Eli Thayer

“ THAYER. Exactly, sir. It may be that, under the construction of the Constitution which has obtained, Congress would really be decided to have the same right to govern the people that George HI had to govern these colonies. I deny that it has now or ever had any moral right to govern American citizens in the Territories. To be explicit: if Congress has that right, where did it get it? Congress is the servant and not the king of the people. The people, Mr. Speaker, in this country, are king. There is no other. Nobody else has the attribute of sovereignty. ”

“ Land is nothing but property. The fiction, that the possession of land gives sovereignty, and the right to govern people who are upon it, is a part of the old feudal system. We have everywhere connected with the fibers of this Government some of the relics of ancient tyranny. ”

“ Every member from every section of the Union is ready to assert the odious criminality of polygamy. It is encouraging, it is refreshing, to know that there is at least one subject on which there is no sectionalism, in relation to which we have not heard the Representatives of North Carolina boasting that their people are much better than those of Massachusetts, nor the Representatives of the State of New York boasting that their people are better than those of Mississippi. ”

“ The Constitution speaks of territory as property, as land ; but, sir, as a political community it knows nothing less than a State. As a member of Congress, I would not be wiser than the Constitution. 1 am opposed even to granting permission to any Territory to make any laws, or to manage its own affairs in its own way. Why should the citizens of Maine and Connecticut, of Georgia and South Carolina, and the other States, insult their equals in the Territories by the favor of granting them permission, through Congress, to govern themselves ? ”

“ I am for simplifying the operations of the Government in respect to the Territories. We have the land to sell. Let us provide for selling it ; but beyond that I would not recommend action. Let the people take care of themselves. They are the sovereigns. Congress is their servant. ”

“ Land never becomes a sovereignty. Men are the sovereigns.
If there is unoccupied public land to-day, and tomorrow there is a sovereignty upon it, 1 assure you that somebody has gone there — some citizen, who is himself" so much above property that he alone is of more importance than all the public land that this Government ever did or ever will possess. He, sir, is the sovereign ; and you disrobe him of his sover- eignty because he has crossed a Hue and gone into a Territory. By what power, by what law, Congress being his servant — by what law can it be done? ”

“ When the years of famine had rendered the land unpro- ductive, and therefore worthless, the basis of absolute sovereignty was changed from land to the products of the land. Sovereignty just as much attaches, and with just as good right, to the one as to the other. ”

“ Then, sir, you may defeat the policy of these Mormons at once, by erecting these laud dis- tricts, which have already more than five times the voters of the Mormon population, and which population is rapidly increasing, while the number of Mormon voters is diminishing. With this prospect before us, is there any risk that Mormonism will not be exterminated by local law, provided we pass this amendment, constituting the land districts proposed? Would not a local law be much better to accomplish the purpose than a law made by a non-resident power? ”

“ Every man who knows anything, even without reading history, would decide before- hand that it never could exist under such a form of government while the sexes continue to be equal in numbers. Wherever it has existed — in Turkey, in Arabia, among the chiefs of cen- tral Africa, or among the aborigines of America — it has always been protected by absolute military despotism. ”

“ What are the facts in relation to the population of the two proposed land districts ? I have the opinion of the Delegates from Jefferson, Kansas, and Nebraska, and numerous others, that there are now within the limits of the proposed land district of Jefferson forty thousand men, and that there are at least in that district twenty thousand voters ; and we have it from papers last received from California, that there are now in Carson Valley at least thirty thou- sand men, and not less than fitteen thousand voters. ”

“ Year after year, they have come from Wales and Scotland, from England and Germany, and from the States of this Confederacy. About two years ago, they attained their highest power. They are now declining in strength, harmony, and consolidation, and are diminishing in numbers. As a separate and peculiar community, they are doomed to speedy extinction. ”

“ The world understands now well enough that this country is opposed to polygamy, and it never will un- derstand it any better by a vote of Congress, the whole efl'ect of which will be to prolong the existence of that institution. Then, sir, as an expression of sentiment, this bill is superfluous. ”

“ They are men of more vigor of body and of mind, of more heroism and enter- prise, of more power of endurance, of more persistency, and of more character, than the people of the old States. They are also supe- rior in intelligence to the average of the people in the old Stales. 1 doubt not, sir, that there are some educated men in Carson Valley, and some educated men in Pike's Peak ”