Morning journal and courier., 1884-01-19
THE moRmoN auEsrIoN,

Since the days of reconstruction Congress has had no problem so difficult to deal with as the Mormon question. The people have evidently made up their minds that the polit ical and social condition of Utah must be re- the question is how to get rid of 1t. The Mormons cannot be driven out of the terri tory at the point of the bayonet or shot down as if they were in armed rebellion against the government. If polygamy and the evils which have sprung from it are to be rooted out it must be done by means that are legal and constitutional. And there are some very curious misapprehensions in regard to the right to do 1t. There are some journals which seem to treat the popular disposition to suppress polygamy as if it were 8 relig- ious persecution, and every legal measure aimed at it's overthrow as grave interfer- encs on the part of the government with the rights of conscience. It is difficult to see how a statute against polygamy can be re- garded as an infringement of the rights of conscience. man has an undoubted right to believe in polygamy if he wants to, but he has no right to practice it. Polygamy, like other crimes, is not punished because it is hos tile to the tenets of any faith, but because it is at war with the interests of society. The government can no more tolerate territory of polygamists than it could territory of Thugs, one of whose religious rites ia the of unbelieVers. We can no more permit bigamy and polygamy because they are conscientious than we can permit murder because 1t is conscientious.
 Another and still more curious tn cory, though not very heartily, by one of our es- teemed contemporaries) is that any attempt to interfere with poly gamy in Utah will be an infringement of the right of local self government. This is precisely the argum ent by which 1t was claimed that the territories had the right to permit slavery. The terri tories belong to the whole people, and the first few settlers that arrive in one of them have no right to adopt institutions which are at war with the civilization of the whole country, and which make it pr acticaIly im- possible for others to settle there. Congress as the representative of the people has con- troI of the territories, and they have no right of local self-government except so far as Congress permits it. The movement to suppress polygamy, so far from being an attack upon local self government, can with much more truth be called movement for It's protection. The Mormons have been guilty of a good many faarant usurpations of power. They have passed laws taxing the settlers, including Gentiles, to build and support schools upon property belonging to the Mormon Church, and they spent g vast amount of money in assisting emigration, which has also been collected by general taxation They have conferred the right of suffrage on alien women whom they became wives in utter disregard of the quail fcation of time required by the United States statutes of naturaliza- tion. They have not only assumed
 the rights of free sovereign State, but they have openly nulliied acts of Congress. The statute of 1862 forbids any religious or char itable corporation in the territory hold
 ing real estate of value greater than $5O,-
 900, The Mormon Church owns real pro perty in single county amounting in value to S2. 800 900. The Mormons have in so many ways, by legisIation that is in open de- fiance of the fundamental principles of our government, united State and Church that 1t would be impossible to snumerate them in single article.
 But those who believe in ''lst alone" pol icy do not, as a rule, venture any theory of non-interference, but content themselves with criticism of the proposed remedies. It must be confessed that the measures already adopt ed have not accomplished much. The Ed uunds bill succeeded in disfrsnehising polyg- smists. A homogeneous legislature was elect ed. which was, nevertheless, unanimously Mormon. and which was fully under the com trol of Taylor, Cannon and other polyga- nous leaders. Senator Edmunds now pro