The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1875-03-18
The Mormon Question.

There is good deal Of noise about the re-
lation of the general government to the pecu-
liar people who have made q Commonwealth
in the deserts of Utah. Since the solution Of
the slavery problem there has been no ques-
ton about which the demagogues have shown
so much cant as this Mormon question. We
admit everything that can be said against the
Mormons. They are polygamsts; they have
a strange, brutal faith they make war upon
the cardinal principles of society and the
family relation; they are governed by
tyranny; their President, Brigham
Young, and his elders are coarse,
ignorant men, who have founded q
religious empire and it is our duty, as
Christian people, to extirpatc polygamy,
which, with slavery, is twin relic of bar
barism. We admit all this argument and
yet, at the same time, there is another point
from which this Mormon question is TO be
viewed, and it is .nis: That with all their
faults the Mormons are citizens and are en-
titled to the protection of the laws of the
United States.
Laying aside the questions of religion and
polygamy, we see in the Mormon country the
achievement of one of the greatest works of
modern times When we come to write the
history of the Anglo-Saxon race in America
the historian will dwell upon the fact that q
strong, self-wiled man marched thousands
of miles over the desert, defying the obstacles
of nature and the attacks of the merciless saw
age, until he found plain apparently as far
removed from civilization as the middle of
Africa is to-day that he there established a
community, which, in twenty-five years, has
grown to be powerful, prosperous, we'll
ordered Commonwealth, rich in every element
of material prosperity, its capital one
of the finest, if not the finest, city
west of the Mississippi, with hun
dred towns and villages dependent upon
it; State where irugality, prudence,
and most of the virtues which undcrlie sue
cess in life are brought to high perfection.
The historian will say that this was the work
of an Anglo-Saxon, of plain man, gov
erned only by powerful, resolute and rude
intellect. He will say that the people who
composed this community were drawn from
VIC lOWCI tIinScS VI otlcF IdtlOuS tndI tntN
were taken IRON worse than poverty and
despair to foreign country and given con-
tentment and prosperity in America This
work is one OF the striking problems in our
civilization. We think it is Emerson who re-
marks that with the exception Of Mohamme-
dans,n, Mormonism is The only religion of
modern times that has shown force Ii is not
wise tor us, in considering the Mormon ques-
ton, to allow our dislike of polygamy to close
cur eyes TO the true merits of what the Nor
mons have done in Utah. Nor, because we
regard polygamy az n crime, and its existence
an liberation III our society, should we Justify
the adventures, the off-scourings of the East
ern cities, who have been tempted by the
prosperity OF the NIormons, and have poured
into Utah, meaning to rob the people of what
they have sorely earned, and men who 90
there for plumber not because they want TO
make war against immortality and irreligion.
1T Is difficult not TO see this Gentle
spirit III the proceedings against Brigham
Young which were reported recently OF his
Imprisonment IN tue Peniteniiary, and in the