Show Sll SHARING IU G TI lI RESPONSIBILITY Senator Albert 11 rt J. J Hopkins of ot Illinois has a 11 Vel very impressive im In the Independent of January Januar 24 touchIng touch touch- Ing lug for tho continuance of POl polygamy In Utah ULah We Ve append one ono paragraph tho the federal government Is In part pait responsible for Cor lh ilia- ilia polygamy that wo find In Utah toda today President Fillmore In 1850 gave save both recognition and encouragement encourage encourage- ment meat to the thc practice of polygamy In the Mormon church In Th Utah Uy by appointing BrIgham Young the head of the church governor of f the territory of Utah with wilh full knowl e that ho was an open advocate of ot pol polygamy gam and n nt the time had hud a number of ot plural wives The Tho senate of or tho the United States Slates confirmed that appointment lI Il was He was reappointed b by President Pierce and reconfirmed to tho the great of governor of Utah by the senate of or inc United States For man many years ears polygamy was taught by y Brigham Young an and his followers as 8 one ont of oC the doe doc trines rines of ot the church without any interference upon tho the part of the general government go and plural marriages were entered Into without objection or 01 any legislative hindrance Mr 11 Hopkins himself is said to be a Presbyterian terian The Tho Independent Is a a. lite literary ran and religious paper of oftIe he tIe el very cry highest class That It has admitted to its columns a a. fair lair statement of Senator Hopkins's position positions Is s an encouraging indication Tho rho voice of tho East has las been so Intolerant in Its hostility to Utah and particularly par- par to everything o Mormon that it Is comforting to o find a sentiment of fairness anywhere expressed The nation certainly has a share in responsibility for or the growth of or polygamy And after half halt a century of existence it is reasonable to understand a 11 condition obtained hero which could not easily and Instantly be terminated It is all ver very well for people who live lIvo at ata ata ata a distance who have ha no real knowledge of ot tho the conditions among mong the Mormons to Insistently demand that polygamy bo be o eradicated instantly eradicated Instantly out of hand But a good goodman man many nany people were sincere sincero In their belief that It was right Ight Of course they were mistaken but they believed be- be it And when they had bowed to tho the laws of or orthe he the country and In good faith quit the taking of plural wives still there thero remained tho the condition of women who had ad entered catered Into the tha polygamous relation whoso whose homes had ad been established on a a. basis that had become a 11 part of f their lives JIves by a a. lifelong association Many of them were mothers with tho the tame same love for their children that mothers everywhere and always have entertained How tho the woman in that relation managed to regard reg-ard herself hersel as tho the wife wiCe of a man who had other wives how she he managed to maintain ln friendly relations with those other ther women women hoW how indeed she loved them these them these are mo things we of the tho Gentile Gentilo world can not understand But she did These women were not and are arc not depraved od Wedo Wo We do not believe there co could ld b assembled be anywhere In Inho Inthe ho tho United Stat States s such a J nUT number r of wom women 1 as were se n kt 1 t the tho o Hh f fewer wet evidences ot Or those pains which pains which write write- n. n rec on fd Sn n ho tho faces faces' of th the tho unhappy To 10 say that th they y were free Cree from flom rom the sign ign manual of vice is ne needless There Is no mark of oC depravity in those honest sincere e eyes es Those women are arc good women Now we believe believe- that tho the Mormons arc are honest honestly putting an end to polygamy If they have without flaunting the tho fact tacitly recognized the relations assumed assumed as- as before the tho passage of ot the tho law and tho the issuance or of f tho the manifesto they none the less certainly have havo not evaded tho the law J and mocked the manifesto by later contracting con con- of ot plural marriages Utah people Gentiles as well as Mormons have for or years taken tho the that tho the best solution of ot the problem Is Js to permit permit- those those- old relations to continue without objection walling waiting for the tho sure suro hand of or time timo timeo to o obliterate every living JIvIng example of ot an ordinance that I Ihas has las passed awa away Sentiments of ot mercy as well as considerations of or justice move to this course There Thero are aro now less than i ilIve lIve hundred In tho ho state of Utah Utah out out of ofa ofa I a population approaching four Cour hundred thousand Every E I year numbers of or them die tile since all nil have long since I passed from tho the lists of young men In the nature of or things the they must within a few Cew years calS have vanished from earth And with the least possible sorrow w and hardship with tile the greatest consideration for that sentiment of ho tho world which has pronounced against p polygamy amy and we ve think prop properly the case caso has been left to a natural settlement Since wo we of the rest of the nation have havo permitted it ito to o continue so long Jong since we have havo been in somo some degree r responsible for Its establishment since sincere and cx- cx women have havo entered life lire In that relation have ha grown rown to maturity have homes and children of ot their own have as conscientious a 0 belief ballet In the tho rectitude of ot their lives as Mrs can possibly have havo in her own no harsher course could have been adopted by uy a nation I inclined to bo be fair and just Senator Smoot has been assailed because ho has countenanced polygamy Ho lIo has done ono no more In that direction than have ha the tho rest resL of us He has no nomore nomore nomore more countenanced polygamy than have W we Gentiles who have traded with the Mormons who have received favors from their hands who who have dealt with them watched with them at the beds of or sickness and labored with them in the fields of or health joined them in business organizations sat with them them in councils and cOmmittees mingled our dollars with wills their own when the tho call for tor charity charit came rejoiced with them in the glories of or music wedded their women women and and honored them as admirable wives wires I Of such countenancing all ali ha have o been guilty CUm Senator Smoot has done no more Because he Is a Mormon and Influential in his church ho has done more snore than an any Gentile could In extirpating pol polygamy gam I The Tho one reason assigned for tor his removal from tho the senate Bonate is this And It can not bo be urged In fairness nor with a a. proper sense of ot the tho humane and politic obligations obliga that Ho lie upon tho the community It Is a pleasure to note that the rest of tho the nation Is taking the normal the view The Tho period of ot excited misrepresentation and intemperate attack has probably passed passed- or Is p passing And this appearance of Senator article in Jn the tho Independent t is an expression of that bettered judgment through which all substantial good shall come |