Salt Lake evening Democrat. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1885-1887, 1886-03-05
JUDGE POWERS CHARGE
Delivered to the Grand Jury Of the
First Judicial District,
In Which He Defines tho OffenSes OF
POlygamy and Unlawful Co.
habitatiOn.
The Sooner the MOrmOus Learn to
Obey the Law, the Better 1t
Will Be for All.


The following is part of Judge Power
charge to the Grand Jury OF the First ]
dicial District, delivered at Provo
e Tuesday, and as it refers to the a
!, absorbing topic throughout Utah, al
: defines with clearness the position I'll
Judge takes upon "holding OUT" it wi
+; be read with interest by all the reade
of the DEMOCRAT throughout the Teri
tory:
Gentlemen of the Grand Jury:
1t will be your duty to inquire whethe
any Of the laws of the United States hay
been violated. 1t is my duty to chare
you specifically to make due and diligeI
inquiry whether the laws of your countr
relative to polygamy and unlawful cohat
ltation are being infringed in this district
therefore charge you to investigate thi
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 no
toriety that the Court is bound to tax,
judicial knowledge of it. But this state
of affairs cannot be allowed longer to ex
list. The Government is in earnest-the
laws 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 impunity in Utah
than it can be in the States. They must
understand that the great moral senti-
ment of the nation is opposed to plural
marriage.
THE SOONER THE LESSON is LEARNED
That must be learned, 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. 1t is strange
that any will pursue the path which the
people OF this Territory seem determined
to take. Here, amid these mountains;
Natures own great treasure-vaults-
closing valleys so fertile that they need
only be "tickled with the hoe in the spring-.
time to laugh with the harvest in the
summer'-could be framed an intelligent
and enterprising State. Some day this
will be done ;abut 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
IT'S ONE WIFE AND MOTHER. sf
Revered and honored by the husband
and father. The laws relative to the
marriage relation which the Court ex-
poets your aid in enforcing, are Just laws.
and are constitutional. As was said by
the Supreme Court of the United States.
no legislation can be more wholesome
and necessary in the founding of free.
self governing commonwealth, fit to take |
rank among the coordinate States of the
Union, than that which seeks to establish |
It upon the basis of the idea of the family |
Is consisting in and springing from the
lnlon for life by one man and woman in
he holy estate of matrimony; the sure
of all that is stable and noble
n our civilizations the best guaranty of
hat reverent morality which is the source
If all benefcent progress in social and
political improvement.
AS l have already indicated, the Amer
can idea OF government is founded on
ne Christian idea Of home, where one
ather and one mother, each the equal of
he other, happy in the consciousness of
mutual and eternal affection, rear about
ne hearthstone an intelligent and God
caring family.
PATRIOTISM SPRINGS FROM LOVE OF
COUNTRY,
Which is born of love of home. Virtue {
nd morality are the flowers which adorn
he hearthstone of the true family. If
as said in Reynolds VS.. the United 1
tates, 81 U. s., 165, that marriage, while !
ON Its nature a sacred obligation, is =
svertheless i'll most civilized nations a d
vii contract, and is usually regulated d d
J. law. Upon it society may be y
~ to be built, and out of its a
l!ts spring social relations and e
cIal obligations and duties, with which IL
vernment is necessarily required to
al. In tact, according as homogeneous 1:
polygamous marriages are allowed do a.
lind the principles on which the gov m
nment OF the people to greater or less al
tent rests. Professor Leber saws no. w
fanny leads to patriarchal principles, W
llch, when applied to large COMMUNE pt
$, letter the people in stationary des- Ii,
tlsm, while that principle cannot long pc
lst IN connection with monogamy b
ancellor Kent observes that this re- SUI
Irk is equally striking and profound: W,
n exceptional colony of polvgamists. in
der an exceptional leadership. NAV TT
netlmes exist for a time without an en-
lrlng to disturb the social condition of co
people who surround it, but there M
mot be doubt that unless restricted ria
some form of constitution, it is within or
: legitimate scope of the power of every
IL government to determine whether st,
ygamy or monogamy shall be the law st:
oclal life under its dominion. In the no
ne case, on page 164, it is said that DO. WI
amy has always been odious among the
northern and western nations of Eu. vel
e, ana the
IL THE ESTABLISHMENT OF. THE NOR tle'
MON CHURCH, out
almost exclusively feature of the OF
atlc and of the African people. At ior
lmon law, the second marriage was tne
avs voida2 Kent's Com, 79l and from par
earliest history of England polygamv cur
been treated as an offense AGAINST On. un(
V. siss So be
Y the statuta Of Jomos RI -, TAFT
lse, if Committed in Enn,a ,ni 'ils terv
es, was made punishable in the civil
rs, and the punishment was death. Wit
his statute was limited in it's opera offe
to England and Wales, it was at q and
early period re-enacted generally, graz
some notifications, in all the col disc
;. In connection with the case we viii
now considering, it is a significant cons
that on the Sth OF December, 17Ss. I
the passage of the act establishing find
lous freedom, and after the conven with
OF Virginia had recommended as an resi-,
1dment to the Constitution of the som
ed States the declaration in the shor
OF rights that call men have an deer
!, natural, and inalienable right com