The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1882-05-04
THE DEBATE.
Continuation OF the Cannon
Campbell Contest in the
House.

OamP DCAA OSASOSS IA SAS
House.
Representative Houses Argu-
ment.
CONTINUED from Wednesdays Dsily)
The position assumed in the majority
report so far as I am able to gather it is,
to state it briefly, that Congress hiss the
right under the Constitution to pass
law-both Houses and the Executive, OF
course, psrtieipstiDg-providing that
territory shall have the right to elect
delegate; that when elected he shall be
entitled to a seat in the House Of Repres-
entatives, but that it is incompetent for
them to go provide by law as to inform
the people Of the territory what quallfica-
tions their delegate must possess. Their
right to elect is fixed by law by which
the seat Of their delegate when elected is
assured to him, yet after the people
exercising this lawful right and in strict
compliance with the statute have gone
to the trouble and expense Of electlng
man possessing all the qualifications
which the Constitution prescribes for
member Of the House of Representatives,
yet, when he arrives in Washington,
presents his credentials, ard asks to be
allowed to take his seat, be is told, We
know the law gives your territory the
right TO be represented by a delegates;
we know you were duly and legally
elected to that position; we admit that
you possess all the qualifications that the
Constitution requires q member of the
lower House of Congress to possess, yet
Won do not suit our taste, or caprice, on
the standard which we have erected cut
side the law, and therefore we have con-
cuded not to admit you. We claim the
right to arbitrarily exclude you. We
have. therefore, Mr.. Delegate proposed
for the adoption of this house the fol-
loving resolutions:
"Resolved, that George @. Cannon is
not entitled 70 s seat in this Congress as
a delegate from the Territory Of Utah.
Resolved, that the seat Of delegate
from the Territory of Utah be and the
same hereby IL. declared to be vacant.
go tell your people that the Forty
seventh Congress is capable of taking
that position, and
If any fool should ask thee
Why we wear the crown.
Tell him we wear the crown
Because-it fits our head"
The people of the territory thus denied
the right of representation by an open
and arbitrary disregard of the law, may
at the next election select man that
comes up to the moral standard fixed by
this Congress, but the Congressional liver
Of the next House of Representatives
may be in a torpid condition, and the
new delegate may be told that he takes
his whisky straight, whereas be ought to
have sugar in il; that he doesn't wear his
hair or ais coat cut in the proper fashion;
and that taken altogether a majority OF
the members of the House don't like his
looks at ali, and don't fancy the people
that elected him, anyway, and there
fore have concluded TO close the
doors Of the House to him and declare
his seat vacant. A right to representa-
ton, however loudly 1t may be pro-
claimed by law, is not worth much to q
Delegate or his people when it can be
denied by the body to which he is sent
at the mere within or caprice of its mem
Ders.
mr.. Speaker, why this effort to d s.
regard all precedent and to violate all
aw to keep out Of his seat this Delegate
from Utah who has no right 10 vote?
It seems that mem bers wish to emphasize
heir adherence Of polygsmy by denying
Cannon his seat. 1t strikes me that it
would be much more creditable for mem
Ders Of Congress to emphasize their devG-
ion to justice and their respect for law
BY refusing to trample either under foot,
even though it might be done in obedience
% a popular cutlery, however we'll
against All odious practice. The
right never demands of It's votaries to
,all to their aid injustice and wrong to
suppress an evil practice or an obnoxious
doctrine, 1t may be a matter of small
concern whether Mr.. Cannon is allowed
% take his seat IN the Forty-seventh
Congress; but it Is not q matter of small
concern for this Congress to repudiste
all Its precedents, violate its own laws,
and peTpetrste4an act of Injustice against
4 Mormon. Polygamy cannot be crushed
)ut In this way. Men can never be
Of error by making them feel
hat they are the victims of Injustice. a
respect for the law of the land can never
be promoted among any portion Of our
population by disregard Of the law
makers themselves. This proposition
10 deny Cannon his seat had its beginning
IN the arbitrary act of the governor OF
Utah, who, in plain Violstion of the law.
denied him his certificate of election. It
IS now proposed to crown that illegal act
by vote of this House debating that he
is not entitled to his seat, when every
member of this House
knows he is so entitled, unless the last
four Congresses stultifed themselves in
admitting him.
Mr.. Speaker, I cannot vote for the
resolution proposed by a majority of the
Committee on Elections. cannot assent
to their reasoning, accept their legal
conclusions or, surreajering my judg-
ment to popular clamor, consent to
precedent so utterly untenable
in itself and so dangerous in its tenden-
cies. cannot agree by my vote to
cloth this House with arbitrary power to
set the law at defiance or to trample on
even the rights of Mormon, however
distsstetul his doctrine on the subject of
domestic relations may be to me. | can
not avoid feeling that by such an act
had struck a much severer blow 10 the
instincts Of my manhood than / hal to
the pernlcious doctrines of the Mormors.
SaVeTal mem bars oPtba Coror,;ttoo ~,