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Show . . j : MONTESQUIEU ON POLf GAMY. t In that rade mecum of all statesmen ; y. in that book whose deep study con- stitutes a superior political education, the I ; - "Spirit ol Laws," Moutesquieu speaks of I ' polygamy as follows : With regard to polygamy in general, inde- pendentlyof the circamstanoes which may render it tolerable, it is not of the least ser-v ser-v vioe to mankind, nor to either of the two sexes, whether it be that which abases, or ! that which is abased. Neither is it of service ser-vice to the children; for one of its greatest inconveniences is that the father and the mother cannot have the same affection for their offspring; a father cannot love twenty children with the same tenderness as a mother can love two. It is much worse when a wife has many husbands; for -their paternal love is only held by this opinion, that a father may believe, if he will, or that others may believe, that certain cer-tain children belong to him Besides, the possession of so many wives does not always prevent their entertaining desires for those of others; it is with lust as with avarice, whose thirst increases by the acquisition of treasure. May I not say, that a plurality of wives leads to that passion which nature disallows? for one depravation always draws on another. , The words which the great French thinker wrote above a hundred years ago very well describe the evils of polygamy which are seen in Utah to-day. Polygamy Polyg-amy is of Oriental origin, and it can never be harmonized with the civilization of the West To the Mohammetan it is well suited, for the Mohammetan is a superstitious, supersti-tious, tyrannical man, who looks upon women as being the inferior of men, as being the toys of men, and not their companions. com-panions. The effect of polygamy upon those who enter into is baleful in the ex treme, but those who enter into it do so fully aware of the step which they take, but perhaps not always fully conscious of the inevitable consequences which will follow that step. Upon the children born of polygamy the effect is worse than upon the parents. The children of the half blood rarely have the same love for each other as children of the whole blood do. When this fact is cited as an argument against polygamy, the defenders of that-institution answer that it is not natural that children of different dif-ferent mothers should have the same feelings towards each other that the children of one mother do. That is true, and being true, is it not an unnatural system sys-tem of marriage which creates such conditions? con-ditions? This is not all. The jaw forbids for-bids this system of marriage as being inconsistent in-consistent with the best interests of the State. If polygamy is inconsistent with the best interests of the State, then how much more inconsistent must it be with the best interests of thos,c-born in it. As Montesquieu says, polygamy "is not of the least service to mankind, nor to either of the two sexes." The people of Utah have made polygamy the basis of both their religious and political systems, yet the people of Utah have never once attempted to make legal this system. When polygamous children have ceased to belong to the church sanctioning sanction-ing the practice of polygamy, the officers of the church have invoked against them every law of the land to deprive them of their inheritances of property. Those who preach and laud polygamy never hesitate to take advantage of any and all j laws which deprive polygamous children of their natural rights because of the laws condemnatory of the system of polygamy, po-lygamy, and merely because those children chil-dren do not uphold a wrong doctrine and uphold an illegal practice. That any citizen should be deprived of any rights on account of his birth is as wrong as wrong can be, for in this case the innocent are made to suffer for no fault of their own. If the citizen owes a duty to the Government, then the Government owes a duty to the citizen, and in the case of those citizens of Utah born of polygamy, polyg-amy, it is that the Government Bhal! absolutely ab-solutely suppress a system which gives them birth and in giving them birth de- - prives them of those rights with which all other citizens are endowed from birth, or that the Government shall I make legal the system it now makes illegal. It is the duty of the Govern- . ment to take immediate and decisive action in this matter, and to cease making the enforcement of . the law against polygamy an irritation and an aggravation. ag-gravation. That polygamy will be suppressed sup-pressed there can be no doubt, and such being the case, why does not the Government Govern-ment provide ample means to make this suppression speedy? The present force of officials in the Territory engaged in enforcing the laws against polygamy is wholly inadequate to the task to bo performed. per-formed. The present policy is penny wise and pound foolish. " |