That the race deteriorates under the polygamous system is not true, they say. The single wife is very often hurried to a premature grave by an incon- siderate or brutal husband, the offspring which she meanwhile bears being puny and ill-developed. And again, it is only the better class of men, the healthy and wealthy, the strongest intellectually and physi- cally, who as a rule have a plurality of wives; and thus, by their becoming fathers to the largest number of children, the stock is improved.
The charge of immorality, as laid upon the Mor- mons as a community, is likewise untenable. Morality is the doctrine of right and wrong, the rule of conduct implying honesty and sobriety. In all honesty and sobriety the Mormons live up to their standard of right and wrong, they claim, more completely than any other people. They indulge in fewer vices, such as drunkenness, prostitution, gambling, and like- wise fewer crimes. There is nothing necessarily im- moral in the practice of polygamy; if it is not immoral for a man to take one wife, it is not for him to take twelve wives.
The Mormons are loyal to their consciences and convictions. They are essentially a moral people, moral in the highest sense of the term, more so-, they claim, than the average American or European. They do not drink, cheat, or steal; adultery is scarcely known among them; they are not idle, profligate, or given to lying. They are true to themselves, true to their principles, and true to the world. Of what other society can you fairly say as much? They are honest in all things, and law-abiding when the law does not touch their rights or their religion; when it does, all who are not dastards will fight. Judge them by their fruits; if a sect is to be regarded from the standpoint of its imperfections and inconsistencies rather than from its results, what shall be said of christianitv, which has butchered millions for the faith.
