Extinguishing the Twin Relics of Barbaric Multiculturalism—Slavery and Polygamy—From American Federalism

John Kincaid

Publius: The Journal of Federalism, 2003, vol. 33, issue 1, 75-92

Abstract: Nineteenth-century America experienced fierce battles against two expressions of territorially based multiculturalism: southern slavery and Mormon polygamy. Both the southern way of life and the Mormon way of life were deemed barbaric, and considerable pressure was placed on the federal government to exterminate these ways of life. The abolition of slavery required a civil war, the aftermath of which transformed the federal Constitution in ways that enhanced federal authority to intervene in the affairs of the constituent states. The extermination of Mormon polygamy did not require military intervention; instead, the federal government deployed an array of increasingly coercive legalweapons that set precedents for twentieth-century interventions into the affairs of the constituent states. The battles against slavery and polygamy both reflected federal efforts to liberate persons from the tyranny of places and, as such, signaled a rejection of territorially based multiculturalism in the United States. Copyright 2003, Oxford University Press.

Date: 2003
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