The St. Johns herald., 1885-07-09
THE CRUSADE AGAINST THE
 HORIZONS.

der to reach them although charged under the EdmundS act, a territorial statute against bigamy was twisted into an application to the cases. They were convicted of the OttenSe. The sen tence was pronounced under the Edmunds act, and they were consigned to prison for term Of years, which they are now serving out at Detroit. 4 heavy fine was also imposed ill each case
 Neither of the men had married a wife under a
 period Of twelve years previous to the trials and one had been separated from his plural wife over three years. But this fragrant judicial crime is extended still further. An appeal was taken in these cases to the Supreme Court of Arizona about the end of February. That tribunal has
 been in session since that date but no decision is given. Thus are inocent men kept in durance
 vile by cruel crusade tactics. The injustice of this evidently indefinite delay is horrible ill more phases than one. Not only does it thus far appear to amount to declination to do justice to the unfortunate victims of persecution by re- versing the manifestly erroneous, not to say op- Presiye judgment of the lower court, but no de- cision is given at all. The hapless martyrs do not even have the benefit of an adverse declSlon
 by which, unwarranted though it would be- they would be enabled to carry their eases on appeal to the Supreme Court whose action would doubt less liberate them We would dislike to imagine otherwise, for to do so would amount to be lief in the rredeemable denoralizatiOn of what should be the leading bulwark of liberty in the land.'
 The above is taken from the Deseret News and is a specimen of the mental food dished up to the readers of the church organ, at Salt Lake City, and regularly rehashed by the Orion Era, the Mormon organ of Apache county, Arizona. The slush dished up to the saints of Apache county by Brother Mill ner loses none of its odor or strength from the fact that it comes "second hand" but rather comes through the Era more rank if possible than when it left the parent organ which grinds out the dole ful vail of the polygamous outfit in the tithing yard at Salt Lake City.
 It is noticeable feature ill Arizona experience with Mormons, that the Bish ops, polygamous criminals as we'll as its editors, are the slop over and refuse refugees of Utah Mormonism. It is a fact we'll known to the people of Arizona that very large proportion of the cut throats who escaped from Utah for their participation in the Mountain Meadow massacre and other church murders and butcheries found refuge in and became, and many now are living in every ''stake of Zion' in this territory. All of the many who have been convicted in the territory of Arizona of polygamy and unlawful cohabitation were formerly residents of Utah. It is fit and proper that if Arizona must harbor or punish the criminals that the church at Salt Lake educates and sends to us that this dark corner of Zion's heritage should be illumined by the dazzling light of Utah's legal and editorial fraternity-hence Ar izona has become the roasting place of Apostle NIilner, who presides over the destinies of the Orion Era, and repro duces such precious articles as we copy above from the Deseret News.
 We saw and heard Brother Milner in the Penney case. His cadaverous ap- pearance and close resemblance to the italic letter k, was accounted for by him in his speech to the court and jury wherein he stated that he had devoured two whole libraries in search of and in digesting the legal status of polygamy. Evidently the brother did not season his repast with many Bibles or cate chisms or even books of Mormon or he would not reproduce the glaring false hoods contained in the foregoing article. We attended the trials of Penney, Kemp and Chrstopherson in the District Court and heard the rulings and charge of Judge Howard. Brother Miner the same and when he prints the following: "In order to reach them, although "charged under the Edmunds Act, a territorial statute against bigamy was "twisted into an application to the case," he ought to know and probably does know that he IS guilty of prevarication. He knows, as the record of the trial will show that the only use made of the ter ritorial statute was to give to the jury the law as to what constitutes marriage in Arizona, there being no law of Congress on that question. The marriage relation, the requisites of the marriage contract are proper subjects for local legislation aud hence the territorial statutes of Ar izona were used to define what marriage IS in Arizona. AS to the twaddle about ancient relations between the defendants and their polygamous concubines, the prosecution did not enquire into 1t but it was done by the defendants them selves under the advice of lawyer, apos- tie, editor Milner, who exhibited evi- dence of mental constipation from the beginning to the end of the trial; caused probably by the indigestible character of the libraries he had devoured while searching for justification for polygamy. We are not advised why Judges Pinney and Fitzgerald have not passed upon these cases. Judge Howard having tried the cases and his rulings and de- cisious having been appealed from the other judges must of course decide upon the correctness or incorrectness of the rulings of the court below. In case of disagreement between them, then Judge Howard will be called upon to decide. As to the appeal to the Supreme Court oe ITnikaJ frO,l, bo