Yet another misguided notion of the Anti-Mormons to be looked at...
The Times & Seasons once published an article about a man finding some Brass Plates hidden in some mounds of dirt. It was reported that the plates were in bad repair and the writing was only available through a chemical cleaning process.
On January 15, 1844, this statement appeared in the Times and Seasons:
"Why does the circumstance of the pates recently found in a mound in Pike county, Ill., by Mr. Wiley together with ethmology and a thousand other things, go to prove the Book of Mormon true? -- Ans. Because it is true!"
Ref. (Times and Seasons, Vol. 5, p. 406)
This is how FAIR Lds explained it by Ben McGuire:
First, Joseph Smith was no longer the editor of the Times and Seasons in April of 1843. He had resigned from that position in November 1842. His ability to control the content of that paper (or his desire to do so to the extent that you suggest) is doubtful.
Ref. https://www.fairlds.org/apol/misc/misc32.html
The links below discuss the Kinderhook Plates and raises some good points. There is no evidence Joseph ever showed any interest in the plates.
https://www.jefflindsay.com/LDSFAQ/FQ_BMProblems.shtml#fooled
https://library.lds.org/nxt/gateway.dll/Mag...tury%20hoax.htm
This is the first time that I've heard of the Kinderhook plates. I am interested in one thing, if they are real where are they now? Has anyone actually done a translation of them? If so, Where can I find it?
Personally I don't think Joseph Smith fell for them, he probably looked at them and the spirit said they are not true.
Zelph, Joseph Smith begun some translation on the plates but with his assassination the translation was not completed or published (this was recorded on William Clayton's journal). In any case, they prove to be an hoax to get the Prophet to translate them.
You can check more about it, on this article from the Church site:
https://library.lds.org/nxt/gateway.dll/Mag...tury%20hoax.htm