Mormonism Unvailed, chapter 17

              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]