Mormonism had its birth in 1830. Polygamy was not promulgated until twenty-two years after, although Joseph Smith, it is alleged, received a revelation on the subject nine years before its formal declaration to the whole Mormon race. In dealing with Mormonism as a system, it must ever be borne in mind that polygamy does not form a part of the organic structure of Mormon society. It is an invention, recent in its establishment, and wholly an exotic in this country as well as in the countries from which Mormon recruits have been largely gathered; and it has been from the commencement to this hour an open and conscious defiance, not only of the public sentiment of the country, but also of its laws. It has known itself to be a transgressor, and every polygamous marriage has been deliberately contracted with this knowledge. The question at once arises, WHY WAS IT PROMULGATED UNDER SUCH CIRCUMSTANCES? What was the object of the leaders in declaring it to be a divine revelation? While it may seem to many that polygamy is only an element of weakness in the Mormon institution, and destined to bring destruction upon the entire system, yet if we study the subject carefully it will be seen that it contributes strength to Mormonism in many ways. 1. In the first place, their numbers are increased much more rapidly than could be done by the monogamous system which is in vogue in our land. 2. In the next place, it gives a firmer union to the Mormon people, so that apostasy cannot occur so frequently as it did in Missouri and Nauvoo. By polygamy the Mormons are separated from all the rest of the civilized world; and as the world repels them, they are driven in upon themselves, to be welded closer together, to be mutual supports to each other under persecutions and trials. The unfortunate women who practise polygamy and the children begotten from it, even if they become malcontent, yet know themselves to be caught in a net from which they see no escape; and they remain in their place and practise, because, though their hearts are broken, their homes are saved by a religious sanction from foul disgrace. And even the thousands who are not polygamists (for not more than one tenth of the Mormons are polygamists) will uphold polygamy, because some near relatives, as sisters or daughters, are practisers of it. They, therefore, although not in polygamy, will yet stand up for it; and for them, too, with the actual practisers, it becomes a bond, binding all together into a unity amazingly compact and unbreaking. Having thus endeavored to answer the question, Why was polygamy promulgated? let us now direct our attention to another and more important question, WHY IS POLYGAMY PRACTISED?