The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-05-19
TIE MORMON QUESTION.

~
SENATOR CRAaN delivered an elaborate speech
upon the Mormon bill in the Senate yester-
day, in which he eloquently denounced and
exposed the enormities of polygamy, and re-
hearsed the crimes of which the followers of
Brigham Young have been accused. The
concluding sentence of his remarks, however,
contained the true solution of the Utah trou-
bles. He said that "when miners and other
emigrants, not Mormons, shall flock to that
Territory and make it their home, the loath-
some and fostering monster of polygamous
Mormonism will perish and be buried out of
sight" The practical question is rather how
this emigration may be facilitated than how
the moral nature of the Mormons may be i'm
proved. The most essential thing is that we'll
disposed emigrants may be as thoroughly pro-
tected in Utah as in any other portion of the
United States This duty the nation owes to
all its inhabitants, and it should be performed
to the extent of the national power, at all
hazards, so that the declaration, 81 am an
American citizen, may be sure passport in
every nook and corner of the land. Polygamy
is hideous monstrosity, but it prevails
among the Indians even more generally than
among the Mormons, and no one seri iously
proposes to enact laws of Congress or to send
armies against them for the purpose of
diminishing the number of squaws in the
lodges of their chiefs. If we can restrain
them from scalping white prisoners, and from
retarding the progress of civilization by MUIR
derous forays upon frontier settle
ments, we are content to postpone their
moral reformation to more convenient sea-
son. Brigham Young, like the Indians, has
theoretically set up sort of unauthorized
rude government within the legitimate Gov
ernment of the nation; and whenever his
theocracy comes in direct conflict with the
fundamental and essential laws of the land,
or invades the rights of loyal citizens, it
should be stamped out. What is most needed
in Utah now, is not that we should force our
civilization on all the dupes of the Mormon
prophet, but that he should be prevented
from retarding the increase of the Gentle
population, and from interposing obstacles
to the se-called apostacy of his fol-
lowers, which really means an awakening
to their true rights and duties as American
citizens. If the proposed new legislation
pertaining to Utah and the national policy in
reference to that Territory is put on the foot
ing we have thus briefly described, the Nor
mon mischief makers can gain no sympathy
in any quarter of the world, and the more
sensible portion of their own people will
speedily learn the justice and necessity of re-
cognizing the higher allegiance which is due
to the national authorities. We have but
little faith in the power of an army to break
up an institution like polygamy, and the ex-
pertinent is scarcely worth trying But
courts and armies can jointly be invoked to
punish treason in Utah as we'll as in Dixie,
and if every overt act at Salt Lake is
promptly punished, and every unlawful Nor
mon prescription or persecution of loyal citi-
zens is speedily avenged, Brigham Young's
old stamping ground will soon be filed with
Gentiles who will rede EN- and regenerate it.