A Prophet Hero

NY TIMES – 4 SEPTEMBER, 1843:

This Joe Smith must be set down as an extraordinary character, a prophet hero, as Carlyle might call him.  He is one of the great men of his age, and in future history will rank with those who, in one way or another, have stamped their impress strongly upon society.  It is no small thing, in the blaze of this nineteenth century, to give to men a new revelation, found a new religion, establish new forms of worship, to build a city with new laws, institutions, and orders of architecture, to establish ecclesiastical, civil, and military jurisdiction, found colleges, send out missionaries, and make proselytes on two hemispheres.  Yet, all this has been done by Joe Smith, and that against every sort of opposition, ridicule and persecution.  In the short space of fifteen years, Joseph Smith, unschooled in the learning and the methods of the world, did all these important things.  How was it possible?  Does not the only rational explanation lie in the claim that he was God-taught [?]