Illinois state journal

              “The Mormon Crusade" 
A number of newspapers, among which we regret to see several Republican ones, profess to see in Mr. Cullom's bill for the suppression of polygamy in Utah, "a de-claration of war," which, as the Cincin-nati Gazette says: "every vagabond on the frontier is howling for, in the hope of plunder, and every corrupt element that gathers around the Government is instiga-ting, in the hope of war jobs." Now this would be simply nonsense, if it were not something a great deal worse. What is called the "Cullom bill" looks only to the enforcement of what has been a law upon the statute books for years past, and, in order that that law may be enforced, it provides that those who have been living in open violation of its provisions shall not sit on juries—in other words, that the criminal shall not sit in judgment upon his own crime. The Gazette, referring to the speech of Mr. Blair of Michigan, in support of Mr. Cullom's bill, says: 
Mr. Blair, of Michigan, scouted the idea that any resistance would be made, and referred to the re-port that Bringham Young is now selecting a locality in Arizona. It thus appears that while he is intoler-antly pushing on a measure that means war, he thinks that a population of 100,000 people spread over a territory greater than Ohio, and with all the improvements of a quarter of a century's cultiva-tion, will at the threat of military force leave this and exile themselves to the wilds of Arizona. Is such a man sane enough to be a legislator, and to rush the country into the arbitrament of war? And what can we think of the heart of a man who can thus propose to drive a population of 100,000, of all ages and sexes, from the homes and comforts and associations gained by the toil of a whole generation into a desolate wilderness? 
This is but another way of saying that a great wrong which has grown up in defiance of law, shall be protected be-cause it has grown up in this manner. But, if the opponents of the anti-polygamy bill are opposed to enforcing a law which has long been upon the statute books, it would be more consistent if they were to advocate the repeal of that law, rather than denounce the at-tempt to give it effect—for we take it that one of the uses of all laws is their enforce-ment, and those not lit to be enforced ought to be repealed. The existence of Mormon polygamy (we have nothing in this to do with the religious faith of the Mormons) has been a disgrace to our civilization, since it is nothing but legalized concubinage. Those who take ground against interfering with it, whatever may have been their position in the past or their professions now, are evidently acting in defence of the last "twin- relic of barbarism."