View source for Question: Why did the author of the ''Letter to a CES Director'' feel the need to make a single hostile quote appear as if it were two separate quotes?

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==Question: Why did the author of the ''Letter to a CES Director'' feel the need to make a single hostile quote appear as if it were two separate quotes?==
===The original ''Letter to a CES Director'' presents two separate quotes attributed to Stephen Burnett===
The original ''Letter to a CES Director'' presents two separate quotes attributed to Stephen Burnett in order to demonstrate that Martin Harris only saw the plates in his imagination:
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“Never saw the plates with his natural eyes but only in vision or imagination”<br>
– Letter from Stephen Burnett to “Br. Johnson,” April 15, 1838, in Joseph Smith Letter Book, p. 2
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Three quotes later, the following quote is listed from the same source:
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“…when I came to hear Martin Harris state in public that he never saw the plates with his natural eyes only in vision or imagination, neither Oliver nor David & also that the eight witnesses never saw them & hesitated to sign that instrument for that reason, but were persuaded to do it, the last pedestal gave way, in my view our foundation was sapped & the entire superstructure fell in heap of ruins, I therefore three week since in the Stone Chapel…renounced the Book of Mormon…after we were done speaking M Harris arose & said he was sorry for any man who rejected the Book of Mormon for he knew it was true, he said he had hefted the plates repeatedly in a box with only a tablecloth or a handkerchief over them, but he never saw them only as he saw a city throught [sic] a mountain. And said that he never should have told that the testimony of the eight was false, if it had not been picked out of—–—[him/me?] but should have let it passed as it was…”<br>
– Letter from Stephen Burnett to “Br. Johnson,” April 15, 1838, in Joseph Smith Letter Book, p. 2
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===The first quote is actually just a phrase taken from the second quote===
The first quote is actually part of the second one, <span style="color:blue">highlighted in blue</span>:
<blockquote>
“…when I came to hear Martin Harris state in public that he <span style="color:blue">never saw the plates with his natural eyes only in vision or imagination</span>, neither Oliver nor David & also that the eight witnesses never saw them & hesitated to sign that instrument for that reason, but were persuaded to do it, the last pedestal gave way, in my view our foundation was sapped & the entire superstructure fell in heap of ruins, I therefore three week since in the Stone Chapel…renounced the Book of Mormon…after we were done speaking M Harris arose & said he was sorry for any man who rejected the Book of Mormon for he knew it was true, he said he had hefted the plates repeatedly in a box with only a tablecloth or a handkerchief over them, but he never saw them only as he saw a city throught [sic] a mountain. And said that he never should have told that the testimony of the eight was false, if it had not been picked out of—–—[him/me?] but should have let it passed as it was…”<br>
– Letter from Stephen Burnett to “Br. Johnson,” April 15, 1838, in Joseph Smith Letter Book, p. 2</blockquote>

===The claim cannot be sustained when one examines the witnesses own statements===

The letter claims that Martin Harris said that he, Oliver Cowdery, and David Whitmer, and all the eight witnesses had never seen the plates. But, this claim is clearly false&mdash;they insisted over and over again (in and out of the Church) that they ''had'' seen plates. Martin Harris himself insisted upon this.

{{:Book of Mormon/Witnesses/Statements}}

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