The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-03-26


have spoken with levity of any of the aspects
of this scheme, it must not be thought that
we would discourage its fullest developm ant
and application. Even if it did not as Mrs.
Owen hopes, very greatly increase the power
of women over men, they would at least show
its daily advantages, and there is no poultice
so well calculated to reduce the irritation of
feverish and irrational ambition as that
which, in the shape of good dinner, is daily
applied to the stomachs of the afflicted.
THE MORMON MUMNIERY.
From the " J.. World.
Macaulay considered that there was nothing
more ludicrous than the spectacle of the
British public in one of its periodic fits of
angry virtue. But Macaulay had the happi-
ness of never having seen Congress in a
similar spasm of righteous wrath, and par
ticularly the boon was granted to him of
dying without the sight or even the know
ledge by report, Of the debate which occupied
the House of Representatives for two days,
upon the measure for the suppression of
polygamy by criminal process. The debate
was more interesting as a revelation of the
Congressman who took part in it than for any
influence it is likely to have upon the COM
munion of the Latter-Day Saints.
Mr.. Ward, of New York, was the most
aggressive and conspicuous champion of the
in support of the bill was equally remarka-
ble for its justice and its taste. He was
pleased to remark that he expected to put
gentlemen on their record" That is to say,
he expected to denounce every Congress
man as the husband, actual or prospective,
of more than the conventional quota of
wives, who declined to assent to the efficacy
or the justice of Mr.. Wards scheme for put
ting down Brigham Young. The possibility
that a man may sympathize with the objects
of a measure without thereby approving of
all the Details or even with the scope and
purport of the specific measure by which it is
proposed to attain that object, seems never
to suggest itself to minds of the cali9re of
Congressman Wards. He might prohtably
have taken leaf out of the book of his
literary namesake, tho lamented Artemus of
his name, who has instructed mankind that to
be a Mormon is its own best punishment
and that Mormon is his own worst enemy
But, bad as was Mr.. Ward, worse remained
behind. Mr.. Blair, of Michigan, raised his
shrill pipe on the same side for the benefit of
his dear and native Buncombe, and illumi-
mated the House with a display at once of
manly sentiment and of historical learning.
AS Give, in Thackeray's novel, said of the
letter of his love, we may say of the bleat of
Blair-"The expressions is elegant the
sentiments is most correct" Somebody had
ventured to suggest that it would be hard
ship for even female Mormon, who held a
mortgage subsequent to the first and legal
one upon the devotion of her lord, to he
! turned out upon the deserts of Deseret with
out even her former fragment of n mar
riage-bed wherein to lay her head. Hin
| Blair put to confusion bv citing the conduct
| of ''Cromwell' 'Iu hsru,ug up the con.
vents, and directing the wretched inmates
'.Go spin, ye jades, go spin" The trivial
circumstance that the dissolution of the
| monasteries occurred q century before Crom
wells time does not in the least affect the
argument of the excellent MIR. Blair, and in
| deed it would be rash to accuse him of igno
rance of it, since it is easy to see how absurd
it would seem, in an exposition of the evil,
of polygamy, to quote with any appreciation
the conduct of the real author of the spolia
tion of religious houses, that excessively
married monarch the hexagynous Henry.
On the other hand, it is pleasing to find
with something of the same surprise al
Baillie Jarvie noted ''some glimmerings o.
sense in that Dougal creature, " the dawn 0
intelligence in the darkened mind of Schenck
That legislator touched the matter with
needle when he told the House that the Pa
cifc Railway would do moro towards the ex
tirpation of polygamy than all the speeches
and all tho bills with which they could loaC
the ng-suffering GLC6e. In fact, that legis
lator and Mr.. Cox had the sense of the debate
pretty much to themselves.
Nevertheless, though Schenck was thu
wiser in his generation than the children o
the pure radical light he could not prevail
upon them 10 quash the bill. 1t was too goo,
an opportunity for the exhibition of virtue t
bucolic constituencies to be thrown away
The sections of the bill which alone made i
of the least avail against the institution which
1t professed to attack were stricken out, an,
then the bill was passed, and will 90 upon tn
statute-book, unless the sense of the Senate
be greater than we have any reaso to sup
pose, as a melancholy futility.
For to suppose that its provisions can b.
enforced in Utah by the ordinary processes 0
law is absurd. The bill strikes at the root o
the social system of whole body of people
and its peaceable enforcement would only b
possible in the presence of an almost unaui
nous hostile opinion. The opinion of Uta
is warmly friendly to this system. The MOI
mons, and not the Gentiles have the powe
of persecution in their hands, and they hav
shown that they are quite ready to WELD il
No Juror who should find Mormon guilt
under the provisions and subject a Mormo
to the penalties Of this act could thereafte
live among the Mormons in peace. In sue
strait, the only guarantee of the eXecutio
of an unpopular law is TO be found in the il
vocation of military force. That force Coz
gress has refused to invoke, although it
certain that any action they may take in I'll
premises without its intervention or its il
timidation is utterly nugatory. The debai
elected this SO fully that congressman cannC
be ignorant of it, The bill must therefore /
taken as bill for Buneombe, and not fC
Utah, and their action no better than arrar