Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1882-04-25
From the New York Tribune.
The Last POlygamOus Congress
man.


man.
No polygamist will ever again occupy a
seat in Congress. The vote of the House on
Wednesday unseating Delegate Cannon en-
tered that decree. The Edmunds bill, which
has just become a law, has decreed that
henceforth no polygamist shall hold Office in
Utah Territory. These two acts, both passed
by republican Congress and both opposed
by an almost solid democratic vote, will stand
out in political history the GROWING works
of this season. They mark the beginning of
the end of that foul institution of Morm0nism
in the United States, and they represent the
republican party as the persistent and dis
tinctve enemy Of that institution, even as
they present the democratic party as its con-
slant defender and ally. When the Edmunds
bill was before the Senate, the democratic
Senators spoke against it and exhausted
their ingenuity in attempting its defeat When
the final vote was taken they were too shrewd
to 20 on the record and allowed it to be
passed by a risa roee vote. The democratic
members of the House were more rockies
They opposed the bill. and on its final pa
sage ninety five of them voted against
Nearly all the votes in its favor were repHb.
u an, and IN neither the Senate nor the House
was there republican vote against it, When
the vote to unseat Mr.. Cannon was taken in
the House, all but eight of the Democrats
present voted to retain him, while all the
republicans present voted for removal
What kind of man was he whom the
democrats were willing to retain among them?
He was lit representative of the institution
which he uphOlds, and which in his final
speech he had the audacity to defend As
Christian. He was first elected to Congress
in 1873, and has been successfully reelected
ever since. At the session of Congress in
1874 q project was started to have him unseat-
ed on the ground of his polygamous practices
and Of even more serious charges. Evidence
was collected, but rs it was impossible to con
solidate the anti-polygamy sentiment suffi-
ciently mt that time to secure his removal the
movement was postponed. The evidence col
lected was not disclosed, and we present some
Of il to the public for the first time to-day. 1t
tends to show Mr. Cannon not only a Jealous
polygamist but also an instigator of brutal.
cold FLOODED murder. Adolph Rain a men,
Der of the Mormon Church, made affidavit in
1874 that in March. 1866, George O. Cannon
went to him and told him it was his duty as a
member Of that Church to kill Altman W
Babbitt, Secretary of Utah Territory. He
was to kill him because he had transgressed
the laws Of the Church, and under the doc
trine of Blood Atonement, publicly preached
by the Church, no man who had thus trans
crossed could attained salvation unless his
blood were spilled by some of his brethren.
L his Is not the first time this fiendish doc
trine Of Blood Atonement has been heard of
IL has been the cause and excuse of some of
the most brutal murders ever committed bv
civilized men.
Cannon not only impressed this religion.
duty upon Rain, but he also showed him the
way In which to commit the murder Mr.
Babbitt was to start on the long and lonely
journey across the plains, then unspanned bv
railway, to Washington, and it was Cannon's
wish that Rain should accompany him as
friend and brother, and at the first convenient
opportunity kill him in the name of his
Church! Rain refused to commit the crime.
but he affirms that in the summer of 1856
Babbitt was assassinated, ON his return from
Washington, and his belief is that the ssas-
''sassination was an act done in accordance
with the laws of said Church. instiyated
''thereto by the advice and counsel of George
~. Cannon and other persons in the author
''ity of said Church." Mr. Rain made three
ahidavits on this subject and thew are all in.
teresting reading. Concerning his veracity
and trustworthiness as a witness. there are
strong and uneQuivocal statements from ex-
Governor Woods, of Utah. and from two
members of the Mormon church. We give
all these. together with an affidavit setting
forth the doctrine of Blood Atonement as it
has been openly preached in the Tabernacle
at Salt Lake.
We commend these remarkable documents
to the careful perussl of all who wish to un-
derstand the true nature of the institution
upon which the republican party has set its
heel. In the light of them it is well to read
over the farewell speech Of Mr.. Cannon in
Congress. in which he defended his church
rs q divine institution, and said he did not
envy the feelings of any man who voted
against him. "My people," he said, .'prac-
'stise polvgamy because they believe it to be
fright, and a religious duty, in obedience to
"a command of God, given for the redemp-
''tion of the race" Blasphemy Of that kind
will never again be heard on the floor of
Congress, and for this relief we have to thank
the republican party. WHY the democratic
party should desire to uphold such an iustitu-
ton and such man would be an inexplicable
mystery had not one of their own members
furnished the key. In his speech on the un-
seating of Cannon, Congressman Atkins said
"Mormons have been guilty of believing in and
'some of them Of practising polygamy. But
''they have been guilty of another sin also.
They have committed the offence of belong
ling to the democratic party" There YOU
have i. They vote the democratic ticket,
therefore they must be upheld by the dem
ocratic party. There is nothing inconsistent
ABOUT this course. The same party upheld
slavery because the shareholders we're demo-
crstes they excused the Ku-Klux because
the ku.klux were democrats; they defend
the ballot box-stuffers because the tissue bal
lots all bear democratic names. But What Z
party this policy accumulates-slavehol
ku-Nux murderer, ballos-box-stuffers and