“Thus the issue for those who signed the New York affidavits was the trustworthiness of Joseph Smith. Since Rodger Anderson argues so intensely for respecting Hurlbut and his signers [see Ehat/Cook, The Words of Joseph Smith (Provo, UT: Brigham Young University Religious Studies Center, 1989), 369], evidently their supposed view of Joseph Smith is really his: ‘For them, he would always remain a superstitious adolescent dreamer and his success as a prophet a riddle for which there was no answer’ … But the New York townsmen had a stronger answer … fifty-one signers in Palmyra said the Prophet was ‘entirely destitute of moral character.’ The Prophet answered the core issue of his youth [in a 12 May 1844 discourse] in the blunt Nauvoo comment:

‘I never told you I was perfect, but there is no error in the revelations which I have taught.’”

Richard Lloyd Anderson, Review of Books on the Book of Mormon 3 (Provo, UT: BYU Studies, 1991), 52–80.