History of Utah, 1540-1886 - Brigham Young University

POLYGAMY A BURDEN AND A BOND. 165
The word of a Mormon was then good for all it was
pledged to or for. I was proud to be an associate
with such honorable people." And thus Colonel
Kane, a disinterested observer, and not a Mormon
As compared with the other "border inhabitants of
Missouri, the vile scum which our society, like the
great ocean, washes upon its frontier shores," the
saints were "persons of refined and cleanly habits and
decent language."
Nevertheless the sins of the entire section must be
visited on them. Were there any robberies for miles
around, they were charged by their enemies upon the
Mormons; were there any house-burnings or assassinations
anywhere among the gentiles, it was the
Danites who did it. Of all that has been laid at their
door I find little proved against them. The charges
are general, and preferred for the most part by irresponsible
men; in answer to them they refer us to the
records. On the other hand, the outrages of their
enemies are easily followed; for they are not denied,
but are rather gloried in by the perpetrators. To
shoot a Mormon was indeed a distinction coveted by
the average gentile citizen of Illinois and Missouri,
and was no more regarded as a crime than the shooting:
of a Blackfoot or Pawnee. Of course the Mormons
retaliated.
Polygamy was a heavy load in one sense; in another
sense it was a bond of strength. While in the eyes
of the world its open avowal placed the saints outside
the pale of respectability, and made them amenable
to the law, among themselves as law-breakers, openly
defying the law, and placing themselves and their
religion above all law, the very fact of being thus
legal offenders, subject to the penalties and punishments
of the law, brought the members of the society
so acting into closer relationship, cementing them as
a sect, and making them more dependent on each
other and on their leaders. It is plain that while
thus bringing upon themselves ignominy and reproach,
: