The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1886-06-06
MORM0NISM ARRAIGN ED.
Kate Field Has Few Words with the
Apostolic Women of Utah.
History Repeated in the Mormon Protest
Vice Laid at the Door of Goods People
The Facts About MOrm0nsm Laid Bare.
Written for the Journal by Kate Field.


The agitation in Congress of further legsla-
ton for Utah has brought to Washington more
Saints than probably were ever here before. The
Mormon lobby, enforced by gentiles of the stand
ing of George s. Boutwell,, of Massachusetts,
and jeff Chandler, Of Missouri. work ceaselessly
in behalf of a polygamous theocracy. and, ''tell
it not in GATH four women have been detailed
by the church to plead the cause of Asiatic
servitude!
At home and in the Capitol members of Con-
gress have been button-holed and told by these
apostolic women what wicked people the genties
of Utah are, and how cruelty the Saints are per-
secuted for diving their religion"-otherwise,
taking more wives than the law allows. Through
Senator Blair they have presented protest .n
behalf Of 1000 Mormon women" calling upon
the wives and mothers of the United States to
help them to resist encroachments upon their
liberties. These are strange times, when a
female Mormon lobby asks Congress to give to
Utah the liberty of self-degradationl
Foremost among these Mormon women is Mrs.
E. B. Wells, sixth wife of counselor to the twelve
apostles, who once said to me, 'sDo you suppose
I could endure polygamy were it not tenet of
my churchl" Mrs. Wells is too good woman
for the business in which she is engaged.
Whenever Congress threatens to lay hands on
the Mormon monster" Mormon women hold
mass meetings in Salt Lake City, that are engln-
eered by the church, and assert that they are
perfectly satisfied with their condition. Before
the abolition Of slavery, the world was assured
that negroes were happy id their chains, and in
divdual slaves may have said as much Many
plural wives undoubtedly dislike the Edmunds
laws Why should they notl It's enforcement
means their inferiority to the frst wife, and
their separation from the man who is the father
of their children and to whom they may have
become attached. They see no place for them
selves outside of the church. and the church
makes polygamy a religious tenet. But read of
the past:
At a mass meeting held in January, 1870, to
proclaim the gories of polygamy, the apostolic
women" of Utah, denounced the Cullom and
Cragin bills and 'all other bills expressions and
manifestoes," and thereupon
Resolved That we acknowledge the institutions of
the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as
the only reliable safeguard of female virtue and inno
and Il only protection against the fear
full sin of prostitution and its attendant evils now
prevalent abroad.
Resolved That, in case the bills in question should
pass both Houses of Congress- and become a law, by
which shall be disfranchsed Territory. we,
the ladies of Salt Lake City, shall exert all power
and influence to aid in the support of our own State
government.
These reasonable resolutions were received
with cheers by nearly six thousand women and
were unanimously adopted, of course. In aGdi-
ton a petition, signed by many women,
was sent to Washington as pro-
test against congressional interference.
Several women assured me, when / was in
Utah, that their names were put down without
their consent. and others said that they did not
dare to refuse. I was told that the names of
children and of the dead were used to lengthen
the list, and that in the country the names of
horses, COWS and dogs were considered eligible
Why not? Brigham Young's first counselor.
Heber c. Kimball, native of Vermont, called
his twenty wives COWS" He ought to have
been Judge of their mental calber In calling
to their aid the four-legged animal kingdom
the Saints but carry out Brother Heber's theory.
One point only in these resolutions of 1870 is
worthy of consideration, /. g., that polygamy
is the only sure protection against the fearful
sin of prostitution" IL this were true, the hu-
manitaran might well pause, but it is as false as
many another Mormon assertion. The state
ment that all vice in Utah emanates from gen.
tiles is an atrocouS libel
Let us go back to the year 1856, before wicked
gentiles had set ungodly examples for child
like Mormons to follow. Secret confessions
showed that private evils existed in the cities of
professed Saints. which unsurpassed by
the inhabitants of the outside world.
.All you who have been guilty of adultery,
stand up" said Brigham Young, at this priest
hood meeting in Social Hall.
Three fourths of four hundred men arose.
These men could not have sinned had not
threefourths of four hundred women shared in
their offense.
sThere must be some misunderstanding
among the brethren" interposed loading
bishop.
perhaps the elders thought the inquiry ap-
piled to their conduct before they threw off the
works Of the devil and embraced Mormonism. y
cit is adultery Committed since the elders
entered the church." said Brigham Young.
Those three hundred Saints remained stand
ing.
Astonished at the result of his command
Brigham Young invented a way whereby social
rottenness could be concealed.
Repent of your SINS" said he "Be bap-
TIED for their remission; and as they are washed
away by the ordinance of baptism, you can say
truly that you are not guilty of the sins in
quired of by the Catechism, though you may
have committed them"
The rush to baptismal waters was appalling!
Gould such scenes have been enacted in New
England twenty-six years after the landing of
Iuo hSriHS: II mo HrsI StdscS VI rcilgiou
disclose such iniquity, what must be its later
developments when gold has taken the place of
carrots as legal tender and the idleness engen-
dered by wealth gives additional incentive to
vice?
I've come to the conclusion" said the wife of
Mormon high priest in the presence of a friend
of mine, "that there is no difference between
poygamy and prostitution This couple lived
in monogamy.
well, I'll tell you the difference said the hus-
band who is very intelligent man. and whose
religion is deeply associated with his finances;
''ours is reduced to a much better system"
Salt Lake City is frontier town, and there
fore collects much refuse from all parts of the
world. To-day it's disreputable houses equal in
number those of any other frontier town of its
size. Is it not absurd to assert that they are
kept open by ''outsiders9" That Ave thousand
gentiles in Utah equal in vice twenty-seven thou
sand gentiles out of it? Is not this too great
stretch of the Imagination