Stephen Karam Quotes
I had spent four months in Cedar City, Utah, right after graduation as an intern at the Utah Shakespearean Festival. It's a town that has many people living the polygamous lifestyle.
Henderson, Kathy. "Stephen Karam." Broadway.com, 29 Oct. 2007.
The Mormons wanted Utah to be a United States territory or a state with an extreme state’s rights mentality whereby their religious doctrine in the Book of Mormon could be state law and at the time the Constitution had not yet been amended to require the state governments to adhere to the Bill of Rights or other Federal laws. In effect they wanted a democratic type of theocracy. See {619869}. The Mormons would not agree that Federal law should govern their community or people, and war with the Federal government was imminent. In an ironic twist, Johnson, a Texan, rebelled against the nation himself several years later when he became a Confederate General. He was the highest ranking Confederate Officer killed in Battle—at Shiloh.
Federal officials and commissioners issued laws, directives and orders that were very unpopular with the Mormons who were in the overwhelming majority of the Utah territory. The Mormon “government” was a type of theocracy but a very popular one. The Mormons tried to test the constitutionality and legality of the Federal laws and orders before they would obey. The government position was that they should obey and then could test the laws in the courts. The Mormons eventually lost in the courts anyway, but the principle of obedience to law until it can be tested and reversed has generally been the rule of U. S. Law. However, civil disobedience in which many religions have engaged in our history argues the obverse. Eventually Taylor had to go “underground” and rule the church from exile in which state he died.
“Celestial Marriage” is the term then used be Mormons to describe plural marriage.
The 100,000 Mormons in the Utah Territory rebelled at the hostile Federal officials coming into Utah to run things without the consent of the citizens of the territory. It was a cry for the territorial version of States’ Rights.
The major issue was whether Congress and the Federal Government could make laws and regulate the communities of people who had settled in the new territories. The argument that Young made was that unless a power was specifically enumerated in the Constitution as being granted to the Federal Government it was not. Most Constitutional scholars believe that there were powers implied by the enumerated powers such as the right for the Federal Government to regulate child labor or the safety of nuclear power plants which of course were never mentioned in the Constitution. At the same time anti Mormon sentiment led many to extend Federal Regulation to Mormons that had not been extended to other people. Plural marriage was one of those major value issues. The Mormons were very innovative in setting up institutions like buying cooperatives and systems for medical care and welfare, and many of these threatened the then established economic principles of many men of power and wealth. See {614881} for Brigham Young’s similar view.
Congress had passed the Edmunds Act prohibiting plural marriage. Taylor, who himself had 7 wives and 35 children, went “underground” and secretly operated the church from exile.
The major issue was whether Congress and the Federal Government could make laws and regulate the communities of people who had settled in the new territories. The argument that Young made was that unless a power was specifically enumerated in the Constitution as being granted to the Federal Government it was not. Most Constitutional scholars believe that there were powers implied by the enumerated powers such as the right for the Federal Government to regulate child labor or the safety of nuclear power plants which of course were never mentioned in the Constitution. At the same time anti Mormon sentiment led many to extend Federal Regulation to Mormons that had not been extended to other people/ Plural marriage was one of those major value issues. The Mormons were very innovative in setting up institutions like buying cooperatives and systems for medical care and welfare, and many of these threatened the then established economic principles of many men of power and wealth. See {614870} for John Taylor’s similar view.
Young said when Utah was admitted as a state, it would then have this right
Von Wackerbarth was one of the many Mormon haters of his day. His quotations have value not for the accuracy of the facts which are scant, but to indicate what much of public opinion regarding Mormons was in that day.
Describes the contest between President Ulysses S. Grant and the Mormons over the issue of polygamy in the 1860s
We count on Mormon assemblages to
Waite said that exempting plural marriage from criminality under the guise of religious freedom was to make religion superior to the law
While Pratt thought that his publication would explain Mormonism to the officials of the nation and reduce misunderstandings, the result was the opposite. Many Washington Government officials had heard “rumors” of Mormon polygamy. However, given their own perspective, most did not believe that any civilized people would so engage. But when they saw Pratt’s written documents like this, there was an official admission in writing of what was seen as a monstrous evil. Pratt himself had 7 wives and 45 children—shocking for most non Mormons of the time.
This is a fascinating quotation of the then leader of the Mormons. Historically, it shows us that many from the North, primarily to avoid the military draft of the Civil War, left their homes and emigrated to California, Washington and Oregon. In doing so, many passed through Salt Lake City and many became Mormons and stayed. These “Copperheads” included a serious peace movement at the time along with racists who didn’t want to risk their lives over the issue of slavery. Next we see the affinity that the Mormons had for the Copperheads. Actually, although the Mormons did not own slaves the church leadership had not been, well before the civil war, opposed to slavery and some were supportive of the institution. See {629157} and {629154}. Note the hostility that Young had for Abolitionists. At that time, a large proportion of the Abolitionists were religious Protestant laymen and laywomen and ministers. They were very outspoken and used writing and the media of the time to make their case. In almost all cases they also opposed polygamy and from a sexual morality point of view, saw it as little different from the slave owners sexual exploitation of his female slaves. Moreso than any other issue, polygamy was damaging the Mormon image amongst other Americans, It was the Abolitionists who were principle drivers of this negative image problem of the Mormons, So Young resented these “busybodies” and empathized with the Southerners not because he personally favored slavery, but they were both “victims” of the same set of do gooders. Young had a very limited narrow view of the rest of the country, and completely overestimated the prospects of the Southern Rebels.
This editorial was an excellent summary of the issue of Mormon polygamy where both sides are described. The Thugs were a violent religious sect in India where females were forced into marriage.
The use of “despotic” did not imply cruelty or even poor management of the society. The term was used to indicate that Brigham Young, the then Mormon Leader, had the powers and authority of a dictator. At the time most Americans in the East knew little about the Mormons. Ludlow was one of the early observers of Mormon society in Utah who wrote about the Mormons in popular—albeit intellectual—magazines. Ludlow regarded Mormonism as it was then practiced as incompatible with, and dangerous for, America, not because of the plural marriage, but the conflicts with the concepts of democracy and self-government. The authority that Brigham Young and the church then exercised over civil life was what distressed him and many other Americans.
This was the decision that sanctioned anti-polygamy laws.
Stephen Karam is an American playwright and screenwriter. His plays Sons of the Prophet, a comedy-drama about a Lebanese-American family, and The Humans were finalists for the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 2012 and 2016, respectively. The Humans won the 2016 Tony Award for Best Play.
