With him, Mormonism was a mere money speculation, and he
resolved to shelter himself behind some fool who might bear the whole
odium, while he would reap a golden harvest, and quietly retire before
the coming of a storm. But, as is often the case, he reckoned without
his host; for it so happened that, in searching for a tool of this
description, he found in Joe Smith one not precisely what he had
calculated upon. He wanted a compound of roguery and folly as his tool
and slave; Smith was a rogue and an unlettered man, but he was what
Rigdon was not aware of--a man of bold conception, full of courage and
mental energy, one of those unprincipled, yet lofty, aspiring beings,
who, centuries past, would have succeeded as well as Mahomet, and who
has, even in this more enlightened age, accomplished that which is
wonderful to contemplate.
When it was too late to retract, Rigdon perceived with dismay that,
instead of acquiring a silly bondsman, he had subjected himself to a
superior will; he was now himself a slave, bound by fear and interest,
his two great guides through life. Smith consequently became, instead of
Rigdon, "the elect of God," and is now at the head of thousands, a great
religious and political leader.
From the same gentleman, I also learned the history of Joseph Smith; and
I will lay before the reader what, from various documents, I have
succeeded in collecting concerning this remarkable impostor, together
with a succinct account of the rise and progress of this new sect, as it
is a remarkable feature in the history of nations.
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