Daily national era. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1854, 1854-04-03
NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. AND polYGAMY


N0H-INTEhvENT;0N AND PoLYGAMY
A correspondent in Philadelphia requests us
to bring the subject of Polygamy, as affected
by the doctrine of Non Intervention, to the no
tice Of Congress. lt.has often been brought TO
! the notice Of that body, but it would seem that
some Of tho members think the system q very
good one
True, it debauches man, degrades woman,
del asses the Family Institution, and gives
full rein to licentousness but what Of it
Have not the People of Territory the right to
govern themselves to form and regulate their
own institutions?
Sojourners among the Mormons tell US that
tho state Of morals with them is excellent
that the vice Of fornication is unknown-that
there is more corruption in New York than in
Utah. OF course! Fornication in Utah is Lii
centonsness organized. Make crime domes-
tic institution, legaize vice, and it ceases to be
vice, it ceases to be crime in the opinion of
many People The base exception in New York
is the respectable system in Utah. A man with
two wives in New York is sent to the peniten-
tiry; if he keep mistress, he is considered a
sinner; but in Utah, he may have score, dig
niGed by the Law with the title Of wives and
he is a Latter Day Saint! And his purity is
most exemplary for do not his twenty wives
save him from temptation?
Polygamy is crime against human nature,
Ii depraves the man, morally and physically;
wasting in gross sensual pleasures the vitalities
OF his whole being; it stamps upon the woman
the character Of slave; under it. the race do
teriorates and retrogrades. Who expects to
see Civilization advancing, or the Principles of
Republicanism and SelfGovernment under
stood, among the polygamous nations OF the
East2
And yet the wise, benefcent policy of Non
Intervention, adopted as device for the en-
couragement and extension of Slavery, allows
and sanctions the loathsome institution Of Po-
lygamy under the flag Of our Union, and ere
long we may be called upon to admit as an
equal member Of this Coniederacy, a State
whose chief distinction is q Practice, which in
every other State is Penitentiary offence
If we mistake not, this false doctrine Of Non
Intervention will yet bring upon us fearful ret
ribution. There is no true republication in
polygamous Utah no true republicanism can
be built up on polygamous institutions There
is no affinity between tho People of Utah and
the People Of this country. With re-
lgion and social system, and with notions
of Government radically different from ours,
how can we expect them to affiliate with
us IF the antagonsm now between Utah and
the States Of this Union, give rise to little
trouble or inconvenience, it is because that re-
gion is 20 distant, its population so small, and
our relations with it so insignificant. But, sup
pose the Latter-Day Saints were as numerous
MS the People Of New York, and the advance.
ment Of population and means Of travel had
brought them into juxtaposition with us, docs
any one imagine that elements, so opposite,
could coexist without conflict? As it is, right
in the heart of our Empire, on the highway
from the Atlantic to the Pacific, between our
Atlantic and Pacific States, Non-lntervention
has planted Power, insulated, autocratic,
hostile, alien in religion, in morals, in manners,
in domestic institutions, and in government,
totally separated from the Union, by all it's
essential attributes and instincts.
To Slavery we owe this policy Of Non-Tnter-
vention; 10 this policy wc owe the establish
mont in United States territory of tho holy
Kingdom Of the Latter Day Saints; and in
the conflicts which at some day, not far dis
tant, will inevitably spring up between That's
Kingdom and the Federal Union, the People
Of this country will be taught the ruinous
consequences Of adopting a False Principle Of
Government
But how would you have prevented the evil :
BY the assertion Of the power of the Federal
Government, representing ns il does, all the
States, to govern the Territories 80 that no
communities should spring up in them alien
in character and institutions TO these States,
or disqualified for association with them.
Suppose there should be such an influx Of
emigrants from China and Hindostan into our
Western Territories as TO form distinct Pagan
communities; that in one, infanticidc should be
tolerated, as in China, and in another, the
burning of widows, NJ in Hindostan, would
you deny the Federal Government tho power
to prohibit such denominations! The Nichol-
son Letter would, just as il denies the power of
the Government to protect men and women
against the violence Of Slavery in Nebraska,
and to prohibit bigamy or poygamy in Utah.
But Common Sense inoulcates q different doc
trine---and Common Sense and Non-Intcrvcn-
ton are as unlike a. Light and Darkness The
first act Of the Federal Government on forming
Territorial Government for Utah, ought to
have been, the making Polygamy Pcniten-
tiary offence; and provision should have been
made TO enforce conformity 10 the statute If
the Saints bad declined 70 accommodate them
selves to the Law, they should have been adj
paoniehe Cd coax olaeyu hare for License to gTat