Weekly Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1853-1861, 1855-07-12
poluxauv and the Mermons.

II.
extract which expresses our own convictions
better than we could ourselves:
Woman is looked upon by too many as
belonging to the "fair'' sex only. Such have
only the faculty of eye-sight. To those who
have hearts, she is the cherishing sex, which
watches over mans infancy; the pious sex,
which conducts him to the altar while vet a
child, and teaches him patriotism with his
earliest lisping; the pacific sex, which never
sheds the blood of fellow creature the
sympathising sex, which ministers TO the
sick, and carries consolation to the homes OF
poverty.
When the ancients represented perfect
friendship, it was always restricted to two;
the principle reason for this being deducible
from the nature of the human heart, which
from Its very weakness is capable of attach
ing itself intensely only to one object at once;
and being compounded of opposite passions
that maintain a perpetual counterpoise, is in
some sence, active and passive, and stands in
need of loving and being loved, of comfort
ing and being comforted, Of honoring and be-
ing honored. Those affections have ever
been associated with virtuous and heroic ac-
tons; but when the union eomprehended
more persons than two, it was speedily dis
solved by discord or if permitted to subsist
for any length of time, became famous only
for the mischief which it brought OH man.
kind.
The Great Author has given to each of us
a natural friend, completely adapted to all
the demands of human life, capable ST sup
plying al. the affections of the heart, and all
the restlessness of temperament. He has
said from the beginning of the world: at is
not good that man should be alone; l will
make him a help meet for him-and the
Lord God made woman and brought her unto
man."
Every heart not wholly dead to the
finer sensibilities must respond to the
above. Polygamy is based on a false and
vicious philosophy which degrades man as
much as it does woman. To treat woman as
only fit for the seraglio is to deprive man of
the most conservative and benefcent influ-
ence which can purify and elevate his ma
ture. This being. sent by Heaven to lend
grace and dignity to the social circle, to be-
guile the sorrows of life and multiply its Joys,
and especially to cultivate the religious impul
ses of man-"allure to brighter worlds and
lead the way" cannot be reduced to the mere
creature of libertine's caprice without fatal
effects to the cause of humanity. But to
describe the virtues and graces of woman it
would be necessary to dip your pen in the
rays of the rainbow and dry your paper with
the powder from the butterf1y's wing. So we
desist
But there is doctrine put forward by the
Journal which must be made matter of care
full consideration. Here it is:
"The General Government should arrest its
further progress by the most stringent laws,
with severe penalties, to be executed by firm
officers. There should be no excuse for de-
laying snch course"
We do not wish to speak dogmatically on
a question 80 important, but We are inclined
to think that this plan of physical coercion
springs from the vain fancy, so prevalent in
legislation, that the State is the conservator
of private morals, and has in so many cases
converted the province of the law-giver in
to censorship of manners. Democracy
teaches that the best government is that
which governs least, that the law-making
power should be restricted to what il abSo-
lutely necessary directly to protect person and
property, and that in all other respects, each
individual should be left as completely free
as if he was the only person on the globe.
The marriage relation is one regulated ex
clusively by the laws of the respective States;
and the facility for obtaining divorces is in
some of them alamingly great; so great that
marriage may almost be considered tempo
rary partnership, dissolvable at the will of
the parties. Rut the Federal Government
cannot interfere; nor could it interfere if po-
lygamy was established in every State in the
Union
Utah is an incpient State, and we are not
prepared to admit the power of Congress to
restrain her general legislative rights. The
relation of the Federal Government to the
Territories, should as far as possible, be anal
agous to her relation to the several States;
and the same general power of legislation,
should belong to the Territories which be-
longs to the States.
Why is it that so little effort is made by
the religious community to change the state
of things in Utah. Send Emigrant Societies
to Salt Lake, not to Kansas Arouse your
selves, We lethargic christian churches, like
strong men refreshed by wine, and send out
your pious missionaries by hundreds and
thousands. Fight the Mormons with the
sword of the spirit and not with the sabres
/ of Col. STEPToE's goddess dragons.
When Christ and his apostles began to
teach, the world was full of polygamy and
concubinage and all abominable vices. But
they resorted to no carnal weapons. 1t was
battle between the powers of light and
darkness for the soul Of man. On the one
side were the commands of God and the die
tates of conscience, the persuasions of love,
the exhortations of burning eloquence and
the arguments of irresistible logic: on the
other side were the clamorous demands Of
brutal appetite, the syren voice of pie asure,
and the evil deusions of heather theology.
But the champions of virtue and purity in
those days asked for nothing from Caesar but
a fair field and no favor.
/ Go to- We degenerate successors of the
apostles. Where is the spirit of martyrdom.
Ye content yourselves with writing squibs in
the newspapers exhorting the General Gov
eminent to sabre her citizens for their sins,
when you should be toiling over the plains
towards the modern Gomorrah in order to
encounter ORsoN PRATT and his Elders, not
hand to hand, but tongue to tongue. Who
: knows, too, but that you might be subjected
to the same ordeal which tried the virtue oil
I st. Anthony. and though surrounded by
e syrens pass through the flames in unsullied