Weekly American. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1858-1858, 1858-02-13
D. c., SATURDAY. FEBRUARY Is, 1865.

SiaSc, tnc Wlluef tne rant Lne sooner ~ OpIuinh
credence We have deemed, in our complacency,
that no widespread delusion could roll its turbid
waters over the surface of social life in these ends
OF the nineteenth century but we wake up to this
phenomenon growing under our eyes and at our
hearthstones, that involves the reign and rage OF
certain principles of human nature we had hoped
were long ago discarded; that comes raying for
its victims in the circle of our religious and polit-
cal institutions and by the fascinatons Of its eyre
gions and impudent imposture, its intemperance,
Its folly sbasphemous atrocity, carries them forth
to exhibit to our bafled hopes and sickened sensi-
bities spectacle of creduity and vrulence, such
as we had hoped history recorded only for warning,
and not imitation!
1t discards the fanaticism of the scourge; as
penances and personal infictions are not within
its policy except SO far as direct and practical de-
voton to the interests of the Saints" demand in
dvidual sacrifices. 1t passes by the fanaticism of
the brand; its lust il not that of cruelty and its
jaws do not yet reek in blood. It's common hatred
has not yet risen to an immortal adherence, nor
its wrath swelled to execration. Fear and pol
icy, and no inherent virtue of the SYSTEM have re-
strained this manifestation of its nature for if all
external pressure was removed, and the gleam Of
American bayonets did not glitter before the Nor
mon eye, it would persccute instead of curse, and
exterminate Gentle contumacy where it had failed
to convert. But it grasps with lusty arm the
hnaticism Of the banner!
Clad in the sacerdotal ropes Of thePriest, over
which are drawn the vestments of the soldier this
u scrupulous and traitorous warrior-ecclesiastc
rings out the blended warcry of the chieftain with
the imperial edict of the Pope! From the sacred
seclusion of the cloister, he emerges with mailed
glove and plumed helmet. The will of the A.
mighty comes from his mouth, and His drest wrath
foans on his kissing lip. "Toyour tents, Israel!
defiance is safety TO crouch is to die strike at
once for your homes your altars, your wifes, and
your little ones I" This appeal finds an echo in
every heart. He covers his designs under the pre-
text of a religious persecution. Cog and Magog
coming up against the Saints Patriotism, ma
tional pride, calculations of policy, motives of am
biton, resentment at foreign interference, the re-
venge OF detected hypocrisy all mingle in profound
excitement, to give it the character of religious
warl
But let me not blend the elements of its polity
with the web of its historical development. One
or two points more of the former, and will then
turn to the latter-its practical workings being
only the outgrowth ofits inner spirit 1t is unlike
either that fanaticism of the Papacy, that swept
Europe of its brave chivalry in the crusades, and
poured its best blood the Syrian sands, to redeem
ard sanctfy the cradle of its faith, or that fana-
ticism OF Mohammedanism, which lesped into the
saddle, and flashing its cmetar in the sun bade the
"There is no God but God, and Mohammed is his
prophet" Each of these was invasive, aggres,
sivey and acted independently ofthe political struc-
lures existing among the people they infamed, and
with which they did not meddle; but this is de-
fensive, secluded, intense, because driven in upon
ITSELF 1t blends in one the poity of State and
Church, in imitation Of the Hebrew thocracy, and
spends its missionary zeal in prociaiming through
every cline that God has come down to men; that
L.. IL.
peaceful walls care and sorrow and pain are no
more that a brotherhood Of love and concord is
established, where, surrounded by all that can
crafty the taste and please the senses the wicked
cease from troubling and the weary are at rest.
This earnest enthusiastic proclamation and prom
lie is one Of the grand agencies OF its success-the
secret Of its marvellous enlargement
What wonder that the down-trodden, famishing
masses from Wales, Scotland, Sweden, Germany,
France and all parts of the other world, without
education, without moral instruction, are caught by
the picture and start in troops for this earthly Pa
radise? What marveltha eager crowds begrimed
with the scot of the dark mine, or pale from the
fantness of the heated Gactory-whut marvel that
the victims of an e hstical system, that is
known only by its oppre6ns; and taxes and tithes,
while il fails to bless or enlighten-what marvel
that they crowd round the earnest man in the
thronged marts of the continent or on the corners
of the rural hainlets Of England, and drink in his
words, blazing with his own enthusiasm, as he
paints the earthly gories OF the Goddefended Eden
Of the West, which sparklcs to the eye Of faith in
the distance, the embodiment Of all excellence that
the imagination ever paintedp And then comes
in the aid Of organized emigration :" in vast COM
munites with the order and precision of an army
they set their faces resolutely for their home
and along every avenue, from the Atlantic and
Pacific alike, in winter and in summer, toll on with
logged energy, that in itself is morally sublime
Sixty thousand souls at least owl the sway Of this
occidental hierarchy. Men and women OF low in
tcligencc, burning ZEAL simple habits but guided
and governed in all their affairs by this inspired
priesthood-a priesthood constituted mainly OF the
Yankee element as 10 nationality-an element, in
this case, of canting, calculating hypocrisy, which
first inquiries whether it will pay; and, secondly,
whether it promises power and, thirdly, whether
il imposes any limitation upon license and lust;
and having satisfactorily settled these profound
questions OF the pocket and the flesh, with the cool
deyilitry Of an ordinary speculation, places itself in
the priesthood council and eldership ecrs about
from its high seat in the sanctuary for beautiful
inmates of its arem, and stimulates Its palled ap-
petites by now victims, as often as exhausted pas
sion loaths the worn and wasted forms that cease
to amuse please where the heart is never touch.
cd, and woman il so degraded and deflcd.
Sir, are the leaders-the master-minds of this
fnaticism sincereY Smith was more bypocrite
than enthusiast His whole story Of the origin Of
his bible was lie and, knowing that, he could not
be sincere.
Nor do entertain higher respect for Young
or Kimball or Pratt or the other leading spirits
who sustain them. Power and polgamy hold them
there, and not a man of American birth and cdu
cation would remain any longer than he could
help IL, If permanently deprived of both of these
luxurics.
need not argue before a Christian people this
question OF polgamy. If all the Abrahams and
Solomous of the Old Testament practccd it, it is
no less deyilish and damnablc. As long as the
Almighty preserves by births and deaths the
ave- age equality Of the sexes, what right has one
man to thirty wives, any more thar one woman 10
thirty husbands! thus defrauding twenty nine in
the social boly Of their rights As long as the
human heart demands and responds to n congenial
and equal sympathy in the opposite SEX ns long
rs man Is capable Of honor, or woman of love, so
long will this icentious system which dcgradcs her
into plaything Of idle dalliance, or a breeding
animal for childrcn-cvcry clement of selErespcct,
every ray OF sentiment, every upsprngng impulse
Of her bleeding and bursting heart crushed out OF
her; her sense of equality, her quecnly pride as
vic and mother, her sacred place at the board and
the bearthstone, gone, lost, sunken, in the shame
less contentment Of herding in droves like swine,
beneath the root Of creature who regards her as
at once menial, mistress, and slave 80 long will
nature protest, with all the force of its outraged
seusibilities, against this horrid desecration.
os,,,e ourb a onaef;n, fa 20 ina,,It tba