Page:History of Utah.djvu/425



whether it is good or bad; and here, the result being bad, the act is wrong, immoral.

The result is bad because by reason of the act civ- ilization takes a step backward, woman is degraded, and the progress of the race hampered. The mono- gamic is the highest type of family, and the highest type of society, yet evolved. Polygamy is better than promiscuity or polyandry, but it is not equal to mo- nogamy. Polygamy springs from the desire to extend the sexual gratification at the expense of the better sense of the better part of the world's inhabitants. It is but a few removes from the old way among sav- ages, where women were property, and bought by hus- bands to be used as slaves. To monogamy is due the fullest development of the emotions, of the higher sentiments, motherly tenderness, fatherly care, and the dutiful respect and obedience on the part of chil- dren. It is here that the passion of love assumes its most refined form ; it is here that we find in family, social, and political relations, the greatest good to the greatest number.

For if we degrade woman, we degrade her children, her husband, and the whole community. Through- out all ages the position of woman has fixed the ad- vancement of the nation in the scale of refinement and intelligence. Polygamy makes of woman, not the equal and companion of man, but his subordinate, if not indeed his serf or slave. The charm of her in- fluence is gone; the family circle becomes incongruous and less cohesive; and there is an absence of those firm relations, filial and paternal, which, continued through successive generations, engender the highest type of society yet known. Make of American wo- men Circassian slaves, and you will make of American men Turks.

The nations having the highest and best literature, laws, commerce, and religion, the nations that are enlightening the world with their books, telegraphs, steamboats, and railroads, are monogamic. Polygamy