| Show A CRU CRIME crine 41 OR NOT A CRIME A few of the most noted opponents of our people and our faith are in the habit of speaking of plural marriage as a crime and others who follow in their wake echo the word without knowing or earing caring how incorrectly it Is applied the pedantic dogmatism of the one part and the supercilious flippancy of other are equally reprehensible where a serious question involving the social peace and happiness of millions of human beings ia is concerned and a subject that circumscribes the entire marital relationship in which three fourths of the human family are on one ohe side and one fourth on the other which involves the iclal ocial and moral elevation or dation of anan inan mankind kind their physiological condition and the future of the human race should not be pronounced upon by prejudice but bt with calm reason nor be sneered away by flippant defago demagogues ues aes nor crushed out by mercenary priests and their pliant aids A crime may be deni denn tied in its broadest sense to be an act which violates a law divine or human correctly speaking it if is that which is condemned the bewis bible bibie Is the basis of all civilized jurls jurisprudence prud ence christendom professes to know no higher standard of morals no superior guide in the duty which man owes to his god to his country to his fel fei fellowmen and to himself hence every human law which can be accepted by intelligent beings throughout christendom must be based upon and agree in spirit with the revelations of divine equity and justice contained in that book this is simply assuming the groi grol grounds ids n which all christian nations hoid hold hold to be correct the human law then which pronounces an act a crime must be in plain consonance with divine divin law inasmuch as that is claimed to be the higher law having paramount claims upon the obedience of the creature because it is a revelation 6 of f the will of the creator the divine command has been given to be subject to the powers that be yet when those powers have endeavored to exact of the servants of god obedience to requirements which were contrary to the law of god and where obedience would have been a crime a violation of divine law the men who made the bibi blue wrote it under the inspiration of heaven preferred death to obeying a human law which conflicted with a divine law legislators of christian nations have not only ohly recognized this principle in a general sense but they have been chary too much so of legislating for certain acts pronounced crimes by the almighty adultery and fornication are in the bible declared to be crimes the former a crime of the most heinous nature and punishable capitally yet what legislature in christendom or what code of laws in any christian nation has viewed them in any other light than as civil of fences and what legislative assembly of any nation throughout the entire christian world would today to day make the crimes of adultery an and d fornication punishable by by fi fine no a and nd imprisonment on what grounds arounds do they a abstain stain from doing boing so ostensibly because they say the woman who might be supposed to receive injury in the one cas case is a party voluntarily engaged in the commission of the act and because in either case it J s merely a civil offense offence the transgression sion slon of a rule of morals the husband can obtain damages for the desertion of his wife or for her infidelity the father or guardian for the loss of his daug daughters liters or wards r services in dol doi dollars lamand and cents yet so far do legislative enactments fail fall to meet the popular feeling on this po point 1 int in not awarding sufficient punishment m ent for these crimes against divine law lawthan j that where tho the outraged husband or father levels the accursed seducer in death it is difficult to find a jury who will convict the slayer of the man mau who ilias limas has committed upon him and his i so deep and irreparable a wrong but nowhere no where in the bible is plural marriage declared a crime no where in that volume is the least intimation given that it is viewed as such by the almighty all illegitimate and illicit sexual intercourse meets the heaviest denunciations in the divine law those who are so guilty are branded as criminals in the old testament and declared liable to weighty punishment while the new testament plainly shows their degraded status here and hereafter but no part of the sacred volume can eail be tortured into sustaining the heathen heathenish is h enactments against plural marriage which disgrace the statute books of so called christian nations derived not from that assumed and real basis of civilized jurisprudence but from those greek and roman romany ancients whose names are BO so often in the mouths of would be orators and who proved their claims to be accepted as exemplars to all christian nations by killing the early apostles and propagandists of the christian falth faith if legislators are so tender in enacting laws against adultery and fornication which are declared crimes by the bible bibie and admitted to be such in every civilized nation by what authority do they legislate upon and pronounce a crime that which is not so declared in the bible and which has been sanctioned and approved by the divine lawgiver himself in a ilard land bill recently introduced into congress by stewart of nevada that solon of the bankrupt state in one of the sections of the bill would make it ift obligatory upon every citizen of this territory who desired to enter land make a conveyance or in fact do almost anything other than simply exist to take oath that they are not now living or cohabiting with more than one woman in the relation of husband and wife congress has only to pass the act with that clause to make themselves monuments of eternal infamy and ridi cule eule to all future generations we may way live in crime as a majority of the rest of the world do violate with impunity so far as human enactments go the law of god and aid in accelerating the downward course of the human race and it would be satisfactory to this gentleman and others opposed to us but butt vee nee we must pot live with more than one woman in the relationship of husband and wife which is not a crime against the law of god without suffering ring pains and penalties no matter how many lomeii women we live and cohabit with if there does not exist between us and them the relationship of husband and wife this sec see section tion be amended by introducing a clause conferring a bounty upon every man who did not marry marry but ruined a v virtuous aitu ous fern female al e ta said aid lio bounty anty being heing increased in proportion to the number of women he was vas able to debauch I 1 r and destroy can human law make an act a crime which e is nob not no a crime against oivi divine ne law xo no As all christian jurisprudence is based upon the bible so no human statute can make an act achime contrary to we tile bible the source from whence alone the legislators of christendom derive their knowledge of what is and arid what is not criminal in the sight of god men nien may do wrong under certain circumstances cum stances in taking a wife or wives wives but no merely human authority can sanctify marriage in the sight of heaven viewing and dealing with it simply as a civil contract so no human authority can justly pronounce it a crime nor make it so ao by any any effort or st retell of legislative power |
