The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1884-01-04
A MORMON ON THE MORMoNS.

President John Taylor, who dis
cusses the Mormon question with
Governor Murray in the current
number of the North american Re
0ieaO, makes some good points for
the Mormons, though the main in
terest of his remarks lies in the
calm ard temperate tone with
which he discusses the matter.
He mentions a curious fact with
regard to the Edmunds Act, which
seems to merit attention from Con-
gfess. The act provides that no
polygamist. bigamist, nor. "any per-
son cOhabiting with more than one
woman, Shall have the right to vote
in Utah. The Commissioners under
the Act, however, in the test>oath
which they introduced, required
the voter to swear that he had
never simultaneously lived with
more than one woman (thus
giving the law retrospective or e1
post .fdctO effect) "in the marriage
relation" Laws of this sort are
always strictly construed by the
courts, and to make this one apply
to past acts, and to except from it
all persons coha biting without going
through the form of marriage, is
going to the opposite extreme. No
great moral movement is likely to
be much helped by such distortion
of the law as this.
Again, Mr.. Taylor very Justly
complains of the disposition among
the Gentiles to confOund po]ygamy
with the crime of bigalny. The
wickedness of bigamy does not
mainly consist in the act of marry
ing two women, but in the gross
fraud and deception practiced on
tie second wife. In other words,
the second wife does not marry vol
unfairly. This is, to be sure, only
different way of putting the argu-
ment that plural marriages are
unobjectiOnable because the women
like them, and know beforehand
that a number Of wives Is a part of
Mormon family life; but it puts the
matter IN striking way.
But perhaps the most remarkable
thing in Mr.. Taylor's article is the
strong feeling pervading il that
Mormon morals are as q whole
puler than those of the surrounding
GENTLE communities. In Utah, he
he says, there are no female out>
casts, such as are found in all large
Cnristian communities. Vice, so
far as it exists in Utah, is imported
by the Gentiles. The drinking
saloons, the gambling. house, the
bagnios are not Mormon products,
and the Mormon view of them is
that they constitute very good
reason for people who really like
respectable, orderly, sober life
to leave off being Gentiles and
enter the Mormon fold. Fin
ally he calls attention once more
to the act of Governor Murray in
giving a certificate of election to
Mr.. Campbell, who had 1857 votes
for Congress against Mr.. Cannon,
who had 1865, and wants to know
what the GentileS think of that.
Governor Murray's reply is sub,
that the polygamist "must
CO." But as the means of making
him go is the serious question, it is
most important that we know how
the polygamist looks at it. Now,
the fact is that he does lot regard
as an habitual criminal,
living in defiance of law, human
and divine, and in great luck thus
far from having kept out of the
hands of the police, but as good
man who is subject to a bitter and
persecution. He has,
and can prove that he has, all the
virtues valued by the Gentle in
abundance sobriety, industry,thrift
land that he is not afflicted by a
good many social ills by which the
Gentle is completely baffied. He
has brought Utah, by means of his
peculiar institutions, to high state
Of civilization. In legislating against
him it is Ger ainly necessary to re-
member these things, and not 10
5reat him as if he were red-handed
assassin, and to keep straining or
oerverting the laws to keep him
Town, and refusing to listen to what
ne has to say for himself, and thus
passions which make sane
legislation or even discussion diffi~
cult or impossible.-New York |
Post.