Editing Three Witnesses (section)

=== Martin Harris ===
[[File:Martinharrisat87.jpg|125px|thumbnail|right|{{center|[[Martin Harris (Latter Day Saints)|Martin Harris]]}}]]
[[Martin Harris (Latter Day Saints)|Martin Harris]] was a respected farmer in the [[Palmyra (town), New York|Palmyra]] area who had changed his religion at least five times before he became a Latter Day Saint.<ref>Harris had been a Quaker, a Universalist, a Restorationist, a Baptist, a Presbyterian, and perhaps a Methodist. [[Ronald W. Walker]], "Martin Harris: Mormonism's Early Convert," ''[[Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought]]'' 19 (Winter 1986): 30–33).</ref> A biographer wrote that his "imagination was excitable and fecund." One letter says that Harris thought that a candle sputtering was the work of the devil<ref>Walker, 34: "Once while reading scripture, he reportedly mistook a candle's sputtering as a sign that the devil desired to stop him."</ref> and that he had met Jesus in the shape of a deer and walked and talked with him for two or three miles.<ref>John A. Clark letter, August 31, 1840 in ''EMD'', 2: 271.</ref> The local Presbyterian minister called him "a visionary fanatic."<ref>Walker, 34-35.</ref> A friend, who praised Harris as "universally esteemed as an honest man" but disagreed with his religious affiliation, declared that Harris's mind "was overbalanced by 'marvellousness{{'"}} and that his belief in earthly visitations of angels and ghosts gave him the local reputation of being crazy.<ref>[[Pomeroy Tucker]] reminiscence, 1858 in ''Early Mormon Documents'' 3: 71.</ref> Another friend said, "Martin was a good citizen. Martin was a man that would do just as he agreed with you. But, he was a great man for seeing spooks."<ref>Lorenzo Saunders Interview, November 12, 1884, ''Early Mormon Documents'' 2: 149.</ref>

During the early years, Harris "seems to have repeatedly admitted the internal, subjective nature of his visionary experience."<ref>Vogel, ''EMD'', 2: 255.</ref> The foreman in the Palmyra printing office that produced the first Book of Mormon said that Harris "used to practice a good deal of his characteristic jargon and 'seeing with the spiritual eye,' and the like."<ref>[[Pomeroy Tucker]], ''Origin, Rise, and Progress of Mormonism'' (New York: D. Appleton and Co., 1867), 71 in ''EMD'', 3: 122.</ref> John H. Gilbert, the typesetter for most of the Book of Mormon, said that he had asked Harris, "Martin, did you see those plates with your naked eyes?" According to Gilbert, Harris "looked down for an instant, raised his eyes up, and said, 'No, I saw them with a spiritual eye."<ref>John H. Gilbert, "Memorandum," 8 September 1892, in ''EMD'', 2: 548.</ref> Two other Palmyra residents said that Harris told them that he had seen the plates with "the eye of faith" or "[[Third eye|spiritual eyes]]."<ref>Martin Harris interviews with John A. Clark, 1827 & 1828 in ''EMD'', 2: 270; Jesse Townsend to Phineas Stiles, 24 December 1833, in ''EMD'', 3: 22.</ref> In 1838, Harris is said to have told an Ohio congregation that "he never saw the plates with his natural eyes, only in vision or imagination."<ref>Stephen Burnett to Lyman E. Johnson, 15 April 1838 in ''EMD'', 2: 291.</ref> A neighbor of Harris in Kirtland, Ohio, said that Harris "never claimed to have seen [the plates] with his natural eyes, only spiritual vision."<ref>Reuben P. Harmon statement, c. 1885, in ''EMD'', 2: 385.</ref>

One account states that in March 1838, Harris publicly denied that either he or the other Witnesses to the Book of Mormon had literally seen the golden plates—although, of course, he had not been present when Whitmer and Cowdery first stated they had viewed them. This account says that recantation of Harris, made during a period of crisis in early Mormonism, induced five influential members, including three [[apostle (Latter Day Saints)|apostles]], to leave the church.<ref>Stephen Burnett to [[Luke Johnson (Mormon)|Luke S. Johnson]], 15 April 1838, in Joseph Smith's Letterbook, ''Early Mormon Documents'' 2: 290–92.</ref> Later in life, Harris strongly denied that he ever made this statement.<ref>Letter of Martin Harris, Sr., to Hanna B. Emerson, January 1871, Smithfield, Utah Territory, in ''EMD'', 2: 338. See also Richard Lloyd Anderson, ''Investigating the Book of Mormon Witnesses,'' (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Company, 1981) p. 118.</ref>

In 1837, Harris joined dissenters, led by [[Warren Parrish]], in an attempt to reform the church. But Parrish rejected the Book of Mormon, and Harris continued to believe in it. By 1840, Harris had returned to Smith's church. Following Smith's assassination, Harris accepted [[James J. Strang]] as a new prophet, and Strang also claimed to have been divinely led to an ancient record engraved upon [[Voree plates|metal plates]]. By 1847, Harris had broken with Strang and had accepted the leadership of fellow Book of Mormon witness, Whitmer. Harris then left Whitmer for another Mormon factional leader, [[Gladden Bishop]]. In 1855, Harris joined with the last surviving brother of Joseph Smith, [[William Smith (Mormonism)|William]], and declared that William was Joseph's true successor. In 1856, Harris was living in [[Kirtland, Ohio|Kirtland]] and, as caretaker of the [[Kirtland Temple|temple]], gave tours to interested visitors.<ref name="EMD, 2: 258">''EMD'', 2: 258.</ref>

Despite his earlier statements regarding the spiritual nature of his experience, in 1853, Harris told one David Dille that he had held the forty- to sixty-pound plates on his knee for "an hour-and-a-half" and handled them "plate after plate."<ref>Martin Harris interview with David B. Dille, 15 September 1853 in ''EMD'' 2: 296–97.</ref> Even later, Harris affirmed that he had seen the plates and the angel: "Gentlemen," holding out his hand, "do you see that hand? Are you sure you see it? Or are your eyes playing you a trick or something? No. Well, as sure as you see my hand so sure did I see the Angel and the plates."<ref>Martin Harris interview with Robert Barter, c. 1870 in ''EMD'', 2: 390.</ref>

In 1870, at the age of 87, Harris accepted an invitation to live in [[Utah Territory]], where he was rebaptized into [[the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints]] (LDS Church) and spent his remaining years with relatives in [[Cache County, Utah|Cache County]]. In his last years, Harris continued to bear fervent testimony to the authenticity of the plates, but a contemporary critic of the church has noted that Harris rejected some important Mormon doctrines and that his sympathy for the LDS Church was tenuous.<ref>In an interview with ex-Mormon Anthony Metcalf, Metcalf asked him why, if he did not believe that [[plural marriage|polygamy]], [[baptism for the dead]], or [[endowment (Mormonism)|temple endowments]] were part of Mormonism, he had taken the endowment when he arrived in Salt Lake City. Harris replied "to see what was going on in there." Martin Harris interview with Anthony Metcalf, c. 1873–74 in ''EMD'', 2:348.</ref> In a letter of 1870, Harris swore, "no man ever heard me in any way deny the truth of the Book of Mormon, the administration of the angel that showed me the plates, nor the organization of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints under the administration of Joseph Smith, Jun., the prophet whom the Lord raised up for that purpose in these the latter days, that he may show forth his power and glory."<ref>Letter of Martin Harris, Sr., to Hanna B. Emerson, January 1871, Smithfield, Utah Territory, in ''EMD'', 2: 338. See also [[Richard Lloyd Anderson]], ''Investigating the Book of Mormon Witnesses,'' (Salt Lake City: [[Deseret Book Company]], 1981), 118.</ref>