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The Mormon Question
North American and United States Gazette (Philadelphia, PA)
26 June 1857
Recent events have given a significance and importance to this subject, which now engages public attention every where, and has at last properly claimed the serious consideration of the authorities at Washington. In the heart of the continent, on the great highway to the Pacific ocean, thousands of people have collected together, and under the laws of the United States erected a theocratic government of the most absolute despotism, with social institutions and forms so revolting to the moral sense and degrading to the very name of civilized humanity. Utah was organized as a territorial government in 1850, having been settled by the remaining Mormons who were expelled from Illinois for their disgusting licentiousness and crime. In the short space of seven years, this scattered band of vicious men, under the lead of crafty and designing managers, have succeeded in deluding and proselyting the many thousands now concentrated about Salt Lake, and in establishing an organization which presents a social anomaly and a problem of difficult solution.
It may be said, to the credit of our own people, that the great mass, perhaps nine-tenths, of this population, is of foreign importation, and has been drawn here by the impositions to which the weak-minded and ignorant are always liable. The leaders of this community, grown insolent by the toleration of the government, and arrogant from a consciousness of the strength of isolation, have not only disregarded the laws of the United States without even the pretence of nominal respect for them, but have substituted their own wicked discipline as the only code of recognized authority. Federal judges and other officers have been driven out of the territory, with peril to their lives. The public mails have been ransacked and robbed and, worse than all, either by combination with the Indians, or disguised as such, the lives of citizens and soldiers have been sacrificed, to appease the revenge of Brigham Young and his sensual crew, by willing Mormon parasites. These facts, with the revelations of many of the unfortunate victims of this gross imposture, have awakened that interest and indignation which are now finding expression throughout the country.
Here, then, is an imposing deformity which everybody admits and feels; and the question is, how can it be remedied? Under the democratic doctrine of "squatter sovereignty," an application for the admission of Utah into the Union could not be denied. The constitution prescribes but one condition, which is, that the form of governmentadopted by the applying territory shall be republican. There is alleged to be the population required by law for representation. It is very true Congress has the discretion to admit or to reject the application; but upon the Democratic principle referred to, and advocated by Gen. Cass and such leaders, that discretion has become more a shadow than a substance.
As long as the territory exists under the present organization, the Executive has only a direct course to pursue, in seeing the laws faithfully executed. And we are glad to commend the steps which President Buchanan has taken—in direct antagonism to the mistaken policy of President Fillmore—by dismissing Brigham Young and his whole bestial gang from office. That is a step forward, and is likely to be attended with beneficial consequences. Once divested of the trappings of power, which in themselves overawe the weak and timid, thousands who now yield reluctant recognition to his sway, will revolt and renounce the profligacy which they erroneously embraced under the disguise of a patriarchal religion. Already there are hopeful signs of rebellion in this lewd camp of corruption, and the opportunity is only needed to give it form and vitality. The presence of Gen. Harney, at the head of 2500 picked troops, will inspire the confidence which is wanting to begin a moral revolution, and to hold in check the embittered passions and hostilities of the pampered Mormon chiefs and their followers.
The government has no power to interfere with the social institutions existing in Utah. Polygamy is not punishable under any law applicable to the territories of the United States. Hence, admitting the proposed order of things to be established; with a new governor, new judges, new marshals, and the like, this institution, as well as the government of the so called "church," would yet exist and flourish, except where they might accidentally come into collision with the territorial authorities. And although the laws of the United States might be executed, order preserved and personal rights secured, still the crying evil which renders Utah a plague-spot upon the face of the earth would not be eradicated. For this purpose, the Executive arm of the government is powerless.
There is a mode, however, in which Brigham Young and his confederates may be possibly reaced. The murders, robberies, and other outrages committed in Utah, upon portions of the troops and persons attached to the California trains, are believed to have been instigated, if not personally directed, by these chiefs. And the hope is indulged that sufficient evidence may be obtained to result in their conviction as principals or accessories. No legal penalty that can follow such conviction will go beyond public feeling or expectation, if it even fulfills either. Summary punishment, by depriving this wretched sect of their guilty leaders, may lead to a clearer perception of the filthy fraud of which they have been the victims, and perhaps be followed ultimately by their dispersion and the breaking up of the organization. This is a way of proceeding, under the existing territorial government, which is entirely sanctioned by law and justice.
In a recent speech at Springfield, Judge Douglas, one of the special champions of "squatter sovereignty," seeing the dilemma into which that doctrine must lead him and his followers in regard to Utah, and yet unwilling to renounce it boldly, suggested another remedy, which is entitled to consideration. He proposes to abolish the present territorial government entirely, and to bring the country back into the custody of the United States under the act of 1790, where all the territories stood before they received organized governments from Congress, and where a large tract of territory still stands. His justification for this measure is that the population of Utah is not composed of American citizens, but of men who are aliens and outlaws, denying allegiance to, and defying the authority of the United States. It would have been equally creditable to Judge Douglas, if the proposed remedy had been vindicated upon higher moral grounds, and recommended by reasons of enlightened policy, that would have commanded the reaction and applause of the civilized world. The power of Congress to destroy its own creation, upon the plea that the formation of a territorial government involves certain indestructible vested rights, has been questioned in some quarters, but without sufficient cause. Whether the moral right should be exercised, after the legal one is conceded, presents a grave question, not in the present application, but as a precedent hereafter. No reason short of moral forfeiture of those rights would justify the assertion of this power. It could be asserted on no other consideration.
If the accounts which have recently come in so many and seemingly such well authenticated stapes from Utah are verified, there will be no hesitation throughout the country in sustaining the repeal of the organic act. By the meeting of Congress, the experiment about to be tried by the administration will have been inaugurated and in some degree tested. If it should fail under all the encouraging auspices and purposes, there is but one remedy left, and that is to scatter Mormonism to the winds, by depriving it of the protection of a government in which law is professed to exist while the worst form of license actually prevails.
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