The new Northwest. [volume] (Portland, Or.) 1871-1887, 1879-01-23
WIVES AT WASHINGTON


Mothers and wives all over the land
read with bated breath and pity-
dimmed eyes the dispatches which tell
almost every day OF the heroic and pa
triotie pleas addressed by Utah wives and
mothers to the President and judiciary
committee to take measures to stay the
execution of the anti-polygamy law
against those who at this time are liv-
ing in defiance to its provisions, in plu-
raj marriage. The following arguments
made by Mrs. Emeline Wells and Mrs.
Ziua Young Williams before the COM
mittee mentioned, on the 18th inst,
praying the enactment of some law to
I protect the innocent victims of pOlyga-
nous marriages, the present wives and
children OF Utah from the dreaded ef-
fects Of the enforcement Of the existing
law, awskens deep sympathy for their
peculiar and trying position. said Mrs.
/ Wells: 1--WE have been driven west
ward from State TO State, and at last
took refuge on soil not belonging To the
United States, but to Mexico. We were
thought unfit To live under the free
American flag, and we took that wilder
ness in which to build up a civilization
Of our own and worship God according
to our consciences. When the United
States took possession Of our Territory
we were again hunted down by Gentiles
who followed US there aud who saw that
we had comfortable homes, good hus-
bands, and were raising children in our
faith-good children, owned and blessed
by their kind fathers. These men have
stirred up the Christian women Of our
country, who, ia appealing to you to
further afllict Us, know not what they
do. We have no dram shops, no pau
pers, 10 outcast women, no illegitimate
children. Enforce this cruel law, let
the Gentiles rule that Territory, and
you must build prisons for our husbands,
aud alms-houses for our children, and
we-what shall we be before your law ?''
Mrs. Williams said: "My father
Brigham Young, loved his children,
owned them, and provided for them.
Will the government of the United
States make these women outcasts who
are now honored wives and mothers
grown gray in rearing sons, good citi-
zens Of the United States? We thought
the constitution Of the United States
would protect US in the free exercise Of
religion, and that the law would be pro-
nounced unconstitutional. Now that
the Supreme Court has decided other
wise, we come to you for protection.
We are United States citizens, born on
American soil. We are a strength in
the nation. Nowhere will you find
Drawer, truer men than our husbands
and the sons We are rearing. We ask
justice at your hands; we ask delibera-
tion that you may know every phase Of
this question beioreyou DO US any greater
wrong"
This is q problem which women
should help to solve, understanding as
only women can the nameless terror
that broods over the lives Of those who
stand so closely upon the confines Of all
that true woman most dreads-loss of
womaDly and wifely honor. The SUBJ
tie art oftempering justice with mercy is
herein most urgently demanded and for
the sake of the hundreds Of shuddering
woman hearts in Utah, we devoutly
hope that the holy com bination may be
accomplished that the result will be so
peace to their troubled spirits, and hon
ored names and unimPeached inherit
ance to their children.