e movement toward Utah
appeared any less Quixotic in 1846 than does the idea of an emigration
to Papua now. On that island the Mormons would encounter no such
obstacles to material prosperity as their indomitable industry has
already conquered in Utah. They would find a fertile soil, a propitious
climate, and a native population which could be trained to docility.
Transplanted thither, they would cease to be a nuisance to America, and
would become benefactors to the world by opening to commerce a region
now valueless to Christendom, but of as great natural capacities as any
portion of the globe. The expense of their migration need not exceed
the amount already expended upon the Army of Utah, together with that
necessary to maintain it in its present position for the next five
years. Into the seats which they would relinquish on the border of
the Salt Lake a sturdy population would pour from the Valley of the
Mississippi, and develop an intelligent, Christian, and Republican
State. That portion of the Mormons which would not follow the fortunes
of the Church beyond the seas would soon become submerged, and the last
vestige of its religion and peculiar domestic life would disappear
speedily and forever from the continent.

For that consummation, every genuine Christian must fervently pray. If
the Message in the Book of Mormon be, as one of its own Apostles has
asserted, indeed "such, that, if false, none who persist in believing it
can be saved," the sooner this nation washes its hands of responsibility
for its toleration, the better for its credit in history. The
Constitution, to be sure, denies to Congress the power to pass laws
prohibiting the free exercise of religion; but it is the most monstrous
nonsense to argue that the Federal Government is bound thereby to
connive at polygamy, perjury, incest, and murder. There are principles
of social order which constitute the political basis of every state in
Christendom, that are violated by the practices of the Mormon Church,
and which this Republic is bound to maintain without regard to any
pretence that their transgressors act in pursuance of religious belief.
Thirty years ago, no other doctrine would have occurred to the mind
of an American statesman. It is only the special-pleadings and
constitutional hair-splittings by which Slavery has been forced under
national protection, that now impede Congressional intervention in the
affairs of Utah. The Christian Church of the