The Evening critic., 1881-08-19

WE ARR INDEBTED to an able press-tcle-
gram for the information that when the
bill making it felony to attempt " to mis-
lead any person into the crime Of bigamy or
polygamy, which is an effort to legislatc on
tho Mormon question, reached the senate
there was an unlookcd.for and lively dis
oussion as to its constitutionality. Polyg-
amy being religion, and the Constitution
protecting adherents in its exercise, the
law. makers are in quandary, while the
Mormons are making many converts.
OF course this does not refer to the U. s.
Senate, but to the senate Of Georgia, where
law designed to stamp out the itincrant
missionaries of Mormonism has been passed
1t is notice served on tho sleek hypocrtcs
that their scheme of propagandism will be
attended to in the proper shape by an out
ragged community. We congratulate Geor-
gia on being the first State to take this
monster by the throat and only wish that
every State in the Union would have the
courage to pass just such u law, and,
wherever necessary, see to its rigid enforce
ment.
| But there is one curious mistake in the
above dispatch, to be credited to the learned
legislator who ventilated his views in the
senate. How and where does he get the
idea that polygamy is a religion. 1t is moth
ing but disgusting barnacle allowed to
collect on the Mormon rock. 1t was never
claimed originally as even so much as q
plank in the Mormon platform, but drew
its authority from what was termed u sub
sequent revelation, based no doubt on the
theory that some radical breach of the de.
cencies of life was required to attract grace
less renegades to faith. Without this
subsequent revelation, the attendant mys
teries of the Temple, and unbridled martha
license, Mormonism would have been placed
under the historical sod long since.
We can only recall one leader in history
who dared to connect such u restoring re
proach as polygamy with as solemn a thinS
as creed. His name was Mohammed
The austerity of his doctrines, taken as pro
fession of faith, would have been scattered
like the sands of his own deserts year
; ago had he not caught up the great centra
idea of the Orient and made women in un
| Iuiubltico OhC bhlSi W
his manufactured heaven When he dies il
the faith, after wearing out his red bloomer
in prayer and confscating the property o
: wandering caravans, the disciple of th
prophet carries hoavenward profound con
| viction that as he enters the portals of Para
r disc choice selection of black-eyed houri
r will be assigned him. This shedsa halo, in
l teresting from human point of view, aroun'
: the shadow of the dark valley and make
! the fretful desert of earthly anXieties bios
Q som like n rose in his dreams.
. Polygamy has always been vital tene
of the Mohsmmedan creed. 1t does NOR
: than the superstition of the Semitic race t
:, account for its growth. The obligation c
self-denial is never calculated TO populariz
= q creed TO any general extent. Whatevc
- constitutional questions may properly aris
; in discussing the abstract relations of
territory TO tho Federal Government, II
: !, earthly legal obligation to tolerate or pr,
= tcct the stain of polygamy can rest on Cor
y gress. Scrape that barnacle off, and the
legslate about the pollution of the Mormo
ballot, the atrocities of the jury systei
i. and tho rules of representation. Begin ;
the root of the disease.