Rutland weekly herald. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1859-1877, 1873-02-20
IN RUTLAND HERALD.
MONDAY, FEBRUARY II, 1873.
The Mormon Question.

rnon Congress sovereign power over the
Territories of the United States for their
Government, and that in the exercises of
his power 1t is both the right and duty
III Congress to prohibit in the Territories
those twin relics of barbarism-poly-
gamy and slavery" Immediately after
he Republican party came into power,
savery. and the questions directly and
iglrectly growing out of it, forced
themselves upon the attention of Con.
Dress and country to the exclusion OF
6u other matters, but these having been
fnslv set at rest, the Mormon question,
b long held in allegiance, presents itself
t5r solution. Upon the general ques-
lion of the sovereign power of Congress
rgar the Territories, it is needless to
speak 1t has been decided by the peo-
pla. repeatedly, at the ballot box and
has been emphatically settled by an APP
heal to the arbitrament of arms. All par
t'es and all men are now substantially
agreed upon this proposition. The
trouble in arriving at a suitable and
satisfactory settlement of the difficulties
io Utah has not been on account of the
want of power in Congress, bat rather
with the false light that has been thrown
around the whole subject matter.
Whatever power Congress may have
ovur Territories and Territorial govern
mpat- rs such. and notwithstanding
1neir absolute sovereignty, so to speak
ytmat powerand sovereignty is limited
Ina measure, by the constitution. One
#aftHese limitations is contained in the
provision that Congress shall make no
mv specting an establishment Of re-
liron. or prohibiting the free exercise
thereof This idea of religions free
Iam coupled somewhat with sympathy,
has been in the way Of all attempts to
I.al practically and Systematically with
1ormonism. There is no question that
the followers Of Joe Smith We're treated
3-hly and unjustly in Illinois and
Missouri, prior to their removal to Salt
Il Like city; but this is a matter Of the
nl-t and one which has nothing to do
with The present question. They re-
4 .v.i a- my merited, the sympathies
. az tNn world in their prosecutions.
4 They hav. uade the Salt Lake country,
fl. nHuGorr "a desert, to bloom and
a Vs. --9m ike the rose. In that they
..aGone this and contributed to open
. .. region, rich in agricultural and
4 mra. resources, they have conferred
benefit upon the country, but to no
. greater IN extent than others have done
. adOt1eut portions of our domain. 1t
4 . nor proposed and it is not necessary
u interfere with their property, with
4 u..r liberty, with their religion or with
,1air couscienccs, if, indeed, they have
my They are entitled to a free and
unrestricted exercise of all thes" They
are secured in all these, not only by the
constitution and laws of the land. but
by the universal sentiment of the PEG
ple The trouble Is, and it must be
~mediel, that they make use of the cry
If religion as a cover for fraud, force.
violence and crime. Under it, they set
up a government upon basis antagon-
site to our institutions, in direct viola
ton to our laws and contrary to the
moral sentiment of mankind. The very
claim that the practice of polygamy is
religious rite, and is sanctioned by relig-
ion is abhOrent to our ideas Of religion.
By recognizing it as such, we place our
selves in the awkward position of pun
ishing the exercise of religious rights in
sle State and protecting it in another.
Worse than this. We place it in the
power of any man or any body of men to
set up 81 new religion, in which one of
the tenets shall be "horse stealing, an
other may be murder, and so on through
the whole catalogue of crime. The
same reason and argument, under the
constitution, that would protect the
he a shield to the other. The
whole claim and argument is 50
absolutely absurd and preposterous
as to be simply ridiculous. Yet
grave men, calling themselves sensi-
bic, are found to make the argument.
sympathy, gratitude and religion have
nothing to do with Utah affairs, except
10 urge on a reform. Heretofore, while
engaged in the suppression of the rebel
lion aud in the work of reconstruction it
was well enough, perhaps, to leave the
matter to itself, especially as from the
situation of the country, the MOrmons
We're practically isolated from the crest
of mankind 1t might, possibly. thus
confined, die out. But the opening of
the Pacific railroad and the discovery of
the mineral wealth of that territory has
changed all this. Another class are set
Ting there, a class, too, who have made,
in years past, the west what it now is.
We need not refer, at length, to the
crimes, outrages and prosecutions to
which this new and better class of emil
grants have been subjected by the Nor
mon leaders. We need not recount the
manner in which all attempts to meet
and punish these outrages and crimes
have been met and thwarted. These
are all known and understood now. The
President, in his message on Utah at
fairs, refers in particular to the discharge
Of United States prisoners on Ao6eaS cor
Pus, by Mormon probate courts, and to
the packing of juries, either to convict
or acquit, by Mormon officials. The is
sue as it now stands has been forced
upon Congress and the President by the
Mormons themselves. 1t is for Con-
gress to meet it in the same way that the
President has. There never can be a
more opportune time for the Republican
party to redeem the last of its unfulflled
pledges made in 1856 The fulfillment
of the others are recorded in history,
and we trust Congress will not adjourn
until 1t has taken one step, at least, to-
wards graduating this last relic Of bar
barism.