MORMONISM FROM A MORMON POINT OF VIEW. 157 



mentioned may doubtless be accepted as final. With regard to the 

 historical portion of the subject it is different, and here a certain 

 allowance must be made for the bias of a religious partisan ; but it is 

 not the less interesting to read this brief but stirring history, as it is 

 told by those who played a prominent part in its events. Having 

 studied these books, I shall endeavor to give a short account of Mor- 

 monism, as it is described by the Mormons themselves, and as it ap- 

 pears to myself, being personally little predisposed to regard it favor- 

 ably, but convinced that its case has seldom been fairly stated to the 

 public. 



A certain practical importance attaches at present to the subject, 

 for the future position of Mormonism in the Union is among the many 

 difficult political problems now offering themselves for solution in the 

 United States of America. It presents, indeed, upon a small scale, a 

 similar difficulty to that caused by the existence of slavery in the 

 Southern States : as to how far it is possible to maintain political fed- 

 eration between communities differing essentially in their social insti- 

 tutions. The American Constitution is wonderfully elastic, but it has 

 proved impossible to retain slaveholding States permanently within 

 its limits. Is its elasticity sufficient to admit into the Union a State 

 which would legalize polygamy ? Hitherto a negative answer has 

 been given by Congress to this question, and the claims of Utah Ter- 

 ritory to become a State have been urged in vain ; but the steady in- 

 crease of population and wealth is constantly strengthening those 

 claims, and they cannot much longer be ignored. The fourth unsuc- 

 cessful attempt to obtain admission as a State of the Union was made 

 in 1872, when the population of Utah already exceeded that of Ne- 

 vada and Nebraska combined (at the date of their admission), being 

 upward of 105,000 ; and a memorial to Congress was adopted, pray- 

 ing for admission into the Union as a sovereign State. The constitu- 

 tion then proposed for the State, which was to bear the name of Dese- 

 ret, was approved by the people of the Territory, with only 368 dis- 

 sentient votes ; it provided for women's suffrage, and minority repre- 

 sentation. 



The admission of Nevada, Nebraska, and Colorado, all of them 

 neighboring Territories with inferior population to Utah, appears to 

 justify the assertion of the Mormons that the unpopularity of their 

 religion was the sole cause of their exclusion. Had Deseret been 

 created a sovereign State in 1872, the controversy as to polygamy 

 might have entered upon a new and critical phase, as the State Legis- 

 lature would doubtless have claimed the right to legalize plurality of 

 wives within its own jurisdiction. No such right can be claimed by 

 the existing Legislature of Utah, whose powers are restricted by the 

 provisions of the act of 1850, to which the Territory owes its politi- 

 cal existence. All laws of the Territorial Legislature must have the 

 sanction of the Governor (who is appointed by the President of the 



