Little Falls transcript. [volume] (Little Falls, Morrison County, Minn.) 1876-1894, 1879-01-23
Washington Letter.
From our regular correspondent.

/ Washington, D. c., Jan. 16, 1879.
| The recent decision of the Supreme
Court that polygamy Is crime within
the reach Of law, is source of COM
siderable perturbation among the Nor
mons, and Delegate Cannon who him.
self possesses a plura lity of wives, is
about to urge upon Congress measures
of rellef-a bill to relieve from prose-
cution>t those who have committed the
oifense subsequent to the act Of Con-
gress, 1862, and previous to the de-
c;sion of the court. It is considered
strange that the Mormons shonId adj
here SO strenuously to their doctrine of
polygamy, so odlous to the eChristianized
world, and particularly unaccountable
that the women of Utah should defend
practice deemed especially degrad>
ing to their sex, Yet a mass meeting
OF Mormon women to the number of
twelve hundred assembled in Salt Lake
City recently, who spoke and "resolut>
ed' earnestly in favor of plural mar
riage. It is generally supposed that
the Mormons do not advance anything
In defense Of rolygamy, but those who
have visited Utah know that they
have fortified themselves with quite an
array Of arguments, They have made
themselves believe that po|ygamy is
not only blessed thing morally but
physically, and claim that there is not
a prostitute, vagrant, drunkard, or
homeless child in Mormondom that
plural marriage is protection to women
from the brutalities of sensual hus~
bands, and from numerous Ills to which
Gentiles are subject. But the Christ~
ian world does not see the force of
these arguments, and there is now
reasonable prospect that this blot upon
fair Utah may be wiped out, and the
territory admitted to the sisterhood of
States. It can never come in so long
as Mormonism remains in control.
The Rev. Talmage, that loose joint~
ed son Of theological thunder, lately
paid Washington a visit, with the
avowed purpose of working up sensa>
tional material for his red hot style of
gospel elucidation. But judging
from his early departure, and the de-
velopments generally, he did not find
the National Capital as bad as he
thought it was. Washington is not
Sodom nor is it Gomorrah, and the
parsons financial agents went away
unrewarded and murmurlng one to the
other. This theological Akhoond of
Smut, as the Boston Post wittily calls
him, was disgusted to find that WASH
ington proper was good sort of place,
and that Washington improper, was
made up Of Government officials, who
come here to serve the public and re-
main to drink whlskey, play cards, and
cultivate strange women. Leave the
government out of Washington and
the wickedness would disappear, for it
has pleased our law givers to not only
give us a bad name morally, but to sit
down with immense weight our business
enterprise.
The administration of Justice in the
District of Columbia is becoming se>
rious matter. 1t seems impossible to
punish capital crimes here Two cons
victions for cold blooded murder have
been found within few months, and
have resulted, not in the hanging of
the murderers, but in new trials. and
finally hung juries. The second case
occurred this week. A negro who had
been tampering with another mans
wife concludes to put the husband out
of the way, aud, turning up his coat COL
ar to avoid recognition, walks out in
broad day light, meets him unawares
and deliberately shoots him dead in the
street. There were no words, no quar-
| rel and no provocation. He is tried
and convicted. His counsel obtain a
"new trial. fixes up jury partly COL
ored and they disagree, ten for convic>
tion, two for acquital. The same rec>
ord has been made in other cases, not>
ably trial for one Of the most heinous
crimes on the calander. All this is the
result of negro juries, and an insuffer-
ably weak or currupt administration
Of the laws. This week the Potter
Committee has been getting in some
solid work again, and besides unearth-
ing a little more Of John Sherman's
dirty work, have had witness who saw
the names forged upon the Louisiana
Electoral Certificates. This witness
kept out OF the way last spring when
he was wanted, but at last turned mp.
He was an employee of Kellogg about
the State House, and now charges the
forgery to dead man, D. P. Blanch>
ard, clerk in the executive Office.
There has been, and still is, strong
suspicion that this witness, Kelley him>
self, performed the job, though for all
practical purposes of the inquiry it is
fmmaterial which one Of the gang held
the pen. The deed is proven and con.
fessed. And not only is the man for
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