| Show JUSTICE TO tee THE MORMONS n n a BY jonn JOHN I 1 or kimn KIMB alli ALIi I 1 i f CT f r f the article in the may number of the review on the mormons Mor mons written y hop hon george Q cannon iti laj laa especially worthy of attention from all believers in religious legious ligi ous freedom and civil civi justice its wrIter has hab been for several years from utah ta to congress is a man of muc liability natural refinements and apart from polygamy of moral cb character ar acier acter is i s in high sit bit anding standing among the lor tormond Tor mons themselves rand waud aud and in every w to moderation and absence of or is qualified to peak on the sul sui JM it is an article articie which is preeminently pre eminently needed there js is hardly any matter matten before the american public aboul about btuch has been so much misrepresentation mis concepti in and prejudice pye Judice and so many merely outside views as about thi thip andi ands and though it ia is as much as onea ones reputation for morality v is worth to put in even the slightest plea for fair dealing with such outcasts I 1 wang want say from some lit 11 t ve personal observation that I 1 believe his account of at lairs among them 4 lann iann in he main correct cor coi not certainly any more colored than the believer lof any other othen faith would give givA of lus ios eeli ce ligion gions practical that the claims he present presents sL q very every principle alike of religious liberty and our republican publican att axt government to be fully plowed allowed I 1 the can brought against a i the tha mormons Mor mons is that of poly polygamy garny the accusations of persecution blood atonement barbarity complicity with the mountain Blea meadows dows massacre and the like cannot according to the th mony of euch unprejudiced observers aa as judge white be au stained sustained nd As a matter matier of fact the I 1 territory has as lini lift jea lea violence and bloodshed in it than any other weem community anu and andeen in regard to polygamy though with it aa as such no eastern man with a FL christian chriatian training and imbued with the spirit of our modem modern civilization can have one particle of sympathy sym gym pathy some are to be said often forgotten liere here which take away very much from its character as a crime erime rile and from its ito need of any outside interference A I 1 it iq J i jot jol OL be remembered that when wen the tho mormons cormons Mor mons was e established ed themselves 11 lei lel r religion i jp utah 14 he territory was entirely tout vout alde side dide aide orthe of the tho jurisdiction of the states rhey w went ent there on pur oae loe to try p a new experiment in society gaiety where iti it would not e an any one else ele eie or be e eo in tur lur all that in in i it the they have redeemed by hard toil toll out of tile tiia wilderness s all that they have baie instituted haye b sut tut up on virgin foil goil anu ann when uio the united states ook cook them in it ift was with poleg polygamy my already established a fact chich vh ih makes their position very from froin that ofa people who go into an oW settled community and startup ap tl oua influence might very properly be regarded as offensive a and nd demoralizing if there is any part of the country which has earned ithe the right of seif self government and its it own experiment in sociology it sure bure surely burely lyls Is the mormon population of utah IT the mormon women bf of the territory are not held in subjection im to the sy system tern against their will bui but aie nie are themselves its most enthusiastic advocates pol rol polygamy gamy is is sometimes compared with slavery bla pla ivery but there Is nou not the slightest resemblance between rhe the boffil women n enter into jf free chorce and are won in precisely tile ahme bame same way as litt aft aff e east ease no wife can bl be e taken without the consent of pf the firpi freely give given giyen n before the off meers officers lof of the the church and if I 1 remember abr aright it can be and luid som bom almes aimes is madea binding part ofte of the e original m arriage arr fage gork goik contract tract that iio no second one E hall hali ever be ie taken they all have the right to vote and could vote the whole thing out opt of existence to morrow if they saw fit there rh ere vre Is perfect freedom for I 1 hem to beave the territory and the church whenever they please As a matter are going and coming all the time tibie half a dozen were on the train with me as I 1 went down from ogden Og denand and no easta eastern ern era woman i an ie it turning to her home and children u after months of could be more wore delighted than they evidently were to gel get a glimpse of fleir flat tabernacle and of the grand old wasatch mountains their rights of property are ahe the same bame a as in the states all employ ments meats are open to them and with precisely the same samo same samo pay for the work done as to the mena point at which they are even better off than women at af the east as for instance in inting Dr the pay for which in I 1 boston where they are emp employed loyed belus beins only two thirds that othe men and if a woman jaoes not wish to marry at ail all there is no place where ehe she can maintain more easily a position of independence than in utah ill those who become polygamous vives are far from being the ignorant t and degraded wretches lost to ail all sense of decency and ands belf respect they are usually thought to te it i are olten as cultivated enned and pure hearted women as are to tobe be found in any part of the country gou pou one uy whom I 1 met and have in mind was brought up in one of our new england unitarian churches and under all the best influences fluen ces of new england society her home homo was a model of grace and comfort she had kept herself thoroughly posted up with the wass ways and thought of lne tuo fashionable world had in jn fact just returned from froma a visit east ea stand and it was from her a woman whose and I 1 personal character would be respected anywhere I 1 got my first awada amae glimpse at the thel inside of the tion it is hard for us to conceived conceive a refined and happy polya moul mout house or ofa 0 f A woman who can enter such a one without a sense of j dation doubtless they do hav havi thein their the domestic but it bisto is ta be remembered le in moral s bili ties s a avast vast deal depend th the atmosphere in which persons persona an ar brought up and the influences wit wita which they are surrounded tt tb system 1 is guarded with all sanctions and to youn girls under its ideas there I 1 no more consciousness 0 of f impurity in becoming the second wife of man whose finst first is still living ini there is in ln the east in doing so whet the first is dead then jt it is lo 10 U said that no mormon wife has hag aul ans anxiety about those outside alli aili alliance anci aneg which notoriously make BO so mud misery and scandal in families famili es elsi els eis where esile khe knows the worst ali aff the woman who is the object of W tl second passion instead of being dl ill lit honored and sent down to a hell heil i shame and su nering suffering As as Is isto to ofte the case in our monogamous civil bation is openly boxi won and J placed in what with them isa iss is a i vi thousand tuo usand and honored position X ast s bese these thing things snot not to defend the sy tem tern not to deny that very erv like ilk there is much in its practical crl cal we woi ing tham that is groveling as we be the case in in all marriage bu but and ameliorations in perfect fairness ought to gowl gov its darker darken side IV it is fo b be remembered hol hc ever that the real test of any reli rell i on oi institution is not our theory theorem cal ideas of what it ough houghto to 11 I 1 ti the kind of 1 I itsou t the be gen rel gei ife leb tone au and aud d the uia ula and aud women to which it kives gives t 4 bd llo p heil helm that mormonism and polygamy were doing better in this respect tha nour noun gentile christianity Christl anity and customs but evidently they have not done gomach that we are called to it is the almost universal testimony of unprejudiced gentiles as they are call ed in city I 1 remember especial especially lr that thai of a san francisco lawyer who for 20 years had bad been associated in Ut ahns ahas partner with a mormon th that at in respect to piety j business integrity neigh borly kindness public interest intelligence telli gence and worthy a ims aims in life ilfe they would compare adorably avor ably with any people he had ever known Drunk drunkenness enness euness and its kindred tide tiec vices are rarely seen among them their schools in salt sait lake city are of the highest grade and open with ait alt their courses of study to both sexes alike thwarts the arts and sciences are cultivated and encouraged hmong among them to an extent which hi i equalled equal led by only a very few of the older communities muni ties many maby of the we problems pi which in other places have bave been discussed only in theory y as hs for instance that of connecting religion with amusement ibe the ibey they have havo solved practically with I 1 at least some decree degre of success there Is 39 mot not one particle of the and barit ism in their character that we usually associate with polygamy but on the contrary all the energy enterprise hardihood and thrift which have done so much for new england more nearly r of the old puritan Po ritan type than hj to found anywhere else in the country to one who has lived in contact with the materialism and spiritual deadness which prevail so terribly in other parts puts of the tb e west I 1 it t Is rather ra th er a plea sure to mingle with a people who rally really believe belleve beli bell eve in the unseen world uen iven though their belief does have ait alt a strong dash of fanaticism ile lle e wonder I 1 ig with so much shrewdness driess and good sense ma can accept the crudities and antiquities of their faith yet with a luge large part of the christian world tili till still erofie professing sir sin a belief bellef in tue lue literal infallibility of the old testament this section of it which tries practically to 0 carry out its teachings is not surely to bo very much condemned these old root faiths gnarled crabbed and dirt dint encrusted as they uley often are are never to be despised it was out of them as for instance out of or juila Juiia sm and Yv that again and again ia the worlds history have come not stev stew of the richest fairest shoots of civilization and liberal truth polygamy and aud the absurd er features of mormonism are sure in the end to be sloughed off and out of their present unsightliness it is not impossible that in anuth r generation there may blossom the flower of a real redeeming faith such as the whole country may be glad to wel come the picture thus outlined I 1 know will be regarded by many as incredible facts can be brought up on the other side which would seem to indicate a much darker state of filp just tho same as they mig might bere to indicate that monogamy nono gamy and our bur eastern civilization are a terrible sour bour source ce of misery and degradation rea real I 1 facts too but the only bayto TV to do with any religion is to take it at its bes and taken thus what I 1 have said I 1 believe can ba be fully substantiated many intel intelligent visitors among amon them I 1 know owl have received the sarae that I 1 did and the only way that I 1 ma can account for dr their ther silence 6 after uter yards is that the con contrast frast of what they have seen with what they expected has hasteen been so great that they bave nave distrusted their own eyes and ut klit they mus been deceived or el else eise behave have not noi cared to take taka the obloquy of stemming afie outside belier belief the p them v t or of the same kind as that which fre pie valls vails against the chinese and only it is more extends and as that which prevails in a germany against the jews and in M the dying remnant lemn antof of what chatin in past ages has been such a te terrible rn bie ble eee wee in the world and has oft often en bought as we now know such ter mie tible injustice M under linder such circumstances warn fa dby eby b y the past ast there surely Is every glnn sawn wry why the general government should keep its fiands lotof onn off of ae the Terri territory tor rj Y abd and rand leopie toworu oua ou their d dR destiny Stiny I 1 su sub bub I 1 jeet Jec tonly to t I 1 s such uch moral 1 influences g it could properly r 0 teby iedy k pour in li against kuy RUY y othe other r falth faith at th it la 16 sometimes alleda caller a reli rell of barba barbarism sun which the leaf of t 9 he country count ryas as a duty duly ought to suppress ir buil buli Bull bui here there are a mei wet nany relles relies of arsh hould geam 04 14 to claim attention first taking the system even at its worst reputation it has done less in its whole exis ten ceto too tor break law degrade socie society tr and destroy souls soula than lequoi selling does in J a single day yet in bo how W many states tates this last a qt barbar barbarism lani i is tolerated and even licensed with hardly u spasm of virtue it the thereat rest of the country wishes to overturn mormonism Mormon normon hm and redeem its victim the same means are open i for its use as ag against all other evils schools churches books free discussion the opportunity of esta ahing bh ing a bettan betton civilization rightly right by its side all tho those se agencies we have been in the tho habit of boastin gare are so potent and il it ie a against error are already there with an open door and ans not the slightest hindrance to put in as many more as we please no ons ong on pretends there is not perfect freedom for any sector bector sect or reformer to go among them with all the moral artal artillery ery he can possibly raise the mormon themselves are notoriously eager to discuss matters and to hear both sides what mr cannon says saya about abort their willingness to invite to their tabernacle any approved preacher who comes along to utter in the freest manner his own faith I 1 cai can testify to from personal experience they are far more liberal in their fellowship than nine tenths of the hristian christian world the lady I 1 found teaching their high school being a gentile got away from st louis with superior eu wages simply because she was a superior io r teacher and as undisturbed about her religion she said ai aci if she had been in in any unitarian family civilization too with all its subtle influences is pulsed back alff forth along its railroads wi without thou t let or b hindrance in d ran ce and surely with all these agencies to help if gentile christianity cannot overcome this titia handful of mormons cormons in a fair fight without invoke invoking in i g asit agit now how trying to do the arm of civil force and the tyrannical methods of a bygone age does it not imply tha that they have got something on their side to lean upon that we need to get not destroy at any rate liberal christians ought to insist that the only weapons used here hore hc shail be the ones onea they have advocated so earnestly for everything every thing else |
