| Show THE MORMONS president john taylor who discusses the IN mormon lormon question with gov murray in the current number of the north american review keti Kevi eus evs makes some good points for the mormons cormons Mor mons though the main interest of his remarks lies iles in the calm and temperate tone with which he discusses the matter he mentions a curious fact with regard to the edmunds act which seems to merit attention from congress the act provides that no polygamist bigamist nor any person cohabiting with more than one woman shall have the right to vote in utah the commissioners under the act however in the test oath which they introduced required the voter to swear that ke he had never simultaneously lived with more than one woman thus giving lying the law a retrospective or ex past pest facto effect in the marriage relation laws of this sort are arc always strictly construed by the courts anu and and to make this one apply to past acts and to except from it an all persons cohabiting without going through the form of marriage is going to the opposite extreme no great moral movement is likely to be much helped by such distortion of the law as this again mr taylor very justly complains I 1 a of the disposition among the gentilesco Gentil antil esto confound polygamy with the crime of bigamy T the e wickedness of bigamy does not mainly consist in the act of marrying two women but in the gross fraud and deception practised practiced on tile the second wife in other words the second wife does not marry voluntarily this is to be sure only a different way of putting the argument that plural mar marriages ridges are unobjectionable because the women like them and know beforehand that a number of wives is a part of mormon family faintly life but it puts the matter in a striking way but perhaps the most remarkable thing in mr taylors article is the strong feeling pervading it that mormon morals are as a whole purer than those of the surrounding gentile communities muni ties in utah he says there are no female outcasts such as are found in all large christian communities vice so far as it exists in utah is imported orte by y t the e gentiles the drinking saloons the gambling houses the bag alos are arc not mormon lormon products and the mormon view of them is that theydon they constitute a ver verp very good reason for the people 1 e who really like a respectable orderly p e aly sober life to leave off being aen gentiles and enter the mormon fold finally he calls attention once more to the act of governor murray I 1 in n giving a certificate of election to mr campbell who had 1357 votes for congress against mr cannon who had 1 and wants to know what the gentiles think of that governor murrays Mur rays reply is substantially that the poly gadist A emust ga 11 but as the means of of making him go is the serious question it is most important that we know how the polygamist looks at it now the fact is that he does not regard himself as an habitual criminal living in defiance of law I 1 human and divine and in great luck thus far from having kept out oui of the hands of the police but as a good man who is subject to a bitter and unscrupulous persecution lie he has and can prove that he has all the virtues valued by the gentile in abundance sobriety indest industry I 1 thrift and that he is not afflicted by a good many social ills by which the gentile is completely baffled ile he has brought utah by means of his peculiar institutions to a high state of civilization in legislating against him itis it is certainly necessary to remember these things and not to treat him as if he were a red handed assassin and to keep straining or perverting the laws to keep him down and refusal re refusing fusil to listen to what he has to say for himself and thus arousing passions which make sane legislation or even discussion biffl cult or impossible new york evening post |
