View source for Question: How did newspaper accounts describe the nature of the witnesses experience?

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==Question: How did newspaper accounts describe the nature of the witnesses experience?==
===Hostile newspaper accounts clearly stated that both Harris and Whitmer physically handled and examined the plates===

Early hostile newspapers claimed that the witnesses' descriptions did not match, but were clear that both Harris and Whitmer had at some point physically handled and examined the plates:

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Whitmar’s [sic] description of the Book of Mormon, differs entirely from that given by Harris; both of whom it would seem have been of late permitted, not only to see and handle it, but to examine its contents. Whitmar relates that he was led by Smith into an open field, on his father’s farm near Waterloo, when they found the book lying on the ground; Smith took it up and requested him to examine it, which he did for the space of half an hour or more, when he returned it to Smith, who placed it in its former position, alledging that the book was in the custody of another, intimating that some Divine agent would have it in safe keeping. <ref> “Gold Bible, No. 6,” ''The Reflector'' (Palmyra, New York) 2, no. 16 (19 March 1831): 126–27. {{link|url=http://contentdm.lib.byu.edu/cdm4/document.php?CISOROOT=/BOMP&CISOPTR=575&REC=10}}</ref>
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David, like Martin, had been charged with being deluded into thinking he had seen an angel and the plates. One observer remembers when David was so accused, and said:

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How well and distinctly I remember the manner in which Elder Whitmer arose and drew himself up to his full height--a little over six feet--and said, in solemn and impressive tones: "No sir! I was not under any hallucination, nor was I deceived! I saw with these eyes, and I heard with these ears! I know whereof I speak!" (Joseph Smith III, et al., Interview, July 1884, Richmond Missouri, in Lyndon W. Cook, David Whitmer Interviews, 134-35) <ref> Joseph Smith III visited David Whitmer in 1884, along with a committee from the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and several onlookers. According to Joseph III's memoirs, one of the non-believers there was a military officer, who suggested the possibility that Whitmer "had been mistaken and had simply been moved upon by some mental disturbance or hallucination, which had deceived him into thinking he saw" the angel and the plates. Joseph III's recollection of Whitmer's response is quoted above. See Memoirs of Joseph Smith III, cited in Mary Audentia Smith Anderson, Joseph Smith III and the Restoration (Independence, MO: 1952), pp. 311-12. Cited in {{InvestigatingWitnesses1|start=88}} </ref>
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On another occasion in which Whitmer was asked about the plates, the interviewer recorded:

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He then explained that he saw the plates, and with his natural eyes, but he had to be prepared for it--that he and the other witnesses were overshadowed by the power of God and a halo of brightness indescribable. <ref>"David Whitmer Interview with Nathan Tanner, Jr., 13 May 1886," ''Early Mormon Documents'', Dan Vogel (editor) 5:166.</ref>
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[[es:Pregunta: ¿Cómo describieron los periódicos la naturaleza de la experiencia de los testigos?]]
[[pt:Pergunta: Como contas de jornal descrever a experiência de testemunhas do Livro de Mórmon?]]


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