MARRIAGE PREVENTS CRIME It is an acknowledged fact that crime is much more prevalent among unmarried persons than among the married; for the married man's family becomes a pledge to society for his good behavior: nor can the married woman disgrace herself without disgracing also her husband and her children. That system, therefore, which provides marriage for the greater number must be the more favorable to the promotion of public virtue and morality. It has already been demonstrated that polygamy provides for the marriage of the greater number of the women than monogamy can; and it will not be difficult to prove that it also conduces to the marriage of the greater number of the men: for there are always a great many men who will not marry, so long as they can obtain the gratification of their propensities without marriage, which they can do as long as there are so many unmarried women as there must be where ever monogamy prevails. The more rich and luxurious monogamous society becomes, the more abandoned women there will be, and the fewer marriages and the more crime. But let the system of polygamy be adopted, and then all the women will be wanted for wives; and, as they can then obtain husbands and homes of their own, but few will prefer to follow a loose and vicious course of life. And then the men, being deprived of the opportunity of illicit indulgence, will be compelled to marry; and their marriage will refine and humanize them, and preserve them from many of those vices and immoralities to which they are now addicted. There are many crimes against which the moral sentiment of humanity revolts, but which are constantly forced upon mankind by the tyranny of monogamy, and which nothing but a return to the purer system of polygamy can restrain and prevent. Among many of these crimes and moral evils caused or aggravated by monogamy, and which would be greatly diminished by polygamy, I can mention only a few.