Correspondence of the Express.
CANANDAIGUA, July 11th 1844.
SKETCH OF THE EARLY LIFE OF JOE SMITH &C.
The news of the death of Joe Smith has produced considerable feeling among certain people in these parts, who recollect that quondam retailer of notions and spinner of big yarns, and though he was always considered a " loafnish," fellow, a great liar, and " considerable o' a scamp," yet the general feeling is, that he has received a severer punishment than he merited. He was for a long time a resident of the neigh-boring town of Farmington, and being inveterately in-dolent in his habits, he lived a jockeying, traficking (half vagrant life, till he arrived at middle age; still he possessed traits of character, which would have dis-tinguished him in an honorable, and a far more reputa-ble station in society, than the one it was his lot to fill, had he enjoyed the advantages of an early education, and been born under better auspices.
It was at the village of Palmyra, where he first made known his spiritual commission, and t e revela-tion he had received of the book of Mormon, that the twenty of the unimpeachable witnesses swore that it was the hand writing of Mr. ——, and that he had written it for his own amusement, during his long con-finement, yet what was the testimony of fallible men, when it conflicted with the statements of one divinely inspired ? But Joe was without honor in Palmyra, and he made few disciples at his own home and among his own kindred, and his Hegira from Palmyra which took place in 1828 was attended with no remarkable incident, but it was followed with this consequence—that the farther he got from the parts, where he was known, the more numerous were his followers.—After wandering from place to place he finally hit upon a " location" in Ohio, where he established an anti_monopoly Bank, and by an opportunate failure he pro-vided himself with funds for subsequent operations.—His trials in Missouri made him for a time, the object of almost idolatrous admiration to his. followers, and when this admiration had ao far subsided, as to permit the breaking out of seism in his own family, he is snatched from the consequences of an exploded impos ture, by the kindly interference of a mob, and he now in the estimation of the faithful, has die a Saint and Martyr, and has sealed with his blood the truth of his divine commission
The successful imposture of Joe Smith naturally re-minds us of the false prophet of Arabia, for Mahomet, like Smith, acquired his knowledge of human nature, in the capacity of an itinerant trader ; and if we take into the account the different material on which they had to act, Smith must, on all hands, be acknowledged the more shrewd impost. Mahomet proclaimed his re-velation to the turbulent hordes of the Desert, who were easily captivated by so indulgent a faith, and the prospects of abundance of plunder. While Jo Smith has had sufficient skill to propagate a most senseless delusion in the midst of an intelli ent and Christain community, and to found, to build up, and to govern a flourishing city, by for the force of this delusion, and the power of moral suasion alone ; and now, after having enjoyed for more than eighteen years the fruits of a successful imposition, and risen to the highest pitch to which, in this country, it was possible for a leader of a sect to rise, he has closed his career in the midst of his triumphs, and in a way so honorable as to render illustrious even a questionable life. W.
* Our Correspondent does not suffi iently character-ize or condemn the atrocity which put Joe Smith out of the world. It was a cool-blooded murder, and none the les so from the fact that Joe Smith as an imposter. His punishment for violating our own laws belonged to the constituted authorities, and for violating those of a high-er power by the grossest impositions upon record he was amenable to the Judge of all the earth.
