Show THE MORMON QUESTION S the follo following whig 0 article take taken n e new york weekly time of blare marco mareo eb 6 1 would have have been glyn to our rea red 1 ers el earli earll earlier erf eri but for burnon our I 1 non receipt obb ohe obe he paper owing to the irregularity juhe jube malls mails 4 we mean to put pat that business of the Morn ions lons through lately said a new yew eu gland giand politician to td mr Hepwor hepworth tn dim Dix onal a dinner party in philadelphia fwu have done a bigger job than that in the south and we shall now fix up things in salt lake city 11 in pursuance of tn the to nis nii fis up things in salt lake nake city I 1 the philadelphia 1 areis and other extreme radi eadi cal journals are sounding the notes preliminary to stein stern legislation the report of the house judiciary Judi elary committee tedon on the subject bf polygamy forms forma the immediate occasion of the discussion and the warning the territorial Legisla legislature turg turp of utah petitioned congress for the th e repeal repeat of the net act prohibiting rohi robi biting for leave to the people of the territory to exercise their thein religion andeits ordinances as guaranteed by the constitution the thi judiciary judici ry committee in hll its re report port on ta the ae applina tion calis calls gails atte attention to n to the fact that the lawas law is practically a dead letter in the territory alleging that the gravest necessity exists for its enforcement 11 and recommending that it be enforced enforce ad without further delay if its nonen non en force fonce says the committee is attributable to the neglect of the territorial territt judges they should ilbe libe be reino removed vedi if from causes beyond their control it be boines becomes the duty of the president of the tho United states to take care that it be faithfully executed hence the cry of a certain class for more legislation to put that business of the mormons cormons through there will not be two opinions probably as to the propriety of the general position assumed by the judiciary committee the act to prevent and punish the practice of polygamy is one of the stat statutes utes of the united states and should therefore be enforced to repeal it in obedience to the requests of those to whom it applies would be to lend the countenance of the republic to the practice which a former congress intended to prevent and puri punish ish the moral sense of the american people revolts against anything that might seem even by implication to connect them with polygamy for the same reason an arx emort effort should be made to give vi vitality to the statute or ai at any rate to laseen tain the causes of its being permitted to remain a dead letter ietter admitting all this however the expediency and justice of entering upon the th e crusade for which the breso cressia Jr essis essia is preparing its readers remain open for consideration polygamy am is a disgusting and as the country believes believes a sinful pra practice chee cAce but should we play the role of persecutors in order that irmay it may putdown be put down the polygamy of the mormons cormons is isto 1 1 to say the least not worse than the prostitution that abounds in our anti mormon cities and what sane man expects to annihilate prostitution by legislative enactment and if we find it difficult to contend with a great curse and sin at our very doors what difficulties must not be sc verdome Ver come before contending successfully with a curse and sin existing some two thousand miles from washington with mountains and hundreds of miles of desert between it and civilization mere difficulties we admit adford afford no excuse for neglect or fallore to give effect to law lair the duty of the federal government to enforce its provisions is as obvious and urgent in salt sait lake val vai 1 ley and on the wastes of arizona as in ohio or new york it is clearly bound i to protect the lives and property of the Gep gentiles tiles and perhaps should have dhave done more than has been done in cases akin to that of the murder of dr robinson for ordinary police purposes the military force foree stationed in utah is amply sufficient there is no conclusive evidence I indeed that the mormons cormons either imperil the safety of gentile life or in 1 1 terla ere with the prosecution of gentile enterprise and industry one of their latest and most scrutinizing visitors mr hepworth hep rep worth dixon testifies that their streets are clean their houses bright their gardens beautiful peace reigns in their cities harlots and drunkards are unknown among them they keep open more common schools than any other sect in the united states he adds neatly and suggestively being behig what they are believing what they do co their merits are perhaps more trying to our patience than their crimes it is thought that many per perl 1 sons in the united states would be able to endure them a little better if they would only behave themselves a good deal worse doubtless this is true confessedly a most industrious people tolling toiling patiently with all nature as it were arrayed arra yeda against mains t them and prodie 1 F ing more froni from thel the r f our acre patches of sand than an illinois tanner raj L r obtains from forty acres of hi his 9 rich richest est loam loira they are a reproach to the hordes of lazy adventurers and shiftless reckless miners millers and desperadoes who come in contact with them we need other testimony than that of visitors orthis class before concluding that the mormons cormons are in common matte matters rs so desperately bad that an invading army is necessary to fix up things among them the T he probabilities of the case point another way and dispose se us to believe that the cry for I 1 stern legislation which the press and other prints echo proceeds mainly from gentiles who have grudges to gratify or from the very moral and emi trien kiy kly pious people who see in the tho th i transport of an army across the plains mines of wealth in the shape of contract and pian plan plundering derIng generally if it be urged that the object of stern legislation prayed for is to put down polygamy and nothing else the question arises why yas was the same demand to put that business of the mormons cormons Mor mons through heard and acted upon before polygamy wm was formally known among hem them when they were driven from independence mo a poverty stricken ken keu band not twelve thousand strong it was as not as polygamists and abd when hunted like wild beasts from nauvoo numbering nuni bering thirty thousand polygamy had bad noot toot become a doctrine of their church other considerations than those of aversion to polygamy evidently actuated the advocates or of fixing up things in both of these instances and we suspect that they are still at the bottom of the movement which is trying to make itself heard beard otherwise the fact would be recognized that a considerable part of the mormon body strenuously resist and denounce the doctrine as a heresy introduced by brigham young and even ini int a large proportion of the flie brotherhood huite have no lot or part in the matter to revive persecution against the souls that compoe compose e the tho mormon population of ufah utah because young and the bisho bishops a and elders elder of his church acu act upon twe the in moslem notion of plural plurality lt of ot wives would be unwise and unchristian there are many nr no dout doubt cho vho would gladly reenact re enact the horrors and oti olf outrages trages of independence and nauvoo iwho who would despoil the mormon marmon multitude of their houses and lands their mills and cattie cattle and alid in the name of religion would woula send them forth anew outcasts and wanderers but for tile thee sake of humanity let not this thid temper be encouraged ed cou raged rather let us confess that with all their folly folli and all their faults the s mormons cormons have succeeded in doing a work which no people not nut stimulated by fanaticism would have overcome they have built a prosperous settlement in the midst of one of the most desolate regions known to men they have constructed a source of supply for the mining regions of montana and Nevada they have lave founded a depot of travel and trade which will wili yield wonders when the pacific railway shall bring it into speedy communication with east arid arnd west I 1 I 1 instead of stern legislation backed by armies with wite contractors and jobbers wasing va g r rich ch at sit the public crib we submit that the mormon best be fixed by the moral agencies which aral aroi at the command of or a christian country and by the converting 0 influences which follow in the wake of the iron horse it would hardly become new yorkers to clamor for the bayonet as a means of putting down doin polygamy while the bible with their promiscuous intercourse of the sexes abound among us with the oneida community flourishing nourishing in our own states state we cannot shout for the tile enforcement of virtue in salt lake city we lye may nevertheless with perfect propriety use available missionary means to expose the absurdities and correct the vices vices of mormonism our churches may be asked whether the conver conversion converston slon sion of the cormons mormons would not be quite as meritorious as the conversion of hin doos and quite as deserving of their attention we upon these peaceful and properly religious agencies agences agen ces and we trust with even greater confidence to the tho efficacy bf that large introduction of the gentile element which will take place as a consequence of the growth of the mining regions which look to salt Lake Lako City as their commercial centre loftless trot lof less cless than a thousand people in new york live by fort fortune une tellin telling gabd and other such methods of gaining arivell T 3 hood |