus] Smalling, [Joseph] Coe,
[Martin] Harris and others who still believe the Book of
Mormon &c but discard Joseph [Smith] & Mr [Joseph] Coe
proposed an investigation of the subject, and [Warren]
Par[r]ish took up on the negative, but I have not heard how
they got along with it, I am well satisfied for myself that
if the witnesses whose names are attached to the Book of
Mormon never saw the plates as Martin [Harris] admits that
there can be nothing brought to prove that any such thing
ever existed for it is said on the 171 page of the book of
covenants4 that the three [witnesses] should testify that
they had seen the plates even as J[oseph] S[mith] Jr & if
they saw them spiritually or in vision with their eyes shut
- J[oseph] S[mith] Jr never saw them any other light way &
if so the plates were only visionary and I am well satisfied
that the 29 & 37 Chap[ter]s of Isai[a]h & Ezekiel together
with others in which we depended to prove the truth of the
book of Mormon have no bearing when correctly understood but
are entirely irrelevant - but if any man differs from me I
can adopt the language of Josephus, he is at liberty to
enjoy his opinions without any blame from me - we are all
well in usual health, my respects to your family & all our
old friends, I am with respect yours &c
S[tephen] Burnett
Notes
1 Letter of Stephen Burnett to Lyman E. Johnson, 15 April 1838. On 24 May 1838 a copy of the original letter was made. This copy was then recopied in 1839 into a letterbook. The above extract is from the 1839 copy, located in Joseph Smith Letterbook 2:64-66, LDS archives. This letterbook contains copies of letters from 20 April 1837 to 8 Feb. 1843 with a few letters of other years.
2 Their testimony.
3 Meeting held on 25 March 1838 in the Kirtland Temple.
4 1835
Doctrine and Covenants, section 42, Kirtland, Ohio; cf. LDS
D&C 17; RLDS D&C 15.