|
UTAH AND POPULAR SOVEREIGNTY
National Era
30 April 1857
The Washington Union announces that the Governorship of Utah has been tended to Maj. BENJAMIN McCULLOUGH, of Texas, and that is is probable he will accept it. Letter writers say that the purpose of the Administration is to pursue a peaceful policy, so that the laws shall be exercised and the rights of every inhabitant protected.
Such generalities mean nothing. Public Sentiment demands that Polygamy and its associate evils should be suppressed. Newspapers, without distinction of Party, insist that it is a disgrace to the country, and some effectual remedy must be found. But, what can the Administration do? If the existing Territorial Government in Utah be in a state of rebellion, it can have the rebels seized and punished, and can appoint new Territorial officers—but, it cannot repeal the act establishing the Territory, or the Territorial Laws, or extend the laws of the several States, punishing bigamy. It may displace Brigham Young, but Brigham will still keep his harem and give law to his followers. It may reorganize the Courts, but justice will be administered under Mormon Laws, and Mormon Juries will acquit Mormon offenders.
A large military force and an energetic Governor may keep peace in the Territory, but how will they suppress Polygamy and make the People fit for association with the States of the Union? So long as Polygamy shall be tolerated, with its attendant train of vices and crimes, what have you gained?
The subject is one for the consideration and action of Congress, and that body would have acted long ago but for the miserable doctrine of Squatter Sovereignty. General Cass more than any other man is responsible for the abominations that prevail in Utah. If a handful of settlers in a large Territory have the right to determine their own domestic institutions, without interference from Congress, to legislate exclusively on their domestic concerns, alone to decide as to the character of the State or States to be organized in said Territory—for to this extent does the doctrine go—by what power, in what way, can these Utah settlers be reached? If Polygamy were prohibited by the Constitution of the United States, judicial decision might annul it, and the decision could be enforced by executive action. But, the Constitution is silent about it—and Squatter Sovereignty, being supreme, where not restrained by the Constitution, may establish the abomination, and how are you to help it, General Cass? The doctrine shuts Congress out of the Territories—prevents the twenty-five millions of American People from saying a word as to what shall be the destiny or character or institutions of the vast Territories they have acquired by purchase or blood—abandons them to the few adventurers from all parts of the world who may first get foothold in them.
It is this false and mischievous doctrine—a cunning invention, to save a Presidential aspirant from perplexity, to enable the Democratic Party to wear two faces, so that it might secure the support of hostile sections, and to exempt the Slavery-Propaganda from Congressional interference—that has held Congress back from all action in regard to Utah, until the vile institution of Polygamy and a rebel Fanaticism have been making such strides in that Territory, that they now defy the power of the United States.
The new Congress, Democratic though it be, will be compelled to repudiate the silly fiction of Squatter Sovereignty, transcend the feeble power conceded to it by Judge Taney, and legislate for Utah, on the principles of Common Sense—General Cass and Judge Taney to the contrary notwithstanding. If Brigham Young and his deluded followers have formed an independent, alien community in one of our Territories, resolved to maintain it, and will not reside there on any other condition, let Congress authorize and require the President to break it up and disperse it, just as it would in relation to any other alien attempt to appropriate a portion of our Territory. If they will agree to keep their superstition out of politics, to maintain a church or a sect, like other sects, without pretension to political power, then let Congress confine itself to the passage of a law prohibiting Polygamy or Bigamy in the Territory, under heavy pains and penalties, framing it so that it may be executed, despite all efforts on the part of the Mormons. We suppose even General Cass might admit that it would have power to prohibit Thugism, or Widow-Burning, or Infanticide, should Squatter Sovereignty attempt to establish either as an institution in any Territory. And we may suppose, too, that Congress, having made the discovery that it could prohibit the throttling of men, the burning of women, and the drowning of children, might be tempted to go a little further, and forbid the enslaving of men, whipping of women, and the selling of children.
|