Hand County press. (Miller, Dakota [S.D.]) 1882-1893, 1882-10-11
THE m ORM oNS.
The Work of the United States
Commission.
Ten thousand Polygamists Disfran.
chised.

Hon. Alexander Ramsey, Chairman OF the
United States commission appointed under
the provisions OF the Edmunds bill to carry
out the new law in Utah, recently arrived
home at St Paul on a short vacation from
his labors, and was interviewed in regard to
the progress of the task of making poygamy
odious Il left Salt Lake." said Gov. Ram
sey, for q short rest and visit home, the
commission having completed the registra-
ton of the voters fer the Territory OF Utah,
Thirty-five thousand persons, men and wom-
en-the women vote there, you know--were
registered, and 10000 polygamists OF both
sexes were disfranchised The census OF
1870 showed that there were l4, 600 people
in the Territory, and it is estimated that
there are now about l6O,OUo, OF whom ~,
600 are Mormons and the balance of ioWD
anti Mormon. OF this population, which
Registers 35,eoo yo.ers, the Nor
mons claim that not to exceed
from $500 10 1000 are non -Mormons,
while the Gentiles assert that their voting
strength is from 1000 to 10000 At very
early day after the arrival OF the commits
sion, leading polygamists came to MS and said
.hrv desired 10 assnrens they woald make no
attempt to be registered, nor would they
make any attempt to vote, aud would DO all
in their power to assist u.s. In ageneral way
| think they kept their word. In fact, the
Morinons conducted themselves fairly, as far
as we could learn. We have, beside completing
the registration, appointed County Regis.
ter in each of tae twenty-tour counties OF
Utah and selected a Register for each voting
precinct, so that there are about 5b OF them,
| We now have to appoint three Judges IN
each election precinct, making about 6b
Judges. With regard to these appointments,
| there has been a good deal of nonsense IN
! the papers about the commission fayorlnS
! the Mormons, while the fact is that there
| are whole counties where none but Mormn ms
| resi- le, and, as the law is intended to make
| polygamy odious and does not disfranehlse
| non-polygamist Mormon, we could
| not do otherwise than do just what
! the law does-recognize that class 80
| far as the elections are concerned, they Will
of course be carried by the Mormons. ol
| course the Mormon vote, which is at least
| two and a half to one G3utie, will EJECT the
Delegate to Congress, and the po'ygamists
| knowing that their man and officers gener'
| ally will he chosen, can Wen AFFORD 70 ac
! quiesce In their own disfranchisement
| heard il said that the present Mayor or ga
Lake CITY. Mr. Kane, stood n god show fol
the Mormon NOMINATION and eiect'on
What viii be the general effect of the laN
as it pertains to the ecti )ns:'
| 1t wil take pretty near a / the weaithies
men of the Mormon church out OF po ltc!
aud make polygamy odous especially 20 IN
rising generation, who viii dislike TO be Gus
frunchised on arriving at their majority. IN
old fellows now thrown out VIII he looke'
upon by many as martyrs and in facJ 81
cons der tn 9mselves already. So far as th'
general effect of the law is concerned t can
not now be determined what that VIII be
for it is, of coutse, an experiment.