Show editorials NEW ENGLAND BIGAMY AND UTAH POLYGAMY IN ix the princeton review for july is a very caustic article from the pen of rev leonard eonard Jj woolsey bacon entitled gamy in Ne new england the writer unlike most people who undertake to dilate polygamy in utah knows whereof he speaks being a resident of the region 9 lon ion whose social customs family arrangements and local laws are the suba subjects acts of nis bis abio ablo pen pens and a I 1 lineal ineal descendant of the puritans eur Purl itans tana aa as well ai aj one ot the people affected by the sarcasms sar sare asmo casmo which abound in his or ar tlde tide the chief point polut made by dr bacon is me the practical establishment of or polygamy in connecticut with the sanction of law and religion while its votaries vot aries Arles and supporters rail at polygamy in utah and seek its suppression bion blon sion by violen coho coHe shows a inference however between mormon and puritan polygamy ono is simultaneous una ina other consecutive the as mormons Mor wor mods mons have more wives than olie orle one at the bame game time the puritans put pat away tao tae first to marry a bec secund second secund the second to marry a third and so on ad libi tum tho thu reader is led to draw his hie own conclusion conclusions a as to the rela reia relative merits of the two tw 0 systems and to decide whether it ib its worse for a man to marry two wives live with care for and sup part rt them and their offspring the ol ormon way or to tum turn her out of doors with her child order orden to satisfy his lusts fancie tanele sor both with another the puritan fashion also to judge whether the mormon 1 apostle who benia seala a plural wife to a married man many is more culpable than the hristian christian priest who adds the sanction of his church and office to thai thal which jesus denounced as adultery it should be understood that dr bacon does doea not either kind of polygamy but he points out the peculiarities and contras con trall is s of each kind hind and d with biting irony alhaj PA tile the attractions and beauf aes aea to lecherous men and loose minded women of the new england plan of making bigamy respectable A few extracts from the article will bo be interesting te to our readers and give them a coneck idea of fib feb tenor and style dr bacon in regard to the ferenee ference da in the two systems 8 gayb says gln in gin the brat places place polygamy in utah istah is unlawful it is Isse arcely scarcely just t to speak of it as an institution of that territory when it ia is only a prevailing social usage sustained by bome isome religious sanctions in the new NOW england states on the contrary polygamy is distinctly instituted bract of legislature and the P polygamous 1 marriages instead of being bel ng ll 11 sea dea sealed ledIn in some private sacristy 0 ot a religious sect beet are authorized by the highest judicial officers of tile the state under the seal of its superior I 1 enior arlor court courts a dignity which is not bestowed by these commonweal commonwealths the on ordinary christian wedlock the concubinage thus authorized is usually blessed in the name of the lord jesus jusus christ and declared to bo loo a christian marriage by a minister of the Christi christian ln religion which aa as it can h ardly hardly be necessary to inform the reader is the tha prevailing religion of tile the new england stales states thia this singular rite la Is frequently made mado the occasion of a good deal of social festivity and merrymaking merry marry making matting the perfect solemnity y of visage with which the ecclesiastic goeb through his part of ae declaring claring that ia in the name of the lord to be christian marriage V which aich the lord himself declares to be adultery tends to impart to the affair a ouro buffo aspect that may naturally minister to the hilarity of the guests and spectators 11 st another and perhaps more moro important I 1 point of dine diffie rence nence between the new now england and tha tho utah perhaps it would bo be better to say uhe the puritan and mormon mies is this that the mormon polygamy is simultaneous and the puritan polygamy is consecutive consecutive the mormon polygamy is quite after the old patriarchal pattern it does not require one to bo be off with tho the old love as a condition of balrig gon sou con fou with the new and herein herrin the mormon usage would appear to a superficial observer to have the advantage xan Tan ia point of humanity over the tha puritan institution institutions which re ordinarily under severe penalties that the first wife with pr vr without her children and aud with or without provision for her support as the case may be shall shail be put out into the street before tue new one is I 1 received if the brazen advocates of the base system of mormonism should have the hardihood in the face of our christian civilization to claim it as an offset in their favor that this picture of domestic bliss under the new england system fails falls to represent the pining loneliness of ano re ejected acted wife the sons of the pilgrim fathers would promptly retort that if the old wife pursued a solitary life it would bo be either her own fault or her mist misfortune and in elther either case the law on which tho the institution of new england polygamy is founded must not be held responsible 11 with regard to the legal aspect of the two kinds hinds ot of polygamy ho he thus defines the laws of the dlf dif lerent states 1 simultaneous polygamy ia Is in ted 2 consecutive polygamy is interdicted interdict ed except by license from a magistrate 3 when the two parties to a marriage consent to ask a license to marry again at their discretion there is I 1 s no sio difficulty in obtaining it 4 even when one cf the parties ia is reluctant the fact is not ordinarily a practical hindrance to the other party to get from the court the heaired license for bigamy 5 the bigamous or polygamous ol s marriages marriage it if duly UP licensed eased li is held by the deate to bo be in all respects equally honorable with christian wedlock As to the expense attending the now england mode he remarks gemant 3 the license fees are trifling and for the slight professional work in evolved there is so lively a competition amor amoz among ig gentlemen of the bar that the expense is kept down to a moderate figure the moat most serious cost of bigamy Is one not really necessary tho the increased fee paid to the officiating clergyman in consid of the awkward awkwardness nem of his position and the strain upon hla hia feelings but this is 13 a mere matter of compliment or perhaps religious zeal on the part of the bridegroom for foi the case ia Is raie rale indeed when 5 or 10 will not procure for such an occasion the services of a minister of the gospel of ortho 1 dox and good and regular standing tha writer next takes up the question of the relative prevalence of polygamy in new now england and in utah this is surrounded with some difficulty bec bee because aitse ailse of the incompleteness complete nem of statistics part particularly leu as regards plural marriages in utah the number of per to commit bigamy as he divorce decrees and the number ot of marriages in the new england U states are known in r everal several states the thle proportion is about one divorce to eight marriages slightly fluctuating but with a tendency to increase As each divorce Is practically a license for two to commit bigg bigamy mys he argues that the ratio would be as one permit to every four marriages if all the parties availed themselves of the opportunities port unities thus extended but some of them are ore soon remarried married re and others after trying new partners come together again and he remarks that case casa tre irs P those these however delightful to the philanthropist are annoying anno anne ying jing to the statistician for they confuse the figures altogether the nearest that we can safely come to a statement of the ratio of fes ies to the total number of marriages among the new england population of native stock in the state named is that it is somewhere between one to eight and one to four this estimate includes only the legal ies les the unlicensed zed or olt criminal poly gamlem are a class by themselves and are generally regarded in gea good society as not only unlawful but immoral barely rarely if ever can an acknowledged bigamist maintain his position in society and his good standing in the church unless lwe lie h e can show his authorization from the superior court in view of the facility with which such authorization iii is granted it is felt not unreasonably that a person desiring boin to indulge in biga bigamy is without excuse for not complying with tho prescribed form formalities almes alWes dr bacon then shows that the bigamous relations of new NOW england are sustained ch chiefly lelly not among the walks of humble lite but in the strong educated intelligent middle stratum and in the ranks of the church ministers in good standing and professors in theological seminaries their family relations being to by the clergy who are yet unanimously and conscientiously opposed to polygamy in utah discussing the probabilities of the future in new now england dr bacon saye af the present amount of polygamous marriage there prevalent is a fact not of social but of social dynamics it represent represents a stream in motion and in pretty rapid motion too for polygamy as a legal institution has exsted ex sted ili ill nw N w england for much less than two and the tho present per annum and per cent of polygamous marriages represents an irregular but ut raped rapid increase which is continually going en the leaven has only begun to work wark tho tile time is not far distant when the ratio will be noo not as now in some parts of new neiff england two bigamy permits to every eight marriages but a much higner highe ratio progress in this direction is so rapid as naturally to alarm timid minds broce proceeding edin g to bati satirize the disagreement between the puritan biga mists and the 64 mormon Is ests ts he says bays already perspicacious minds can bee eee that the difference ference lif between these antagonized parties is not really one of principle that the question between the simultaneous polygamy y am y and the consecutive polygamy poy if it is w worth orth disputing about atall Is one on which there Is something to be said on both and that really our only serious contention with our mormon brethren is on the ground of that they have usurped in their nonas nonage ae privileges of legislation that thai belong sovereign soa Sta them wait their time avoid in the phraseology of their statutes any needlessly offensive expressions and it will eoon soon become obvious to all but fierce polemics on either bide ada that there really is no moral ques question at issue between the two sections putting rutting put rut ting ling aside all badinage on interesting subject we beg to inform dr bacon that there is nothing la in common between mormon bonyi marr marriane marri laze Iaze agie afie and england egid bigamy the puritan style etyle is not polygamy at all there is a very important moral question at issue between the two sections it is the question of f 66 putting away bible very clearly and emphatically deol declares axes that god nates natta a 8 putting away but it announces that he la averse to pia pla ral marriages what ged hath joined together og ether no man is to put as sunder s but is no antl intimation m atlon that god has not and will wil not pul pui together moro than one wife to one oue husband apart from tho the religious e aspect tile the question there il is a very wide difference between a system that permits a man to cast off a wife often without her order that he may take ai another nothey the chief motive which prompts divorce in new now england ca so hown chown by dr bacon and that which permits a man to marry another wife with the consent of the first both being sealed to him not only till death but for all eternity and requires es him to act kindly and jub jua justly to bo both th there is and can bo be no union of sentiment between puritan bigamy and A lormon mormon plurality and we may look for a continuation of hostility on the part of the refined intellectual tel licensed wife discards discarding 9 christian of new now england against the unorthodox patriarchal biblo bible believing family raising amista of utah their thein motives actions and alms aims are as diverse as the poles and tend to diametrically opposite results for while the former matea in last prompts the suppression of offspring and leads down to death t the latter springs from the fountains of en enlarged larg affection promotes family increase and la Is preg pregnant pant with multiplied blessings and eternal ilves lives d im METHODISM AND AND POLITICS durina DUEING a kieth kleth methodist odist conference of the wyoming di district pennsylvania recently an animated not to say acrimonious debate was occasioned boned by an fatte attempt m pt to obtain the indorsement endorsement indor gement of the independent republican ticket the resolution introduced ivas iras voted down not however oil on the principle that politics was no part of the bu business slacks of the meeting for the cameron ticket was indorsed endorsed Indor sed in tb a pl ace of the independent and thus the methodist oun Cun conference terence ference committed itself to machine politics in pennsylvania byl Eyl vanla vania the rule applied by methodists to the mormons cormons Mor mons when elders advise the people to vote in a certain way this certainly must be a union of church and nd state yet we hear no outcry about it either in the methodist ranks or from any other denomination neither do either of the papers we have been sten religious or secular make any comments on this alleged nn un american amerlean method perhaps the difference in locality ricou accounts ints for it what Is wrong in utah may be right in pennsylvania or is it not rather the difference of religious bodies what may be a terrible thing for mormons cormons Mor mons to en gage in la lis quite correct for methodists to do that is it no doubt politics and religion must not unite in mormonism but they may be thoroughly mixed and mingled in methodism TWO missionaries TO MEXICO tins THE memphis tennessee appeal has published a letter written by a gentleman who went to mexico in company with several others from t the southern bouthern states to investigate S some bome 0 rne ine mining affairs in our neighbor public republic xo the correspondence a alludes to some ai stormon Sl ormon missionaries who were en roie route mote to mexico on the same vesel aa as the writ erand he gives the following account of his conversations with those elders we copy it as it will be of interest to the friends ot the two young men mein who were called to go to mexico at the april conference in this city he says awe we had bad athard our ship two mormon missionaries from bait salt lake like city going over to mexico to convert the grea Urea greasers sers sens to their faith and polygamy one of them an intelligent young man nian of about 23 years orage of age and a son of the celebrated IMor mormon mons ss orson pratt discussed his religion and hie hib people deop te with us Gent gant gentiles fles with a candor and a fullness that to me was rather astonishing I 1 must confess corneas my view views s somewhat a altered from my may acquaintance with him 1 had always thought their reli gion and practices would not bear the sunlight and civilization of our nineteenth century but laying aside the plurality of wives doctrine it ia Is n no bad faith oar party contested every point with him and put him through a cross examination that would have tried a philadelphia lawyer this young missionary was bom borin bred and reared in salt lake late and we |