The Globe. MONDAY, APRIL 7, 1879.

Globe, Volume XX, Issue 1601, 7 April 1879, Page 2

The Globe. MONDAY, APRIL 7, 1879.

A. CONSIDERABLE amount of haziness has, for a length of time, hung over the question of the existence of Mormonism in t.ho United States. That polygamy should, in a Christian and civilisod State, be able to hold any sort of fight against the supremo powor of Parliament appears at first g'lance somewhat singular. And yet it was but the other day that the question w.is finally settled whether it lay within the constitutional power of Congress to forbid the practice of polygamy in Utah. Tho Supremo Court of the United States has now, however, decided that Congress has the right to lay its ban on Mormonism. This conclusion hingos entirely on the fact that Utah is a Territory and not a State. Utah, although, from its population and wealth, it has .s, far better claim to bo allowed to bocomo a State than most of tho districts recently brought within the Union, has always been refused admittance. In the mattor of admission Congress holds absolute jurisdiction, and it has exorcised this oxclusive powor in tho present instance in tho direction of forbidding Utah to hold tho status of a regular State. Had it been allowed, such a status the Supreme Court would have been totally unable to pass any law to-

wards tho suppression of polygamy except by an alteration of the Constitution itsolf. It was, Indeed, only in this way that Congress was enabled before the war {o interfere with the States, that upheld slavery. Congress lias no power whatever over the marriage laws 171 tho different States. In Illinois, for instance, the divorce law is so very lax that ft divorce can bo obtained on the slightest pretext. The consequence is that a niarriod couple can pass from any other Shite into Illinois, become separated, and return from whonco they came in a state of blessed singleness. And they can do this, in the face of most stringent divorce laws existing in their own localities. Had Utah been a regular State, Congress could not, have interfered with polygamy unless tho constitution had been altered on purpose, and those who know how tenaciously the States hold by their individual rights, will recognise the enormous difficulties which would stand in the way of any such alteration. But, by what, may almost bo called an accident, Utah is a territory and not, a State, and although a territorial Government posseses tho power of life and death within its own boundaries almost to the same extent as a Stato Government, yet tho Supremo authority of Congress can override a local law in a territory, a powor which it does not possess in a State. Hence tho constitutionality of its power over tho laws of Utah. Apparently polygamy might exist, as tho constitution at present stands, in any of the regular States, and tho Supremo authority would bo totally unablo to do anything towards its suppression. Brigham Young, whon first ho started into tho Tar West, little dreamt of tho rapid development of tho States, or most probably he would havo sought other fields and pastures. Ho pitched on a tract of country which was only nominally under tho jurisdiction of tho United States, and ho made the wilderness to blossom like a garden. But ho was on laud owned by a people who wero unablo to soo tho forco or morality of his peculiar tenets, and a clash has arrived far sooner than tho so callod prophet could possibly had anticipated. Had ho, in his prophetic ecstasies, happened to seo tho iron horse travelling along tho Pacific railway, ho would probably havo inspanned his teams at once, and moved over tho border; or ho might havo sailed far away for somo distant land, whero polygamy is not considered as an offence against the common conscience of mankind. Tho Mormons, no doubt, considor themsolvos a hardly used body. They ventured across a trackless desert, and possibly many of them sincerely believed in the creod with which thoy had bound up their fates. They knew that more than half of mankind bolieve in polygamy, and thoy thought that thoy might, far out in tho West, as they did not intend to.interfere with anybody else, bo allowed to live in peace. But the sympathies of no Englishman can go with them, and it is with sincere pleasure that the judgment lately passed by the United States Supreme Court must bo hailed.