The daily morning journal and courier., 1899-12-06
ROBERTS DISC USSiON IN DETAIL. Presentation of Case by MT. Taylor
 Roberts in His Own Behalf

Roberts in His Own Behalf,
 Washington, Dec. 5.-The reading of
 the presidents message to-day in the
 house consumed two and one-half
 hours, and at the conclusion the repub-
 licans gave it a hearty round of ap-
 plause. MT. Payne, (rep. of New York;
 the floor leader of the majority, imme-
 diately moved that the message be
 referred to the committee of the whole
 on the state of the union, and ordered
 printed. MT. Grow (Rep. of Pennsyl-
 vania) expressed a desire to debate the
 message, but this was declared out of order, The speaker then laid before the house MT. Taylors resolution to re- fer the Roberts case to a committee.
 MT. Taylor took the fioor. It was ar ranged that there should be three hours of debate, one half on each side, one half hour to be allowed MT. Roberts and to come out of the time of the mil nority. This arrangement having been made MT. Richardson, the democratic leader, gave notice of a substitute he would offer.
 MT. Taylor then opened his speech in favor of the adoption of his reso- lution. He would not urge its adop- ton, he said, were he not prompted by a high sense of duty. The constitution was inconsistent, he continued, if it was content that the limitations it i'm posed were not to be added to. The poWer of conferences to halt the claim ant at the door, he insisted was clear. The ineligibility created by conviction for crime was power inherent in gov- ernment irrespective of the constitu- ton. He cited several cases to show that as a punishment for crime the legislature had ample authority to dis qualify man from holding office.
 When MT. Taylor began to speak MT Roberts left the seat he had been occu- pying and took a seat near the main aisle, where he could hear with greater ease. Throughout MT. Taylor's remarks he sat facing his accuser. except when he turned to his desk to take notes of the points to which he desired to reply. Continuing, MT. Taylor read from de- cision of the supreme court defining po- lygamy, which stated that, irrespective of whether man had contracted plu- ral marriage after the passage of the Edmunds act and irrespective of wheth- CT he had since cohabited with plural wife, he was guilty of polygamy if he still maintained the relation of husband to more than one wife. Referring again to the two proclamations of amnesy, he argued that the claimant was in no better position than he would have been had no such proclamations been issued. But other than the civil law was law of civilization which demonstrated that one so tainted should be excluded. He cited the case of Whittemore, who had been guilty of selling cadetships and who upon his appearance at the bar of the house was rejected as unfit to sit in the house The power and the right were inheritant, said Mir. Taylor. It was only question of ,propriety, of wis., dom and of precedent.
 Tn all his investigation and study of precedents, MT. Taylor said, he had fail ed to find single case where the house had hesitated to assert, upon proper oc- casion. it's right to halt member at the bar when his qualifications for a seat were questioned He quoted ex- tensively from "McCreary on Elections" In support of his argument. He review 1 ad the eases of Proctor Knott, Boyd ] Winchester and John M. Rice of Ken | lucky, who had been stopped at the bar of the house on the ground that they were disqualified because they i were disloyal.