Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1882-01-18

| the right to do wrong. The country Is at
/ last, however, aroused to a sense Of its duty
toward the law-violating Mormons. Congress,
| without distinction of parties, Is taking up
! the subject with spirit and energy, 50 that
I one Of its members-Mr Cox, OF New York
used the other day the following langu age.
which met with warm applause from the
whole House OF Representative: As |
! love my own mother, as | respect
! the late President Garfield, whose
kiss yet fingers on the lips Of his
mother, by all that is sacred and holy l
pledge TO my colleague every endeavor to
| eradicate this evil" We are now, therefore,
at the crisis, for Mormonism, which the
French call ic commencement DE- fi-the be-
ginning Of the end What means of repres-
sion Congress will decide upon is not yet
known, but it should certainly include pro-
visions declaring how, where and by whom
marriages in the civil sense shall be cele-
brated-including provisions against incest
uous and other immoral marrisges-within
the boundaries Of any Territory Of the
United States. If such law were enacted,
it is probable the example would be toll
lowed by the individual States, and thus
wholesome reform be effected in the loose
manner in which marriages are now ceie-
brated-a laxity which gave TO the Nor
mons the opportunity they so greedily
seized to practice the system of promiscuous
concubinage to which they give the color
able name OF marriage. How do the Nor
mons regard the present movement
of congress and people? The fol-
lowing extract from a prominent and
authorized Mormon paper, the Ogden Herald,
of January 4th, will show: at is with them
1.-THE Mormonsl matter OF conscience, which
they have a full legal right to exercise in all
their religious concerns, where it does not
infringe on the rights OF others; and if this
right can be interfered with and the people
prescribed in their religious liberties, then
they can also be curtailed in the enjoyment
OF other constitutional privileges. The Nor
mons, as we'll as all others, should therefore
be left to attend to their religious duties,
without outside interference with them.
If federation must be practically
unlimited for one party, it must be so for
them all. The constitution gives religious
freedom to all alike; it makes no distinc-
lions between one church or another. 1t |
makes them equal, and no one party has the |
right to call another to account for his theo- |
logical tenets. This being the case, why |
should the government be called upon to
discriminate against the Mormon
Church, and to legislate away their
religious freedom any more than that OF any
other church They are entitled to as much |
liberation as any other religious community |
in the United States; and to enact special |
laws against them, to deprive them OF the |
privilege of worshiping according to the
dictates of their conscience. would be to dis
possess them OF their most sacred constitu-
tional liberty" The usual cunning and |
cant OF the INSCRIPTIONS Mormon priest is
shown in this extract. For Indulgence of |
vice" it has the cant expression "a matter OF |
the right to do wrong is claimed
as "full legal right and constitutional
privileges" marrying mothers and their
daughters is included in their religious
the forbearance the country has
exercised is only just federation" and con-
stitutional freedom "a4ize to ALL" 10 stop
polygamy would be to deprive the Mormons
IF their privilege of worshiping according
o the dictates of their conscience" How
nicely lust is here named worship" 1t is
ngeniously implied that the Mormon prac-
ices do not "infringe on the rights of Others"
tut it infriDges ON the duty of others as we'll
s on the right of every woman to have her
wn husband unshared by any other woman.
md polygamy is the Mormon's worship &C
ording 10 the dictates of his conscience. So
Tas the thuggee, and the suffice, and the
uggernaut suicides worship according TO
ther consciences that had been trained on
he Mormon level. "Why should the gov
rpr,,or,t A;-c-ir,iarste asaiu5t the Mormon"
; asked. Not because OF his tenets, his n:-
ions about religion, or his devotional OBJ
ervances, but because of his immortality, g
arried to the extent of breaking the laws CT !
he United States, which constitutes every
olygamous Mormon criminal as other
lw-breakers in the various jails and peni- i
'ntiaries are criminals. 6- ltSFzE