The Writings of Oliver Cowdery—a Lesson on his Letter VII Controversy – Part I

Oliver Cowdery met Joseph Smith on April 5, 1829, a year and a day before the official founding of the church, but nine years and ten days after Joseph received what is now called the First Vision, and six years, five months and sixteen days after the angel Moroni first appeared to Joseph, and 2½ years after Joseph obtained the plates for translation. Thus, Oliver’s knowledge of these earlier events, of which he often wrote, and did so extensively, were merely comments made to him by Joseph—not any of his own personal experiences or first-hand knowledge.
    Thus, Rod L. Meldrum and his followers, as well as the support basis for his “Heartland Theory,” are at best based upon, for the most part, the second-hand knowledge and writings of Oliver Cowdery—not public or written statements made by Joseph Smith, though that is what Meldrum claims.
    The problem with all of this is that Oliver Cowdery was well known for his showy knowledge about unimportant minutiae and romanticizing events in his speech and writing, in which others have studied and reported upon.

Oliver Cowdery described the hill in western New York, which he called the hill Cumorah, as: “about four miles from Palmyra, you pass a large hill on the east side of the road. Why I say large, is, because it is as large perhaps, as any in that country [and] I think I am justified in saying that this is the highest hill for some distance round, and I am certain that its appearance, as it rises so suddenly from a plain on the north, must attract the notice of the traveler as he passes

 

While the hill in Western New York protrudes, or bulges upward, it is not large at all, barely 100 feet in elevation. It’s protrudence is noticeable only because the surrounding land is so flat and barren. The hill itself is barely noticeable for any other angle than from the north (the Lamanites would have been approaching from the southern direction). Oliver, which was typical of him, embellishes the prominence and importance of the hill, which was hardly considered of much by local people of the time before Joseph obtained the gold plates from the hill.
    In fact, Oliver’s rhetoric was so well understood by those who have studied his writings that Karen Lynn Davidson, Richard L. Jensen, and David J. Whittaker, writing about the Joseph Smith Papers, note that Oliver’s “florid romantic language and his pedantic and flamboyant literary habits (as opposed to Joseph Smith’s own simple and straightforward authorial style) in these letters and elsewhere” (Davidson et al., eds., The Joseph Smith Papers: Histories, Volume 1, p38; See also Arthur Henry King, The Abundance of the Heart, Bookcraft, Salt Lake City, 1986, p204). In addition, Oliver, an educated teacher and lawyer, who found himself among the far less educated people around Joseph Smith was oft in the practice of expounding on things that elevated his standing among them. 
    Richard L. Bushman, a professor emeritus at Columbia University, who taught at Harvard, Boston University and BYU, and who the University of Virginia established the Richard Lyman Bushman Chair of Mormon Studies in his honor, and who was referred to as “one of the most important scholars of American religious history” of the late 20^th century, and was one of three general editors of the Joseph Smith Papers, of which he states regarding Oliver Cowdery: “The rhetorical flourishes in Oliver’s letters published in Messenger and Advocate carried over into a way of describing events that put himself in the forefront. His feelings and thoughts are always on display, making the story more Oliver’s than Joseph’s” (Richard L. Bushman, “Oliver’s Joseph,” in Days Never to Be Forgotten: Oliver Cowdery, ed. Alexander L. Baugh, Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University, Provo, 2009, p7).
    The point is, while Oliver accomplished many important things, aided Joseph Smith and served not only as the Second Elder of the Church but also Joseph’s historian, the man had a strong tendency to elaborate on minimal information, turning a simple comment into a lengthy, flowery and authoritarian statement. This is found in his account of the last battle between the Nephites and the Lamanites at Cumorah, of which he made the story more his own than that of Mormon.

The Lamanites would have been approaching from all around this small hill with their extremely large numbers, which was so much larger than the Nephite Army, that “every soul was filled with terror because of the greatness of their numbers” (Mormon 6:8), wanting to keep any Nephites form escaping as they approached

In the scriptural record, Mormon simply states: “My people, with their wives and their children, did now behold the armies of the Lamanites marching towards them; and with that awful fear of death which fills the breasts of all the wicked, did they await to receive them…they came to battle against us, and every soul was filled with terror because of the greatness of their numbers…they did fall upon my people with the sword, and with the bow, and with the arrow, and with the ax, and with all manner of weapons of war…my men were hewn down, yea, even my ten thousand who were with me” (Mormon 6:7-10).
    Now, compare this scriptural 128-word statement with Oliver Cowdery’s 1,038-word account in his Letter VII of Mormon’s writing, the following of which is but a part of his elaboration: “scenes of misery and distress-the aged, whose silver locks in other places and at other times would command reverence; the mother, who in other circumstances would be spared from violence; the infant, whose tender cries would be regarded and listened to with a feeling of compassion and tenderness; and the virgin, whose grace, beauty and modesty, would be esteemed and held inviolate by all good men and enlightened and civilized nations, alike disregarded and treated with scorn! In vain did the hoary head and man of gray hairs ask for mercy; in vain did the mother plead for compassion; in vain did the helpless and harmless infant weep for very anguish, and in vain did the virgin seek to escape the ruthless hand of revengeful foes and demons in human form—all alike were trampled down by the feet of the strong, and crushed beneath the rage of battle and war! Alas, who can reflect upon the last struggles of great and populous nations, sinking to dust beneath the hand of justice and retribution, without weeping over the corruption of the human heart, and sighing for the hour when the clangor of arms shall no more be heard, nor the calamities of contending armies no more experienced for a thousand years? Alas, the calamity of war, the extinction of nations, the ruin of kingdoms, the fall of empires and the dissolution of governments! O the misery, distress and evil attendant on these! Who can contemplate like scenes without sorrowing, and who so destitute of commiseration as not to be pained that man has fallen so low, so far beneath the station in which he was created?

According to Oliver Cowdery, at about one mile west rises another ridge of less height, running parallel with the former, leaving a beautiful vale between

In this vale lie commingled, in one mass of ruin, the ashes of thousands, and in this vale was destined to consume the fair forms and vigorous systems of tens of thousands of the human race—blood mixed with blood, flesh with flesh, bones with bones, and dust with dust! When the vital spark which animated their clay had fled, each lifeless lump lay on one common level—cold and inanimate. Those bosoms which had burned with rage against each other for real or supposed injury, had now ceased to heave with malice; those arms which were, a few moments before nerved with strength, had alike become paralyzed, and those hearts which had been fired with revenge, had now ceased to heave with malice; those arms which were, a few moments before nerved with strength, had alike become paralyzed, and those hearts which had been fired with revenge, had now ceased to beat, and the head to think—in silence, in solitude, and in disgrace alike, they have long since turned to earth.”
    Indeed, Oliver was wont to use “florid romantic language and his pedantic and flamboyant literary habits” in retelling the simple story Mormon gave us. While there is no question that Oliver expounds with his own thinking, speculation and verve regarding what might have taken place at Cumorah, and as interesting as one might find the writing, it is not doctrinal, i.e., it is not found in total, or in part, in the scriptural record. Under other circumstances it might be of great interest to consider the possibilities presented by the historical fact of the Nephite demise at Cumorah; however, and unfortunately, Meldrum and Neville use this Letter VII extravagant expansion of a simple statement by Mormon, as though it is both doctrine and defense of the battle and of the location, in western New York as absolute proof of the location of the Land of Promise.
    Yet, there is absolutely nothing in the scriptural record to suggest any of Oliver’s expanded theories other than those regarding the feelings of people about to die a horrible, violent death, and even that is his romanticizing of the limited scriptural comment.
(See the next post, “The Writings of Oliver Cowdery—a Lesson on his Letter VII Controversy – Part II,” for more explanation regarding Oliver Cowdery’s flamboyant and speculative comments about the location and the battle at Cumorah)