Rev. Solomon Spaulding “retired from the ministry owing to failing health, and visited the mounds in this western country to engage in the study of their archaeology. While in the Miami Valley [of Ohio] he conceived the idea of writing a romance, which pretended to give an account of the prehistoric race, known as the ‘Mound Builders’…” (“John C. Elliott: Slayer Of Joe Smith, The Mormon Saint”. Page 2, Hamilton Daily Republican (Hamilton, Ohio), Aug. 29, 1892)

In the fabulous romance of Rev. Spaulding, “he purported to demonstrate that the Mound Builders were descendants of the last ten tribes of the Israelites. The manuscript of the romance was offered a printer in Pittsburg, Pa., and was rejected, but not returned immediately to Rev. Spaulding. Sidney Rigdon, an employe in the printing office, made a copy of it for himself, which was used in formulating the so called ‘Book of Mormon,’ afterwards claimed to be the ‘Bible of the Mormons.'” (Hamilton Daily Republican, op. cit.)

Joseph Smith, prophet of the Mormons (image above), claimed to have discovered a buried book of golden plates and a set of silver spectacles with lenses composed of “seer stones.” With help from the apparently magical eyeglasses, Smith deciphered the book of golden plates and founded a religion. But what the report from the Hamilton Daily Republican (op. cit.) alleges is that the Mormon prophet Joseph Smith was in fact a plagiarist.

Palmyra, New York, where Joseph Smith received his amazing revelations circa 1820-1830, is located in western New York State, an amazing region itself. During the early 1800s there occurred there a general upheaval said to have been caused by the fire of the Holy Ghost. For this reason the area was nicknamed the “Burned Over District.”

“In 1839 the Mormons founded the city of Nauvoo (the beautiful) in Hancock county, Illinois.” Long before the Mormons arrived in Nauvoo, Native Americans (“Indians”) of the Hopewell culture built mounds there. So here again is another connection between Joseph Smith and the mound builders.

Joseph Smith “had a secret interview with his people and claimed that he had been directed by a revelation to support the Whig ticket in the campaign of 1840-41…” (Hamilton Daily Republican, op. cit.) The Whig Party had been an outgrowth of the Anti-Masonic party, born also in – you guessed it – the “Burned Over District” of western New York State. (The fire of anti-Masonic passion there had been precipitated by the “William Morgan affair.”) One marvelous consequence of the Anti-Masonry fervor was the propelling of Millard Fillmore into politics as an opponent of the Freemasons.

“The culminating folly of the Mormons occurred in the early spring of 1844, when the Prophet, Joe Smith, announced himself as a candidate for president. The government was denounced as corrupt; and the Mormons asserted that the government was to be conducted by Joe Smith, as the servant of God.” (Ibid.)

However Smith, by this time, had become a Freemason and had helped found a lodge in Nauvoo, Illinois, in March 1842. Smith’s last words before he was killed by an angry mob in 1844 were reportedly, “Oh Lord, my God, is there no help for the widow’s son!” (This is a secret Masonic cry issued by Masons in distress.)