486 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



prevents the accumulation of wealth. It tends to the dissipation of 

 social energy. The father to more than one family cannot possibly 

 he a father to either. No man can duplicate himself; and he who be- 

 gins hy having three families and three homes, ends by having none. 

 To this must be added the constant fear, of late years in Utah, of in- 

 terference by the Government ; and thus has been added a new and 

 fearful element of uncertainty to the affairs of life. One result has 

 been to engender suspicion, and a general lack of the monogamic feel- 

 ing of fixedness; and these in turn prevent large organizations for 

 business. Whatever be the true theory, as things are now, it must 

 be admitted that the family is the cement of the civil structui-e -the 

 unit, so to speak, from which are successively built up the school-dis- 

 trict, township, county, State, and nation and that without the unit 

 of organization the higher forms could not be evolved. Whatever, 

 then, introduces an element of uncertainty into the family, weakens 

 social cohesion and lessens the ability for organization. Accordingly, 

 we see that no polygamous people ever established a republic or even 

 a remote approach to one ; and that in Utah every kind of organiza- 

 tion, for business or politics, is headed and managed by the priest- 

 hood. Without them it could not have been organized at all. Social 

 cohesion is the one indispensable element in a republic : that a people 

 may practise self-government it is necessary that an overwhelming 

 majority should be able to trust each other, transact business, and 

 regulate their conduct without any government at all. Their social 

 cohesion is certainly weaker among a polygamous people, and must 

 in some way be supplemented ; accordingly, theocracy is their natural 

 form of government, and with it springs up a paternalism which aims 

 to take care of the affairs of everybody. 



The result of these forces working together gives us the clew to 

 the whole history of Utah. For twenty years the priesthood was ab- 

 solute spiritually and temporally; the hurch directed everything 

 and governed everybody ; every detail of private life was regulated 

 by " counsel ; " every public act of the citizen was the subject of 

 some law. Inside the Church proper were three organized govern- 

 ments : the ecclesiastical, the civil, and the financial and industrial. 

 The civil government of the Territory, under the organic act of Utah, 

 passed by Congress, September 9, 1850, was scarcely known except 

 as a convenience by which the Church carried out decrees previously 

 agreed upon in the School of the Prophets. The incumbents of the 

 various offices made elective by the congressional act were first appoint- 

 ed by the Church ; the Mormon people then cast a unanimous vote for 

 them under the supervision of the priesthood, every voter's ballot be- 

 ing put on record. Only two instances are known to have occurred 

 of an attempt at political reform. In one of the southern districts 

 some young Mormons nominated a candidate not on the Church ticket 

 and elected him to the Legislature. Reaching the city he was promptly 



