Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1881-07-26
The Mormon Plague.

| MOrmOnlSm, tnat alluIlnB cOmpOunu
of religion and bestiality, which has
thriven in Utah undisturbed by Federal
interference, is revolving even when con-
fined to the limits of the territory, which
has been given over to its professors
But they are not satisfied to rest within
its borders. Their apostles are going
about the land, and the number of con-
verts to the doctrines of Joe Smith is
daily increasing. Mormons are con-
stantly arriving from Europe, and in
various sections of the Union the work
of proselyting is vigorously pushed. The
work is going on right here in Georgia
walter Scott, President" uses the
columns of the Atlanta Constitution to
make the following announcement:
THE annual Conference of the Church
of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints will
be held in Mormon Meeting House, Eel
ton, HARRISON county, Ga, July 22d,
23d and Gath, to which cordial invita-
ton is extended to all. There will be
present ten or twelve travelling elders
from the different parts of the State, also
John Morgan, President of the Southern
States Mission"
In this brief announcement are two
startling facts. That Mormon meeting
house should be located anywhere IN
Georgia should excite the just indigna-
ton of every citizen who values the good
name of the State The further an
nouncement of Southern States mission
is significant, and should arouse every
professor of Christianity to the import
ance of resisting this unhallowed propa
ganda. That HARRISON county and other
sections of the South should allow Nor
mon emissaries the freedom of speech
and action that has been accorded them
is convincing proof of the change in
public opinion, which was erstwhile far
less tolerant of evils less dangerous.
That these apostles should have met
with the support that their boldness
shows them to have received is dis
heartening, alarming and disgrESsCceefful.
- y ere Mormonism otherwise the pur-
est and most rational of creeds, the
blot of polygamy would damn it in the
eyes of every man who esteemed chas-
tity the brightest of woman's jewels.
II matters not that fair section of the
Mormon communion has repudiated
polygsmy. 1t is the magnet that draws
believers, and is the life of the heresy OF
lust and debauchery. 1t matters not
that the "Saints" are thrifty, orderly
and obedient to the law where it does
not conflict with their peculiar practices.
The most amorous follower of the
Prophet may be a good subject of the
Porte. He may be patriotic in the high
est degree, and perform prodlgies of
valor in defense of his native land, as
Turks have done time and oft. Yet no
man will rank Turk with the honest
German, the chivalric Frenchman, the
typical Englishman or American, who
place woman on the plane to which her
Creator has destined her.
The creed of Smith was the baldest
forgery ever perpetrated. The credulity
that can honestly accept it borders on
imbecility. Illustrated by Brigham
Young and the pillars of the Mormon
Church it has continually justified the
treatment that the Nauvoo pests receiv-
ed, and has been standing reproach to
the National Legislature for the past
three decades.
The courts are powerless. a Mormon
wife, should she seek to press hci claims,
finds the proofs of her rights shut up
within the precincts of the Endowment
House, where the ceremonies that made
her the slave of her masters passions
are secretly enacted. They cannot be
reached, and she is left without a rem
edy. The evil has long detied the gov
eminent Wholesale and sweeping legis
lation is needed. The contest between
Cannon, the Mormon delegate elected by
the Saints" and Campbell, his oppo-
nent, to whom Governor Murray gave
the certificate, will force the question
upon Congress.
When we recall that the plea of "su-
preme necessity" has so often been offered
to excuse high-handed enactments that
trod on and swept away rights and prlvi-
leges, whose titles were perfect and
whose sanctions were found on the very
pages of the charter of our liberties, we
are prone to admit that it might well be
raised to justify the stamping out of the
plague of Mormonism. The tenth
amendment to the Constitution, which
guaranteed the reserved rights of the
States and the people, was trampled on
to further the ends of party. Why
should mawkish and strained regard
for the first clause of the first amend
ment stand in the way of a vindicatiOn
of our civilization and of the honor
of womanhoOd, to which Mormonism
wherever it lifts its head is foe as insidi-
Gus and as dangerous as the serpent in
the Garden of Eden2 The system has
no claims. Its professors are beyond the
pale of sympathy, and, if its destruction
should wrong many of its victims, it
were better that all of its professors
should suffer detriment than that it
should for a day receive the countenance
or tolerance of the government of land
welded to the faith of Christ
During the last sixteen years the peo-
MA of the limited States have Maid