Mr. Harris was among the early settlers of this town, and has ever borne the character of an honorable and upright man, and an obliging and benevolent neighbor.

He had secured to himself by honest industry a respectable fortune—and he has left a large circle of acquaintances and friends to pity his delusion.

In the winter of 1828, Harris took the transcript of characters to New York City, where he met with Charles Anthon, a professor of linguistics at Columbia College.

In either case, the episode apparently satisfied Harris's doubts about the authenticity of the golden plates and the translation enough to mortgage his farm to have the book printed.

[citation needed] In February 1828, Harris traveled to Harmony, Pennsylvania to serve as a scribe while Smith dictated the translation of the golden plates.

[17] The loss temporarily halted the translation of the plates, and when Smith began again, he used other scribes, primarily Oliver Cowdery.

[16] In March 1830, Smith announced a revelation to Harris: "I command you, that thou shalt not covet thine own property, but impart freely to the printing of the book of Mormon."

"[20] As the translation neared completion, Joseph Smith said he received a revelation from God that three men would be called as special witnesses to the existence of the golden plates.

In the words of David Whitmer, one of the other two witnesses, "It was in the latter part of June, 1829... Joseph, Oliver Cowdery and myself were together, and the angel showed them [the plates] to us.... [We were] sitting on a log when we were overshadowed by a light more glorious than that of the sun.

I saw them as plain as I see you now, and distinctly heard the voice of the Lord declaring that the records of the plates of the Book of Mormon were translated by the gift and power of God.

It reads in part: "And we declare with words of soberness, that an angel of God came down from heaven, and he brought and laid before our eyes, that we beheld and saw the plates, and the engravings thereon; and we know that it is by the grace of God the Father, and our Lord Jesus Christ, that we beheld and bear record that these things are true.

[23][full citation needed] The Three Witnesses's attestation was printed with the book, and it has been included in nearly every subsequent edition.

[citation needed] In part because of their continued disagreement over the legitimacy of Smith and the golden plates, and because of the loss of his farm, Harris and his wife separated.

In 1830, Harris prophesied, '"Jackson would be the last president that we would have; and that all persons who did not embrace Mormonism in two years' time would be stricken off the face of the earth.'

On June 3, 1831, at a conference at the headquarters of the church in Kirtland, Ohio, Harris was ordained to the office of high priest and served as a missionary in the Midwest, Pennsylvania, and New York.

A.C. Russell that Joseph drank too much liquor when he was translating the Book of Mormon and that he wrestled with many men and threw them &c. Another charge was, that he exalted himself above Bro.

Afterwards, Harris, along with Oliver Cowdery and David Whitmer, selected and ordained a "traveling High Council" of 12 men that eventually became the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.

Harris called it a "fraud" and was among the dissenters who broke with Smith and attempted to reorganize the church, led by Warren Parrish.

[32] After the killing of Joseph Smith, Harris remained in Kirtland and accepted James Strang as Mormonism's new prophet, one who claimed to have another set of supernatural plates and witnesses to authenticate them.

In August 1846, Harris traveled on a mission to England for the Strangite church, but the Mormon conference there declined to hear him.

[33] By 1847, Harris had broken with Strang and accepted the leadership claims of fellow Book of Mormon witness David Whitmer.

In 1856, his wife left him to gather with the Mormons in Utah Territory while he remained in Kirtland and gave tours of the temple to curious visitors.

[36] In 1859, Harris gave an interview which described him as "an earnest and sincere advocate of the spiritual and divine authority of the Book of Mormon."

[4] Harris, who had been left destitute and without a congregation in Kirtland, accepted the assistance of members of the LDS Church, who raised $200 (equivalent to $4,800 in 2023) to help him move west.

Primarily during the early years, Harris "seems to have repeatedly admitted the internal, subjective nature of his visionary experience.

"[39] 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.

[44] In April 1838, Harris is reported by one disillusioned church member to have said publicly in Ohio that "he never saw the plates with his natural eyes, only in vision or imagination.

"[46] One account written years after Harris's death reports Harris at the end of his long life saying "Sometimes the plates would be on a table in the room in which Smith did the translating, covered over with cloth," but also that "While praying I passed into a state of entrancement, and in that state I saw the angel and the plates.

"[49] The following year Harris affirmed that "No man heard me in any way deny the truth of the Book of Mormon [or] the administration of the angel that showed me the plates.