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Show SENATOR STANFORD ON UTAH. A Cincinnati paper publishes an inter-. inter-. view with Senator Stanford, and among other matters the Senator spoke upon was the Utah question. He fully recognizes recog-nizes the virtues of the Mormon people j and gives them credit for those virtues. He also recognizes that the enforcement of the Edmunds law bears hard upon some of the older polygamous families. This is also true ; but there is one thing that Senator Stanford does not seem to Jecognize, which is that the people of Utah have entered into polygamous marriages mar-riages in defiance and contempt of the law of '62, and they ' aie now reaping the whirlwind that they sowed so many years a'go. But that is not all. Many polygamous marriages have been entered into since the passage cf the Edmunds law, and those who have formed polygamous marriages mar-riages Bince 1882 have done so in a spirit of defiance and contempt for the law. The passage of any law by Congress affecting the local question always instills hostility into the people of Utah and never respect for the law. If there has been a falling off in the number of polygamous marriages in Utah during the past year, and we believe there has, it is because of a fear of the law and not because of a respect for it. If the prosecutions prose-cutions for polygamy and unlawful cohabitation co-habitation were to cease, how very soon would the people of Utah resume their practice of forming poh'gamous marriages. ! It is probable that polygamy would die i out in time if let alone, for it is inconsistent with modern civilization ; but this time would not be so soon as some anticipate. Aside from the religious enthusiasm en-thusiasm which upholds the system there is nothing ia it to uphold it. It is in every way repulsive to the feelings of both man and woman, and about it there is nothing comely or pleasing. It has btien claimed for it that it makes the existence of the social evil impossible where it prevails, and the early history of the Territory is cited as an evidence of the truth of this 1 assertion. In the early days of this Ter- V ritory the people here were isolated, and ? there were few among them who were j not of their faith. This isolation and the meagerneBS of the population made the existence of the social evil impossible, especially when it is remembered how intensely religious the people were and that they looked upon no crime as being so heinous as crimes against chastity. Small communities are never so beset with crime as larger ones, and to the smallness of the communities com-munities must be attributed many of the virtues of the people of Utah in an early day. The evils of polygamy are fully : equal to all the virtues that have been or j can be claimed for it. That in the sup- J pression of polygamy there will be many hardships is true, and in many cases these hardships will seem most unjust, but these might be very much avoided if the people of Utah would but honestly discontinue the practice. When men have promised obedience to the polygamy law those men have been berated by their co-religionists in a most shameful manner, and merely because those men. would not persist in violating the law. Does this give any promise that the people of Utah will voluntarily . cease their practice of polygamy and advise people to respect' the- law? The people of Utah have " shown no disposition to conform their marital practices prac-tices to the mandates of the law, and this fact will necessarily make the suppression suppres-sion of polygamy harder than it other-, wise would be. It must : either be stopped or allowed to go on, and at present pre-sent the Government has the game in its own hands. The men who have been in jail for one six months are terribly frightened fright-ened when they contemplate the idea of. another six months in the same place for the same cause. Those men who have been arraigned on three indictments will pause longer than those who have only served sentence under one, and this new rule of three will have a salutary effect upon all who are breaking the law and all who would like to break it. What the Government should do is to provide greater facilities for enforcing the Edmunds Ed-munds law, for the sooner the question of polygamy is settled the better it will be for all parties. |