Page:History of Utah.djvu/420



36S MORMONISM AND POLYGAMY.

community and think to rule, or to have any part In the government as at present existing, and following the line of law and order. This is why the people of Missouri and Illinois drove them out — not because of their religion or immorality, for their religion was nothing to the gentiles, and their morals were as good or better than those of their neighbors. It may as well be understood and agreed upon that, in the United States or out of the United States, the Mor- mons are, and ever will be, a people self-contained and apart.

Thus the matter continues to be discussed by the world at large, as a question of theology or morality, and not of active political and judicial control, or of the domination of a politico-religious organization, with aspirations and purposes diverse from those of the American people generally.

The theory and assumption of the Mormon church as a politico-religious organization is that the church is a government of God, and not responsible to any other government on earth conflicting with it, if not indeed bound from necessity to overturn and supplant all civil governments. This assumption lies at the very foundation of the Mormon creed; and from this point, in practical operation as well as in theory, there is a divergence between that organization and the United States government. Grant that any man believes what the Mormons believe, say their enemies, and where will his allegiance rest — with the government of the United States, or with this politico-religious or- ganization which ought to and will, as they imagine, supplant all other governments? Many of them are alien born, and, from the treatment they receive on their arrival, learn to distrust the government of the United States, and to cling all the closer to the insti- tutions of their sect.

" It is not consistent that the people of God," says Orson Pratt, "should organize or be subject to man- made governments. If it were so, they cou