The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1907-04-23
PoLYGAMoUS HEATHEN.


We notice consideration in The In
dependent of the current week, Of the
difficulties the missionary churches
| have to deal with in barbarous and
Mohammedan countries with respect to
the reception of converts who arc in
polygamy. 1t is an old question i'll
missionary work, and, according to The
Independent s advices, the Presbyterian
missions in India which have recently
been dealing with the subject. appear
to countenance good deal of latitude
in the matter; enjoining monogamy,
however, and forbidding polygamists to
hold any Office in the church, Gas did
Paul. according to The Independent.
The Presbyterian assembly epjoins,
with respect to this matter, this rule:
Such moral and spiritual pressure
brought to bear upon tho applicants that
| where, without violating conscience or
doing injustice TO others concerned. salts
! factory arrangements can be made for
| separation. from all but one wife, this
| Will he done
The Independent discIaims any criti-
cism of this rule, not being wiser than
Paul or than those who are on the
| ground and have the responsibility.
And it points out that "the bearing Of
| that action on our conditions is not
only in our dealing with our pagan
Indians on the reservations, nor even
with the Moslem Moros in the Philip.
pines, but with our supposedly civilized
! Mormons, who took plural wives when
it was legal, and who have refused in
some scores of cases Of now old men
to discard their supernumerary con
sorts. -
1t is genuine surprise TO hear from
The Independent that there was q time
when the taking Of plural wives by
the Mormons was legal. Certainly
polygamy was not legal in Illinois,
where the practice began in the early
forties, according to the proofs sub
mitted by the church here In Utah. 1t
is rule also that colonies of Ameri-
can citizens carry the laws of our race
with them wherever they go To hold
different would be TO hold that any new
| community going out from an estab-
lished state of jurisdiction into a
wholly unorganized portion of the
country were relieved of the laws
against theft, against murder, against
/ adultery, and against the whole series
of crimes usually inhibited among civ
ilized beings. 1t is bad rule, and
| cannot be sustained by any authority
that is worth the name. Besides, there
was positive enactment against polyg,
amy passed by Congress in 1862. The
fact that the Mormons paid no atten.
tion whatever TO this, ignored it ut.
tcrly, cannot be pleaded as making
polygamous marriages legal. Nor can
there be any logical lenity extended
to them by reason of their repudia-
tion of the law and refusing to submit
to it. As matter Of fact, however
the positive statutes passed by Con
gress are not necessary to make po.
lygamy illegal; il is illegal under the
common law, has no legal standing in
any community in this country. and
never has had. The assumption of The
Independent that the taking of plural
wives was at one time legal in Utah,
is wholly gratuitous.
The Independent further assump-
tion that it is only some scores Of now
old men who are living in polygamy,
is also wide of the mark. 1t will
be news TO the people of Utah that
the Tanners, the Cowleys, the Taylors.
and scores of others that might be
named are old men about to pass off
the stage of existence. The truth is
that the Mormon communities generally
have cases of young men and Young
women who have entered into the
polygamous relation since the mani.
festo of 1890. The church in its gen.
cral conference in the early part of
the present month explicitly confessed
10 cases of new polygamous marriages,
and there can be no question but that
the actual number Is many times
greater than the church in open confer
ence confessed it 10 be. This appa-
rently concerted effort TO belittle the
polygamous issue in Utah is unwar-
rantcd, it is based on absolutely false
premises. There has been a genuine
revival of interest in polygamv among
the chosen ones Of the Younger gen
Grafton in the Mormon church. An
especially favored and devoted class
is being reared up. having examples in
most of tho settlements, who arc set
apart TO keep alive 1.-THE commandment
OF the Lord - and TO see to it that the
actual practice Of polygamy does not
perish from the earth. The church
lpn full la.,