Morning journal and courier., 1883-10-31
HENRY IRVING's SECOND NIGHT.

Another Success for the English Star.
 Affairs in MormondOm-The Report o1
 the Utah COmmIsston-An Interesting
 Review of the Situation.
 WASHINGTON, Oct. 30.-The report of the
 Utah commission, of which ex-SecretRry
 Ramsey is chairman and which was appoint
 ed under the provisions of the act of March 12, 1882, to amend the laws relating to biea- my and polygamy, wes handed to Secretary Teller this afternoon. The commission after
 reviewing former legislation of Congress re.
 lating to bigamy or polygamy the act of
 July, 1862, prohibiting polygamy is referred to and it Is stated that under this law for a period of more than twenty years there were
 not more than three convictions in Utah.
 This was due largely to the fact that great
 majority of the community are in sympathy
 with those brought to trial. In this connec- | ton the commission say that no reflection is | intended to be cast upon the officers of jus
 tice in Utah appointed by the government. l Doubtless they have done the best they could with such means and legal measures as were | furnished them. The act under which the commission was appointed is referred to as
 much more comprehensive than that of 1862. New sections are introduced relating to the | qualification of jurors, amnesty to offenders and the Iegitimizetion of children born before | January l, 1883. With the execution of khasa eaokions kIa oonn mission have nokhfpo to do and there is they say general missp- prehsnsion in the public mind as to the sx- tent of their authority, which though impor. tant and difficult of execution is much more circumscribed and limited than many sup pose. The duties of the commission, the re-
 port says appsrtain only to matters of regis-
 tration and election and eligibility to office, while the punishment of the crime of polyga- my is left to the courts of justice. After re- ferring to the report of last year and the measures adopted then for excluding polyg
 about twelve thousand men and women, they report equal success at. the general election held on the 9th of August last. Continuing the report says: 'Ths theory of the ack of March 22, 1882, appears to be this: That 8 discrimination between those Mormons who practice polygamy and those who do not, placing stigma upon the former and depriv
 ing them of the right of suffrage as well as of the right to hold office, while on the other hand an inducement is held out to the latter class that by abstaining from the polygamic relation they will enjoy all the political rights of American citizens, would in time have the effect of inducing great numbers of the Nor mons to refrain from plural marriage. While such considerations are not likely to have much effect upon the elderly men who have plurality of wives and several families of children, they must have great weight with the young men of the territory, many of whom are ambitious and aspiring and would not like voluntarily to embrace political ostracism. The leading Mormons. who are generally in polygamy,
 evidently perceive this tendency and there- fore ever since the passage of the act they
 have assidaously taught their people that this
 measure is transient and that it will soon be
 set aside by the federal courts or by the se-
 ton or non. action of Congress.
 So far as we are advised, very few, if any,
 illegal votes have bsen cast in Utah since the
 
 and elections In August, 1882. As to the de- clared objects of the act of Congress as there
 in set forth, 30 far Rs appertains to our du-
 ties, 1t is not denied that the operation of the
 act has been eminently successful that Is to say
 the polygamists have all been excluded from
 the polls and from eligibility to office. Con-
 sidering that during the twenty years since the anti-polygamy Gct of 1862 was passed the penalties of that law have been enforced
 against not exceeding three persons, it would seem that in the enforcement of the present law against some twelve thousand polyga- mists who have been excluded from the polls it must justly be regarded that the act has been fully and successfully executed. Before passing from this topic we deem it proper to observe that no person well informed in re- gard to Utah affairs could reasonably have expected at the passage of the act that there would be an immediate change in the political situation, nor that it would have an 1 immediate effect in destroying the practice of polygamy; but the act must necessarily have a strong influence in that direction. The very existence of the law disfranchising the polygamists must iend to destroy their influence wherever it is understood that this I is to be @ permanent discrimination. Those 1 Mormons who have the ballot will after 1 time be conscious of 8 power they will be l unwilling to use at the bidding of those who have it not. The fact also that it will be necessary to the preservation of political in l fuence of the peoples party,' Gas the Nor mons style themselves) to have large body
 of their members who are not polygamists l must tend to weaken the practice of polyg- | any, for every married Mormon who takes | but one plural wife loses three votes | for his party, his own and those of his two wives woman suf- l frage being established by law in Utah). Another consideration already noticed the l influence on the young men and the rising | i'd EfS 1 ing all the offices of honor, trust and profit. I such as delegate to Congress, members of the l legislative assembly, probate judges, clerks of the county courts, sherifs And others, many of them quite lucrative, held by mo- I nogamists, while polygaaIists arc wholly ex- cluded, the aspiring young men of the terri tory would present an anomaly in human na. 1 lure if they should fail to be strongly inAu- enced against going into relation which thus subjects them to political os- ! tracism and fixes on them the stigma of ! moral turpitude. The difficulty of the situation can be better understood from the l fact that among the orthodox Mormons po- Iygamy is part of their religious faith, and | while but small percentage of the whole adult Mormon population have actually en- tered into the polygamic relation, yet all the faithful believe in 1t as a divine revelation. The Mormons believe in the Old Testament, the New Testament and much hesides-name- ly-the book of Mormon and divers so called revelations, claimed to have been received by the stProphet's Joseph Smith and his suo- cessors, Brigham Young and John Taylor, which are mostly printed in their book of doctrine and covenants. Among these so called ssrevelatiens' IS one in favor of plurality of wives. That a doctrine and practice so odious throughout Christendom
 should be upheld so many years against the laws of Congress and the ssntiments of the civilized world is one of
 the marvels of the nineteenth century and can be scarcely appreciated even by those who are familiar with the worlds history 1n
 relation to the difficulties of governmental
 suppression of religious fanaticism. Ger tainly 10 government can permit violation of lawasunder the guise of religious freedom, and wiaile Jonrress may not 1eeislate as to matters of opinion, yet it may denounce and
 punish as crimes those actions which are in
 violation of social duties or subversiye
 of good order. It waa upon this principle that the Supreme court of ths United States held the anti polygamy law of 1862 to be valid and constitutional (Reynolds vs. the TTr4ikad 9takea Otko4 The right of Con-