New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1879-08-14

be resisted to the very end, bitter as thaC
might be.
THE GOVERNMENT VERSUS POLYGAMY.
The Government, it appears, is now pre-
pared to move vigorously against polygamy I'D
Utah. This, let it be always clearly under
stood. is a very different thing from moving
against Mormons or MormOniSm; although the
whining protests of Elder Cannon and other
leaders of the sect have tended to confuse
the matter in the minds of good many IN
telligent people. Religious belief Is free IN
this country !; social action is not free. A man
NAV erect an altar and pray all day to baal
or the White Elephant of Siam III his DICK
ward if he chooses, and no authority or de-
nartment of the Government can interfere
with him; but let him lay finger on his
wife or his neighbOr TO injure them, and he
falls under the power of the law. The Nor
mons are not prosecuted from any spirit OF
religions intolerance, because they made IL
Bible of Joe Smiths plates or a demigod
of Brigham Young, but as a colony OF poly
gamists who debase irreparably the social ana
noIitical condition of many women and chill
dren. If we keep this one fact IN mlnd' we
shall understand their present status with re-
lation to the Government.
The effort to bring the matter under the
control of the civil courts has been i'll effect
a failure. The Mormon leader, George Rey-
nolds. tried and convicted of bigamy lew
months ago. was sentenced to imprisonment
If WAS q fest question, and the constitution
alitv Of the law was established but owing
IN the nolitical influence of Cannon and others,
his punishment is a nullity; he has been
nlaced in comfortable quarters within easy
reach of his luxurious home, and Is, 1t Is
stated. waited upon daily by his wives.
The Government in the present action be-
gins with checking the emigration, not
of Mormons, but of actual or intending
nolvOamists. A letter has been drawn
ND bv the Secretary of State and dispatched
TO the Governments of Great Britain, Ger
many, Norway, Sweden and Denmark, pro-
testing against the emigration of men and
women who come for the avOwed purpose of
breaking a law of the UniJed States. The
letter sets forth plainly the facts that bigamy
is q CRIME i'll our Territories that it will be
punished by Il fine of $500 and Imprisonment
for not more than five years; and that
obligations exist between these Govern
ments and our own not to allow the
| emigration of persons having criminal lnten-
tious. 1t is, IN effect, friendly reminder that
the comfy of nations has been violated; but
now that il has been sent, more vigorous action
is justified, and the Mormon missionaries who
! bring back to our shores these deluded con-
| yerts can be arrested at our ports and re-
! turned with their victims as felOhs. The di-
RICHNESS and justice of this peculiar mode OF
procedure are evident from the fact that the
| Dolyramists of Utah are foreigners. Five
wears ago the population of Salt Lake City
! contained literally not single American con-
vert. They were English, Scotch, Norwegians
and Danes, with their children born in this
country, reared ana educated to the faith and
practices of this most degrading of all social
conditions 1t is hardly fair that America
should bear the oboquy and moral degrade
ton from this plague spot OF brutality and
vice which of right belongs TO other nations.
Whenever the influx Of foreign bigamists is
checked, the Government can deal success
fully with those at home.
The President is said to be personally strong
ly interested in the matter, on the side of law
anddecency President Hayes has taken no step
during his term of service which was not that
of an honest Christian statesman, working on
behalf of his highest conception of order and
right. So quiet and unObtrusive has been his
work that the Nation has not yet recognized
how rare in its uprightness il has been. No
trumpet has been blown before him by him
self or bis friends, simply because he, unlike
any other President for two generations, has
not done the work with the aim of re-
election. When his administration is over we
shall probably appreciate its solid value to
the country and if he can add to his other
work the successful task of cleaning out this
polluted Augean stable, and can help the de-
graded women and polygamists of Utah to
better condition, the Nation will owe him a
debt as long as it is Nation.