Year: 1870

Tho ProtestIns nIormens.


AT mass meeting Of the Mormons at Great
Salt Lake City on Thursday last protest to
the two houses OF Congress was adopted
against the passage of the Cnllom bill for the
suppression Of polygamy. These protesting
Mormons represent that the population Of Utah
Territory is about one hundred and lfty thou
sand. OF which all except from avs to ten
thousand persons are Of the Church Of Jesus,
Latter Day Saints; that they have reclaimed
the desert and made It fruitful, quieted the
Indians, made roads, built cities, &C., and that
the people who have done this are believers in
polygamy, not simply as social relation, but
as o principle of religion underlying our
every hope of ultimate salvation and happi-
ness in heavens" that this revelation was
given to Joseph Smith as an everlasting
covenant, and that II the saints ''abide
not In that covenant then ye are damned"
They therefore protest against this bill be-
cause 1t requires them to abjnre their religion
and the authority Of their sanity priests and
teachers; because 1t destroys their marriage
relation, bastardizes their children and encour-
ages fornication and adultery; because 1t ia
an ca post tacto law, and destroys the right Of
trial by jury; because it is antirepublican and
violates every principle Of civil and religious
liberty; because it is bill to dispossess them
OF their property, upon which they have made
improvements to the extsut Of 9 million Of
dollars, and to rob them Of the very soil they
have reclaimed and purchased from the gov
ernment.


There are some strong points in this pro-
test; but it is none the less evident that the
institution of Mormon polygamy cannot remain
much longer in Utah. If not removed by the
government it viii be removed by what these
Utah saints call the "Gcntile mob" 1t is, then,
the duty OF tho government to provide
in some way for the removal of Nor
mon polygamy; but 1t Is also the
duty OF the government to deal justly and
kindly with the Mormons. We think treaty
might be made with them providing full pro-
lection In their rights of property to all who
choose to abandon polygamy, and for full COM
pcuoutiVu hVA euo pAopotSy Va o"Nh DA"f AsoHo 90
would leave the country rather than give up
their one, two or three, or ten or twenty sur
plus wives. A general Mormon divorce law
from Congress would no doubt facilitate set
tlement Of this kind, and some pretty island or
some group Of pretty islands in the Pacific Ocean
might be procured by the government as
permanent refuge for the whole polygamous
Mormon community. The Cnllom bill Of pains,
penalties and military terrorism is not the
thing. From the very indulgences SO long
granted by the government even the poor
Mormons have some rights which must be re-
spected; and in the results of their wonderful
industry in the deserts Of Utah they have con-
tributed 80 much to the development Of oil
those new States and Territories west Of the
Rocky Mountains that they cannot, upon any
plea of justice or morality, be treated as out
laws. Give them time and give them liberal
terms and the Mormons themselves will quietly
remove their ''pcculiar institution" from our
borders for the work they have done in Utah
in almost any other country would yield ten
times the profits they have reaped from their
labors.