In the library

David Whitmer

Of the three men who signed, he is the one who never returned — fifty years out of the church, running a livery stable in Richmond, Missouri, and reaffirming in print to the end the thing he had least reason to keep saying.

Whitmer matters more than the other two witnesses for a simple reason: he outlived them both, he never rejoined the church, and he was therefore available to be asked, for half a century, by anybody who wanted to ask.

1838: out, and staying out

He was excommunicated at Far West, Missouri on April 13, 1838, the day after Oliver Cowdery — one of the charges being that he possessed the same spirit as the dissenters. He moved to Richmond, Missouri, opened a livery stable, and ran it for the rest of his life. He never sought rebaptism, and unlike Cowdery and Martin Harris he never came back.

Fifty years of being asked

Interviewers came for decades, some friendly and some not. His answer did not move. In March 1881, after a neighbour claimed he had gone back on it, he published a proclamation in Richmond:

That I have never at any time denied that testimony or any part thereof, which has so long since been published with that Book, as one of the three witnesses. Those who know me best, well know that I have always adhered to that testimony. And that no man may be misled or doubt my present views in regard to the same, I do again affirm the truth of all of my statements, as then made and published.

David Whitmer, proclamation of March 1881, reprinted in An Address to All Believers in Christ (1887)

The pamphlet

In 1887, the year before his death, he published a pamphlet of his own at Richmond. It is not a defence of the church — much of it is an argument against the direction the church had taken and against Joseph Smith's later revelations. That is what makes the passage in it worth reading:

I will say once more to all mankind, that I have never at any time denied that testimony or any part thereof. I also testify to the world, that neither Oliver Cowdery or Martin Harris ever at any time denied their testimony. They both died reaffirming the truth of the divine authenticity of the Book of Mormon.

David Whitmer, An Address to All Believers in Christ (1887)

A man willing to publish a book-length disagreement with Joseph Smith, who nonetheless will not take back the one paragraph that would have cost him nothing to drop, is a fact that has to be dealt with rather than characterised. He died at Richmond on January 25, 1888.

The signature question

Whitmer is also the witness who was asked directly whether the eleven ever physically signed anything — and his answer changed more than once between 1878 and 1885. That exchange is set out on its own page, because it is a different question from whether he stood by what the statement said.