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Show "OUR COUNTRY, &c." Suggestions by a Mr. D. M, Richer, Rich-er, nrdson, of Detroit, Mich. OurobjecL mm in giving any notioe of the- paper, is O- to correct a few misstatements H . in thai portion entitled "Polygamy in H the Territories," Of course Mr, R. H' must be a wise man! but mark what he. say?. In the fore part of his po-H po-H lygamy article he says, "The Mor 4' mpns now number about - 200,00(J," Bv ' and a little farther on says "There are about 200,000 polygamists; o! tins' number it is esti mated that there ore 70,000 children born in plura! wedlock, so called.'1 Great Jonathan Scottwash' out of H: , 200000 Mormons' he has '200,000 polygamists when not more than one LWk m eight to ten has more than on wifel He wants these '70,000 chil-Bi chil-Bi dren and their 'mothers' 'freed from all. allegiance to the busbai d and fa- ther in plural wedlock,' and them 'become wards of the government' WLW( and have the government feed, clothe : knd school them! How generous! Hf He says k 4 this system of poly gam) originated itself in this contry undei R. the name of Mormonism, within the HK memory of many now living, undei m the leadership of Joseph Smith.' Did Mr. Richardson ever read his Bible? or is he too poor to own one' H' 'This system of polygamy' did not 'originate itself in this country' undei W the leaderhip of Joseph Smith,1 but is c f ancient origin, the account we have Hr v dating back as far as father Abraham LWt und how much farther, we have no kmW account of, but "The thing that hall I been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun.1' Ecol. 1: 9. In the 3rd verse of the 15th chapter of Gen esia we read. ''and Sarai, Abram's wife, tdok Hagar her maid the Egyptian, Egyp-tian, and pave her to her husband Abram to be his wife." Jacob, also, was a polygamist, having four wives: Esau, and others we might mention, were polygamists, thus proving that Mr. R. is again mistaken. Mr. R. say a the first 'Temple to Mormonism, was built at Nauvoo, III-, another error, the first Mormon Tem-LWt Tem-LWt pie being built at Kirtland, O. Mr. R. asserts that the Mormons were driven from Nauvoo in the year H 1 84V and 11 was not until the vear of '1846. mLWtk Mr. R. is going to have polygamy x abolished and all 'plural wives' (but he does not pay what he will do with 4 their husbands,) and 'children born HH . in plural wedlock become wards of ihe government to be provided for at the expense of the governmen' until the children so born shall have arrived at their majority and the mothers settle again in single wedlock or shall have passed away by death as that would be the 'cheapest ' 'most humane' hu-mane' and 'successful method. Of course it would 'not do for the government to leave these mothers and their children unprovided for and unprotected,' if any such rash measures were resoited to, but is Mr. K. prepared pre-pared to come to Utah as one of those "twelve or fifteen good, true and competent men" to v.id in "the management man-agement of the affairs of the Territory"? Terri-tory"? he being so well informed (1) on all topics, and of course, must be a ''good, true man," as he has set forth such "humane" logic! If he is, let him prepare lorn hard and des-parate des-parate siruggle, for he will find that these "plural wives" and tf their children", will not be so ready, as he suppose to forsake husband and ather and the dear ones they love, to "be cared for by the government,'' on any terms, for all that is near and dear to them they will cling to while life remains. We know illiteracy is a bad thing for sometimes men make themselves appear very ridiculous to the well informed, in-formed, and before Mr. R. issues any more 'papers' on 'polygamy in the Territories,' we recommend that he learn better the subject he wishes to write up; and in all cases, be sure to get his information from a 'source thai it ccn be relied upon, and not accept hearsay and slanderous repo'ts as a basis for his articles. |