The Washington union. [volume] (City of Washington [D.C.]) 1857-1859, 1858-06-23
THE RELIGION, POLYGAMY, AND THEOCRACY or
THE NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. OF THE FEDERAL


THE NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. OF THE FEDERAL
GOVERNMENT TO THOSE SUBJECTS.
There is great confusion Of ideas on the subject Of
the Mormon polity in its relations TO our federal
government and our republican institutions We
all condemn tho Mormon system Of government and
religion, but there is vague conviction in the pub
lie mind that the toeraton of the whole system and
the admission of Utah as State into the Union, at
the proper time under the system arc measures
which cannot BIO resisted consistently with the prin-
cples of federation and ofndividua and State rights
which we hold to be cardinal, fundam entail and sa
cred in this country
The exodus of the Mormons from Utah--of which
we are receiving such remarkable accounts, if they
be true--will probably remove this curious and
difficult question from our deliberations, and leave
us to deal with tho people and territory of Utah
precisely on the same principles as those on which
we deal with all other incpept communities of the
Union; but, as it is doubtful whether the exodus
viii be complete, and as it is possible that the
population of Utah will continue to be- for the most
part of the Mormon faith, it is well enough by the
aid of little analysis to ascertain the precise ques
tons really presented to the rest of the Union by
the rise of this anomalous community within our
boundaries.
The peculiarities which distinguish this Mormon
system from our general system of society and gov
eminent in the Union, their religion, their poyga
nous marriage and their theocratic form of govern
ment.
l. Inregard to their religion, nothing is clearer than
their title to perfect immunity and freedom in the
exercise of it. That right is sacred, that not
even local government, whether State or Terri
toral, could interfere in the slightest degree with
the freest and fullest exercise of it, much less could
or cam the federal government interfere to CONTROL
discountenance, or restrict it, in any what
ever. Indeed this right of free conscience is held
80 sacred under our poty that the question whether
any government local federal, could interfere to
prevent the free exercise of the Mormon religion
could not possibly arise as against our federal gov
ernment; but could only arise against the tyranny
of the Mormon rulers themselves in violating this
sacred right towards persons not of the Mormon
faith resident in the Mormon community. Nothing
is clearer than that the federal government has in
tention right to interfere with the free exercise of
the Mormon religion in Utah or elsewhere. Nothing
is clearer than that Congress would have right to
object to the admission of Mormon State into the
confederacy on account Of the prevalence Of the
Mormon religion. If this religion wero established
by law in the new State, and if other creeds were
prescribed by its laws, that fact would raise
objection to its admission into family of States
on the ground that its government was not republ-
cam but such objection would go, not to the Mormon
;te b,@t h1 ,f, ~;
eminent under which admission was requested
g The other peculiarly in the Mormon polity, that
of polygamous marriage, presents very different
question to the rest of the Union from that involved
in the nero religious creed of the Mormons. There
is vague and loose idea in the public mind that us
polygamy is part of the religion Of the Mormons,
it is therefore a subject beyond the jurisdiction
of municipal law. Nothing could be moro erro-
neous. In tho eye of the law marriage is civil con-
tract as much within the cognzance and control of
the municipal law as any other contract at all
Nothing is held in higher sanctity in the States of
our Union than the freedom of conscience and of reli
gon and in State is there law to be found on the
statutebook infringing upon the domain Of religious
belief yet the statute books of every State are full
provisions relating to the marriage contract treat
ing it pre-eminenty subject of Legislative con-
troll and regulation.
The Mormons have industriously inculcated the
belief it is true, that polygamy is religious rite
above the reach of municipal law; and the
public mind has strangely COMPOUNDED the civil
and statute-law relations of IN rriagc with tho
dogmas of their religious creed but the con-
fusion of ideas is palpable, and there is no
system of laws known to European and western
legislation that does not claim the marriage relation
as civil contract subject to legislative regulation
and control
Polygamy, therefore, is part of the Mormon re-
gon, in tho of being consecrated by those "a
cred republican tencts which guard and uphold the
freedom ofconscience thus removing it from the con-
troll of the municpalaw 1t does not follow from this
fact however that the federal government, or that
the rest of the Union have any right to Interfere pos
itively with this local practice two will not call it
of poygamy in Utah. Congress has Gre
ated Legislative and territorial government in Utah
and delegated to that government the power of local
legislation in that community. 1t is for that govern
ment to legslate this subject of marriage and con-
cubnage; and il is for the local authorities to deter
mine the legality or ilegality of polygamy 1t is a
subject foreign to the authority and cognzance Of the
President and of the army he has sent into that ter
ritory; and is regarded and will be 80 treated bv