If a man apostatizes who is in business he is no longer supported by the Mormons, and they in many places are nine tenths of the people. He is despised. He can get no work, since the Mormons control nearly all business contracts. The Mormon people will no longer hold intercourse with him. His family is the butt of ridicule and contempt, and his children are insulted and stigmatized. The entire family is as completely ostracized as though they had been convicted of an infamous crime. Now, it certainly requires strong heroism, real, sterling manhood, for one to face such a prospect for his family. Most people would obey the dictates of the hierarchy, whatever they might be, rather than bring such loss and shame upon themselves and their children. Thus it is seen how fear of earthly loss enters as a prominent factor in holding the Mormon people in bondage.
III. But lastly and chiefly, there is Strong Religious Conviction, which is the main prop of this social system. In discussing the Mormon puzzle in Utah, we must not forget that for twenty years this community was isolated by a thousand miles of barren waste from civilization. During this time it was literally a kingdom within itself; and Brigham Young was king, his word law, his command a commandment from God. During that time the present generation of Mormons were reared; and it is their strong conviction that the word of the priesthood is the word of God.
If we only glance at history, we will find many evidences of the great power of “Thus saith the Lord” over the minds of men. For religious conviction persons have burned at the stake and endured all manner of physical torture, to say nothing of the travail of soul through which they have passed. It is to this power, also, that Mormonism owes its strength. So strong is its control that the Mormons dare not, for fear of the loss of their soul’s salvation, enter protest against any command coming, as it does, with these words prefixed: “Thus saith the Lord.” The priesthood claim to have control of the “seals” and “keys” by which the gates of both heaven and hell can be opened and shut; and they take the keys by which they pretend to open the gates of vengeance and rattle them above the heads of the uneducated and superstitious, until they are frightened into believing that, if they should disobey any edict of this priesthood, they would be consigned to the flames of eternal fire. It is this fear of the loss of their souls if they disobey, and the conviction that their leaders cannot command anything but what God has commanded, that is the strongest pillar that holds up their social fabric. Thus do the Mormon people with their own hands rivet the chains which bind in a fearful bondage their bodies, their minds, and their souls.
CHAPTER XI.
THE SOCIAL PUZZLE (concluded).
The solution of the Social Puzzle—Mormon slavery and negro slavery compared—The duty of the Government to break up Mormon slavery—The remedy the same as for the political evils of Mormonism—Brigham Young opposed to immigration of Gentiles—A growing spirit of restlessness—Necessity of surrounding the youth with an atmosphere of freedom—Personal Bondage of the Mormons overcome by Gentile colonization—Social ostracism no longer dreaded—Mental Bondage overcome by national schools and colonization—Moral Bondage overcome by the same means—This policy not to be confounded with the let-alone policy—An apparent policy of toleration—The alarmist’s cry and its answer—The Mormon standpoint not to be overlooked—The cry of unconstitutionality—The proposed Polygamy Amendment to the Constitution—The cry of religious persecution—Imprisonment preferred to sacrifice of principle—Law impotent to break up polygamy—Supposed captivity of Mormon women a mistake—Mass-meeting of Mormon women to plead for polygamy—Senator Hoar on the solution of the social puzzle—How the law should be enforced and its probable effect—Superiority of the colonization plan over any other plan—Its effectiveness proved by the Oneida Community—The Social Puzzle solved—The duty of the nation, the citizen, and the Church.
If our diagnosis of the Mormon social system is correct, then the only effectual remedy will be one that reaches the real evil, which is slavery; and as polygamy is only one of the results of slavery, remove the cause and the result will likewise be removed.
But this slavery of the Mormons is very different from the negro slavery in the South before our Civil War. The latter was a legalized traffic, and the remedy for it was law. The slavery of the Mormons is a voluntary one, and rests not upon law but upon religious conviction; and hence law cannot be an effectual remedy. The Mormon Puzzle, then, is a much harder one to solve than the Negro Puzzle before the war, and will require a longer time for its solution.