Public Opinion Against Polygamy
SOMETHING OF THE power of “public opinion,” according to the Advance, is seen in the fact that the famous Oneida Community has at last dissolved. John R. Noyes, the founder of the concern, has withdrawn from it, and the large business which the community had successfully built up has been transferred to a joint stock company, with a paid capital of $600,000. Marriage was introduced several months ago, and the members of the old “community,” while retaining some of the principles of their co-operative plan, have begun to live after the ways of Christian civilization. Now, if “public opinion” has accomplished such worthy results in this case, let it be turned with such vigor against that moral cancer, polygamy, now gradually eating its way to the heart of American citizenship, that every fiber of it may be extracted from the land. One of the first questions demanding a solution will be, “What will become of the women who voluntarily renounce polygamy? This question has just been laid before the Woman’s National Anti-Polygamy Society, by women who have expressed an earnest wish to renounce polygamy and Mormonism together, but they say, “We have little children who will starve. We will be turned out of doors, the pittance allowed for our support will be withdrawn, and every avenue of employment will be closed against us.” These polygamous wives know what they are talking about. They see on every side of them examples of the punishment visited upon those who rebel against the “divine order” of polygamy. Who can wonder then that they shrink from bringing the same punishment upon themselves and their children?