The solution of the Social Puzzle—Mormon slavery and negro slavery compared—The duty of the Government to break up Mormon slavery—The remedy the same as for the political evils of Mormonism—Brigham Young opposed to immigration of Gentiles—A growing spirit of restlessness—Necessity of surrounding the youth with an atmosphere of freedom—Personal Bondage of the Mormons overcome by Gentile colonization—Social ostracism no longer dreaded—Mental Bondage overcome by national schools and colonization—Moral Bondage overcome by the same means—This policy not to be confounded with the let-alone policy—An apparent policy of toleration—The alarmist’s cry and its answer—The Mormon standpoint not to be overlooked—The cry of unconstitutionality—The proposed Polygamy Amendment to the Constitution—The cry of religious persecution—Imprisonment preferred to sacrifice of principle—Law impotent to break up polygamy—Supposed captivity of Mormon women a mistake—Mass-meeting of Mormon women to plead for polygamy—Senator Hoar on the solution of the social puzzle—How the law should be enforced and its probable effect—Superiority of the colonization plan over any other plan—Its effectiveness proved by the Oneida Community—The Social Puzzle solved—The duty of the nation, the citizen, and the Church.
If our diagnosis of the Mormon social system is correct, then the only effectual remedy will be one that reaches the real evil, which is slavery; and as polygamy is only one of the results of slavery, remove the cause and the result will likewise be removed.
But this slavery of the Mormons is very different from the negro slavery in the South before our Civil War. The latter was a legalized traffic, and the remedy for it was law. The slavery of the Mormons is a voluntary one, and rests not upon law but upon religious conviction; and hence law cannot be an effectual remedy. The Mormon Puzzle, then, is a much harder one to solve than the Negro Puzzle before the war, and will require a longer time for its solution.
The galley-slave realizes his bondage, feels his fetters, hears the twang of his master’s whip, and longs and plans for a release from his servitude; but he who is enslaved by a mental or moral dogma, while he thinks he is of all men the most free, is in the most fearful condition of slavery. This is the condition of all those who, like the Mormons, are compelled to yield a blind obedience to the teachings of an infallible priesthood; and it must necessarily be the case that all such are unfitted to discharge the duties pertaining to independent citizenship. He, and he only, is fitted to become a worthy citizen of our nation who strives to be an independent thinker, and who follows no guide but his own conscientious sense of right and wrong; but he, and he only, is a good Mormon who obeys counsel without question or gainsaying. It is, therefore, the imperative duty of our Government to break up this slavery among the Mormons, and to do it as speedily as possible. The Government is responsible for the growth of this system within its domains, and it is in duty bound to eradicate its evils so far as it lies within its power; but thus far the root-evil of the system has not been recognized. All the efforts of the Government have been directed only against one of the branches—namely, polygamy. The real evil is slavery, and it seems to us that the same remedy we suggested for the solution of the Mormon Political Puzzle is the proper solution of the Mormon Social Puzzle.
1. A National Colonization Scheme, which would surround the Mormons with a people imbued with freedom, and exercising freedom of thought, speech, and action.
2. The establishment of National Free Schools of a high order all through the Territory, by means of which the rising generation would be continually surrounded with an atmosphere of freedom. Nothing can change old Mormons, either men or women; but the young men and women—the rising generation—may be reclaimed.
The system of bondage in vogue in Utah can only be successfully maintained by its being isolated. The system thrived abundantly under Brigham Young, because it was entirely isolated from the rest of the nation. There were at various times individuals who dared to assert their God-given reason and freedom; but being alone in the Territory, they were soon silenced. But individual thought and expression have more encouragement now that the days of isolation have to some extent passed away by the opening of the Pacific Railroad and the mines of Southern Utah, and the influx of several thousand Gentiles. Brigham Young knew that the immigration into Utah of a large non-Mormon population would be the death-blow to his system, and so he used every means in his power to prevent it. He opposed most strenuously the opening of the railroad and the mines; but they were both opened by the aid of United States troops. In the same year that the Pacific Railroad was opened Henry Lawrence and his associates made their noble stand in behalf of freedom of thought and action, and against the dictation of the Church in temporal affairs; and ever since then there has been a growing spirit of independence.
Among the young there is a growing restlessness and an increasing sense of shame and wrong. The conditions are becoming dangerous, and the leaders see it. The American flag is overhead. The bombshells which issue from a free press are being heard and felt. Some flashes of the electric light of knowledge are to be seen, and some of the hopes which make jubilant the souls of American youth elsewhere are causing thrills in hearts in Utah which have heretofore been stolid. The thing for us to do is to surround them with an atmosphere of freedom, so that they will drink it in with every breath; and it will not be long before it will permeate their entire lives.
Their personal bondage would be overcome by their coming in contact with a people imbued with the true American sense of freedom. In a few years no fear of consequences would prevent them from asserting their rights. The tables would be turned, and woe to them who should deliberately trample their freedom under foot!
Moreover, by bringing in a large population of non-Mormons, social ostracism would not be dreaded as it now is. If the majority of the people were Gentiles, pecuniarily it would be to the advantage of a man in every way to break loose from his bondage to the Mormon priesthood. Think you that a man would work under a Mormon bishop for one dollar a day when under a non-Mormon he could double his wages? Think you that he would continue to allow the priesthood to swallow up about one half of his income when his income would be trebled each year if he broke away from their power? Surely not.
Then, too, the mental bondage of the people would thus be overcome. Even aside from the establishment of national free schools, the illiteracy of the people would be greatly overcome by the system of colonization proposed; for a much more enlightened class of people would be brought in, and by contact with them the scales of ignorance to a great extent would drop from the Mormons’ eyes, and they would see their bondage; and to see it will be to break from it. Besides, the schools would inevitably be made free and greatly improved; and the newspapers would be greater in number and scattered all over the Territory; and who can estimate the power of a free press?
Moreover, the moral bondage of the Mormons would thus be overcome. Even now, with only a small number of Gentiles in Utah, the Mormon leaders dare not command their followers to murder and assassinate as once they did; and polygamy would be more effectually overcome in that way than in any other.
But the policy which I here advocate must not be confounded with the let-alone policy which has been advocated by some, but which is a policy which no true lover of humanity, if he knows the enormity of the existing evils of the system, can hold for a moment. It was that policy which has caused the system to attain its present rank growth. It was that policy which has brought disgrace upon our nation in the eyes of the civilized world. Shame that it should be held by any American! Was it the let-alone policy by which the awful oppression of the priesthood was first broken in England by that immortal hero and champion of liberty, John Wicliffe? Was that the way in which Luther brought deliverance to the oppressed thousands of Germany, and Knox established civil and religious freedom upon the shattered ruins of priestly corruption and tyranny among Scotland’s hills and vales? The let-alone policy was tried in our land with negro slavery for more than a hundred years. Did it die out? Let the answer come from the half million graves where sleep the unreturning heroes of the Blue and the Gray.
Accordingly, the policy which I advocate is not the let-alone policy. Far from it. It is rather the antipodes of that policy, the furthest remove from it possible. Instead of letting every Mormon alone in his voluntary bondage, it touches every Mormon; it brings a power to bear upon every one which he cannot help but feel. It brings him into personal contact with the spirit of freedom as it is exemplified in the genuine American.
True, it may be called a policy of toleration; but therein lies its strength and its superiority over any purely repressive policy, for it is regarded as an axiom that to tolerate error where truth surrounds it is the best means for its destruction. The evils in the Mormon system would long ago have been sunk out of sight but for its isolation from vital contact with truth. What the result of a battle between Truth and Error will be is known to all; but to conquer, Truth must be brought into close contact with Error. The trouble has been that Utah until quite recently has been hedged in by a Chinese wall of separation, so that Truth and Liberty have been shut out. The plan we advocate breaks down this Chinese wall entirely, and lets in the light of Truth and Liberty upon every Mormon soul. It allows Truth to have free course and fair play. There will then be a hand-to-hand combat between Truth and Error; and who can doubt as to the result? “Truth is mighty and will prevail.”
But some alarmist may cry: “Ah! but it will take time for that moral battle to be fought out to the end, and in the mean time the horrid cancer will spread and spread, and even our own families will not be safe from its infection.”
But, in reply, it can be said that nothing short of the annihilation of the Mormons would overcome polygamy very soon. Even at the shortest, it will take several years to accomplish its effectual overthrow. The Utah Commission, in their report to the Secretary of the Interior, September 24th, 1886, deemed it proper to reiterate on this point what they had before said in their report for 1884, viz.:
“As the Government has to deal here with a people who are wonderfully superstitious and fanatically devoted to their system of religion, the public should not expect, as the immediate result of the present laws of Congress, nor indeed of any legislation, however radical, the sudden overthrow of polygamy; and the most that can be predicted of such legislation is, that it will, if no step backward be taken, soon ameliorate the harder conditions of Mormonism, and hasten the day for its final extinction.”
Furthermore, the cry that “even our own families will not be safe from the infection of this ever-spreading cancer” is nothing but sheer cant—such a cry as the ranting demagogue might raise; and it only shows how ignorant most people are in regard to this question of Mormonism, even those who claim to understand it. Polygamy is not taught by the Mormon missionaries, and is not practised outside of Utah, and is practised there only by a small minority of the people. In the letter of the First Presidency to the Mormons at their semi-annual conference, dated October 6th, 1885, there were the following statements, coming from the head of the Church, and which are known to be true: “We never have believed or taught that the doctrine of celestial marriage was designed for universal practice.... There appears to be a fallacious idea abroad regarding this doctrine. It has been asserted that there was a design to propagate it outside of our community, and thus introduce into the United States an element opposed to the Christian views of this and other nations. On the contrary, our elders have been instructed not to introduce the practice of that principle anywhere outside of the gathering-place of the Saints; and they do not preach it abroad to any extent, even in theory, except on occasions when it is called for or when they are assailed on account of it.... It should also be understood that the practice is not generally admissible even among the Latter-Day Saints. It is strictly guarded, the intention being to allow only those who are above reproach to enter into the relationship.... The idea, therefore, that plural marriage is a menace to the general monogamous system is without foundation. This fallacy is further exhibited by the fact of the popular antipathy with which it is regarded, people outside of our Church exhibiting a disposition the reverse of favorable to its establishment in other communities, making the extension of its practice abroad impossible.” No; our own homes are not in much danger from this evil. The Mormons in Utah will be the only sufferers. There should be no selfish motive aroused for the destruction of this evil. Neither we nor our families are in great danger. Honor and humanity are the motives which should actuate every American to wipe out this foul blot upon our nation’s face and to uplift our brethren from the degradation and bondage of this accursed system; and although the plan with which we propose to accomplish this end will take some few years before the climax will be reached, yet while the plan is gradually being wrought out it will place a greater check upon the evil than any other plan, and in the end will be effectual in breaking it up, which cannot be said of any other plan yet proposed. And what is more, it would accomplish the end with less of bitter spirit being manifested and with less property and lives lost than any other plan that could possibly be brought forth, because it is in strict accord with Christian principles and has nothing in connection with it which could be construed by the Mormons as religious persecution.
In dealing with this question we must not overlook the Mormon standpoint, although it may differ from our own. The law against polygamy is regarded by the Mormons, in the first place, as unconstitutional. The existing prohibitory law is only a statute-law, which they claim to be out of harmony with the fundamental law of our land as expressed in the Constitution. The latter they claim to revere as inspired. Accordingly, their constant hope and effort is to obtain admission into the Union as a State, so that they might no longer be under the exclusive control of Congress. Under the Constitution as it now is, Congress has no legislative jurisdiction over the question of polygamy in the different States of the Union. The whole subject, together with that of marriage and divorce, is left with the States themselves, and may be regulated by them according to their own discretion. Knowing this, the Mormons are working strenuously to have Utah admitted as a State with all its rights and privileges; then they could bid defiance to all the statute-laws of Congress on the subject of polygamy, and in the exercise of their undoubted right they would enact a law allowing polygamy, which would not transgress any article of our Constitution. The earnest efforts of the Mormons will naturally be directed to that end as long as the Constitution remains as it is. The proper thing to do in order to completely overthrow that idea among the Mormons is to pass the proposed Polygamy Amendment to the Constitution. The Mormons would then see that, so far as that institution is concerned, they have nothing to gain by gaining political control of a State. No State could establish polygamy, any more than it could establish slavery; and if any State, owing to local public sentiment or partisan politics, were remiss in dealing with polygamists, the general Government would have power to supply the remedy. If such an amendment were made to the Constitution, the cry of the Mormons concerning the unconstitutionality of the Anti-Polygamy Law would be completely overcome; for, as the Utah Commission very aptly say in their report for 1886, “they would probably not have the hardihood to say that the Constitution itself is unconstitutional, and it is not unreasonable to predict that the more sagacious and influential persons among the Mormons would realize the hopelessness of a further conflict with the Government, and accommodate themselves to the inevitable by the exercise of that ‘worldly wisdom’ which so often tempers and modifies the conduct of religious fanatics.”
Nevertheless, the Mormons could still raise their greatest cry—that which has the greatest weight with them—the cry of religious persecution; because then, as now, they would claim that the law interfered with their religion. We cannot admit the truth of their assertion. Chief-Justice Waite was right when he delivered the opinion of the United States Supreme Court on this subject: “Laws are made for the government of actions; and while they cannot interfere with mere religious belief and opinions, they may with practices. Suppose one believed that human sacrifices were a necessary part of religious worship, would it be seriously contended that the civil government under which we lived could not interfere to prevent the sacrifice? Or if a wife religiously believed it was her duty to burn herself upon the funeral pile of her dead husband, would it be beyond the power of the civil government to prevent her from carrying her belief into practice? So here, as a law for the organization of society under the exclusive dominion of the United States, it is provided that plural marriages shall not be allowed. Can a man excuse his practices to the country because of his religious belief? To permit this would be to make the professed doctrines of religious belief superior to the law of the land, and in effect to permit every citizen to become a law unto himself. Government could exist only in name under such circumstances.”
Those words express the views of at least nine tenths of the people in our land. To deny those statements is to deny doctrines that are essential to the possibility of civil government, and in effect would reduce society to a state of anarchy in which every one may do as he pleases without any legal responsibility. Crimes against society do not cease to be crimes because they are religiously committed. Society can never take the criminal’s conscience, whether it be religious or otherwise, as a test or guide on this subject, and yet live under the regulation of law. Nevertheless, the Mormons do not agree with us in such views, and hold that every person who is convicted under the Edmunds law is a martyr to his religion.
And looking at the subject as they do, we cannot help but feel a measure of respect for the Mormons while we deplore their bondage, when we find them, after conviction in court, when the alternative is presented to them of a promise to obey the law against polygamy hereafter or go to prison, deliberately choose the latter, saying, as Abram H. Cannon, one of the elders of the Church did, March 17th, 1886: “I would like to state, your Honor, that I have always endeavored to keep the laws of the United States, because I have been taught by my parents that the Constitution was a sacred instrument. That I have failed in this respect and now stand before you convicted of the crime of unlawful cohabitation is due to the fact that I acknowledge a higher law than that of man, which is the law of God; and that law being a part of my religion, sir, I have attempted to obey it. When I embraced this religion I promised to place all that I had, even life itself, upon the altar, and I expect to abide by that covenant which I made. And, sir, I hope the day will never come when I must sacrifice principle even to procure life or liberty. Honor, sir, to me is higher than anything else upon the earth; and my religion is dearer to me than anything else that I have yet seen. I am prepared, sir, for the judgment of the court.” Such a man one cannot help but respect; and we can only wish that he stood up thus manfully in a nobler cause than that of polygamy.
Shortly after Governor West went to Utah on his appointment by the President, he visited the penitentiary of the Territory, and in an address to the Mormon inmates promised them pardon if they would hereafter obey the law; but after reflection, the following written reply was sent to him signed by forty-eight Mormon prisoners:
“Utah Penitentiary, May 24, 1886.
“To his Excellency Caleb W. West, Governor of Utah:
“Sir: On the 13th instant you honored the inmates of the Penitentiary with a visit and offered to intercede for the pardon of all those enduring imprisonment on conviction under the Edmunds law, if they would but promise obedience to it in the future, as interpreted by the courts. Gratitude for the interest manifested in our behalf claims from us a reply. We trust, however, that this will not be construed into defiance, as our silence already has been. We have no desire to occupy a defiant attitude toward the Government, or to be in conflict with the nation’s laws. We have never been even accused of violating any other law than the one under which we were convicted, and that was enacted purposely to oppose a tenet of our religion.
“We conscientiously believe in the doctrine of plural marriage, and have practised it from a firm conviction of its being a divine requirement.
“Of the forty-nine elders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints now imprisoned in the penitentiary for alleged violation of the Edmunds law, all but four had plural wives from its passage to thirty-five years prior to its passage. We were united to our wives for time and eternity by the most sacred covenants, and in many instances numerous children have been born as a result of our union, who are endeared to us by the strongest paternal ties.
“What the promise asked of us implied you declined to explain, just as the courts have done when appeals have been made to them for an explicit and permanent definition of what must be done to comply with the law.
“The rulings of the courts under this law have been too varied and conflicting heretofore for us to know what may be the future interpretations.
“The simple status of plural marriage is now made, under the law, material evidence in securing conviction for unlawful cohabitation, thus, independent of our act, ruthlessly trespassing upon the sacred domain of our religious belief.
“So far as compliance with your proposition requires the sacrifice of honor and manhood, the repudiation of our wives and children, the violation of sacred covenants, Heaven forbid that we should be guilty of such perfidy; perpetual imprisonment, with which we are threatened, or even death itself, would be preferable.
“Our wives desire no separation from us, and were we to comply with your request they would regard our action as most cruel, inhuman, and monstrous, our children would blush with shame, and we should deserve the scorn and contempt of all just and honorable men.
“The proposition you made, though prompted, doubtless, by a kind feeling, was not new, for we could all have avoided imprisonment by making the same promise to the courts; in fact, the penalties we are now enduring are for declining to so promise rather than for acts committed in the past. Had you offered us unconditional amnesty, it would have been gladly accepted; but, dearly as we prize the great boon of liberty, we cannot afford to obtain it by proving untrue to our conscience, our religion, and our God.
“As loyal citizens of this great Republic, whose Constitution we revere, we not only ask for, but claim, our rights as freemen; and if from neither local nor national authority we are to receive equity and mercy, we will make our appeal to the Great Arbiter of all human interests, who in due time will grant us the justice hitherto denied.
“That you may, as the governor of our important but afflicted Territory, aid us in securing every right to which loyal citizens are entitled, and find happiness in so doing, we will ever pray.”
Now, this reply is respectful, sincere, and straightforward, yet firm and vigorous, and shows no sign of weakness or indecision. We must credit the signers with the courage of conviction and the qualities which cause men to suffer rather than recant. Such acts show unmistakably the utter futility of law now as applied to Mormon polygamy. Had the law which was enacted in 1862 then been rigidly put in force, and, if necessary, supplemented by other legislation to make it effective, Mormon polygamy might ere this have come to an end. Then it was in its first decade of existence, and had not had time to be firmly grounded in the minds of the people as a distinctive article of their faith; but now it has thirty-five years of open practice back of it, and the example of father and mother, who are stigmatized by any harsh appellation applied to polygamy. Furthermore, the belief in it has been instilled into the minds of the present generation from their childhood, and has become firmly grounded in their belief.
There is one great mistake made by most people in regard to Utah polygamy. They believe that the women of Utah are held by the men in a kind of captivity, not being able to escape from their degradation, but would gladly avail themselves of liberty if they only had an opportunity. The fact is, that they are in voluntary servitude, and would not accept liberty, because they believe it is their duty to be polygamists.
There was a mass-meeting of women held in Salt Lake City in the fall of 1878 which was attended by about two thousand women who were devoted Mormons. At that meeting one woman seventy years of age said: “I thank God that I am a polygamous wife;” and she said she had a “feeling of great pity for those who did not enjoy this good blessing.” Another old lady said: “I would not abandon it to exchange with Queen Victoria and all her dependencies.” The secretary of the meeting said: “The women of this country want to crush us, but it will be diamond cut diamond.” And thus for nearly three hour one speaker after another defended polygamy, all believing it to be an inspired doctrine given by God to aid in redeeming a sinful world from a condition of sin and pollution to one of holiness and purity. The following resolution among others was unanimously adopted by the meeting:
“Resolved, That we solemnly avow our belief in the doctrine of the patriarchal order of marriage—a doctrine which was revealed to and practised by God’s people in past ages, and is now re-established on earth by divine command of Him who is the same yesterday, to-day, and forever; a doctrine which, if lived up to and carried out under the direction of the precepts pertaining to it, and of the higher principles of our nature, would conduce to the long life, strength, and glory of the people practising it; and we therefore indorse it as one of the most important principles of our holy religion, and claim the right of its practice.”
It can be plainly seen from that meeting that the leading Mormon women are in earnest in their plea for polygamy, and that it is practised because they believe God commanded it; and consequently it can never be overcome by human law.
Senator Hoar, who, with Senator Edmunds, has divided the honor of originating radical laws against Mormon polygamy, seems himself to have acknowledged their worthlessness as an effective remedy. The following letter from him to Joseph Cook was read by the latter in connection with his lecture delivered in Boston, February 2d, 1885:
“Washington, January 31, 1885.
“My dear Sir: I am glad that the topics of Mormonism and the reorganization of the South are to be discussed in your lectures in Boston. Massachusetts is an old State. Her people dwell under institutions which have been ripening for two hundred and fifty years; but in the West, in the heart of the Continent, and in the South we are laying foundations still. If Mormonism live and grow, the Christian family will not be an element in the civilization of the great Central States of the future. If the 30,000,000 of the colored race who within fifty years will inhabit the States of the South are to be a race of peasants, denied their practical and equal share in the Government by such processes as have prevailed in recent years, the republic itself cannot continue. The Russian ‘despotism tempered by assassination’ is quite as desirable as Republicanism tempered by both assassination and fraud. In the warfare with these things, the school and the Christian Church are to be our most potent instruments. They can accomplish more than any political party. I have contemplated with the greatest satisfaction the noble work in this cause of our New England churches and of the associations they have organized.
“I am yours, very truly,
“George F. Hoar.”
It is, indeed, true that the school and the Christian Church are more “potent instruments” for the overthrow of polygamy than any laws of our political legislators. Law does not reach the evil, for it rests upon a strong religious conviction. Law cannot reach it. To make a law that a man shall not be fanatical is to waste paper on which something sensible might be written; for Congress to undertake to keep people from becoming fanatics is unspeakably ludicrous. Legislation in that direction is intrusive. Law provides for the punishment of an overt act, and is absolutely powerless as to a man’s eccentricity.
We do not mean to assert that the laws against polygamy should be stricken from our statute-books. Far from it. On the contrary, it is a shame to our country that they have been allowed so long to be nullified. Let us thank God that during the past two years they have been enforced. They should be most rigidly enforced, although no such system of inquisition and prying into the most sacred relations of husband and wife through their children should be instituted in the name of purity and justice, as the Mormons claim is being now carried on there, and which called forth an earnest protest by the women of Utah at a mass-meeting in the theatre of Salt Lake City March 6th, 1886. Besides, other crimes in the Territory should not be overlooked in zeal to punish that particular crime. The laws should be impartially executed. Moreover, I believe the penalty for the crime should be made to correspond better with the gravity of the crime. Six months’ imprisonment seems a very small penalty for such an enormous crime against society; the Mormons purchase martyrdom at too cheap a price. It should be increased to three or five years’ imprisonment.
Nevertheless, no matter what the law may be, it cannot alone overcome this evil. It may make the evil unpopular. It may act upon some as an educator, and cause them to lose their implicit confidence in their leaders; and, indeed, such is said to be the fact in Utah now. Dr. McNiece, in his letter to the writer from Salt Lake City, dated February 12th, 1886, says: “The people are beginning to lose faith in their leaders. The Lord is not coming down on the Wahsatch Mountains with horses and chariots of fire to deliver the persecuted (?) Saints, as Orson Pratt used to predict. In fact, the people are beginning to doubt about the Lord’s being on their side at all.” Now, that is a good sign; and it is, doubtless, true of the more enlightened among the Mormons; but upon the masses of the people, the only effect will be to weld them closer together; and I cannot but think that the leaders are glad that they can raise the cry of persecution. That cry puts down all internal dissension, and unites the people against a common enemy. “The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church,” has passed into a proverb.
But the plan which we propose has nothing of persecution in connection with it, and thus it will leave room for internal dissension; and from within alone can Mormonism be effectually helped to eradicate its errors. The evils will in this way be overcome by the people themselves, while in reality the work will be accomplished by forces without.
That this system would prove effectual may be safely argued from the fact that, wherever the Gentiles now live in any number, there polygamy is discountenanced and is on the decline. Judge C. C. Goodwin, editor of the Salt Lake Tribune, in an article in Harper’s Weekly, October, 1881, said: “Not half of the daughters of Mormons who have grown up amid a large population of Gentiles will ever enter into polygamy.”
Besides, it may be argued from a parallel case, which actually did take place in our own land. The Oneida Community, in the midst of one of the most prosperous and intelligent communities in the State of New York, openly defied popular sentiment and covertly transgressed the law by the maintenance of a social system as abhorrent as that of polygamy; for they practised promiscuous marriage. They were a community having all things in common, and the women were as much common property as any other property. Its members, however, were not mobbed; they were not terrorized in the name of law; they were not driven into exile by persecution; but free contact with the healthful currents of the life about them finally resulted in the disintegration of that portion of their social fabric which was maintained in opposition to law and the sentiment of their neighbors. Now, with that practical example in mind, who would dare say that the scheme we advocate would not be effectual in breaking up polygamy?
Thus we trust that we have shown that this plan would effectually cure the evils of the Mormon social system, and bring the Mormons out of the personal, mental, and moral bondage, which now blinds their eyes and benumbs their sensibilities.
We regard it the duty of the nation to set on foot this peaceful, yet most effective, plan. Let the nation at once establish free schools all over the Territory, to let the rising generation breathe constantly the air of liberty and have the light of knowledge, that the ignorance and superstition which form the cement which keeps the Mormon social system from falling into ruins may not get possession of their minds and souls; and let the nation offer large inducements for colonists to emigrate to Utah, and give them every facility. Money spent in this way is for the general welfare, and is as justifiable as to spend money for a national exposition, or for checking the spread of cholera or yellow-fever. If the nation would do these two things, that accursed system of bondage would disappear within the next decade, and the citizens of Utah would “be like the rest of us.”
But if the nation fails to do this, then individual citizens throughout the land, all lovers of humanity, and especially all Christian denominations, should take the matter in hand; and they should not only plant free schools in all parts of the Territory, a few of which have been established already by five different Christian denominations; but they should also form Utah Colonization Societies, whose object should be to secure the planting of pure, freedom-loving, Christian families in every Mormon city, town, and village; and they should not desist until the Mormons are in a minority in Utah, the people freed from their bondage, and the laws respected. Honor demands it; humanity cries out for it; Christianity implores it.
“Up now for Freedom! Not in strife
Like that your sterner fathers saw—
The awful waste of human life,
The glory and the guilt of war;
But break the chain, the yoke remove,
And smite to earth Oppression’s rod,
With those mild arms of Truth and Love,
Made mighty through the Living God!”
PART IV.
THE RELIGIOUS PUZZLE.
“The true grandeur of nations is in those qualities which constitute the true greatness of the individual.”—Charles Sumner.
“A Christian is the highest style of man.”—Young’s Night Thoughts.
“There was never law, or sect, or opinion did so magnify goodness as the Christian religion doth.”—Lord Bacon.
CHAPTER XII.
The religious aspects of Mormonism paramount—General ignorance concerning the Mormon religious system—Sources of their Doctrines—Revelation, not reason, the primary source—All religions founded on revelation—Sacred books—The Mormon Bible—The “Book of Mormon”—Migrations of Jews to America—Visit of Jesus to America—“Book of Doctrine and Covenants”—The “Living Oracles.”
The majority of persons are more interested, it seems, in the political and social aspects of the Mormon question than in the purely religious; and this is only natural, because events of a political nature are usually more stirring than any other, and multitudes of people can grow indignant over violations of the law of the land, who at the same time have no deep-seated abhorrence of sin per se. The war against polygamy is undoubtedly of great interest to the average citizen; and the Christian himself cannot help sympathizing with the vigorous work of enforcing the law against polygamy, even though he may not always be in sympathy with the spirit of those who make the political phase paramount to every other.
The religious aspects of the question must ever have the pre-eminence in the Christian’s mind, because the eternal destinies of thousands of souls are involved in this great heresy, and because Mormonism will continue to have strength and vitality as a religious system, even though it be stripped of its objectionable political and social features. The rank and file of the people are devoted to their creed. They sincerely believe themselves to be the real conservators of the faith once delivered to the Saints. They are fortified by a system of theology as plausible to the darkened understanding as it is pleasing to the natural heart. They are living under a covenant of works, upon which they have staked their all, and they have a hope of abundant rewards in the future. Their conception of the divine law is narrow and inadequate, because their notions respecting God are cramped and carnal. Gross error has become thoroughly rooted in the minds of the people.
As we have already seen in treating of the political and social aspects of Mormonism, its real power lies in its doctrines. It is the Mormon’s constant boast that nothing can shake the sure foundations of his faith. He has a sincere conviction that his doctrines are invulnerable; but, although the strength of Mormonism does lie in its doctrines, perhaps not one hundredth of the people of our land know anything about their religious tenets, save the doctrine of polygamy.
Let us, therefore, endeavor to get some idea of Mormonism as a religious system—a system of doctrines and precepts; and in doing so let us consider, in the first place,
I. The Sources of their Doctrines.
Mormonism rests not upon human reason as its first great source, but upon divine revelation. It is not a system of philosophy, therefore, but a system of religion; for Professor Köstlin says: “Without revelation there can be no religion; and it is a fact which should not be overlooked that even those who, on account of their idea of God, absolutely reject the idea of a direct, divine revelation, recognizing nothing but Nature in her material existence and mechanical working, cannot help applying to Nature expressions and conceptions which tend to raise her above the dumb necessity, and constitute her a higher being, capable of moral relations; nor can they for a longer period escape a feeling of thirst after revelations of the secret depths of that being, which they then strive to attain by ways more or less mystical and magical.” (Schaff-Herzog’s “Encyclopædia of Religious Knowledge,” Vol. III., page 2021.) And in accordance with that statement, the editor of the Independent, in an editorial note published April 8th, 1886, says: “The history of this world shows that in respect to the subject of religion, the supernatural is to human thought and feeling really the natural. We search that history in vain for a religious system that has stamped itself upon the faith and practice of men, operating upon them as a controlling power of comfort and hope, and organizing itself into their personal and social life by forms, usages, and modes of worship, and at the same time professedly based on the discoveries and authority of unaided human reason. Philosophies in abundance have been the products of such reason, but religious systems never. All the idolatries of antiquity claimed to be supernatural, and the same is true of all the forms of modern heathenism. Such is the assumed character of Mohammedanism and Mormonism.... The world never has had, and, judging by the past, never will have a religious system without this element. It does not want, and will not accept, a religion that claims for itself no higher basis than that of mere reason.”
“Thus saith the Lord” is the one claim of all the religious systems of the world. Accordingly we find that the adherents of all the great religions have their sacred books, which they venerate as revelations from heaven, from whence they claim their doctrines have emanated. The Brahmin has his Vedas; the Buddhist has his Tripitaka; the Zoroastrian has his Avesta; the Jew has the Law and the Prophets; the Christian has the Old and New Testaments; the Mohammedan has the Koran. In like manner, the Mormon has the “Book of Mormon.” But the Book of Mormon is not the only inspired book of the Latter-Day Saints. They adopt the Bible, the “Book of Mormon,” and the “Book of Doctrine and Covenants,” as their inspired Scriptures; and these are the sources of their doctrines.
1. The Mormon Bible.—By those not familiar with Mormon literature, the Mormon Bible and the “Book of Mormon” are frequently confounded. The former, however, is simply our English version of the Scriptures, with such modifications and distortions as Joseph Smith, the inspired translator, saw fit to make. He twisted some passages in Genesis so as to turn statements connected with the life of the patriarch Joseph into prophecies relating to a great prophet called Joseph, who should come forth in the latter days—referring to himself. He even had the audacity to make interpolations in Christ’s Sermon on the Mount; but our Bible, as translated by Smith and interpreted by him and his successors, is accepted by every Mormon as inspired, and is to be found in every Mormon Church.
2. The “Book of Mormon” is the next source of their doctrines, and is the more modern revelation, and therefore takes precedence over the Bible. The supernatural origin of the book, according to the Mormon belief, we have already given in Chapter I.
Mormon, after whom the book is called, was the last of the sacred prophets of ancient America. He was the leader of a race called the Nephites, and perished in a battle between his own race and the Lamanites in A.D. 420.
Both Nephites and Lamanites were descendants from the family of Lehi, an Israelite of the tribe of Manasseh, who emigrated from Jerusalem to America during the reign of King Zedekiah, 600 B.C.
The wars between these two races form the great bulk of the book. In the year A.D. 420 the decisive battle was fought at Cummorah, in Western New York. The Nephites were exterminated, with the exception of a few individuals. Mormon, their leader, was slain, and with him 230,000. The descendants of the victorious Lamanites are the North American Indians.
The “Book of Mormon” is said to be the condensed record of the history, faith, and prophecies of the ancient inhabitants of America, made on golden plates by the prophet Mormon. These plates he intrusted to his son Moroni, who survived the awful battle of extermination. He was the last of the Nephites to die, but before dying he sealed up the golden plates on which all these events were written and hid them in the Hill Cummorah, the very site of the final battle between the Nephites and Lamanites; and there Joseph Smith, guided by the spirit of Moroni himself, found them in 1827, took them to his home, translated them by means of his magical spectacles, and had them printed under the title “The Book of Mormon.”
It is certainly a unique work. It is a collection of sixteen separate or distinct books professing to be written at different periods by different prophets. Its style is in imitation of the Bible, and it incorporates about three hundred passages directly from the Holy Scriptures.
Among the records of the book are accounts of three different migrations to the American Continent: 1. A colony from the Tower of Babel soon after the flood, which was led by Jared, and which in time became a great nation, but was destroyed for their sins. 2. A colony led by Lehi from Jerusalem, which gave rise to the Nephites and Lamanites. 3. A number of Israelites who came from Jerusalem about eleven years after Lehi.
The book also declares that a supernatural light which lasted three days and three nights informed the inhabitants of America of the birth of Christ, and later a terrible earthquake announced His crucifixion; and three days afterward Jesus Himself appeared, descending out of heaven into the chief city of the Nephites in the sight of the people, to whom He exhibited His wounded side and the prints of the nails in His hands and feet. He remained with them forty days, and repeated to them His Sermon on the Mount, and appointed twelve American apostles, and gave them orders regarding baptism and His holy communion.
This book was the foundation of Mormonism; and Sidney Rigdon said: “The ‘Book of Mormon’ is to govern the Millennial Church;” but whatever may have been its uses to the Saints in the beginning of their career, it has had little to do with their practices for many years, save as a text-book.
3. The “Book of Doctrine and Covenants.”—Another source of Mormon doctrine—and a more fruitful source than the Book of Mormon—is the “Book of Doctrine and Covenants.” This is a collection of all the multifarious revelations that Joseph Smith claimed to receive and which he promulgated, together with the only revelation put forth by Brigham Young—the one which he set forth at Council Bluffs in 1847 to inspire and guide the Saints in their projected western pilgrimage through the wilderness.
4. Living Oracles.—The fourth source of Mormon doctrine is what has well been called the “Living Oracles,” the divine communications made continually to the priesthood. Theoretically the Mormons hold the Bible and their two sacred books to be the inspired Scriptures for their guidance: the Old Testament, as addressed particularly to the Jewish Church; the New Testament to the Judaic and European Christian Church; the “Book of Mormon” to the Church of America, and the “Book of Doctrine and Covenants” to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. But practically, authority and guidance for them emanate from their living leaders, and few of either chiefs or masses read any of the three sacred books in order to know and follow the recorded teachings.
Thus Mormonism, through its belief in a continual revelation to the priesthood, especially the First Presidency and the Twelve Apostles, has marvellous ability to change itself to meet every emergency.
CHAPTER XIII.
THE RELIGIOUS PUZZLE (continued).