Sacramento daily record-union., 1882-01-25

following anomalous proposition Re-
"solved, That while disavowing any pur-
"pose of interfering with the religious
"rights and liberty of the Mormons, we
demand that the central figure of their
"religion be extirpated." This is very
remarkable proposition, but it is most un-
questionably in the resolution cited. The
embarrassment which leads to such incon.
gruities may be traced to the extreme diff.
Guilty, even in these days, of drawing a
well defined line between the permissible
and the non-permissible, where religious
opinions are concerned. Polygamy is very
plainly illegal in all parts of the United
States, and it cannot be legalized by adopt
ing it as one of the tenets of religious
religious liberty has been given very
broad Interpretation in this country, and
the feeling in favor of the utmost liberation
has been SO general and strong for many
years that when men are confronted with a
case of this kind they find themselves ex-
ceedingly perplexed.
1t might be said that the best way to set
tie such a matter would be to declare at
once that whatever religious observances,
or quasi-religious observances, conflict with
the laws, must be abandoned. But to take
that position would be to put in the hands
of the irreligious power which would ena-
bic them to legislate religion out of exist
ence. Outside of Utah, and even there
outside of one party in the Mormon Church,
polygamy is universally condemned in this
country; but it is becoming palmer every
day that in order to get rid of it the ques-
ton of religious liberty will have to be
shelved for time, or that question will
prove very embarrassing. Polygamy may
be regarded as the opposite pole from Cell
bacy. There are many good men and
women who believe that to devote young
girls to a celibate life is altogether wrong.
But there are many good men and
women who hold that such a life is the
most exalted that can be chosen, and no
attempt is made to interfere with such
disposition of those who believe that a
recluse existence will suit them best.
The Mormons go to the opposite extreme.
Instead OF preaching celibacy they preach
plural marriages, and they pretend to base
their doctrine on religious grounds. Thus
if we once get entangled in the meshes of
the religious liberty question we shall find
it very difficult to reach rational iustifi-
cation for the suppression of polygamy.
Yet there certainly is rational justifca-
tion for that measure, and the way to reach
it is by substitution of State and Social
for religious considerations.
Polygamy is repugnant to the form of
civilization which has obtained in this
country. 1t is an exotic, which has never
fourished save among Oriental races con-
temporaneously with any stage of posi-
tive enlightenment. 1t is no doubt true
that both polygamy and polyandry existed
at one time in many parts of Europe, but
that was when Europe was peopled by
barbarians. The family is the unit OF
Anglo-Saxon civilization, and polygamy
therefore changes the whole system. Il is
more potent agency for building up an
entirely alien community than any other
that could be named. 1t destroys the
home at one blow. 1t deprives the chill
dren of that fostering parental care which
is SO indispensable to progress. 1t de-
grades woman hopelessly, outrages her
most powerful tendencies, denies to her
that completeness and absoluteness of
marital love and sovereignty which is her
right, disturbs all her social functions, and
brutalizes her by enforced familiarity with
a system which is neither more nor less
than open concubinage. The Mormons
have always tried to defend themselves on
this head by citing the prevalence of pros
titution in monogamic communities. But
the parallel cannot be shown. Prostitu-
ton is an admitted evil. It exists, but it
is branded. 1t is practiced, but under
terrible penalties. And at all events it is
never Haunted in the faces of virtuous
wives, nor are they compelled to descend
to its level. That argument, therefore,
has no force.
The evils of polygamy are so manifold
socially, moreover, that the Mormons have
found it impossible, save by the exercise of
brute force, to make educated women sub
NIT to it. They have been compelled to
seek among the most uncivilized and un.
educated of the lowest classes of Europe
for recruits to their system. They have
been obliged to go to communities where
morality is virtually unknown, to find
women who were willing to consent to the
degradation profered them. And thus
they have hastened the descent of their
own system, for they have gradually been
abandoned by all the more intelligent
members of their Church, excepting the
few who saw the means of aggrandize.
ment in adhering to the Church, and they
have injured their common country by in
PRODUCING to it class of immigrants whose
dense ignorance makes them the easy prey
of every plausible and fluent knave, whether
in religion or politics. The knowledge
that their whole system was antagonistic
to that of the United States has also made
them rebels at heart. They are thus be.
come fostering sore upon the body polite,
and they ought to be dealt with sternly
and promptly, and without the least regard
to their pretenses of religious authority for
the customs they have adopted. To leave
any part of the decision within their juris-
diction would be absurd. They should be
treated as if they were in rebellion against
the United States. They should be de-
prived of all political power be disfran-
chised, disqualified for jury duty, made
ineligible TO hold any public office, and
then pursued criminally as regards their
concubinage system, until it has been
rooted out. Absolutism does do few