Daily inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1881-1901, 1899-10-27

predecessor, was also a Mormon and a
high officer in the said church., the same
as Mr.. Roberts. though no fight of this
kind was ever made upon him because
he respected the laws and the covenants
madeby his people in order to secure
amnesty and statehood.
). Then the apologists of MI. Roberts
in various parts of the country are still
lndustrlously asserting that he married
all his wives" before there was any law
against polygamy, and they therefore
maintain that it is too much to expect
a man to put away wives whom he
married before it was Unlawful for him
to do so. This is just as false as the
other statements referred to. Mr.. Rob-
erts married all his plural wives long
after the law against polygamy had gone
into effect; and he married each of them
in Willtul defiance of the laws of his
country as we'll as in defiance of the
moral conscience Of civilized mankind.
4. Again it is persistently claimed by
Mr.. Roberts Jealous but ignorant cham
pions that he has obeyed the laws against
polygamy and unlawful cohabitation''
ever since the manifesto of President
Woodruff of the Mormon church by
which the said vicegerent suspended"
the practice Of %polygamy. There will be
abundant evidence presented to congress
to prove that Mr.. Roberts has persistent
ly detied those laws ever since he was
imprisoned for this offense in 1889, and
that his case has become very much ag-
~gravated since his Imprisonment. be-
cause he has since that time taken an
additional wife, and because of his
continued. willful violation of the solemn
pledges which We're made by him and
other Mormon leaders in order that they
might regain what they had lost by their
past defiance of the laws of the land.
These and other falsehoods which are
being industriously circulated by the
sympathizers of Mr.. Roberts cannot do
him any possible good. He will not at
tempt to stand by them himself when his
case comes before congress-; and the per-
sistent circulation of such glaring mis-
representations cannot fail to react
against aim when the real facts. are made
known.
Mr.. Roberts is being fought because he
is both a convenant-breaker and a law
breaker down to date, not excluding the
time that has interviewed since his cleo
ton. He is moreover today recognized
as the most forcible, most Jealous and
most persistent advocate and defender of
polygamy since the days of Brigham
Young, John Taylor and Orson Pratt.
IT Mr.. Roberts is not expelled it Will
not be the fault of congress, for congress
stands ready to do the bidding of the
American people, if they will only make
known their wishes, so thai congress may
nut SldIo Ao llSy Wait ACllC II tAiio
grave crisis. If Mr.. Roberts is permitted
to remain in congress-, it will be because
the moral sense of the American people
has become so dull during the past few
years that they no longer resent the in
suit offered them by the proposition to
force polygamy down the threats of the
American congress-" the very body which
once, in response to the moral sentiment
of the nation, so nobly stood for the
homogeneous home. which is the nursery
of liberty and the cornerstone of our re-
publican institutions. If Mr.. Roberts is
permitted to remain in congress-, and we
fail to get a constitutional amendment
prohibiting the practice of polygamy,
this anti-American institution will fasten
itself upon this inter-lmountain region,
whence it will ultimately spread through
out the country, until some day the AM
erican people will have to rise in their
might and crush it in order to prevent
! this nation from crumbling into dust. In
! the meantime thousands of hearts will be
broker and multitudes of souls will be
sacrificed to the demon of deiied lust,
while the very name of this fair land will
come very near becoming a reproach in
the eyes of the civilized world. The de-
~velopments in the Dreyfus case have
demonstrated that no nation in this day
can afford to run counter to the moral
conscience of Christendom.
In a crisis like this the effort to degrade
the campaign into a partisan squabble
will utterly fail. The American people
are a true and patriotic people. In the
face of a deadly foe. all sections, creeds
and parties will rally as one ma to the
defense of their cherished institutions.
This campaign will demonstrate that
this holds good not only in the presence
of a foreign foe, but also when the foe
springs up in our midst, especially when
the attack is made upon the home, Which,
to every true American, is the dearest
institution on earth.