I have for some time past been waiting for an opportunity to report a conversation which took place between myself and Mr. David Whitmer, one of the surviving witnesses to the Book of Mormon. I had hoped to have a talk with his brother John, but death intervened. I had business in Richmond last June, and thought I would interview Mr. David Whitmer. I met him in the street near the courthouse and told him my business, and he invited me to walk to the livery stable conducted by himself and son. After we were seated in the office room the following conversation occurred:
"I am an Irishman, and live in Caldwell County. I have seen the Book of Mormon, with your name and that of your brother John as testamentary to the Book of Mormon. John is now dead, and you alone are left to satisfy my desire of knowledge concerning these matters."
"It is warm here: come down to the office at the livery stable."
When seated he asked me for the points concerning which I wanted information.
"First of all, I have heard that you saw an angel: I never saw one: I want your description in its shape, voice and brogue, and the construction of his language. I mean as to his style of speaking. You know we can often determine the class a man belongs to by his language."
"It had no appearance or shape."
"Then you neither saw nor heard anything?"
"Nothing, in the way you understand it."
"How, then, could you bear testimony that you saw and heard an angel?"
"Have you never had impressions?"
"Then you had impressions, such as a Quaker has when the spirit moves him, or as a good Methodist in giving a happy experience - a mere feeling?"
"Just so."
"I think I understand you respecting the angel; but what about the reformed Egyptian writing on the plate discovered by Joseph Smith in the cave in New York? How did you know the writing was Egyptian, and that the Book of Mormon is a correct translation?"
"Being impressed with the truth and reality of it."
"In the same way in which you were impressed with the presence of the angel which interpreted the writing?"
"Yes."
"Do you know any other language than English?"
"No."
"Do you know anything of mesmerism or ventriloquism? Is it not possible you were imposed upon? You look to be honest."
"I did not know anything of these arts."
"You have perhaps read the history of Egypt: How the Carthaginians were descendants of Phoenicia, and how the Israelites sojourned in Egypt and the probability of the old Egyptian being akin to the languages or idioms of Palestine: how the Persians ruled for a time in Egypt; How Alexander and the Greeks ruled afterwards, the Romans next and last of all the Arabs? Now, all these languages are known to linguists in the great universities of Europe, and what need was there of a miracle to decipher? The hieroglyphics are more ancient and the way to read them is discovered; consequently I do not see the need of an angelic visitor to teach us how to read them now-a-days.
You thought doubtless you were impressed for good, but have you considered the precedents for murdering taught in the first chapter of the Book of Nephi?" I stated the circumstances of Nephi being commanded by God to murder his uncle at night in the streets outside the walls of his house in Jerusalem.
When he said that that looked bad his tone seemed to indicate that he had never before observed this wickedness [page 3] in his book, witnessed by himself and recommended by his angel to the world. He had an honest, simple look, and my impression, which I think to be as good as his or his angel, is, that he ought to reconsider and contradict his former testimony to an illusion, or perhaps cunning scheme being a fact, which has resulted in so much woe to many; and as he seems to be nearly 80 years old, he ought not to delay.
John Murphy [The Kingston, Caldwell County, Missouri, Times, December 16, 1887, page 1, col. 5.]
Recommended Reading: Lyndon W. Cook, ed., David Whitmer Interviews: A Restoration Witness (Orem, UT: Grandin, 1991).
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