Salt Lake evening Democrat. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1885-1887, 1885-05-28
CAN IT BE DONE?


munds law, as recently defined by the
Chief Justice, cannot be stopped, but that
they will go on until the fullness OF time.
The reason assigned for this attitude on
the polygamy question is that the system
is established of God for special pur-
pose, which purpose is the establishment
of His kingdom on earth. 1t is the claim
that every religious body makes; it is the
claim which justifes all things,
no matter how offensive to the
moral sense of mankind, so long as those
things tend to further the object Tor
which the claim is made. That the claim
is said to have a divine sanction is no
ground for treating it as such, and giving
to it that Difference which divine things
are supposed to command. Respect TO
those who make the claim, when honest
lv and sincerely made, should always be
extended; but if the claim shall touch
those things which are OF vital import
ance to the State, then it must be re-
L
the citizen to do as he may choose and
where begins the authority and power
of the State to say to him thus
far and no farther" is diff
cult and most intricate question,
which has never been thoroughly and
satisfactorily determined. The citizen as
an individual and the State, as all the
citizens acting together, have at different
times occupied different parts OF this de-
batable ground, as different theories held
sway. But in every country pretending
to civilization, whether the civilization is
ancient or modern, Eastern or Western,
there has always been a control by the
government, no matter what its form, OF
the relations of man and woman when
associating together as husband and wife.
1t is most obvious why this has been SO
and should be, as the constitution OF the
family has been the foundation
of the State. To the oriental
nations the polygamic system OF the fam
lily has been most congenial while with
the Greeks and Romans and the modern
nations which profess Christianity, the
monogamic system has been preferable.
The nations which have adopted the
polygamic system OF the family have
been nations where tyranny, voluptious-
ness and supineness have ever reigned.
Their civilization has been that which has
halted in the march Of mankind towards
better and higher ideas of life, whose
tendency is to amelorate the suferings of
humanity. The Moresque civilization of
Spain was the highest type ever at
tanned by polygamic nations, and the hold
which that has upon the mind comes
more from its romance than from its
actual worth. Their knowledge OF as
tronomy and medicine is the thing
which has given them the most consid
Grafton with modern nations; and the
beautiful and elevated language in which
Sismondi tells the story of their learning
has made that learning seem greater than
1t was. The gorgeousness and magnif
cence OF the courts OF the Caliphs,
whether those of Bagdad or those OF Cor
dova, have woven a spell in their history
that we have not broken through as yet.
The Alhambra at Granada, the Palace of
the Mayors at Seville, the Mosque at Cor
dova, are monuments of genius; but with
all their art and beauty, they plainly tell
of their origin. In their structure are
seen grace, lightness and elegance, the
three things most prominent in the Nor
esque civilization. 1t may be said that
the Parthenon and the buildings which
crown and nestle around the Acropolis are
all that are left of Greek civilization,
that civilization which has been the ad-
miratlon and envy of the world. 1t may
also be said that of the borrowed civiliza-
ton Of Rome all that remains is the Colos-
scum, the Pantheon, the ruins OF the
Roman Forum, the Arch OF Severus, the
Arch of Titus, the Arch OF Constantine
and the Cloaca Maxima. This in
sense may be true, SO far as the outward
appearance OF those mighty empires is
concerned, but not 50 in their influence
on modern countries. Modern civiliza-
ton is their civilization modified bv
Christianity. 1t was the learning and
literature OF Greece that gave the i'm
petus to the revival of learning
in the Middle Ages. The great
universities OF Italy, France, Spain
and England in the Middle Ages received
their inspiration from the ancient Greeks.
The civilization OF modern nations has re-
celved its life blood and being from
Greece and Rome. And they were
monogamic nations. There is not to-day
a civilized nation which has taken as its
model the civilization with its polygamic
system OF marriage and the family. The
modern nations are the occidental
nations and not the oriental ones; and
in these modern nations has man found
hs greatest liberty and safety. In
material strength as well as in in
tellectual attainments, they have far
surpassed all nations of oriental ideas
and practices. Such being the case, are
not some weight and consideration due
TO the ideas which have attained their
greatness in all departments on the theory
OF the monogamic system of the family,
although they had the polygamic system
OF the family and its results upon the
nations which had adopted it, to copy, had
they SO chosenP 1t was inconsistent with
their genius as home loving, progressive
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