U.S. Senator Benjamin Wade of Ohio submits to the Senate a report from the Committee on Territories concerning Utah: "Polygamy of the most unlimited character, sanctioning the cohabitation of a man with the mother and her daughters indiscriminately, is not the only un-American thing among them. . . . Contrary to the usages of the whole country, the affairs of this Territory are managed through church instrumentalities, and no measure is permitted to succeed in the Territory which will, for one moment, conflict with the interests of the church; in other words, we have here the first exhibition within the limits of the United States of a church ruling the State-Another opinion-the subject of both public and private teaching-is that the government of the United States will not and ought not to stand. They make a difference between the Constitution and the government of the United States; to the Constitution they claim to be very loyal, but to the government they owe no particular allegiance."
[Source: Advent Adam website (defunct) - based on http://amzn.to/originsofpower]
The source for the above entry is completely incorrect. The correct source for the exact text of this entry is:
ReplyDeleteThe Saints And The Union: Utah Territory during the Civil War, by E.B.Long, University of Illinois Press (1981), pp.123-124,127