Brigham Young Quotes
[The state would] have an equal right to make laws protecting polygamy.
Young said when Utah was admitted as a state, it would then have this right
Brigham Young, 1801-1877, Mormon Leader and Governor of Utah, Quoted in “The ‘Twin Relics of Barbarism,’” New York Times, July 18, 1869
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
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 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.
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.
At the time polygamy was approved of by the Mormons. However they were pressured to accept monogamy in order to have peace with the rest of the nation. The Mormon church changed its doctrine and Mormons may only have a single wife. However, there are some dissident Mormon groups that still illegally practice polygamy.
It is surprising that these ideas would come from one of the most autocratic powerful monarch in the world at the time. However there were many very liberal influences on her from Europe. This set of proposals she even sent to Voltaire to get his feedback and criticism.
This is the earliest surviving attempt of the Romans to formulate a legal code.
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.
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.
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.
This quotation illustrates the Catch 22 dilemma that faces a minority. Black slaves were not allowed to marry and have formal families. After the Civil War racists warned against Blacks who had no respect for marriage monogamy end civil family life. See {619099} But when the slaves were freed and the ex slaves attempted to formalize and solemnize their marriages, they were castigated for that – acting like white people.
Describes the contest between President Ulysses S. Grant and the Mormons over the issue of polygamy in the 1860s
Waite said that exempting plural marriage from criminality under the guise of religious freedom was to make religion superior to the law
At the time, the mother had no legal rights whatsoever over the upbringing of their own children. If the father did not want the mother to nurse a child, she could not. Although born and educated in the United States, she lived mostly in England and was politically active there.
Billinghurst was physically handicapped without the use of her legs. She protested and marched in protest parades using a hand propelled tricycle which the police sometimes dumped her out of and left her immobile in alleys.
What was to become the 14th Amendment was being discussed. Several of the most radical Republicans drafted language that would allow Congress to make any law regarding life, liberty or property, so that they could be sure that the States would not make their laws in a discriminatory manner. However, Hotchkiss and the majority wanted to be sure the laws were not discriminatory but they didn’t want Congress to have the power to make any law regarding life, liberty and property for every state. The current version of the 14th Amendment just prohibited discrimination in laws, not empowering the Federal Government to override the state governments in most important areas.
This is a classic example of taking a principle and extrapolating it to an absurd degree. The Supreme Court did rule that there was a right to privacy and did rule that the state could not interfere with most consensual sex in the home including adultery. However the court did not permit bigamy or polygamy, sex with minors, and a host of other areas where the common weal is benefitted. Santorum and others with his view believe that the state should have the right to criminalize adultery and homosexual contact in a private home. And they indeed had this prerogative at earlier times. People were jailed for adultery in Virginia, for having intercourse in different positions in Alabama, for using condoms in Connecticut and others. However, most of the support for these sexual control laws came from religious fundamentalists who wanted the state to enforce their religious beliefs on all. That together with the privacy right, no longer allowed these state abuses if individual freedom. Ironically, most of the advocates for the state’s having the right to restrict sexual freedom. Think of themselves as advocates of individuality and the government not telling folks what to do or how to behave.
Brigham Young was an American religious leader, politician, and settler. He was the second president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) from 1847 until his death in 1877. He founded Salt Lake City and served as the first governor of the Utah Territory. Young also led the foundings of the precursors to the University of Utah and Brigham Young University.
