The semi-weekly miner. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1882-1886, 1884-05-28
CONGRESSIONAL.
SENATE

WASHINGTON, May Ex-senator
Cameron, of Pennsylvania, appeared
in the Senate this morning and the
Senators congratulated him on his
safe return and improved health.
slater, from the committee on pub
lie lands reported favorably the bill
to forfeit the grant along the uhem-
ptoyed portion of the Northern Paci-
tic railroad.
Hill submitted a report from the
committee on postOftices and post
roads on the subject OF postal tele>
graph.
Lapham submitted a report from
the committee On privileges and cleo
tons on the Danville investigation.
Vance Is preparing Il minority re-
port.
Salisbury submitted Il minority re-
port on the Copiah county lnvesliga-
ton.
ingalls, introduced a bill to provide
for the sale of lands belonging to the
Prairie band of POttOwamle Indians.
The Senate took up the bill to
grant the Cinnabar and Clark's Fork
Railroad Company right of way
through q portion of the Yellowstone
Park.
Conger submitted All amendment
TO limit th. company's control to
one hundred feet in width and pros
hibiting the company from erecting
buildings, excepting for station pnr-
poses.
Logan opposed the bill. There
was, he said, y disposition To "gobb!e
up' everything in connection with
the Park by railroads and hotel CON-
panies.
Vest gave the details OF the man.
agement Of the Park and said every
word stated by Logan was true.
Although Congress had absolutely
forbidden monopoly it had been per
mitted, and the Park was under the
control of a private corporation.
The matter then went over and the
Utah bill taken up.
Brown said the Edmunds bill was
q shameful violation of the constitu>
ton. He cOntrasted what he termed
polygamy in New England, and the
picture he drew, he said, was drawn
more in sorrow than in anger. There
had been over twenty-seven thousand
divorces granted in New England
within the last twenty years, destroy
ing q, 600 families and turning loose
81, 600 persons to marry again, all IL
legally, except those who
divorced for adultery or f%ornication
in the other party. Assuming that one
third of them had been divorced for
adultery it would leave $1,000
divorced and married again who
we're practicing po]ygamy IN New
England, while the commission act
ing under the Edmunds bill after
having searched through Utah with
the test oath could find but LOO men
and women who won d not swear
they had never IN their lives been
guilty of polygamy. Prostitution
was practiced in New England to an
alarming extent and tBticide to
the extent that if continued IN it
would In less than a century depopu-
late New England of itsPurItan stock.
A nation of Mormons was impossible
not so q nation of libertines. In
Massachusetts, during the last
twenty years the population
had Increased ii per cent. and mar
rlages 81 per cent, while divorces in
creased 127 per cent. 1t behooved a
Christian and patriot to ponder over
the consequences that must follow
from such q stated society. Churches
denounced polygamy and demanded
its suppression, and the churches
we've right. But how then could the
churches wink at illegal divorces !;
now, without censure, see their MIN
listers officiating for n petty fee at
adulterous marriages. If ministers
and churches did their whole duty
public sentiment would soon sweep
from our statute books the wicked
and immoral divorce laws. Brown
claimed no right to lecture. either to
christian churches or their ministers,
but as a citizen and q Senator he felt
it his duty to express his convictions
with regard to this great evil which
was undermining society, families
and tho existence of state. Many
persons advocated putting Aormons