The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1892-04-23
A WORD for the Mo mons.

line being a smaller DOQV Hu-
metically, every small-fry editor and dem
agogic politician has felt free to throw his
stone at them; they have been yilitied for g
social popularity which practically prevails
all over the world; and when an impartial
traveller like President Eliot speaks Of
them without cursing them. he is called to
account as q traitor to Christian civiliza-
ton, says the San Francisco Argonaut. It
will be a good time to curse the Mormons
brought irrigation and high agriculture to
the perfection which they havs attained in
Utah. In the meantime it may, perhaps,
be becoming in the descendants Of the
witch-burners, and western advocates Of
lynch law, to rave less frothily over tho de-
lusions of the followers Of Brigham Young.
The doctrines Of the Latter Day Saints are
not so shocking as those of the
Anabaptists we're; the9e has never
been a holy inquisition in the TEN
pie of Mormon; and, y on the whole,
revolving as the teachings Of which Pascal
convicted the Jesuits. This is a world in
which error springs up like a weed. The
way to deal with it is not to make laws
against it, and to put men in Jail for adj
herring to the dictates of their conscience,
but to wait patiently until the light of rea-
son penetrates the dark places and dissi-
pates the fogs Of delusion. We may safely
leave to the bu1om girls Of Utah the task
Of convincing the growing generation Of
Mormons that every woman is entitled to q
rrboJn !, II I, n ~1t ~ ,,-nk ) ~ sc11 tha
descendants Of the Puritans responsible for
misdeeds which were largely the fault Of
the Ignorance Of the age in which they
lived. But with such a blot on their es-
cutcheon they ought to be a little careful
how they draw public attention to
the faults of others. They cannot
afford to be merciless. The ser
mons Of some Of the Mormon bishops
are very sad indeed. 1t is disheartening to
observe such monstrous alteration of in
tellect in men who seem to be educated.
But, after all, as between John Taylor and
Cotton Mather, the former is oftener in
harmony with principle and charity; and
certainly no Mormon elder ever demanded
that all the patronage of the territory
should be placed in his hands, as the first
D. D of Harvard did with regard to the
crown Offices in Massachusetts,. But the
most revolving feature of tho crusade
against the Mormons is its sham and its
Hypocrisy. The United States. at its wits
end to repress rolygamy, finally passed
bill which was generally known as the
'sillegal rehabilitation act" This, rs its
name shows, was designed to prohibit tho
illicit relations of the sexes. under pain OF
felony. Every honest man knows that such
a law could not prevail in the states of the
union without a perfect cyclone Of scandal.
But it was attempted in the Mormon terri
tory. Retaliation is human. The first
thing the Mormons did was to retaliate.
The result was that half of the marshals
deputy marshals, and other federal officials
were hauled up before the federal Judges
for violating this federal law. The next re.
suit was comic. The law. being territorial
prevailed in all federal territory, but not in
the states. A father who lived in Wash
inpton, d. c., had a naval officer Jailed fo1
seducing his daughter. The penitentiary
stared Lothalio in the face. It ia needless
to state that the matter was arranged. A
law which would do excelIently we'll fol-
Utah would not do at all for the District OF
Columbia. It might not do for New York,
Chicago, Boston, or Baltimore. 1t might
oven cause trouble in San Francisco,