The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1854-11-09

Is, after so nlucn DlIVernc5S Oh coHuO'SiSyj w
find political opponents affiliating so closely in
fundamental principles!
"Utah," says the Enquirer, "cannot come into
this Confederacy with polygamy as legal IN
stitution ,Squatter sovereignty may affirm the
right of the people of a Territory to determine
their own institutions; but there is sovereign
ty above the sovereignty of squatters. The sove-
regnty of reason, of religion, of civilization, the
sovereignty of the collective will of the Ameri-
can people, forbids a fraternal association be-
tween people who profess the pure morality
of the religion of Jesus, and people who live
under the dominion of lust, and practice the
lcentious excuses of oriental barbarism. Utah
cannot approach the bridal altar of this Union,
covered with the scars and polluted by the poi
son of foul diseases. She must purge herself of
the presence polygamy; she must come with the
bloom of virgin innocence and strength.
"There can be no fellowship between Nor
mon and Christian. They cannot exist under
the same social system-they cannot be partners
in political power. Freedom of conscience is
one thing, exemption from the restraints of de-
cency and morality quite another. The consti-
tuition guarantees religious liberty, but gives no
license to the excuses of concupiscence.
"Mormonism is theocracy, and involves not
only social graduation and inequality, but an
anti-repubican alliance between church and
State. No country can be free, in which polyg-
amy prevails. Utah can demand admission
into the Union by no claim of reason or of right
The people will repel its embrace with universal
and nnconquerable aversion"
Mark two propositions are distinctly main
tanned by the Enquirer:
FIRST, Congress has the right to admit or re-
ject the application of new State for mem
bershp in the Union;
Secondly, Congress is bound to reject its APP
plication, if it tolerate by law an institution
repugnant to reason, morality, religion, and
civilization.
This is conceding all that the Fusion Con-
ventions at the North demand. Recollect it
is a majority of Congress that must decide
upon the application Of State for admission;
and this majority must decide according to its
own standard of reason, morality, religion, and
civilization. 1t might agree with the Enquirer
as to the application Of the principles it lays
down, to polygamous State, and yet differ
widely as to their bearings upon the application
of slave State for admission; but, as the con-
currence of the Enquirer on the former case
could add no authority to its acts so the dissent
or protest of that paper in the latter could de-
tract nothing from it. 1t being admitted that
Congress has the right to admit or reject new
States, and that it is bound to reject any one
tolerating an institution repugnant to reason,
morality, religion, and civilization, it follows
that the whole question of the admission or re-
lection of. new States is question for the dis
e -. l. IL
to the views entertained by the majority Of
what is right and expedient. We are happy
to agree with the Enquirer on this point.
Should it SO happen that majority, taking
into consideration the facts, that the system of
Slavery denies selfownership, education, wages,
and all political rights, to its subjects, arms
the master with despotc power, and subjects
the slaves to EXTREMIST degradation, depriving
them of the legal right of marriage, author
izing their sale, like brutes, subjecting the pa
rental, filial, and conjugal relations, to the will
or caprice of despot, should come to the con-
clusiOn that it is a system repugnant to rea-
son, morality, religion, and civilization, and
therefore reject the application for admission
into the Union of any new State tolerating it.
what could the Enquirer say? 1t might dis
sent from the opinions of the majority, it hight
argue that Slavery is not such 4 system, or, adj
hitting that it is, that to hold human beings as
property, make them work without wages, sell
them like cattle, keep them in stoEd ignorance,
and deny to them legal marriage, is in perfect
harmony with the purest reason, the highest
morality the most holy religion, the noblest
civilization; but it could not arraign the action
Of the majority as tyranncal, arbitrary, or un-
constitutional. -
1t must be highly gratifying to the RepubIi-
can Party of the North to see Reason begin
ming to assert her sway once more at the
South.