Evening star., 1899-11-20
The Roberts Case.

| In two weeks Congress will convene. and
! 1t is expected that Immediately thereafter
| an effort viii be made to prevent the seat
| ing of Representative-elect Brigham H
| Roberts of Utah. The storm which has
| ragged about this man since his election,
| over a year ago, has been fierce, and it
| Is not TO be anticipated that it will calm
| down into a gentle breeze of amicable dis
| cusSion when the opportunity arrives to
| test the questions raised in the premises
| 1t is unnecessary to inquire into the per-
| sonal or political motives which animate
! the antagonism to Roberts. The questions
| involved are broader than any petty con-
siderations or the Immediate desires Of
'""Se engaged in the prosecution. 1t is not
10 be Questioned that the controversy over
his right to be seated involves many thou
sands of people who entirely sincere in
their conviction that factors affecting the
| national, domestic and religious life of the
people AT large are a stake
Mr.. Roberts credentials as straight
as any ever offered to Congress- 1nere is
no cloud upon his title to the seat as re-
CARDS the forms of the election The only
ground for attack is that, polygamist,
ne Is a Vlolator of the laws of the country,
aud Is therefore ineligible under the Consti-
tuition Mr.. Roberts, in a signed statement
Just issued. declares that he is not vio-
fator of the laws. Herein lies the supreme
issue of the case, an issue of fact and not
especially of morals The act of Congress
enabling the territory of Utah to become a
state stipulated that prior to its admission
It's people should frame a constitution for
ever prohibiting polygamous or plural mar
riages. This was done. in the language of
the enabling act, and the constitutional
81
provision defining and furnishing polyga-
nous marriages, Mr.. Roberts was, at the
time of this enactment and the admission
OF the state, polygamst He does not
deny the fact. He does deny however
that there is anything i'll the laws either
OF the nation or the state, to prohibit
continuance of p0lygamous marriage rela-
tl0nS lawfully contracted before the adrnis-
sion Of the state
Herein lies a question of law. Was it an
implied condition of the admission of Utah
that thereafter not only all new polyga-
nous marriages should cease but mat all
poiygamous marital relations, contracted
previously, should cease also? Mr.. Rob
ertS and other members of the Mormon
Church answer in the negative. They as
sert that IL require this construction wOuld
be TO infict great suffering mental and
CtpHpLiIC, upon thousands of
Utah who would have to be turned adrift
after having been made wives under all
the forms and ceremonies of the communi-
ty and the laws of the region But the
Roberts case in itself does not hinge upon
this issue. a further issue of fact arises.
which ii is believed Congress is competent
to determine and to act upon in this in
dividual instance. 1t is charged that in
1889 Mr.. Roberts was arrested for main
tanning polygamous relations and on his
own plea of guilty, was sentenced to a
short imprisonment, which he served In
iNh' he appeared before Il registration off,
Ger and, accepting the conditions of the
amnesty proclamatiOns issued by Presi-
dents Harrison and Cleveland swore to
obey the laws Of the United States thence
forth, by this means recovering his citizen
ship rights, which had been forfeited by his
conviction
Those who oppose the seating of Mr.
Roberts declare that he has violated his
oath then given by continuing In polyga-
nous relations with his three wives since
that date. as evidenced by the birth Of
children The records should deyeloD the
facts beyond controversy. All extraneous
questions as to the political and religious
relations Of Mr.. Roberts, or as to the ne
'eSSIt! LOT the present agitation, the
Hike. need not be considered while there Ia
a chance to determine the case upon its
merits and the facts and the law There
is no place in this remarkable affair for
fanaticism on either side. Congress has to
determine. first of all. whether this man
Is entitled 10 a seat in the light of It's own
rules and the Constitution and the statutes
and incidentally whether the new common
wealth is observing the compact which en-
abied it to join the family of states