Gold Hill daily news. [volume] (Gold Hill, N.T. [Nev.]) 1863-1882, 1870-02-09
THE MORMON QUESTION.

a telegram from washington lil-
forms us that the. House Committee
OH Territories have perfected a bill
is intended to abolish polygamy
in Utah. One provision of the Act au-
thorizes the President to use military
force, if necessary to enforce the terms
OF the law. The bill will be called up
in Congress next week and is likely to
create considerable discussion. We
shall watch with interest the progress
of this measure, for that the Mormons
believe that Congress is serious in its
proposed action, Is evident from the
notable stir already created in their
camp@ Brigham Young has recently
sent on n deputation of his elders, and
they have already reached Washing
ton, where they will endeavor to stay
the iconoclastic hand Of Congress.
Whatever reasons for delay or forbear-
auce these deputies may present,
Christian civilization demands that the
National Legislature shall assist the
American people to wash their hands
of this stain upon their record. Polyg-
amy is an anomaly in enlightened
Christendom, and while we in this
country have tolerated many anom-
allies, we have tolerated none so
marked and humiliating as this. We
believe there does now exist a law
intended 70 suppress this evil,
enacted several years ago, but it
appears to have dropped dead
from the hands of the Executive.
The new proposition, We presume, will
have more life, rs it does not fail to
provide the means for its enforcement.
We r not uhmindful of the fact that
there is great difficulty in executing
laws for the uprooting Of a social evil
which is entrenched behind and
patronized by q powerful religion;
sect. But it is nevertheless 4 powerful
evil. which must be suppressed sooner
or later, and to take no notice OF it is
equal to extending to it the protection
of the law. Every II knows "the
tyranny of CUSTOM" and some may
have noted that It's links often rcsiS'
the greatest strain which can be put
upon them by a corrective statute
Just here VIC are confronted by the
danger. We have thus far opposed
but u feeble protest to the existence
and spread Of polygamy, which has
been permitted to flourish unmolested
in Utah. and to even send forth scores
of missionaries to spread their foul
teachings over the Republic and even
into foreign lands, until to-day Its
chief has the power and insolenee to
stand on the desert border and, will
his face to the East, defy enliSht'
ened Christianity. The nation i
thus forced back to resist an evi!
which should have been cast out long
ago. 1t is as if a ghost had been
summoned from the anti-Christiar
ages into the MONDAY splendor Of the
nineteenth century. But for the fact
that this sensual institution Of Nor,
mondom vitiatcs the moral atmosphere
like a nauseous stencil, the observer OF
its phenomena might well class 1t
among illusions. But polygamy is
nothing else than legalized adultery
Or, if brought to bay by the Courts, 1t
is wholesale bigamy. 1t matters not
where it may entrench itself-whether
behind Mormon affairs, or behind the
loose morality of the world outside OF
Mormondom-thc duty OF Congress i
plain. Here Is an evil example, pa
raded before the world as n part Of Il
religious system, authorized by reveal
ton. True, the astounding claims OF
the Mormon faith ought to raralyze Its
power Of propagation. But they do
not so disable it. Being the product
of ignorance. superstition and low
cunning, its growth is in accord with
the law of selection, and will continue,
in one form or another, while those
elements exist. In short, Mormonism
is simply organized fanaticism, and if
it hurt nobody but the fanatics them
selves, might well be let alone until
the whole body Of them died out of
their own corruption. But such is not
the case. The foul blot is a disgrace
to the whole nation, and should not
longer be tolerated.