Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1882-02-17

| Cd0lOE US pGIlLlsLtd. anu 90 A4lClI
rights as citizens, they have long since for
feited all title reconsideration, for they have
abused these rights systematically. 1t
may be that their actions have been the
result mainly of ignorance, but that cannot
alter the duty Of the Government. Con-
gress is under obligation to give every
State and Territory republican form of
government. and the form Of government
in Utah is not republican, and has not
been for many years. Nor is there any
use In mild measures with these people
They are like the Indians, and mistake
forbearanee for fear. They have so long
evaded the law, and have been SO success.
full in defying Congress, that they have
become foolhardy, and great many of
them really believe that the Government
cannot compel them to abandon their favor
ite vice.
It is necessary to shake them roughly
out of this delusion. and the most severe
measures will we believe prove the best
II they are once made to understand that
their tenure of political powers and priv.
leges ia conditioned upon their obedience
to the laws, they viii see the uselessness
OF further resistance. To disfranchise the
polygamists, moreover, is to paralyze the
Mormon Church, for that organization has
only retained lis hold upon the govern
ment of Utah through its political strength,
and when the latter is removed it will be
without any means of aggression or self
defense. Whether the polygamists are
likely to avail themselves Of the amnesty
offered them is a question which cannot
nov be answered. 1t will probably de.
pend upon the attitude of the Church.
There is, however, one consideration which
does not seem to have been provided for
sufficiently in the pending bill. We refer
to the future status of discarded polyga.
nous wives. No doubt the greater number
of these women are so loH IN the scale of
intelligence as to care very little what
their legal status may be. A large proper
ton Of them possess no moral ideas what.
ever, and are, in fact, but one remove
from the beasts. Nevertheless Congress is
bound to take into consideration the fact
that they have become the tools and dupes
OF the Mormon men, and their ignorance
and degradation must not be cited as
reasons for excluding them from just
treatment.
AS to the possible suffering to be caused
by the breaking up of polygamy, it is
probably for the most part imaginary.
For polygamy does not create homes or
family circles, nor does it confer upon the
woman any privileges or comforts which
she could not obtain in much greater
degree if relieved from the system. 1t
may be found necessary to remove many
of the plural wives to more Furnishing
and progressive settlements, for it is per-
haps doubtful whether they could succeed
in making living for themselves in Utah.
Some provision, indeed, should have been
made for endoWing them with pro rata
share of the property of the men they
have been living with, and if this arrange
ment were judiciously presented in the
new bill it could be awaited of to bring
about voluntary separations in many in
| stances. The promise of a share of the
husbands goods would no doubt induce
many second, third and fourth wives to
apply for it, and the husbands would very
soon become tired of that kind of bust
ness. As to the heads of the Mormon
Church, they may either recognize the USE
lessness of further resistance, or they may
undertake to BATTLE the programme of Con-
gress. But when once polygamy has been
deprived of all political power it will have
very little to fight with, and it will then
become comparatively easy for the Gentle
Government of the Territory to enforce
the laws.
Under the circumstances it is absurd to
affect any regard for the feelings of the
Mormons. They have ventured upon the
bold undertaking of setting up in the
midst of this republic form of civiliza
ton which is not only alien but hostile.
Pretending to be American citizens they
have de6ed the laws Of their country. They
are in fact rebels, and if it is not necessary
to treat them az such, and to subject them
to all the rigor Of martial law, it is necessary
to break down the system they have SO
audaciously erected, and to do this with
whatever severity may be demanded.
There has been far too much dalliance with
polygamy. The evil is one which would
have been stamped out promptly and
effeetually twenty years ago, in any other
country in the world. Our action in
the premises is open to the charge of
both weakness and want of intelligence, or
corruption. Even now we find the Nor
mon organs appealing to the Democratic
party to come forward and save polygamy,
and declaring that the institution is only
attacked because the Mormons are all
Democrats. Such statement is keen re
proach to American politics, but there is
only one way of Kidding the country of the
scandal, and that is by putting pclygamy
down forthwith, no matter what pleas are
urged for it, or what pretenses of tyranny
are put forward.
/ EoF The SAME NAN.
The Chicago Tribune is mistaken in the
identity of Sir Henry Parkes. Who lately