The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-01-28
SHALL WE HAVE A NEW CONFLICT
WITH THE MORMONS?
From the N. Y. Times.

From the ~ Y. Times.
Mr.. Cullom's bill for the suppression of
polygamy in Utah has evoked from the Nor
mons fierce protestation that they will fight
sooner than submit to it. The whole temper
of Brigham Young and of his people upon
the subject is defiant and belligerent To all
appearance it must soon become a practical
question whether the measure is to be pushed
to bloody issue.
This question could be settled forthwith if
1t could rest only on the two fixed points that
polygamy is a monstrous evil, and that the
authority Of the Government ought to prevail
within its own territories But these are not
necessarily the controlling considerations.
They do not control in our wars with
Indians, who murder, scalp, pillage, and burn,
and practise other evils quite as bad, perhaps,
the national territories, are equally defiant of
the national authority. Our attitude towards
the Indians is determined not simply by gene
raj principles, either moral or political, but
by considerations of expediency. In con-
sidering whether to fight any tribe of them,
we ask whether our object can be gained by
war and by war only, end whether 1t is worth
the expenditure of blood and treasure neces-
sary to accomplish it. When we are forced
to negative conclusion in these respects, we
pronounce the war bad policy, and abstain
from it. Why should we not apply some
thing of the same method to our relations to
those other anomalous people of our Western
wilderness We bear in mind that the Indian
evils are not OF permanent character-that
they must pass away as the country becomes
more settled and the Indians more exposed
to the influences of civilization. Why may
we not as we'll avail ourselves of Time as an
ally against the Mormons {? Why need we in
their case any more resort to violence to fore
ofal lfc xuhioh hn, in
1t is as certain as anything can be, that
Mormon heathenism is as short-liveda as Indian
savagery. We have only to wait for that great
inlet of civilization, the Pacific Railroad, to
get at its full work, when we shall see the
beginning, in Utah, of a quick assimilation
with the life, habits and laws of the rest of
the country. Polygamy and every other relic
of barbarism would soon melt away. We
have already seen much of this operation,
even before the road has attained its develop
ment. Our Salt Lake City correspondent
has been constantly chronicling different
forms of disaffection in the Territory with
the established order of things, and
growing disposition to form in
dependent opinions more in con-
formity with the spirit and conscience
of the age. There can be no doubt that the
increasing contiguity with civilization is pro-
ducing solvent effect upon Mormonism
but even apart from that, the nature OF its
own system is necessarily short-lived. 1t is
too rotten, inherently, to last. Like every
other system opposed to Divine law, it carries
within itself the seeds of its own destruction,
and in due time must perish, whatever man
does, or fails to do. They every way miss the
point who argue against Mormonism as foul
stain which must endure forever unless exter-
minated by the strong arm. We must not
forget that, If let alone, itcannot, at the worst,
survive another generation. br.
We have tried the strong arm already with