Author: Joseph Smith
Release Date: October, 2004 [EBook #6720] [Yes,
we are more than one year ahead of schedule] [This
file was first posted on January 19, 2003]
Edition: 10
Language: English
Character set encoding: ASCII
*** Start of the project gutenberg
EBOOK, the Wentworth letter ***
This etext was produced by Gutenberg@BYU.
Editor: Philip MacCabe philip@maccabe.org
The Wentworth Letter by Joseph Smith, Jun. as published
in the Times and Seasons Vol.3 No.9, 1 March 1842
available in the United States Library Of Congress
BX8605.1.T48 Vol.3 pp 706-710
At the request of Mr. John Wentworth, Editor, and
Proprietor of the “Chicago Democrat,”
I have written the following sketch of the rise, progress,
persecution, and faith of the Latter-Day Saints, of
which I have the honor, under God, of being the founder.
Mr. Wentworth says, that he wishes to furnish Mr.Bastow,
a friend of his, who is writing the history of New
Hampshire, with this document. As Mr. Bastow
has taken the proper steps to obtain correct information,
all that I shall ask at his hands is that he publish
the account entire, ungarnished, and without misrepresentation.
I was born in the town of Sharon, Windsor co.,
Vermont, on the 23d of December, A.D. 1805. When
ten years old my parents removed to Palmyra, New York,
where we resided about four years, and from thence
we removed to the town of Manchester.
My father was a farmer and taught me the art of
husbandry. When about fourteen years of age I
began to reflect upon the importance of being prepared
for a future state, and upon enquiring [of] the plan
of salvation I found that there was a great clash in
religious sentiment; if I went to one society they
referred me to one plan, and another to another, each
one pointing to his own particular creed as the summum
bonum of perfection: considering that all could
not be right, and that God could not be the author
of so much confusion I determined to investigate the
subject more fully, believing that if God had a church
it would not be split up into factions, and that if
he taught one society to worship one way, and administer
in one set of ordinances, He would not teach another,
principles which were diametrically opposed. Believing
the word of God I had confidence in the declaration
of James; “If any man lack wisdom let him ask
of God who giveth to all men liberally and upbraideth
not and it shall be given him,” I retired to
a secret place in a grove and began to call upon the
Lord, while fervently engaged in supplication my mind
was taken away from the objects with which I was surrounded,
and I was enwrapped in a heavenly vision and saw two
