CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. PAGE Sketch of Sidney Rigdon-Interview with General and Mrs. The Early Political Situation of the Mormons in "The Land of John Taylor Elected as Successor to the Second Prophet -The Trial of Rudger Clawson, Jr., for Bigamy-Salt Lake City— Its Beautiful Location-The Tabernacle and Public Build- ings-Mormon Conferences-The Freedom of the Ballot in Utah-The Present Generation of Mormons-Predictions Regarding the Future of Mormonism-Far-seeing Mormons The Doctrines of Mormonism-Hierachical Organization-The NEW LIGHT ON MORMONISM. CHAPTER I. Sketch of the Life of Solomon Spaulding and his authorship of a romance which he called "The Manuscript Found." SOLOMON SPAULDING was born at Ashford, Conn., in 1761, of a highly respectable family of English extraction, some of whose members served as officers in the Revolutionary War. He was educated at the Plainfield, Conn., Academy and at Dartmouth College, where he graduated in 1785, subsequently studying theology, and preached for a few years in some obscure New England town, but retired from the ministry, it is said, in consequence of ill-health. Soon after leaving Dartmouth he married Miss Matilda Sabine, of Pomfret, Conn.) Next we hear of Mr. Spaulding at Cherry Valley, N. Y., where he became principal of an academy, and remained until, through the persuasion of his brother, John Spaulding, he removed to a little town in Ohio, west of Buffalo, called at the time Salem, but now known as Conneaut, Ashtabula Co. Here the Spauldings, with Mr. Henry Lake, were owners of an iron foundry, and were engaged in successful business until the War of 1812, which ruined them financially. Solomon Spaulding, being an invalid, remained much of the time in his own house, reading and writing. He was a peculiar man, of fine education, especially devoted to historical study, the writing of essays and romances, and given to talking to his neighbors of what he had read and written. He was greatly superior to the people generally with whom he came in contact in that part of the country, both in mental capacity and education, possessed a commanding personal appearance-being over six feet in height-and had a pleasing, intelligent countenance. With all these advantages he was naturally looked upon as a man of consequence, and his opinions and conversation were listened to with earnest consideration by his acquaintances and neighbors. He was in the habit of frequently reading to them something he had written for their amusement and benefit, and these unique entertainments made a vivid and lasting impression upon those who were so fortunate as to attend them. In close proximity to the Spaulding residence there were some earth-mounds; they greatly interested him, and in order to have one of them investigated he had a large and vigorous tree cut down, which, on examination, turned out to be one thousand years old. Buried within the mound were various evidences of a prehistoric race, relics of a civilized condition, mingled with human bones, which were portions of gigantic skeletons. This discovery very greatly excited him and fired his imagination. He had been the very first person, it is said, to speculate and write on the origin of the various earth-mounds in the Mississippi Valley and that region, and had long had a theory as to the peopling of this country by a race which had inhabited the whole Continent, possessing the |