View source for Question: How does David Whitmer's account of the attempt to sell the Book of Mormon copyright compare to those of the eyewitnesses?

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==Question: How does David Whitmer's account of the attempt to sell the Book of Mormon copyright compare to those of the eyewitnesses?==
{{BMCentral|title=Why Did Joseph Smith Attempt to Secure the Book of Mormon Copyright in Canada?|url=https://knowhy.bookofmormoncentral.org/knowhy/why-did-joseph-smith-attempt-to-secure-the-book-of-mormon-copyright-in-canada|number=556}}
===Whitmer's account is at variance in several ways with Hiram Page’s account===

Whitmer's account is at variance in several ways with Hiram Page’s account. Whitmer gets the destination city in Canada wrong (he says Toronto, the other accounts, and the revelation itself, say Kingston) and he did not correctly identify all of the participants (he identified Hiram Page and Oliver Cowdery, while Page noted Joseph Knight and Josiah Stowell). Note that the text of the revelation itself finally clears up the issue of exactly who the revelation was directed to,

<blockquote>
...it Pleaseth me that Oliver Cowderey Joseph Knight Hyram Page<del>e</del> & Josiah Stowel shall do my work in this thing...
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===Page, an eyewitness, makes no mention at disappointment in Joseph Smith, nor is there any mention of a "false prophecy"===

Page also makes no mention or even a hint at disappointment in Joseph Smith, nor is there an accusation that the trip was based upon a "false prophecy," so naturally no subsequent "revelation" is noted by Page explaining the mission’s failure. 

In Whitmer’s 1887 account we learn for the first time of the supposed post-mission revelation where Joseph Smith is told that some revelations are from God, some from devils, some from men. This account is in all likelihood a fabrication. Unlike his consistent, life-long statements concerning the witness of the Gold Plates, this account, which is probably a second-hand retelling of events 57 years after their occurrence, suddenly appears and is wrong on several of the documentable facts, as well as being inconsistent with the first-hand testimony of Hiram Page, given 40 years earlier than Whitmer and by comparison much closer to the actual event.
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{{endnotes sources}}
[[Category:Letter to a CES Director]]
[[Category:MormonThink]]
[[Category:No Man Knows My History]]
[[Category:The Changing World of Mormonism]]
[[Category:One Nation Under Gods]]

[[es:Pregunta: ¿De qué manera la historia de David Whitmer del intento de vender el Libro de Mormón de derechos de autor en comparación con las de los testigos?]]
[[pt:Pergunta: Como é que a conta de David Whitmer da tentativa de vender o Livro de Mórmon copyright comparar com aqueles das testemunhas oculares?]]
[[Category:Questions]]