The St. Johns herald., 1885-06-04
lent Cleveland in person recently.


 mon Committee which waited up-
 on the President the other day to protest against the persecution
 of the pOlygamists, was, that men are arrested and punished fer hay ing more than onc wife apiece.
 while other men, not Mormons. practice ordinary adultery in Utah
 with impunity. But the sig
 nificant fact was withheld that
 under the Territorial laws passed
 by the Mormon Legislatures of
 Utah in the interest of the plural wife system, adultery and similar crimes arc not forbidden at all, and the courts are, therefore, powerlcss in such cases.
 Springfield Republican: Warned by the recent deeds of violence upon Mormon Missionaries, the Tennessee Legislature passed at its last session a bill prohibiting the preaching of polygamy in the state Three Mormon Elders were ar rested at Elizabethtown Saturday for breaking this statute, and there is prospect of hard fight in the courts. To make 1t a misdemeanor to advocate" any doctrine is not strictly in the line of our legisla- ton, and the constitutionality of the act will be stoutly disputed. The Mormon missionaries have won astonishing success among the white trash' of the south, and l 1t is an ugly matter to handle. ] X school-housc on every hilltop would settle 1t in time
 Philadelphia Press: The Mer- mons are uneasy under the opera ton of the Edmunds law, and gricved that the morals of the Gen tiles of Utah arc not looked into with the same jealous scrutiny as their own plural marriages are being investigated and punished. President Cleveland promised the Mormon delegation which waited on him on Wednesday that as far as he could control it, the law should be impartially administered. This is very well but the Mormon ulcer and the social evil in Utah, IS elsewhere, hardly admit of the same treatment. In one case vice is made the cornerstone of reli- zion and advertised to all the world, and in the other 1t is kept as much IS possible out of sight and for the part out of ffectivc reach. This is lot the real grievance of the Mor- mons. It would comfort them but ; title if immortality were banished ( It one stroke from the whole United [ States if their surplus wives were aken from them, especially if the I me wife left to each was not the | 'lumpest and prettiest of the lot, | ut the ancient matron whom they irst promised to love and cherish. | The single cause of Mormon dis | ontcnt is that they cannot main ain harems under United States aW. Salt Lake Tribune Correspondent: f s polygamy the only crime among c he Mormons? One would think, Q owever, by reading the many I apers published cast, west, north t nd south, that as soon as the s ovc-nment succeeds in stopping " marriages all would t hen be we'll in Utah and other il erritories where the Brigamite T Lormons have settled. But this h } not so; they teach their children a ) hate the United States govern n lent on general principles, and to ommit all sorts of crime. The -ealing of cattle and horses is and It as been acommon practice among . lem. There are exceptions, but u lcy are very rare After II lrcful observation of fourteen u ears residence among them find Il le majority of the children mark !" l with physical birth mark d epravity and immortality. These o hildren will grow up to manhood Il nd womanhood transmitting their d. '