Salt Lake evening Democrat. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1885-1887, 1885-12-14
JOHN T. GAME ON UTAH MATTERS
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, !
WASHINGTON. ID. G. DEcE,5REp Z

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES,
WASHINGTON, d. c., DECEMBER ~
Sir: Since our conversation of th
morning, additional sensational STATE
ments have been sent from Omaha an
| Washington, and published throughor
the East. which are so false and sue
outrageous misrepresentation of the fact
in regard to the actual situation in UtaI
that / am constrained to lay before vo
the truth.
The Aijutant- General of the arm
apparently authorizes the statement tina
''the Secretary of the Interior and tn
Attorney-General received reports from
the Governor, United States Marshal
and other officials there to the effect tha
the disposition of the Mormons is quit,
offensive, that demonstrations are beins
made of a threatening character, an(
that the slightest accident is liable tt
cause riot in which the residences anC
offices of the United States Judges, Dis
trict Attorney and other officials may be
mobbed, and perhaps personal violence
attempted, ETC., ETC."
You, sir, and your constitutional ad-
visers have been deceived by designing
men who seek to create in the East the
impression that the Mormon people are
unruly and turbulent. The ordering of
additional troops to Utah is the result of
deliberate attempt on the part of the
Republican United States officials here to
create the impression that there is danger
OF a Mormon outbreak The object of
this is, first, to make it difficult for Dem
ocratic Administration to remove the Off
cials, and second, to influence Congress
to enact legislation in the interest
OF desperate ring of adventurers who
seek the control of the government of the
Territory in spite of the fact that they
constitute an infinitesimal portion of the
population and have no interest in the
material welfare of the great bulk of the
people.
The Mormons have been subjected to
systematic attempt to goad them to a
hostile act. The Federal Judiciary has
persistently ruled so as to shield disrepu-
table non-Mormons from punishment for
(" lewd and lascivious conduct" while
Mormons have been prosecuted with the
utmost rigor for unlawful cohabitation
under the so-called Edmunds Act, which
makes it crime for men to cohabit
with more than one woman. The
Chief Justice of the Territory
and majority of the court have held
that the Edmunds law applies only to the
Mormons, and a man who was arrested
on charge of debauching his sister-in-
law was discharged by Chief Justice Zane
on the ground that the Edmunds law was
not intended to be general corrective of
morals. When deputy marshal, mar
ried man, was arrested by the police on
charge of ."lewd and lascivious conduct
with woman not his wife, Judge Zane
on habeas corpus proceedings promptly
dismissed the accused on the ground that
adultery and fornication was not lewd and
lascivious conduct unless it was practiced
IN public. On the other hand, prominent
Mormons, who had separated themselves
from their plural wives Immediately on
the passage of the Edmunds law and had
to honestly obey that law,
were indicted for unlawful cohabitation, !
and when they asked the right to prove
hat they had not had sexual intercourse
with their plural wives, Chief Justice
Zane ruled that such evidence was
and irrelevant; that unless
hey had publicly abandond their plural
wives they were guilty of holding them .
,ut" as their wives, which constituted the
,ffense of unlawful cohabitation under
he Edmunds law. 1t mattered not that
n the entire history of civil and criminal :
udicature, no English or American court
lad ever held that cohabitation meant
'ther than sexual intercourse, the Nor
mons had to go to Jail, because they did
lot publicly renounce their plural wives.
In the execution of the Edmunds act the
Utmost latitude has been given to the
Marshal and his deputies. Domiciliarv
lists had been common, and spies and
niormers had been encouraged to ply
heir Infamous trade. When a reputable
lormon resented a gratuitous insult by
equity marshal on the street he was fined
Y Judge Zane and sent to Jail for FIVE
avs on the untrnthful charge of attempt
lg to intimidate an officer of his court.
he stories about attempts to lynch Col
N, and the gathering of Mormons for
hat purpose, and the nscessity for placing
ollin in the hands of the military for
rejection, are altogether false. The sem
ltional reports telegraphed from Omaha I
bout mob going to Fort Douglas
nd demanding Collin are manufactured
II purpose. Their is no necessity for
he presence Of additional troops in Utah.
on, sir, rs well as your advisers, have
cen imposed upon by Governor Murray
nd Marshal Ireland. These representa-
ons are maliciously false. The Nor
ons understand perfectly that every
fort has been and is being made by
Federal officials to provoke
1 outbreak. The Mormons know that
ey would be doing themselves an ire :