New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1866-01-27
THE NATION ADVANCING.

THE NATION ADVANCING.
It must be refreshing to the sour soul Of
cynic to find the American Legislature in the
Year of Grace, 1866, striving by resolution and
other legislative continuance to put an end to
the unspeakable abomination of polygamy with
in its Jurisdiction. Monogamy is so decidedly
implied by any advanced civilization, and is so
thoroughly an element Of Christian polity, that
to find local law tolerating the disgusting con-
dition of affairs among the Mormons gives us
start not unlike that which we should feel to
learn that the inhabitants Of Central Africa live
in The possession and practice of all the virtues,
major and minor. We must be sure, however,
that it is not distance and novelty which engen-
der our adherence. Only that it has no sane
ton in law, the custom of prostitution under our
very eyes, is quite as rcpulsiye.
But it has been the crying fault Of this Nation
that it has tolerated more than one barbarism
under the forms of civilization. While we
could bear Slavery, we could also stomach
Brigham Young's multtudinous cOnnubialities.
Most of the plantations were Mormon in prac.
tice-no black woman's virtue was safe against
her owners lust-no marriage-tie was worth
anything at the auctioR-block. There is show
of religious sanction in the so-called Mormon
marriages, but the enforced concubinages of
Virginia and Arkansas were simply diabolical.
Both. however, were relics Of barbarism; and
the polygamy of Utah to-day remains out Of
time, out Of place, and scandal very hard for
the decent American to bear. We think we are
safe in saying that but for Slavery il would never
have existed at all. 1t took advantage Of an en-
feebled National conscience, and, like Slavery, it
based itself upon the morals of Moses. Brigham
Young could make a. good an argument for his
harem as Mr.. Calhoun for his plantation; and
the Doctors of Divinity who extenuated Slavery
upon Biblical authority could have made quite
as good plea, upon the same abused authority,
for Prophet Young's liberal domestic arrange
ments.
Take another form OF barbarism which Slavery
has taught us to tolerate--that Of private and
personal vengeance. Lynch-law-puttng us
administration in California out Of account--has
fourished mainly in Slave States, and in States
directly Influenced by Slavery. If the latest
instance of It's exercise occurred in Kansas,
where a Rebel met his fate at the hands Of 30.
called loyalsts, it must be remembered that the
people Of Missouri, the border.rufians in the
pay of Shareholders taught the early settlers OF
Kansas these fantastic tricks. But for Slavery,
there is no reasonable cause to believe that the
settlement of Kansas would not have been as
peaceable and orderly as that Of any other terri
tory which has been reclaimed from the desert.
In the slave States, every man-awner, being
ez ofeio law.giver and law.executor, was at
all times ready to redress his own wrongs. de
fought duels, he horse. whipped, he tarred, he
feathered, he carved his antagonist with
bowie-blade, he burned houses. and sometimes
he burned men. When patriarch was injured,
he felt It discreditable to go to justice OF the
peace, even If there were any such officer to
whom he might 60. He treated his foes pre-
cisely as he treated his niggers-he made rush
at them with the weapon readiest at hand, and
shot or stabbed or cowhided or bludgeoned or
hung as might be most convenient. 3d. too,
communities made up Of these chevaliers waited
for no tardy oyer and terminer, but constituting
themselves at once judges, juries and eIecu'
toners, they tucked up their victims at the
nearest tree, or, if mildly disposed, first logged
and then banished them
We should be less delighted than we are with
the abolition Of Slavery did we not believe that
in all ways its disappearance will promote pub,
Lie order and respect for the laws of God and Of
man. 1t falls before the best moral sentiment
of the Nation. tits put away because 1t Is IN
human, ungenerous and unjust. It dies the
death, because 1t is unworthy Of life in an age
bent upon advancement and emulous OF higher
social perfection than man has yet attained.
The same spirit, which refused to remain quiet
while the out-wom fs6dslism Of the twelfth
century desecrated our churches and denied our
halls of legislation, viii demand, in all our pup
Lie life and practice. more perfect order'
ipster estimate Of legal duties, and nfme'