The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1881-03-27

I
Allow me to suggest that this
popular polygamy cry is nothing
but a poor excuse, a paltry Subter-
fuge, a shallow and transparent
pretext for the preparation of the
most outrageous political injustice
The polygamy hue and cry was
utterly unknown in the Ohio and
Missouri troubles, and was not
the great lever to work upon the
popular feeling in the NauYoO
and Illinois expulsions. 1t
was not until about thirty
years ago, when the Mormons had
fled to this then remote and seclu-
ded and inhospitable region, this
terra incoglitG in the midst of the
great North American desert" and
MeSsrs. "BrocchuS, Day and Bran
denbury" had been here and had re-
turned to Washington with the
report that the fact of every mar
riageable woman at Salt Lake hay
ing a husband was a condition that
proved to be peculiarly hard" upon
federal officials the Cyprian class
being unknown here at that time)
that the rabid anti-MormonS dis
covered the unrivalled potency of
the pOlygamy basis for a war cry
the Mormon people. Since
that time the pOlygamy basis has
never failed, because, for some in
scrutable reason, it has proved most
in stirring up popular in
and exciting all manner
of evil passions, Notwithstanding it
has proved also to be a rock upon
which more than one political for
tune has been wrecked, one of the
and most notable instances
of which was that of Judge Doug
las, the "little giant of the demo-
Gratis.
In the month of May, 1S43, Judge
Douglas had conversation with
Joseph Smith upon the Missouri
of the Mormons, in which
Mr.. Smith said, Judge, you will
aspire to the presidency of the
United States; and if ever you turn
your hand against me or the Latter
day Saints, you will feel the weight
of the hand of the Almighty upon
you; and you will live to see and
know that | have testified the truth
to you" Fourteen years afterWard,
the judge, in the height of his pOpu-
larity, delivered his famous "loath-
some ulcer" speech at Springfield, a
speech which, on several subsequent
he expressed regret that
he had been so unWiSe as to deliver.
From the time of that speech Judge
Douglas went down, his friend the
pub. func.," the last democratic
president, went down, and the
democratic party went down, to-
depths from which neither has yet
recovered. In 1852, 1856 and 1860
the judge aspired to be elected Pres
ident, but failed, and in the last
named campaign his party failed
with him. He died the next year.
He also failed financially. His first
wife took him considerable property
in slaves. In 1861 the New Orleans
Delta had the following concerning
nim-"It seems like a generous
that Douglas children
should be saved from want by
means of that property which
in his latter days he sought to
iepreciate and iniure. The great
wealth which he imagined he pos
5esSed in the free states, and in view
Of which he had begun in his latter
days to regard the property in the
south, of which he was trustee, as
Of little value and consequence, has
all vanished, and his widow has
now to petition his creditors for a
small space of his once princely
possessions in which to deposit his
remains. 1t is an interesting fact,
that on his last visit to this city,
when he so bitterly denounced the
only honorable course LETT to the
south, in the defense of slave pro-
perty, he obtained from the product
of this property the only money he
could command to defray the
expenses of his family, OBJ
tanned it too by the favor and kind
ness of one of the earliest and
advocates of secession.
The south has done her duty to
Douglas. She gave him a generous
and Jealous support as long as he
was true to her just claims ana equal
rights. Let the north remember the
sacrifices he made to her sectional
demand, and make Just and hand
some provision for his widow" I'M
the same year an English journal,
in noticing his death. had the fol-
lowing-"His eyes closed upon al
dismembeTed nation, a country en-
gulphed in civil war, a people
crazy with the desire to imbrueI
their hands in each Others
blood, and a future so gloomy
that there was not a single ray of
hope to illumine the dark vista, and,
worst of all, destitute of the con-
ISOLATION that life well spent in the
cause of truth and justice would
not fail to give" So much for an
enSample.
Now let us call figures to our aid
in regard to this polygamous subject
for a few moments. Suppose we
say there are 10000 inhabitants in
this territory, and Of this great
100000 care to be known as
Mormons. Perhaps in all religious
bodies 1t will be safe to say that not
more than two-thirds of the more or
less active members have backbone
enough to stand up to their prin-
clpleS in face of trouble. This would
reduce the 100000 to 10000. OF these
10000 We may reckon one-ifth as
men, which would be 1900. Sup
pose we say half of these. or 1000,
are marrying or manageable men,
and of them that one in ten is a
polygamist, which would give 700|
polygamists for the entire territory.
OF these 700, it might be fair to pre-
sumo that not one-tenth, or 20 in all,
would have the opportunity and the
courage to face the dangers and
the threats to which they would
be liable by contracting more
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