National Republican., 1883-10-31
THE Utah PROBLEM.
Second Annual Report Of the Commissioners
Filed Yesterday.
Effects Of Congressional Legislation Con-
ceming Bigamy and PoIygamy.
Suggestion in Relation 70 the Suppression Of the
Gigantic Evil.
Additional Liquidation Recommcndcd-In-
teresting Facts About the MOrmons.

appointed by President Arthur under the
anti-polygamy act of last year yesterday
submitted their second annual report to the
secretary of tho interior.
Before proceeding with an account of their
transactions since the date Of their previous
report, they make brief statement of the for
mer legislation of congress in relation to
bigamy or polygamy, and then say:
II will thus be seen that the duties of this
commission appertain only to matters of
Sregistration, and election, and eligibility to
office; while the punishment of the crime OF
polygamy Is left, as undor the former law, to
the courts of Justice. Nor are we invested
with legislative authority. Our powers are
of quasi-iudioial and administrative charac-
ter. But from the general terms of many
parts of the act we have been obliged to eX-
ercise considerable latitude of discretion to
make the act effectual, combining ourselves
within the limits of the law, according to our
best judgment.
We have heretofore communicated to the
department of the interior the difficulties we
encountered on entering upon our duties last
year; also the measures we adopted for ex-
cluding polygamists from registration and
from the polls; and that we had excluded some
1900 men and women from registration and
voting by reason of their disqualification
under this act. Pursuing the same policy we
have had equal success at the general election
held on the sixth of August, 1885, in exclud-
ing polygamists from the polls. The theory
of the act of March %, 1882, appears to be
this That discrimination between those
Mormons who practice polygamy and those
who do not, placing stigma upon the former,
and depriving them of the right of suffrage,
as we'll as 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 num-
bers of the Mormon people to refrain from
plural marriage.
While such considerations are not likely to
have much effect upon the elderly men who
already 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 Normons, who are generally in
polygamy, evidently perceive this tendency
and, therefore, ever since the passage OF the
act, they have assiduously taught their people
that this measure is transient and that it will
soon be set aside by the federal courts, or by
the action or non-action of congress.
So far as we are advised very few, if any
illegal votes have been cast in Utah since the
commission took charge of registrations and
elections in August, 1882.
As to the declared objects of the act Of con-
RTtsb, do bHeTtlu sou lOTbu, bo no dppcIthiuo
to our duties it is not denied that the opera
tion of the act has been eminently successful; /;
that is to say, the polygamists have all
been excluded from the polls and
from the eligibility to- office. Consideri ng
that during the twenty years since the
\ Santi-polygamy act of 1862 was passed
! the penalties of that law have been enforced
[ against not exceeding three persons it would
J seem that in the enforcement of the present
law against some $4,000 polyga mists, who
have been excluded from the polls, it must
justly be regarded that the act has been fully
aud successfully executed.
, Before passing from this topic we deem it
proper to observe that no person well informed
with regard 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
immediate effect in destroying the practice of
polygamy; but the act must necessarily have
strong influence in that direction. The very
existence of the law disfranchising the polyg-
amists must tend to destroy their influence
whenever it is understood that this is to be a
permanent discrimination.
Those Mormons who have the ballot will,
after q time, be conscious of power which
they will be unwilling to use forever at the
bidding of those who have it not. The fact
also that it will be necessary to the preserva-
tion of the political. influence of the ''peo PIES
party" (as the Mormons style themselves) to
have large body of their members, who are
not polygamists, must tend, in time, to
weaken the practice of polygamy; 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 suffrage
being established by law in Utah). Another
consideration, already adverted to, the influ-
encss upon the young men and the rising
generation, IS entitled to great weight.
Seeing all the offices of honor trust, and
profit, such as delegate to congress, members
nf fhn NH nhnf fa
judges, clerks of the county courts,
sheri1s, and others, many of them quite
lucrative, held by monogamists, while polyg-
amists are wholly excluded, the aspiring
young men of the territory would present
an anomoly in human nature if they should
into a relation which thus subjects to politi-
cal ostracsm, and fixes on them the stigma
of moral turpitude. The difficulty of the
situation can be better understood from the
fact that, among the orthodox Mormoms OF
Utah, polygamy is part of their religious
faith, and while but small per cent of the
whole adult Mormon population have entered
into the polygamc relation, yet all the faith
ful believe in 1t as divine revelation.
The Aormons believe in the Old Testa-
ment, the New Testament, and great deal be-
sides, namely. the Book of Mormon and
divers sO-called "Revelations," claimed ia
have been received by the prophet" Joseph
Smith, and his successors Brigham Young
and John Taylor, which are mostly printed
in their Book of Doctrine and Covenants
Among these ,so-called Revelations" is one
in favor of plurality of wives.
That a doctrine and practice so odious
throughout Christendom should have been
upheld so many years, against the laws OF
congress and the sentiments 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 in relation TO the difficulties of gov
ernment control or suppression Of religious
fanaticism.
Certainly no government can permit a
violation of the laws under the guise of re-
ligious freedom, and, while congress may not
legislate as to mere matters of opinion, yet il
may denounce and punish as crimes those
actions which are in violation Of social duties
or subversive of good order 1t was upon
this principle that the supreme court of the
United States held the anti-polygamy law OF
1862 to be valid and constitutional, [Rey,
nolds VS.. The United States, Otto.
The right of congress to suppress this great
evil is undoubted. 1t is equally plain that
the dignity and good name of this great gov
ernment among the nations of the earth de-
mand such congressional action as shall
ehoctually eliminate this national disgrace,
In our report of Nov. II, 1882, we made
several recommendations, which were sub
stantially incorporated into senate bill No
223S of the last session of congress- reported
by the judiciary committee Dec. ID, 1882