Benjamin Franklin on Treasure Seeking Seers

Founding Father, Benjamin Franklin, didn’t know Joseph Smith since they lived in different times, but Joseph certainly knew of Ben Franklin. Ben Franklin did know however about many of the folk magic practices that Joseph’s family still practiced a hundred years later. Franklin saw the folly and called it out as nonsense. He described the vain practice of treasure digging exactly as Joseph and his family practiced it many years later. It’s interesting to see that before Joseph was a treasure digger, there were others, and the educated class could see these practices for what they were. Franklin did a great job describing treasure seers like Joseph Smith a hundred years before Joseph established his church!

Benjamin Franklin criticized the practice of treasure digging, where many people, driven by the hope of becoming suddenly rich, neglect their responsibilities and risk their well-being in a futile search for hidden treasures. He observed that these individuals, despite repeated failures, continued to dig in various locations, believing that some mistake or supernatural interference may have prevented them from finding the treasure. Franklin lamented that such irrational pursuits divert people from more reliable and rational ways of earning wealth, such as hard work and frugality. He described this obsession with treasure hunting as a “ridiculous whimsey” and warned that it often leads to ruin rather than riches. In Joseph’s case, treasure digging did lead him to court where he began his life of living on the outs with the law and doing whatever he could think of to earn money without earning his living. He bent the law many times in regard to marriage, banking, freedom of speech, frauding others, etc, etc, etc. This led to his ruin as Benjamin Franklin warned.

There are amongst us great numbers of honest artificers and labouring people, who, fed with a vain hope of growing suddenly rich, neglect their business, almost to the ruining of themselves and [their] families, and voluntarily endure abundance of fatigue in a fruitless search after imaginary treasures. They wander thro’ the woods and bushes by day to discover the marks and signs; at midnight they repair to the hopeful spot with spades and pickaxes; full of expectation they labour violently, trembling at the same time in every joint, through fear of certain malicious demons who are said to haunt and guard such places. At length a mighty hole is dug, and perhaps several cartloads of earth thrown out, but alas, no cag or iron pot is found! No seaman’s chest cramed with spanish pistoles, or weighty pieces of eight! Then they conclude, that through some mistake in the procedure, some rash word spoke, or some rule of art neglected, the guardian spirit had power to sink it deeper into the earth and convey it out of their reach. Yet when a man is once thus infatuated, he is so far from being discouraged by ill success, that he is rather animated to double his industry, and will try again and again in a hundred different places, in hopes at last of meeting with some lucky hit, that shall at once sufficiently reward him for all his expence of time and labour. This odd humour of digging for money through a belief that much has been hid by pirates formerly frequenting the river, has for several years been mighty prevalent among us; insomuch that you can hardly walk half a mile out of town on any side, without observing several pits dug with that design, and perhaps some lately opened. Men, otherwise of very good sense, have been drawn into this practice through an over weening desire of sudden wealth, and an easy credulity of what they so earnestly wish’d might be true. While the rational and almost certain methods of acquiring riches by industry and frugality are neglected or forgotten. There seems to be some peculiar charm in the conceit of finding Money…

There is certainly something very bewitching in the pursuit after mines of gold and silver, and other valuable metals; and many have been ruined by it.

Such thoughts may make them industrious, and of consequence in time they may be wealthy. But how absurd is it to neglect a certain profit for such a ridiculous whimsey: to spend whole days at the george, in company with an idle pretender to astrology, contriving schemes to discover what was never hidden, and forgetful how carelessly business is managed at home in their absence: to leave their wives and a warm bed at midnight (no matter if it rain, hail, snow or blow a hurricane, provided that be the critical hour) and fatigue themselves with the violent exercise of digging for what they shall never find, and perhaps getting a cold that may cost their lives, or at least disordering themselves so as to be fit for no business beside for some says after. Surely, this is nothing less than the most egregious folly and madness.

Benjamin Franklin, The Busy-Body, No. 8, March 27, 1729, printed in 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘈𝘮𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘯 𝘞𝘦𝘦𝘬𝘭𝘺 𝘔𝘦𝘳𝘤𝘶𝘳𝘺
https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Franklin/01-01-02-0040

Ben Franklin saw treasure digging as the “most egregious folly and madness.” He said this 100 years before Joseph Smith founded the church. The church denied Joseph’s involvement with treasure digging until the evidence was no longer possible to refute or ignore.

Church Admits Joseph Involved in Treasure-Digging

Renowned LDS Historian, Richard Bushman concedes that Joseph Smith (and family) were looking for treasure. He has also said that the current narrative of church history is not true or sustainable. He argues that this was “part of a culture found virtually everywhere,” “something like reading astrological charts today—a little goofy but harmless,” “too commonplace to be scandalous,” “too common in the nineteenth century for it to invalidate Joseph Smith,” because, he states “folk traditions and religion blend.” Bushman even goes far enough to state that “very few” even of the “highly orthodox Latter-day Saints” are “offended by a prophet who dealt in treasure seeking.”

What Mormon church has Bushman been attending? There has been a considerable uproar over the church admitting that Joseph did use primarily the seer stones in “translating” the Book of Mormon, and church leaders (as well as historians) have had their hands full with damage control and attempting to normalize this new information all while gaslighting members that the church has always been upfront about it.

The treasure-seeking stories of Joseph Smith’s youth have done more than cast a shadow on his character. They supply a secular explanation for his extraordinary religious claims. As early as 1831, the Palmyra newspaper editor Abner Cole speculated that the guardian spirits of Joseph’s treasure seeking had transmuted in his imagination into the angel Moroni and that the buried treasure was transformed into the gold plates. Joseph changed his treasure quest into a religious mission for a single purpose; both pursuits were forms of his effort to gain financial security for his impoverished family. When treasure seeking failed him, he tried religion. …

The response of Mormon historians in the 1970s was to deny almost everything. Beyond the Josiah Stowell incident, they argued, all the money-digging stories were fabrications of Joseph Smith’s enemies…

Not only the Smiths but also many of their neighbors were looking for treasure in Palmyra in the 1820s. They were ashamed enough to try to cover it up, and the enlightened elements in the village scoffed at these folk traditions, but there was substantial evidence that in the farmhouses people were wondering how to invoke magical forces to lead them to treasure. The Smiths may have been subscribing to folk religion, but in this they were part of a culture found virtually everywhere among Yankees of their generation. It may not have been the most uplifting activity, and some scoffed, but it was something like reading astrological charts today—a little goofy but harmless. The only harm came when someone tried to deceive others to get gain. That was why Joseph Smith was put on trial. Was he trying to hoodwink the Stowells? When Josiah Stowell said he believed in Joseph, the sting was removed.

Scholars still argue whether Joseph Smith was convicted of glass looking in 1826, but the point is moot. Church scholars now acknowledge that he had a seer stone and did look for lost objects as a young man… It was too commonplace to be scandalous. Magic and Christianity did not seem at odds with one another. The combination was altogether too common in the nineteenth century for it to invalidate Joseph Smith’s more conventional religious claims. In Mormonism and for many Christians, folk traditions and religion blend. To call the two incongruous seems more like a matter of religious taste than a necessary conclusion.

No one denies that magic was there, especially in the mid-1820s. Smith never repudiated folk traditions; he continued to use the seer stone until late in life and used it in the translation process. It certainly had an influence on his outlook, but it was peripheral—not central…

I occasionally hear of people who are still offended by a prophet who dealt in treasure seeking, but very few… Even highly orthodox Latter-day Saints are not offended by treasure seeking and seer stones.

Richard Lyman Bushman, Joseph Smith and Money Digging
https://rsc.byu.edu/sites/default/files/pub_content/pdf/Joseph_Smith_and_Money_Digging.pdf

There is no doubt today that Joseph Smith was deeply involved with treasure digging, seer stones, peep stones, and other occult practices. Even though there is no evidence that any of Joseph’s treasure digging was ever fruitful. He claimed the same, that the business wasn’t profitable for him. We can see examples of treasure digging in church history, in the Book of Mormon as well as in the Doctrine and Covenants.

The apologists will tell you this was his preparation to becoming a prophet, or his natural interest in unseen powers. The apologists now claim he was simply a man of his times, and that treasure-seeking was entirely too common to fault Joseph for it. They say, yes, it influenced him, and that he used the same seer stone in his translation, but none of this was a central influence on him, more peripheral, just a little goofy but a harmless practice, like astrology charts today.

“Very few” were offended that their “Praise to the Man” prophet, was not only involved in covert polygamous and polyamorous marriages, but that he was also involved throughout his youth with digging for treasure. Joseph was paid by others to use his “gifts” to seek buried treasure by looking into seer stones. Joseph then started a religion based on the story that he was directed by some guardian spirit to some gold treasure that contained the word of God. He translated these golden plates (which no one else was allowed to see – except a select few with their spiritual eyes) with the same seer stone (which church historians also denied for over a century).

Honest historians and realists point out the obvious: what Joseph learned from the theatrics and stories of treasure digging morphed into stories of God(s), angels, and religious relics. He found that digging for treasure and glass-looking for gain landed him in court. So, cleverly, he transitioned to digging for elusive salvation and forming a religion to get gain instead. In the nation of religious freedom, there was no trial awaiting those who spin yarns of treasure in the name of religion.

Did you learn about Joseph Smith’s treasure digging from the church or from the supposed anti-mormon rhetoric? Did the new information bother you? Do you think the church has been honest in dealing with church history to the membership of the church? Does it matter that Joseph was involved in folk magic and treasure digging with seer stones? Was this all part of your journey deconstructing your Mormon faith? Consider sharing your own Mormon Story of faith crisis or deconversion at wasmormon.org.

Don’t let the church spin a narrative about you. Give voice to what really happened in your experiences with the church and explain how it affected you. The church has even noticed that members are leaving the church due to a crisis of faith and reconciling the church history they were taught and the real history of the church, look at the faith crisis report for more information on how the church views this crisis.

• https://www.reddit.com/r/mormon/comments/1bc6lqq/joseph_smith_treasure_digging_from_four/
• https://www.ldsdiscussions.com/treasure-digging
• https://rsc.byu.edu/sites/default/files/pub_content/pdf/Joseph_Smith_and_Money_Digging.pdf
• https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/history/topics/treasure-seeking?lang=eng
• Joseph Smith Confirms His Seer Stone Is Nonsense
• Church Historians Attempt Normalizing Strange Seer Stone In Hat Translation Method
• Book of Mormon Anachronisms – Slippery Treasures and Treasure Digging Concepts
• Joseph Smith’s Treasure Digging In Doctrine and Covenants
• Joseph Smith’s Peep Stone Translation Method Renders The Gold Plates Useless