New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1879-11-28
TIE MoRMnN orLSTTOM.

II is announced that the President will
again urge upon Congress settlement OF the
Mormon question, which becomes every year
more and more pressing. The time Is close
at hand when the population of the Territory
will be so large that to refuse Utah admission
as state Will look like an arbitrary and
unjust departure from well-established prece-
dent, and there will be practical inconveni-
ences also in continuing the present method
of administration. But no government since
the beginning of the world has made itself
the slave of precedent or even of consistency.
Our own practice abounds with anomalies.
An abnormal condition of things, not
foreseen when our political system was
arranged, will require irregular action; and
no State would last long which did not hold
itself at liberty to establish new rules for new
emergencies If the Mormon community can
not be admitted as full member of the Uuion
without injury to the general interests, we
shall be fully justified in keeping 1t out,
whatever the number of the inhabitants. The
danger is that Congress will be driven by
clamor. or tempted by party interests, to pass
an enabling act in despite of its own sober
judgment.
As The TRIBUNE has already pointed out,
the Democratic party has for the moment
something to gain by the admission of Utah.
The two Senators and one Representative to
be elected under a State constitution would
certainly be Democrats. The three electoral
votes of the new State would be given to the
Democratic candidate. If the election of
President should be thrown into the House of
REPRESENTATIVES. the vote of Utah would count
there as much as the vote of New York. 1t is
not to be supposed that the Democrats
in Washington are inSensible OF these
considerations, and they are likely TO
listen with favor t. the representations which
Mormon agents will certainly urge upon their
attention. Yet the admission OF polygamous
State would be disgrace and danger hardly
to be measured. Polygamy cannot be abol-
ished unless it is broken up by the National
authority while Utah is still territory. No
body doubts that under State Government
the crime would be legalized and perpetuated.
Pledges made in advance would bc broken.
Prohibitions inserted in the State Constltu-
ton would never be enforced, and would soon
be removed by an amendment. 1t Is poiygamy
which keeps the Mormons a separate and dis
loval people 1t is polygamy which erects
what is practically foreign State in
the midst of the American Con-
tlnent, ruled by community which has no
sympathy with the Union, no respect Tor ITS
laws, no interest in its prosperity. Setting up
an insuperable barrier against the comming-
ling of MormOns and Gcntiles, polygamy
removes the Saints from the civilzlng iniu-
ences which are at work all around them; 1t
binds them To the soil. almost as firmly as the
serf was bound to the estate OF his lord; and
it is the great buiwark of the despotlc power
of the priesthood. The founders of the Nor
mou Church devised no agency so powerful
for the perpetuation of their imposture as the
revelation of plural marriages.
The American people never will consent to
the erection of Utah as State until the bar
whole Christian world has been forever abol-
ished and before there can be any serious
question of admission, the laws against poly
gamy must be amended and put IN force.
The statute as il now stands makes the act OF
contracting bigamous marriage punishable
offence. The objections to II are, first, that 1t
does not reach the Older and more lnflu-
entail Mormons-the apostles, bishops and
other leaders-because they are nearly all
saved by the statute of limitations
and, secondly, that proof of tie mar
rage ceremony, which Is performed in the
secrecy of the Endowment House, Is almost UNI
attainabe The simplest remedy seems to be
to make cohabitation with several wives a
continuous offence; evidence of that is easily
bad and rigorous enforcement of the law
III a few signal cases would soon bring about
an abandonment of the practice. Poiygamy
never could have been established except IN
an isolated community and If 1t is once
completely abandoned there need be little