“Were there none but myself interested in the exposition of Mormonism, I can assure you my time would be otherwise employed than in writing upon a subject which has heretofore been to me one of deep interest, and at times has occasioned the most painful anxiety of mind. I could wish, if possible, to bury it in oblivion; and to remember it no more for ever. But as this is a thing which cannot be accomplished in a moment, for the sake of others, who may be exposed to the delusion, from which, through the mercy of God, I have been recovered, and others who are at present involved in it; and also in compliance with your request, I will, as far as I have ability, unfold a system of darkness, fraught with glaring absurdity, and as deceptive as falsehood itself.”

Ezra Booth – 2 October 1831, Letter II., Mormonism Unvailed (Painesville, OH: E.D. Howe, 1834), 179.