The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1884-06-04

| Judiciary committee, including OF course
Mr.. Edmunds, to supplement the law
known as the Edmunds bill. This amend.
ment provides that there shall be divorce
for only one cause in all the territories
and the District of Columbia. 1t was
supported by long and carefully.pre-
pared speech, in which the senator gave
intimstion at the close of his speech
against the constitutionality of the anti
mormon legislation in the winter. The
speech ably sets forth the law of the New
Testament on the subject of divorce and
polygamy, and declares that "the moral
guilt of the husband in Utah who lives
with two wives, one of whom he has no
right to have, is no greater than the moral
guilt Of the husband who, in Georgia or
in Massachusetts,, has two wives, and CO.
habits in state of adultery with the one
he has no right to have" 1t then goes on
to show that the moral guilt of New En-
gland in this matter of polygamy is as
great as that of Utah, and that there
must be added to this the responsibility
for bigamy, prostitution and feticide.
The senator quotes at length from all the
leading writers on divorce, and brings
their figures to bear on his view of the
case with great force. Not even DR.. Ba-
cons Polygamy in New England, which
is quoted at great length, is keener sat
ire on the course of some of our states
than the plain figures of the Georgia sena-
tor, as he shows that from divorce alone
the moral polygamy of New England is
greater than that of Utah-while, when
prostitution and other evils are taken into
the account, he estimates that "the social
evil is five times as greatin New England
as it is in Utah." We give, of course,
his opinion and not ours. Governor
Brown disclaims any ill will against New
England, and says that he is compelled to
take her statistics because other states
show less enterprise in collecting them.
He pays tribute to the effort made at the
North to correct our divorce laws. We
incline to accord him his disclaimer as sim
cerely made, and suspect that beyond the
ostensible reason of desiring to treat
Utah as Justly in the matter as other sec
tions Of the country, the real motive is
the partisan one. For it is we'll known
that the democratic party is willing to
ha IF TrEah xuh,ok
that way for aid and comfort. But
we cannot think that high-minded sena-
tors from the South, whom we know
are sound on divorce and polygamy-men
like Senators Bayard, Garland and others
will consent to allow supposed party
interest to defeat any just measure for the
suppression of the terrible crime of Utah.
Not even Mr.. Brown himself would &C.
riously press his amendment to defeat
the bill before the senate. We prefer to
assume that he really aimed only to show
congress that here is much larger ques-
ton than some think, and that we
must be sure we are willing to make the
broadcast application of our principles. In
the discussion that followed, Mr.. Hoar
said "the senator has found out these
things, as am proud to say, by the in.
vestigation and comparison, and endeavors
at amendment Of the people whom they
concern" and paid high compliment to
the gentlemen who are "giving their lives
to their suppression and cure" and turned
work in hand-that of discussing the
polygamy bill. But he seems to have
been puzzled more than he ought at the
motive Of Mr.. Brown, and it is easy to see
that he scarcely took in the meaning of
the speech, which, by the way, he seems to
have heard but in part. Governor Brown
will doubtless be reminded by Mr.. Ed.
munds, if not by Mr.. Garland, of his own
party and section, that New England
men have asked congress to lay before
the people the facts as to divorce and
marriage throughout the entire country,
and that bill has been favorably re-
ported to the senate and is now awaiting
its action, providing for this very thing.
And, further, that action upon the bill
in charge of Mr.. Hoar should not be thus
needlessly embarrassed by loading it down
with extraneous matters. He will doubt
less hear something of the content with
which he and others in the South regarded
universal and worse invasion of the
family by slavery. He might be reminded,
too, of the present relations of white men
to women of various shades of color, and
of the fact that no state is better recruit
ing ground for the Mormons than his own
Georgia. All this and much more may
be said, and we hope it will be. But we
trust this speech, while futile in its par
tisan or sectional aim, will do something to
show both the North and the South where
we must yet come to stand on this subject
of the family. The most careful students
of these subjects have come to the conclu-
sion that it would not do to talk against
evils in Oneida and Utah that we were
afraid to denounce at home, and that
underneath some of the great social ques-