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Show EITHER OXE OR THE OTHER. The Mormon Church or the L'nitcd States must Govern Wholly - in Ftah. . i i ' There is probably a good deal of exaggeration exag-geration in the reports received from several sev-eral Western towns regarding the "Mormon "Mor-mon outbreak," but there can scarcely be any regarding the temper of the Mormons themselves. The Territory of Utah, and considerable portions of Idaho, TTevada, Colorado and Arizona, are Inhabited by; a people as hostile to the United States as the Tories were in the Revolution, or as La Vendee was to France in 1793, or as the Fenians are to Great Britain: to-day They are composed of an all-powerful hierarchy and a mass of ignorance wrought up to the highest pitch of superstitious super-stitious fanaticism. The common people have no ideas except such as they derive from the priesthood. The "elders" hold all the authority that is exercised in other parts of the World by the Government, the church and the school combined. The United States is to them a foreign power, as little entitled to the exercise of sovereignty over them as Canada or Mexico. Mex-ico. The early Mormons went to Utah' to escape from the United States. The country in which they took up their abode was then Mexican territory. It was so far distant from the seat of the Mexican Government that they expected ex-pected to be an independent nation, and they were so in fact during the first twenty years after their hegira, the functions func-tions of the Federal Government among them during that time being merely ministerial. min-isterial. Consequently they have grown up with conceptions DIAMETRICALLY OPPOSED TO EVERY AC-. AC-. " THORITY Outside of themselves. Indeed they earned such conceptions with them in the first instance. Their removal from Illinois and Missouri was the result of an irrepressible conflict between themselves and the governments of those States, which was itself the result of radically different points of view between themselves them-selves and the people among whom they lived. To the Mormon, man or woman, the revelation of the church is, "Thus I saith the Lord," and every dictum opposed op-posed to it, or outside of it, is a nullity, to be regarded only so far as it is backed by irresistible power. The strength of this superstition was put to the severest known test when women were asked to become members, of polygamous households, house-holds, for the sake of joys to be secured beyond the grave. When the Mormon first wife sees her threshold darkened by the coming of the second, it is impossible that she should not suffer ' 1 THE SHARPEST AGONY THAT CAN TOUCH A - WOMAN'S HEART. Yet even these keen instincts have been crushed by the dominating power of Mor-monisra. Mor-monisra. There may be other superstitions supersti-tions in the world as despotic there have undoubtedly been others as cruel but there is none in any part of the civilized world comparable to it to-day. There is growing up in the midst of us an imperium in impevio. No such anomaly exists on the globe elsewhere as a subordinate and local government, hostile hos-tile at every point to the central government govern-ment to exist. Nor could such an anomaly exist here but for the institution institu-tion of polygamy. . . . THIS SOCIAL CANCER, LIKETHATOF SLAVERY, Works incessantly for rebellion. Between such a government and the Federal authority au-thority there can be no peace. If polygamy polyga-my could be conjured out of Utah by a new revelation by some quack at the head of the Mormon Church, the younger generation would- become familiar with ideas of loyalty to the United States. There - would no longer, be any clashing of hostile conceptions of man's first duty as a member j of human society. But it is doubted by many who have closely studied the question ques-tion whether such a new revelation is possible. By destroying its distinctive I feature it would subvert Moomonism itr self. No priesthood can be expected to unbind the consciences of men and lay down the wand by which it sways the souls of an entire people. - Mbrmonism csn be dealt with only by external force. Dealing with superstitions bv external force has always been attended with immense im-mense difficulties, but, on the other hand, no government can permit a hostile government gov-ernment to grow up in its very bosom. Either the Mormon church or the United States must govern wholly in the valley of Great Salt Lake. There is not room for both. Burnings at the stake, the rack, and the thumb-screw, as appliances for . extinguishing superstition are, happily, banished from the world ; but short of cruelty the means of asserting the laws of the. United States must be applied to transgressors in Utah, aad adequate force must be used to that end. New York Post. -. |