The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1886-09-05

b tier to 90 on for years as we have
Done. holding this wolf by the ears.
knowing that the chances are that 1t
VIII some day escape7 If that is to be
our line Of action, truly it was an sstute
ana proVldent policy which kept the
Aormons In Utah in 1868, for they had
verifying TO gain and nothing to lose
by q Territorial location. Their popu-
1atlon has risen from 1880 in 1850 to
a. 10 IN 1850, Sc, 786 in 1870. and 143. 1853
IN IesO. They are now more in number
IMAM the law requires as a constituency
ior Representative in Congress: and
their retention as a Territory is every
year becoming a greater strain upon
our institutions. What are we to do
When the population OF Utah is a mill
lion or moreI Are we still to keep them
underline government of Congress2 Or
90 We Imagine that our patience will be
the greater, and that The Mormons will
then be IN the minority, or converted to
monogamyl So far from that being
probable, our delay is only preparing
ing Tor us new difficulties Of the same
KIND. The neighberinR Territories,
Idaho. Montana and Wyomin, are
becoming infected W tn the Utah q s.
ease: and the time will come when we
shall have on our bands the problem OF
holding in four polg gamous Territories,
instead OF one. from becoming States.
There are objections 10 be considered.
OF course. The leading Objection would
be that the proposed grant of power to
Congress wo1ld be distinctly outside OF
any proper limits to a really fede al
system, that a national marriage and
divorce law would be long step on the
road to French. or unified, republican
system. The validity of the objection
cannot well be denied. The fact is with
the objector. Circumstances. main Y
the rise of Mormo2ism, have forced
upon US one evil. The country must
unidcatlon is too large a price to paw
for a final solution of the Mormon
problem. he ratification of the
amendment would for the first time
stamp Mormon pGlygamy as forever
hopeless. A State government un0er
the proposed amendment would relieEe
Congress of any further necessity for
governing Utah; it would remit the
punishment of polygamy, including
Acknowledgement and exclusion from
office, the automatic action of the
United States courts; and by changing
political into purely legal prosecution,
its natural effect would be to break up
the influences which now make the
Saints a consciously peculiar pepoie. TO
urge the ambitious younger man out of
its jurisdiction, and to strike at the &c
clesiastical, which in many respects is
more important than the mere poly
gamous, element of the question.
Again, it may be objected that such
an amendmen would merely substitute
lnnsn 80 10
higher standard of the older States. Is
there a western State whose divorce
laws are looser than those of Connect
cut, the land of steady habits" or
whose marriage laws aud practices are
looser than those of New York, the
En- Iire State? As a matter of fact. it
would be blessing for most of the
Stat s, old or new, east Or vest, if
national legislation on these subjects
could take the place of their present
systems. The Senator or Representative
who would pay little attention to loose
marriage and divorce laws in bis own
state. would hesitate before giving the
legislation of the nation a character
calculated to invite the contempt or
sister nations. For the same reason the
of power would ligh en-. by
concentrating. the labor of those de-
NOlGU mti WHO nave 50 ICllS ucCD SlI4f-
ing to reform State divorce laws. II
thew were released from the necessity OF
ATTACKING thirty eight different legisla-
tive bodies, and were referred t. Con-
gress alone. the efforts would have far
greater promise of effect.
The evil itself has become so far
nstisnal as to make national legislation
applicable and appropriate. If the
remedy through constitutional amend
ment is to be tried, the work cannot
begin to soon. The passage and ratiti-
cation of an amendment to the Ame7i-
can Constitution is about the most
difficult legislative feat imaginable. To
accomplish it before the Mormon prob
lem shall have become hopelessly great.
the work should be begun at once. If
the first draft of the amendment should
be offered in Congre in 1886, its pas
sage and ratification would occupy
probably ten years of hard work, and BY
that time the population of Titan will
number about half million. To leave
the beginning of the work until that
time would simply mean the admission
of Utah as State, OFT of sheer despera.
ton. before the amendment could be
ratified.