The "real miracle" in Mormonism, then,--the wonderful feature of
its success,--is to be sought, not in the fact that it has been
able to attract believers in a new prophet, and to find them at
this date and in this country, but in its success in establishing
and keeping together in a republic like ours a membership who
acknowledge its supreme authority in politics as well as in
religion, and who form a distinct organization which does not
conceal its purpose to rule over the whole nation. Had Mormonism
confined itself to its religious teachings, and been preached
only to those who sought its instruction, instead of beating up
the world for recruits and conveying them to its home, the Mormon
church would probably to-day be attracting as little attention as
do the Harmonists of Pennsylvania.



CHAPTER II. THE SMITH FAMILY

Among the families who settled in Ontario County, New York, in
1816, was that of one Joseph Smith. It consisted of himself, his
wife, and nine children. The fourth of these children, Joseph
Smith, Jr., became the Mormon prophet.

The Smiths are said to have been of Scotch ancestry. It was the
mother, however, who exercised the larger influence on her son's
life, and she has left very minute details of her own and her
father's family.* Her father, Solomon Mack, was a native of Lyme,
Connecticut. The daughter Lucy, who became Mrs. Joseph Smith,
Sr., was born in Gilsum, Cheshire County, New Hampshire, on July
8, 1776. Mr. Mack was remembered as a feeble old man, who rode