| Show THE lonbon LONDON 4 standard OX ON AF alp FAIRS IX IN chait TIIE THE following article from the london Sian standard dard of november ath ia is one of the most fair and candid we have ever seen published in relation to the mormon question there are some points which the writer views from a strictly anti antl mormon standpoint and from his views in relation to them we decidedly dissent but nut on the whole the article evinces a spirit of fairness and candor rarely manifested by our cotem clotem por arles aries when writing about utah and t renewed exertions are bein being g fiade made at salt lake city in america to procure the admission of utah as a state into the federal union in the beginning of the month just past an enormous meeting is reported to have been held heid heidin in the Grest great tabernacle for the purpose of adopting a memorial to be presented to congress at fit the opening of the session in december the memorial wh which ich was adopted ad opted urged that petitions to the same effect were sent to congress in 1856 and again in 1862 though no proper vote was ever taken upon them it points out that all the conditions according to which a territory of the united states may claim to be received into the union have long since been fulfilled that utah now contains a population of and that it is a violation of the constitution to refuse them political existence the claim of the mormons cormons can hardly be ignored any longer though it is not very probable that it will receive a dav curable hearing the followers of JOSEPH SMITH have no friends in the union either north or south dislike of the salt lake community is common ground on which all parties in america unite perhaps it may be considered the only emotion on which there is perfect unanimity of opinion from the gulf golf ofAl of mexico exico to the canadian border but though this sentiment of antagonism to a community in which the most cherished law of civilised civilized civili civill sed sea humanity is sel sec at defiance is one which will readily enough find an echo in great britain there Is nothing more than an outward semblance of agreement in reference to the mormons cormons between the public opinion of england and that of the united states american dislike to the mormon state arises from the fact that it is in the union without being of it no one who studies the phenomena of transatlantic life considered apart from transatlantic politics can be blind to the fact that americans are tolerant of any social eccentricities so long aa as they do not offend national sentiment however much any community may choose to repudiate the ordinary laws of morality its members are generally allowed full liberty to do this provided they do not at the same time waver in their political enthusiasm for the star strangled sprang led banner the principles vinci ples pies of republicanism are carried out to the utmost in all affairs relating to religion the outrage committed by the mor mons on civilised civilized civili civill sed views concerning matrimony would not alone have brought them into hatred and contempt if they had refrained from boasting of their intention to create an imperium in imperio the prophet JOSEPH SMITH it will be remembered raved about the future supremacy of the mormon people and foretold the downfall of the united states mormonism in his eyes and consequently in tiie the eyes of ill lif his disciples disciple was destined to overspread the she the whole whole continent and the national sentiment of the americans was thus brought from the first into fierce antagonism with the new dispensation it was a political fully as much as a religious revolution which the saints of nauvoo were preparing their premature boasts of future independence coupled with the marvelously rapid growth of their material prosperity which excited the envy and hostility of their border neighbors first roused that animosity which only long afterwards seized upon their matrimonial immortality as an excuse which could be given to the world the early persecution of the sect in illin illinois 0 Is the cruel destruction of nauvoo and the expulsion of the mormons cormons beyond the limits which civilization had reached at that time all took place before the revelations in favor of polygamy had ever been promulgated it will not be necessary for us to say in words that we have no wish to deprecate any indignation against the sect a as it at present exists which has really originated in ab horrance of polygamy but mormon politics are becoming very important Import antin in america and are likely to occupy more and more attention as time goeson goes on it is surely worth while therefore to comprehend them aright and to keep in mind the fact that hostility to the mormons cormons in the united states Is of much older date than polygamy and ana therefore cannot be represented except to persons who have forgotten the progress of events as springing from a pure impulse of offended odlen ded morality it if it had hadnot not been for the conflict of political sentiment between the mormon community and the inhabitants of the union generally it Is pretty certain that utah would have been a state long ago in power prosperity and importance it is fivefold greater than it need be bein in order to become qualified for admission into the union except forthe for the one abominable institution which it has adopted it has every eiery e eny cry claim to the admiration and andres respect of the world it does not serve any good purpose to shut our eyes to facts and we know enough about the mormons cormons now to be independent in forming opinions concerning them of the clumsy falsehoods to their disadvantage in which the american papers abound they are not a people like the corsair with one virtue aud a thousand crimes the strangest fact about them is that they should as they do possess only one crime considering what that crime is and a thousand virtues they are orderly industrious sober and self denying to a marvellous marcellous marv ellous extent and beyond this it la Is tolerable clear that their attachment to polygamy la is rather an attachment to the eccentricities of their church hurch than an attachment to the thing itself taking the whole population it must bere that plural marriages marr odith a g es however prominent a feature of their air social life are after arte all the exception and not the th erule rule ruie The heads of the he church have ordained the dreadful institution and have declared Its practice to be a virtue the mormons cormons Mor mons therefore to a man would fight for it till they died but their enthusiasm would arise from their passionate loyalty to their leaders and every fact in their history every present phenomenon menon of their social ilfe fifa shows that if their leaders were to issue a new revelation forbidding polygamy the practice would at once be abandoned 1 without a murmur the mormons cormons are in short or people who are prepared to obey BRIGHAM YOUNGS orders to the death who within the limits of their strange devotion to him are thrifty laborious and well conducted to a degree which is simply marcellous marvellous marv ellous there is no city in the world so utterly free from the ordinary which degrade every other in europe and america as that singular settlement by the great salt lake let its inhabitants once get rid of their peculiar sin and they would at once constitute themselves a people whose claims upon the sympathy of the world at large would be second to none this being the case it is surely worth while to consider the mormons cormons asa as a community to be reformed rather than to be crushed when the american papers preach a crusade against polygamy ramy gamy they interpret that to mean a crusade against the people who defend it t in principle and amongst whom some few speaking comparatively practise tt it it is for this reason that we are anxious to discriminate between the two ideas there is no reason to believe that bonafide bona aim aam attempts to wean the mormons cormons from polygamy by means of peaceful persuasion would necessarily prove abortive the practice will not be abandoned till YOUNG or orlis his successor for the president is old and anything but immortal gives the word but public opinion in utah may be prepared for the word and fhe the man whose genius for administration has hitherto proved so remarkable is not likely to be deaf to the signs of the times if he should nind find his subjects outgrowing their simpleminded simple minded intellectual prostration of former days polygamy far frond fromi being the essence of p is merely an ou mormonism and any a day we may suddenly find that it disappeared has if only the advocates of brute force argument against it can be kept back in check we do not deny that the united states is strong enough to put down polygamy and mormonism altogether by brute force if they choose A community of 0 people taking them at the largest largest estimate are of course like flies flieg in the hands of thirty millions but before we are hurried by rl righteous ind indignation to assert that brute force ought to tc be employed to eradicate so great a scandal as polygamy from a country like america let it be clearly understood that the employment of brute force in this case means the devastation of a thousand homes the slaughter very vesy ve y probably of fifty thousand persons it is useless to imagine that the dispatch of a flying column along the pacific railroad and the bombardment bar dment of Biti brigham airAm YOUNGS house from the hights bights above the town will bring the mormons cormons to their knees every everyman man in utah the gentiles apart and they are a mere sprinkling is a priest and every man a soldier the combined influences of religious enthusiasm and military discipline convert the whole male population of the state into a devoted army in time of need it is no exaggeration merely a plain statement pt fact facts sto to say sax that thelast the vast majority will wiil die rather than khan lali lall submit to force they will fightlin in the town in the mount mountains ainson on the plains the united states will have to destroy fifty thousand lives before they make the mormons cormons yield and to spend as many more in the process such a prospect as that Is not one to be lightly faced especially ally considering that the cormons mormons have never yet been subjected to influences which may prove even more efficacious than the largest army which could be dispatched against them the influences of kindness and political justice the claim of utah to be admitted into the union may at least be courteously considered and even if it be decided that it cannot be received so long as it adheres to its peculiar institution then at all events the evil will be approached pro proa chedi ached in the proper way if the prospect of admission into the ee union be held up to the people of utah as the price of polygamy should they consent to give ish ash that u up and if their stubborn pride is soothed e pa by the abandonment of all hostile threats and menaces them out a new light will be thrown on the subject from which it would be reason reasonable ahle ahie to hope for the best possible results |
