Weekly American. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1858-1858, 1858-02-13

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cursed race of Cain had introduced when we con.
slider how very few, comparatively speaking, the
examples of this practice were among the faithful
--how much it brought its own punishment with
it, and how dubious and equivocal those passages
are in which it appears to have the sanction Of the
Divine appreciation; when, TO these reflections we
add another, respecting the limited views and tenn
porary nature of the more ancient dspensations
and Institutions of religion-how often the imper-
fections and vices of the patriarchs and peo-
pie of God, In old times, are recorded, without the
express notification of their criminality- much
is said to be commanded which our reverence for
the holiness Of God and his law will only suffer us
to suppose were, for wise ends, permiited-how
frequently the messengers of God adapted Them
selves to the genius of the people to whom they
were sent, and the circumstances of the times in
which they livcd-above all, when we consider the
purity, equity, and beneyolence of the Christian
law the explicit declarations of our Lord and his
apostle, ST. Paul. respecting the institution Of mar
riagc, its design ard lmitation--when we reflect,
too, on the testimony of the most ancient Fathers
who could not possibly b 5norant of the general
and common practice of the Apostolic Church
and, finally, when to these considerations we add
those which are founded on justice TO the female
sex, and all the regulations of domestic economy
and national policy-we must wholly condemn the
revival ofpolgamy.
Sir, the common law, as well as the law of ma
ture, deems it great crime. The municipal law
of every State in Christendom has made it fel-
ony; and the wretch Who in the immunity of ter
ritoria distance and ecclesiastical protection will
practice IT, is worthy of the felons character and
should receive the felon's doom.
And then this sealing process-a mystery of
abominations that no devil not first brutalized
could have invented. As a consequence of its po-
lygamous intercourse, divorces are granted freely
at the parties's option, and woman goes through
the process of legal transference from ane master
to another as the authorities may determine, many
marrying five or six times, and their husbands all
living-the whole invention being hardly vail for
promiscious intercourse.
The history Of this fanaticsm is soon told The
church was organized in 1880. In August, 1881,
they commenced settlement at Independence,
jackson county, Missouri revealed to Smith as
the site Of the New Jerusalem" Smith wavered
long between this place and Kirkland, Ohio, where,
in 1888, they commenced building their first TEN.
pie, which was finished in 1886, at ost of about
fifty thousand dollars. In 1889, they relaid the
foundations of their temple in Missouri. They left
this region again for Nauyoo, in Illinois, where
another temple was soon erected. Jo Smiths life
and labors ended together in Carthage Jail, where,
on the 9th of June, 1874 he was shot by gang
of border ruffians.
And here endcth the first lesson, in the decease
of the first saint of Mormonism by martyrdom.
"The blood of the martyrs is the seed OF the
Church :" and it proved true of this, not less than
of other causes. From plotter, trickster, and
bufoon, Smith ascended the ladder, and in the
apothess became a saint and protecting divinity.
Faith could now see in him qualities which sight
would have contradicted
And while the heaving mass was surgng to and
fro, and looking for direction, Brigham Young steps
forward upon the scene. With consummate tact
and a master hand he seized upon the rens of au-
thority. This modern Elisha drew rpon his sboul-
ders the falling mantle Of his MASTER and with
will that never wayers, and an eloquence Of action
and tongue that masters, subdues and overwhelms,
he sways the mass before him as with the stroke
Of an enchanters wand.
Illinois spews them out Missouri rejects them.
Smith had aspired to the presidency, and the
Saints welded banded political influence on
which no party could count, and which could at
any time turn the scale in a contest between them.
Discussions grew up, blood was shed in bitter
broils; and as the land become too straight aud
their numbers increased, in ls45 they turned their
eyes westward-to VaDcouver's Island to Texas,
20 California, and finally to valley in the Rocky
Mountains. In lS4S, as the young grass was peer
ing from the sod and the buds were bursting into
flowers, in the month of May, the exodus CON-
ucHCeu' llOhcCis haNiAB hOhc ptiOIe, dCIOsS Tue
Mississippi they pass, and away over prairie and
plain, men and women, hocks and herds-the heavy
vain drawn by the lowing cattle-the patient
tramp of feet great and small--filing along the
long line Of fifteen hundred miles to a land naked
as it came from the hand Of its Maker; il was the
heroism Of faithl How sad that il had no worthier
endi
FROM that day Young has reigned supreme, and
thousands and tens of thousands have focked to
his standard The unsettled religious sentiment
of the lower grades of mind gravitate there. 1t
is the Botany Bay Of the world There it stands
rampant and defying. Its band on its sword-hlt
and its eye flashing fire Territory and not Ter
ritoiy la Republic in embryol-a despotism con-
summate, wearing the show of popular approval
and bending willingly TO the nod OF tyrant. There
il stands-it is before you In your path TO the Pa
will not away at your bidding; huge ugly,
stubborn fact, which no ignorance can disregard
and no political faulty dcspise.
What will you do with itS Will you turn des-
pot and sabcr sixty thousand souls because they
believe in Brigham Young and polygamyP win
you meet the fanaticism of folly and fraud by the
ianaticsm of determination? Will you make the
city desert and the region bowling wilderness
on the one hand; or, will you suffer this moral
cancer, inaaming political treason, to grow on un-
touched until il becomes too vast TO handler Will
You permit an independent and defiant despotism,
organized in the very heart Of this continent and
embracing the yilest and most intractable elements
of which a community can be composed, TO CON-
pact and strengthen its dcenccs, TO train its bat
tallions to call home its forces aud light fire at
your threshold which all the forces Of the R-pub.
lie cannet subdue?
What will you do with Utah9 Will you rctrace
your fteps and in defiance Of the principle of the
Kansas Nebraska act, legisate poygany out Of the
Territory, and so declare, and not leave them free
to form and regulate their domestic institutions in
their own way? Will you repeal the territorial
act which they have practically nulifed annex il
to adjoining States or Territories, and lot them
deal with tis sin to the family and this treason 10
the State? What will you doS As an individual,
| viii say what ! would do: There is no way Of
avoiding peril but in the face Of ten thousand
Kansas-N Nebraska acts, and all the false principles
they embody, would pass law making polygamy
a crime in the Territories, and then send a force
sufficient TO scatter every harem TO the four winds.
II Il be objected that an er post fdcto law cannot
reach past evils, this may be true yet the offence
has been committed in defiance Of the common law
aud moral sentiment Of the civilized world, and
should receive no favor. In any event, such law
would stay the tide, and the sore would slough of
in one generation. .. .
Secondly. would send an army Tiers sufficient
to apprehend Young and all his cocouspiratoPs
against the authority of the General Government
who will be found to include every lord Of the
them for treason and hang every one,