The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-07-09
THE TWIN RELICS,


Iniquity encouraged, Or even left undis-
turbed, is morally certain to run to excess,
and work out its own undoing. 1t was so
with the crime of slavery; and those who
nursed and coded it. The owners and driv
ers, the buyers and sellers, of human flesh
lied themselves into the belief that slavery
was of divine origin. Preachers saturated
with the leprosy of the prevailing sin, built
foundations for it out of the Bible. Men who
imagined themselves philarthropists argued
that slavery was a godsend to the African
that his condition in involuntary servitude
was immeasurably better than when a wild
man, though free man, in his native land.
It was the shrine at which the Southern arts
tocrat worshped; it was the parade ground of
the bully and the ''blood, on which was
pompously displayed the superiority of the
white race; it was the foundation upon which
the South imagined Southern prosperity rest
ed. The fate of Uzzah, and worse, await
ed any who dared lift hand or voice
against the divine institution. 1t was worth
a mans life to speak against slavery III any
portion of the South. The arrogance Of the
slave oligarchy, feeding on its own boastings,
extended its anathema TO territory outside of
that under the blight of bondage. The North
was cursed without stint, blackguarded and
bullied to such a degree that Southern
'ehvalry" imagined that the men of the
North would resent nothing. In this spirit,
when the national election in 1860 went
against the South and its idolized sin, the
flag of rebellion was deiantly flung to the
breeze in the full confidence that the ''justice'
of the Southern cause facilitated by the ap-
parent cowardice of the North which had
been content to oppose slavery only with
words of argument, would eventually triumph,
if, indeed, there would be any struggle at all.
The righteous wrath of the people long in
suited and fouted, then burst forth with an
awful earnestness that must have been appall-
ing to those who had incontinently rushed
issue between right and wrong. The result
was not long in doubt. The admitted valor
of Southern troops, unanswered by consum-
mate skill, did not avail, and in the end right
triumphed and wrong went down to ire
trievable ruin.
The polygamists of Utah, with not 1.-THE
Of the numerical strength of the friends and
defenders of slavery, are imbued with the
same fell spirit of arrogance. Like the traf
tickers in human flesh, these men pretend to
build the wall of morality and religion about
their favorite sin. Raise your hand against
the vice of polygamy, and they cry out that
you are endangering the ark of the covenant
But out of the entertainments of false
religious defense they will be driven. History
repeats itself. The arrogance and conceit Of
sin extolled and defended are rushing the
Mormon bigots to their destruction. The
wanton and fragrant insult offered the Nation
on the Nations natal day. and the defiant
proclamation Of the 'death of liberty" be-
cause of the righteous attempt to exterminate
the practice of multiplied and fragrant
adultery, called marriage by laws framed for
the encouragement of lust, are of nature
calculated to stir up such a feeling Of patriotic
indignation as will result in the beginning of
campaign against polygamy that will be its
death. 1t is divine institution" just as
human slavery was before the shotted guns of
the Nation knocked it out of its casemate of
triple-plated prejudice, arrogance and hypoc-
risy. The grip of law should tighten
around this iniquity until it is crushed and
deadened. The spirit and purpose of the
lecherous organization known as the Church
of Latter-day Saints were revealed on the
Fourth of July in manner that admits of no
doubtful Interpretation. The prime danger
is from the confidence they have in the Gus
tice' of their position. This in no way
changes the nature of their offense, and it
will have to be beaten out Of them, and the
IL L e. II