strangely enough, this brings up the issue of same sex marriage
and how the courts have changed since the 19th century and the three big polygamy cases of that era....
homosexual relations once mainly illegal in the various states now find favor
while polygamy, made illegal in the territories and castigated by the supreme court, may find a friend in the same sex marriage arena and associated rulings
in great style, the supreme court ruled:
"Certainly no legislation can be supposed more wholesome and necessary in the founding of a free, self-governing commonwealth . . .
than that which seeks to establish it on the basis of the idea of the family, as consisting in and springing from the
union for life of one man and one woman in the holy estate of matrimony; the sure foundation of all that is
stable and noble in our civilization; the best guaranty of that reverent morality which is the source of all beneficent
progress in social and political improvement.’’
and in another of the cases:
"The tale is one of patience on the part of the American government and people,
and of contempt of authority and resistance to law on the part of the Mormons. Whatever
persecutions they may have suffered in the early part of their history, in Missouri and Illinois,
they have no excuse for their persistent defiance of law under the government of the United States.’’
