It is the recognized duty and purpose of the people of the United States to suppress polygamy where it now exists in our Territories and to prevent its extension.  Faithful and zealous efforts have been made by the United States authorities in Utah to enforce the laws against it.  Experience has shown that the legislation upon this subject, to be effective, requires extensive modification and amendment.  The longer action is delayed the more difficult it will be to accomplish what is desired.  Prompt and decided measures are necessary.  The Mormon sectarian organization which upholds polygamy has the whole power of making and executing the local legislation of the Territory.  By its control of the grand and petit juries it possesses large influence over the administration of justice.  Exercising, as the heads of this sect do, the local political power of the Territory, they are able to make effective their hostility to the law of Congress on the subject of polygamy, and, in fact, do prevent its enforcement.  Polygamy will not be abolished if the enforcement of the law depends on those who practice and uphold the crime.  It can only be suppressed by taking away the political power of the sect which encourages and sustains it.

The power of Congress to enact suitable laws to protect the Territories is ample.  It is not a case for halfway measures.  The political power of the Mormon sect is increasing.  It controls now one of our wealthiest and most populous Territories.  It is extending steadily into other Territories.  Wherever it goes it establishes polygamy and sectarian political power.  The sanctity of marriage and the family relation are the corner stone of our American society and civilization.  Religious liberty and the separation of church and state are among the elementary ideas of free institutions.  To reestablish the interests and principles which polygamy and Mormonism have imperiled, and to fully reopen to intelligent and virtuous immigrants of all creeds that part of our domain which has been in a great degree closed to general immigration by intolerant and immoral institutions, it is recommended that the government of the Territory of Utah be reorganized.

I recommend that Congress provide for the government of Utah by a governor and judges, or commissioners, appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate—­a government analogous to the provisional government established for the territory northwest of the Ohio by the ordinance of 1787.  If, however, it is deemed best to continue the existing form of local government, I recommend that the right to vote, hold office, and sit on juries in the Territory of Utah be confined to those who neither practice nor uphold polygamy.  If thorough measures are adopted, it is believed that within a few years the evils which now afflict Utah will be eradicated, and that this Territory will in good time become one of the most prosperous and attractive of the new States of the Union.