Mormons (thread 11), Episode 4: When a Senator Saw Mormons as 'Barbarism': Charles Sumner vs. Utah

Charles Sumner wasn’t mad about theology — he was terrified of concentrated power. This short episode digs into how Sumner connected polygamy and slavery as twin threats to republican equality, why Brigham Young looked like a rival sovereign to him, and how that 19th-century debate still echoes today. Come for the history, stay for Sumner’s unmatched ability to turn anything into an existential crisis.