Salt Lake evening Democrat. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1885-1887, 1885-06-02
THE REPORT.

Washington submitted their report. The
report is substantially the same as the
the interviews which were telegraphed
over the country, save about two para
graphs, the opening and closing ones. In
closing their report, the committee say:
"We have thus performed the duty re-
ouired of us. The question has been
brought prominently before the country,
and has aroused much discussion through
the public prints, and the agitation has
caused many to reflect upon the matter,
who would otherwise have been lndlfer-
ent. Whatever the immediate result may
be. the Saints may feel that they have
done their duty in bringing their grlev-
ances directly before the President and
the Nation. For the rest, they can only
trust in Him who controls men and mea-
sures to advance His own purposes, and
who doeth all things we'll" There is a
tone Of resignation about this, if nothing
else. The great call of the Declaration is
for a commission to come to Utah and IN
vestigate men and matters. Supposng
commission shall be sent. and they
find things as represented IN
the Declaration and. Protest, what
then? Do those who drew up that
document for one moment think that
there can be found no juries which will
be impartial and unpacked who will con-
vict upon the same evidence that men
heretofore have been convicted upon in
trials for polygamy and unlawful
cohabitat;on? If judges have been
biased and partisan, is it thought
that there can be no judges
found who are without these grave faults
who will reach much the same conclu-
sions as these bigoted ones? All the
efforts of the Federal officials in this Ter
ritory, so far as those efforts are specially
directed against Mormons, are directed
against those Mormons who are breaking
the anti-polygamy laws, and we
are assured on the best of church author
ity that only two per cent. of the male
portion of the church is suspected" OF
being in polygamy. If this is the case,
then il J.; to the conduct of this two per
cent in continuing to break the laws that
ali the trouble and persecution are ow-
ing. Let us make further supposition
to help along the solution OF this ''yexed
question" 1t is not denied that this two
per cent. is guilty, but it is claimed that
a large proportion of that two per cent
entered into their polygamic re-
lations before there was any law
against such a system of marriage.
Very well, but what facts and
arguments are offered in extenuation of
those who enteIed into polygamy since
there was law icainst it? The Declar-
alton laid muc a- upon the fact that
the law Of 'G2 gdlnSt pDiygamy was not
declared const ,I'ional ( y until some
seventeen years alter its passage. But
what becomes OF the n1lygamic marriages
entered into since the Gyh lay Of January,
1879, when that law was eclared consti-
tutional? There have b.n such cases,
for even now some arg suT Q imprison-
ment for having broke .a ivs of their
country after those iaws had been de-
clared constitutional. Arc tlese cases to
help weigh in the scales when the com
mission, ii it shall come, make a
iull investigation? and i thew
are, on whose side are they to be counted
in coming to true, full and correct deter
mination as to the causes for the institu-
ton and continuance OF this merciless
crusade" Everything is to be fully in
vestigated, for such is the prayer of the
Protest, and anything less than the most
thorough and searching investigation, no
matter what its results, would not satisfy
the demands of the Declaration. What
If it is discovered that there have been
many such marriages even since 1882,
when the Congress of the United States
did for the children of polygamic parents
in Utah what the polygamic legislators
OF Utah never once attempted to
do, and all with a full knowledge
on the part of the persons participating
in them that they were breaking and
defying the laws, the constitutional laws,
of their country? Can the gentlemen who
carried the Declaration of Grievances
and Protest to Washington to present it
to the President, and who solemnlv As
sured the President that all they asked
was 'that the law shall be impartiallv adj
ministered, give any good and sufficient
reasons why these persons should not be
punished? Or will the gentlemen un-
dertake to explain that such conduct is
not a breaking of the laws? Why did
these men who have gone into polvgamv
since 1882 do so, since they were fully
cognizant OF the illegality of their act?
Was it not because those men have
thought the Government which protected
them was not to be treated with
respect and Difference, because their
church had said the marriage relation is
a thing which is to be regulated by the
laws of God and not 10y the laws of the
Government? Further, was it not be-
cause those who had done so in the past
had done so with impunity so far as pun
lshment was concerned, and had laughed
at the spasmodic and abortive efforts that
had been made TO vindicate the law?
Another reason that may be assigned for
their defiance of the laws is that the ma
jority of the people in Utah have thought
that the State had no concern with man