THE SISTERS AND THE MARRIAGE QUESTION--THE WOMEN OF UTAH
ENFRANCHISED--PASSAGE OF THE WOMAN SUFFRAGE BILL--A POLITICAL
CONTEST--THE FIRST WOMAN THAT VOTED IN UTAH.
The women of Mormondom, and the marriage question! Two of the greatest
sensations of the age united!
Here we meet the subject of woman, in two casts--not less Gentile than
Mormon.
Marriage is the great question of the age. It is the woman's special
subject. Monogamic, or polygamic, it is essentially one problem. Either
phase is good, or bad, just as people choose to consider it, or just as
they are educated to view it.
The Mormons have been, for a quarter of a century, openly affirming,
upon the authority of a new revelation and the establishment of a
distinctive institution, that Gentile monogamy is not good. But more
than this is in their history, their religion, and their social
examples. They have made marriage one of their greatest problems. And
they accept the patriarchal order of marriage, according to the Bible
examples, and the revelation of their prophet, as a proper solution.
To Gentile Christians, monogamy is good, and polygamy barbarous. But
it is the old story of likes and dislikes, in which people so widely
differ.
That the Mormons have been strictly logical, and strictly righteous, in
reviving the institutions of the Hebrew patriarchs, in their character
of a modern Israel, may be seen at a glance, by any just mind. What
sense in their claim to be the Israel of the last days had they not
followed the types and examples of Israel? If they have incarnated the
ancient Israelitish genius--and in that fact is the whole significance
of Mormonism--then has the age simply seen that genius naturally
manifested in the action of their lives.
A monstrous absurdity, indeed, for Christendom to hold that the Bible
is divine and infallible, and at the same time to hold that a people is
barbaric for adoption of its faith and examples! Enough this, surely,
to justify the infidel in sweeping it away altogether. The Mormons and
the Bible stand or fall together.
In view of this truth, it was a cunning move of the opposition to
attempt to take polygamy out of its theologic cast and give it a purely
sociologic solution, as in the effort of 1870, when it was proposed
by Congressman Julian, of Indiana, to enfranchise the women of Utah.
Brigham Young and the legislative body of Utah promptly accepted the
proposition, and a bill giving suffrage to the women of Utah was passed
by the Territorial Legislature, without a dissenting vote.
Here is a copy of that remarkable instrument:
AN ACT, _giving woman the elective franchise in the Territory of
Utah_.
SEC. I. Be it enacted by the Governor and the Legislative Assembly
of the Territory of Utah, that every woman of the age of twenty-one
years, who has resided in this territory six months next preceding
any general or special election, born or naturalized in the
United States, or who is the wife, or widow, or the daughter of a
naturalized citizen of the United States, shall be entitled to vote
at any election in this territory.
SEC. 2. All laws or parts of laws, conflicting with this act, are
hereby repealed.
Approved Feb. 12, 1870.
It may be said by the anti-Mormon that this bill was intended by
President Young to serve the purposes of his own mission rather than
to benefit the newly enfranchised class; but, as the issue will prove,
it was really an important step in the progress of reform. The women
of Utah have now in their own hands the power to absolutely rule their
own destiny; and this is more than can be said of the millions of their
Gentile sisters.
The municipal election in Salt Lake City, which occurred but two days
after the approval of this bill, for the first time in Mormon history
presented a political home issue; but the new voting element was not
brought largely into requisition. Only a few of the sisters claimed the
honor of voting on that occasion. The first of these was Miss Seraph
Young, a niece of President Young, who thus immortalized herself.
This grant of political power to the women of Utah is a sign of the
times. The fact cannot die that the Mormon people piloted the nation
westward; and, under the inspiration of the great impulses of the age,
they are destined to be the reformatory vanguard of the nation.