CONGRESS, UNITED STATES. (POLYGAMY IN UTAH.) 



221 



entertain on the subject of polygamy, if he 

 does not engage in its practice. A church or 

 sect whose religious faith is that the Old Tes- 

 tament practice of polygamy is right and the 

 Christian practice of monogamy wrong, has 

 as much right to the free exercise of its opin- 

 ions as any other in the United States. 



" I feel fully authorized to assume the posi- 

 tion as founded upon the rock of the authority 

 of the Saviour himself, and firmly imbedded in 

 the doctrines of Christianity, that no husband 

 shall put away his wife and no wife shall put 

 away her husband except for the cause of for- 

 nication, and that if either puts away the other 

 except for that cause and marries another, or 

 they both marry others, they are guilty of 

 adultery, and the second marriage according 

 to the divine law is a nullity, and the parties 

 are still husband and wife, refusing to discharge 

 the duties of husband and wife toward each 

 other, and living in adultery with other per- 

 sons. Then there is no escape from the con- 

 clusion that, according to the divine law, every 

 man who has divorced his wife except for for- 

 nication, and married another, or has married 

 a second wife without divorce, is neglecting 

 his legal wife and living in adultery with an- 

 other woman. And every man who has mar- 

 ried a woman who was illegally divorced from 

 her husband is living in adultery with the wife 

 of another man. And if the wife puts away 

 the husband for like cause and marries another, 

 she, too, has a living husband, and is living in 

 adultery with another man. And each having 

 a plurality of wives or husbands living at the 

 same time is living in the practice of bigamy 

 or polygamy or polyandry. I apprehend this 

 position can not be controverted by any one 

 who admits Christ to be the Son of God and 

 the divine lawgiver. All who deny his divin- 

 ity and authority may reach a different con- 

 clusion. But those who deny Christ's divin- 

 ity have no sufficient authority for monogamy. 



"It follows, then, that a man, whether he 

 lives in Massachusetts or Georgia, who has left 

 his wife without a divorce, or has divorced his 

 wife, except for fornication, and married an- 

 other, and is now living with her, is a bigamist, 

 and is living in a state of adultery, as much so 

 as is a Mormon in Salt Lake City who has 

 married two wives, under their system, and 

 lives and cohabits with both ; the only differ- 

 ence being that the Mormon relation is con- 

 demned by a statute passed by the Congress of 

 the United States, while the bigamy practiced 

 by the citizen of Georgia or the citizen of 

 Massachusetts is legalized, in the very teeth of 

 the divine law, by the authority of the State. 

 They stand side by side alike condemned by 

 the divine lawgiver of the universe. They are 

 both bigamists, and they both live in a state of 

 adultery; and the moral guilt of the husband 

 in Utah who lives with two wives, one of 

 whom he has no right to have, is no greater 

 than the moral guilt of the husband who in 

 Georgia or in Massachusetts has two wives and 



cohabits in a state of adultery with the one he 

 has no right to have. 



" Under the Mormon system the husband is 

 married to a plurality of wives. He cohabits 

 with them all as his wives, and they are gener- 

 ally prolific of offspring. According to the 

 law of his church he believes his offspring are 

 legal, and it is his duty to care for and support 

 them all alike. The mother of each is regarded 

 as his legal wife, and each of the children is 

 regarded as his son or daughter. The family 

 is sustained and kept together according to 

 the old patriarchal usage. The people are an 

 industrious, laborious people ; they are a thrifty 

 people. No beggars or tramps are found in 

 the streets. Pauperism is but little known in 

 the Territory. Everybody seems to have plenty 

 to do, and each person is at work to accomplish 

 the task before him. What they call adultery, 

 or the cohabitation by a Mormon husband with 

 a woman to whom he is not married according 

 to the rites of their church, is regarded as a 

 great crime. And I believe it is generally ad- 

 mitted that prior to the settlement of Gentiles, 

 as they term outside people, among them, 

 neither prostitutes nor houses of ill-fame were 

 known to any extent in the Territory. 



"But all this thrift, and order, and labor, 

 and prosperity are, in my opinion, insufficient 

 to justify the practice of polygamy, which is 

 allowed by the Mormon church. I refer to it 

 only to contrast their system of bigamy and 

 prostitution with our own system. Go to the 

 other parts of the Union, where Mormonism is 

 not known, and you will find it unfortunately 

 true that prostitution is practiced to an alarm- 

 ing extent. In many States of the Union 

 houses for the practice of it are either licensed 

 by the public or permitted without interfer- 

 ence by the police. Large numbers of illegiti- 

 mate children are born without the protection 

 either to the mother or child given to the plural 

 wife and her offspring in Utah. In most in- 

 stances the mother and child are discarded by 

 the child's father, and they are cast together 

 into the streets to make their living as best 

 they can. I have not the statistics before me 

 to show the exact proportion that the prosti- 

 tutes bear to the population of any of our 

 States, or to show the percentage of children 

 born in the United States that are illegitimate. 

 Our census reports are defective in this par- 

 ticular, but both classes are large. 



"Twenty-five years ago it was estimated 

 that there were more than 6,000 prostitutes in 

 the city of New York alone. Since that time 

 the city has more than doubled in population, 

 and I presume we have made fearful strides of 

 increase in this pernicious practice. It is no 

 doubt safe to assume the position that there 

 are 12,000 prostitutes in that great city at the 

 present time. And in the other cities of the 

 Union, something like the same number in 

 proportion to population. If this number is 

 regarded too startling for belief, I beg to call 

 the attention of the Senate to the fact that it 



