Howe, E. D. Mormonism Unvailed: Or, A Faithful Account of Th

Howe, E. D. Mormonism Unvailed: Or, A Faithful Account of That Singular Imposition and Delusion, From Its Rise to the Present Time. With Sketches of the Characters of Its Propagators, and a Full Detail of the Manner in which the Famous Golden Bible was Brought Before the World. To Which Are Added, Inquiries Into the Probability that the Historical Part of the Said Bible Was Written By One Solomon Spalding, More than Twenty Years Ago, and By Him Intended to Have Been Published As A Romance. Painesville, Ohio: E. D. Howe, 1834.
CHAPTER XVII.
We next present to the reader a few, among the many depositions which have been obtained from the neighborhood of the Smith family, and the scene where the far famed Gold Bible had its pretended origin. The divine authenticity of the Gold Bible or the Book of Mormon, is established by three special and eight collateral witnesses, making in the whole eleven, without whom there is no pretension to testimony ; and if their testimony is probable and consistent with truth, and unimpeached, according to the common rules of jurisprudence, we are bound to believe them. Upon the principle of common law, we are prepared to meet them ; and they are offered to us in no other light.—Under all circumstances, in civil and ecclesiastical tribunals, witnesses may be impeached, and after a fair hearing, on both sides, the veracity and credibility may be adjudged. If the eleven witnesses are considered, from what has already been said, unimpeached, we will offer the depositions of some of the most respectable citizens of our country, who solemnly declare upon their oaths that no credit can be given to any one member of the Smith family. Many witnesses declare that they are in the possession of the means of knowing the Smiths for truth and veracity, and that they are not upon a par with mankind in general.—Then, according to the common rules of weighing testimony, the eleven witnesses stand impeached before the public; and until rebutting testimony can be produced which shall go to invalidate the respectable host which are here offered, we claim that no credit can or ought to be given to the witnesses to the Book of Mormon. [231]