Salt Lake evening Democrat. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1885-1887, 1885-11-18
poLYGAMY AND UNLAWFUL COHAB
Judge Powers Defines the Grimes
Pretty clearly In His Charge 80
the Grand Jury Yesterday.

and charged the Grand Jury of the First
District Court, at Ogden, and the follow
ing extracts are taken from his charge TO
that body:
1t will be your duty TO inquire whether
any of the laws OF the United States have
been violated II is my duty to charge
you specifically to make due and diligent
inquiry whether the laws of your
country relative TO polygamy and unlaw-
fui cohabitation are being infringed in
this district. l therefore charge you to
investigate this matter. For years the
laws relative to the marriage relation
have been set at defiance in this Terri
| tory. This is fact OF such common
notoriety that the court is bound to take
judicial knowledge Of it. But this state
OF affairs cannot be allowed longer to
exist
THE GOVERNMENT is IN EARNEST.
The laws of the land must be enforced
and guilty parties taught that, if they
continue in their evil course, they must
pay the penalty. People must learn that
the law can no more be violated with i'm
punity in Utah than it can be lin the
States They must understand that the
great moral sentiment of the nation is
opposed to plural marriage. The sooner
they learn the lesson, that they must
learn sooner or later, that the law must
be obeyed, and that Utah is portion of
the United States, the better it will be
| for all. II is strange that any will pursue
the path that the people of this Territory
seem determined to take. Here, amid
these mountains. natures great treasure
vaults, enclosing valleys so fertile that
they need only to be "tickled with the
hoe in the spring-time to laugh with the
harvest in autumn" could be framed an
intelligent, enterprising State. Some day
this will be done, but it will not be until
our people learn to love their country,
learn to obey its laws, and learn to
reverence
THAT GREAT INSTITUTION OF CIVILIZATION,
THE HOME,
With its wife and mother, revered and
honored by the husband and father. The
laws relative to the marriage relation,
which the court expects your aid in en-
forcing, are just laws, and are constitu
tional laws. Aswas said by the Supreme
Court of the United States: "no legisla-
ton can be supposed more wholesome
and necessary in the founding OF n free,
self-governing commonwealth, fit to take
rank among the coordinate States of the
| Union. than that which seeks to estab-
lish it upon the basis of the idea OF the
family as consisting in and springing from
the union for life of one man and one
woman in the holy estate of matrimonv,
the sure foundation of all that is stable
and noble in our civilization; the best
guaranty OF that reverent morality which
is the source of all beneficent progress in
all social and political improvement.
THE CRIME OF BIGAMY OR PoLYaAMY
Consists in entering into bigamous or
polygamous marriage. The oifense is
complete when any person who has a
husband or wife living marries another
1t is also complete when any man
simultaneously, or on the same day, mar
ries more than one woman This, how
ever, does not apply to any person by
reason OF any former marriage, whose
husband or wife by such marriage has
been absent for five successive years, and
is believed by such person to be dead
nor to any person by reason of anv
former marriage which shall have been
dissolved by valid decree of a competent
court, on the ground OF nulity of the
marriage relation.
In this Territory
No form or ceremony is required, and
no record OF marriage is kept. Marriage
IS left as it was at common law. There
need be no witnesses present. II the
parties are competent to contract, all that
Is essential is present agreement. The
marriage is complete when there is full.
Tree and mutual consent OF parties capa-
BILE oil contracting, Proof that parties
trpntnl 4
wife, have lived together as such, and
have held each other out to the world as
such, is sufficient to enable IL court or iury
TO md that at some previous time the
parties did, as fact, consent to be mar
RED, and as u fact agree to be husband
and wife. The mode of life, the holding
out, the declarations or admissions of the
accused, and the like are circumstantiul
evidence from which the fact OF marriage
may be inferred.
THE oFFENsE OF CoHABIrATIoN
Is complete when man, to all outward
appearances, is living or associating with
more than one woman as his wife. To
constitute the offense it is not necessary
that it be shown that the parties indulge
in sexual intercourse. The intention of
the law-making power, in enacting the
law against cohabitation and polygamy,
was TO protect homogeneous marriage by
prohibiting all other marriage, whether
evidenced by ceremony. or by conduct
ana circumstances alone.
An indictment may be found against n
man guilty OF cohabitation for every day.
or other distinct interval of time, during
which he ottends. Each day that man
cohabits with more than one woman. as
have defined the word "cohabit," is a
distinct and separate violation of the law,
and is liable to punishment for each sen,
arate offense. A grand jury is vested
with very large discretion in limiting the
time within which a series of acts NAV be
alleged as constituting single offense.
1t has been argued by some that il
grand jury
CAN FIND AN INDICTMENT FOR EACH DAY
Ihat man cohabits with more than one
woman, they can find an Indictment for
each hour or each minute. The learned
lawyers who have raised this point-and
they are not members OF the bar-haye
probably forgotten that the law takes no
notice OF fractions of day, hence Won
cannot find an indictment for any less
period than day.
also charge you, that ii YOU should
ma that man is guilty OF cohabiting
WIN Two or more women, one of whom
resides in this district and the otbar in