Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1888-01-07
The CHEAT IN THE UTAH C0NsTI-
TUITION.

man in the country is better posted upon
the Mormon question than he. We inter
pose a protest to that declaration. Mr..
Curtis Is a man of intellectual and legal
attainments, and Of broad humanity of SEN
timent, besides being a student of political
economy. But, for all that, he proves by
the interview that he has allowed his en-
thusiastic love of liberty of conscience to
run away with his Judgment, and his heart
10 get the better of his head.
Mr.. Curtis favors and has made the
strongest arguments yet advanced for the
admission of Utah under the Constitution
rendered by the Utah Convention of June,
1887, which was Mormon from its feet to
the crown of its head. 1t will be but fair
10 give-brevity being necessity-the
points Mr. Curtis makes, and which indi-
cate what will be advanced by the propo-
nents of the bill Of admission when the
debate comes on in Congress. His grounds
of affirmation are:
l. The great majority of the people of
Utah were represented in the Convention
that prepared the Constitution.
,. That document forbids bigamy and
polygamy; declares them to be misde-
meanors; afiixes fine and imprisonment
the article is declared operative without
legislation, and pardon for the ofense re-
quires the approval of the President of the
United States.
8. Amendment of the provision is per-
Missile only by consent of Congress.
1. This amounts, then, to a compact be-
tween the people of Utah and the people
of the United States, not capable of alter
alton or revision without the consent OF
the latter
,. Such a compact is consistent with oul
system Of government, although it binds
the people of the proposed State in an un
usual bond and limits their free will.
6. Ninety-fve per cent. of those who be
lieSe in polygamy as a religious tenet
voted for the Constitution, and it should
therefore be accepted as sincere yielding t.
the law and the sentiment of the country
7. Congress can provide conditions for tn,
admission of State, arising out of thu
peculiar environment of the candidate anC
irrespective of the question whether like
conditions were required of other States a.
precedent TO admission. And such condi
tious may limit the sovereignty 81 the
people Of a State without danger to repub
lican institutions.
;. The old Mormons are passing away
the yeunger-those under 40--havc moi
married more than one wife; ali the Nor
mons agree that polygamy must be discon
tinued
9. Congress cannot deal so well as can q
local Legislature with the legal and 90.
nestle conditions of the 5000 plural wives
in Utah, who are such by reason of sincere
religious belief; and the same policy APP
plies TO the case OF the 10000 children OF
polvgamous unions in Utah.
10. Mr.. Curtis concludes by saying that
polygamy in Utah has not been attended
by domestic tyranny or brutality, or that
want of refinement which the people of the
United States have been made to believe is
the necessary characteristic of that state
of society.
1t is true that the proposed Constitution
forbids polygamy and bigamy, but it does
not name plural marriage" 1t studi-
Ously avoids definition of these offenses.
This was done, there is reason to believe,
that the Courts of the proposed State may
be left free to rule that the wife taken in
the secrecy Of the Endowment-house and
by religious rite, is an actor in cere-
mony of religion sanctioned and defended
by the guarantee of liberty of conscience
1t would thus be matter of ease for the
polygamists to so scot free of the prohib-
itory clause of the Constitution. All that
is necessary is for the new Courts, which
would of course be Mormon, to hold that
the religious" rite of sealing woman
TO man does not constitute that civil
compact which under the law we call mar
riage
So far as the point goes that the Nor
mons voted for the Constitution with the
probibitory clause plainly in view, it is
answerable by the fact that the Gentle
population, which must be assumed to
know the people with whom they live, and
70 understand the springs and purposes of
their activity, almost wholly abstained
from voting upon the Constitution, and
gave it at the time and still do their I'M
wavering diSapproyal, and look upon it as
a fraud and mere pretense. The non.
Aormons held Convention last spring in
Utah irrespective of political parties and
resolved to take no part in an election that
it was forgone would be controlled by the
politico-religious faction dominating in
Utah. They issued an address to the pee
pie Endorsed by both the Democratic and
Republican Territorial Committees of
Utah, in which they declare that they
know by experience and intimate associa-
ton, of the spirit and methods of the
Mormon sect; that the admission of Utah
under sectarian control will be destruc-
tive to the personal rights and material
Interests of all Mormons, and will
withdraw the measure of protection they
now enjoy under national supervision.
We submit that this protest by a respecta-
bic minority is worthy of such attention
as to call halt among those who have, like
Mr.. Curtis, given ear to the demand of the
religious majority. This majority so re-
Gently as May, 1855, in general conference
assembled, declared by resolution that