The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1877-05-07
The Doom OF 1Iormonism.

lyBamy ana Slavery, the ono was Holo
than twelve years ago extinguished in this
country, and the time has come for dealing
efficiently with the other. The extirpation
Of polygamy, which now lies before us, is
but slight task in comparison with the
truly formidable and gigantic one which
we had to confront in uprooting slavery.
The surviving "twin relic" is con-
fined to small patch of country,
whereas slavery was intrenched in fifteen
States of the Union. Polygamy has no sup
porters or defenders outside of Utah but
slavery had powerful and influential body
Of apologists diffused through every pnrt OF
the United States. The Mormons live in
Territory, and in tho Territories the author
ity of Congress is supreme and unlimited,
SO that in roofing out this pestilent nest Of
denominations no question can arise respect
ing the infringement of State rights. There
is nothing, therefore, either in the magni-
tude Of the evil, or the strength of its de-
fences, or the number of its apologists, or
its powers of resistance, which justifies
any comparison between the difficulty Of
dealing with polygamy and the colossal
obstacles encountered in the overthrow Of
slavery. 1t is so easy to wipe out the foul
blot of Mormonism that the government will
be inexcusable if it longer shrinks from this
duty.
1t is but small part of the population of
Utah that has any real interest in upholding
polygamy. In this respect the surviving
"relic of barbarism" bears a close resem-
blance to the other ''twin." In the decade
of shareholders was less than three hundred
and fifty thousand, and it was in the inter-
est of this small minority that the country
was plunged into one of the bloodiest strug-
giles in the history Of the human race. It
was chiefly owing to the fact that the war
tocracy that the submission of the Southern
people was SO immediate and complete.
They had not been fighting their own bat
tie, but that of small, wealthy class, which
had domineered over them and controlled
their action. Not one Southern citizen
extinction of slavery, and this is the
main reason why the final submission
was so easy and so complete. The pro-
portion Of the people of Utah who have
practical interest in polygamy is probably
even smaller than was the proportion of the
slaveholding to the non-slnveholding popu-
lation of the South. We have no statistics
of the number of actual polygamists in
Utah, but the figures of the last census
prove that they must be comparatively
small. Nothing could be further from the
truth than the idea that majority
of the Mormons have more wives
than one. Readers who have not
looked into the facts will be surprised
and perhaps startled when they are told
that there are more men than women in the
Territory of Utah. But this is nevertheless
the fact, and o fact Which is obviously in-
consistent with the supposition TINT the
practice of polygamy is general in that COM
munity. The census of 1870 gives the num-
Der of males in Utah as 44,121 and the
number of females as 42,665, 1t is evident
enough from these figures that the majority
Of the Mormon men cannot have plurality
Of wives. Even with one wife apiece there
are not women enough to go round.
1t is certain, therefore, that polyg-
amy is mere belief, and not O
practice, with the greater part of the male
inhabitants. The actual polygamists bear a
smaller ratio to the whole number Of men
than the actual shareholders did to the
whole population Of the South. When the
4.
wealthy few (not the laborious, frugal many
that will have their households disturbed
The fall Of polygamy, therefore, will be
followed, MS the fall of slavery was by q
sudden and total submission. It's abolition
will make no practical difference in the con-
dition of tho majority.
As slavery intrenched itself behind the
doctrine of State rights, which it pushed to
on absurd extreme, so Mormonism fortifics
itself behind religious freedom md the
rights of conscience, which it pushes to a
still wilder extreme. And rs the slavehold-
ers broke down this barrier of State rights
when they made war on the government, so
the Mormons have lost the shelter of reli-
gious freedom by exposing themselves to
the operation of the criminal laws. If Brig
ham Young and other Mormon magnates
were tried and executed, rs John ID. Lee
was, for participation in n horrible and in
human crime, nobody could raise an out
cry that they were prosecuted for their roli-
gious faith.
Tho New York city Fourth OF July