Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1899-12-14

leA.) OppOsiHS IL, as ulu also RlCHdfu-
son (dem., TENN
Washington, Dec. Yesterday
three caucuses were held in the senate
end of the capitol. They were under
the auspices respectively of republican,
democratic and independent senator's,
the last named including the silver re-
publicans and populists and each con-
sidered the reorganization of senate
committees. In each instance the de-
tail work was referred to special COM
mittees.
Washington, Dec. 5.--After an inter
esting debate of three hours the house
by vote of 800 to 80 adopted the res
olution offered by Taylor (Ohio), for
the appointment of a special COM
mittee TO investigate the charges
against Brigham H. Roberts, mormon
representative-elect from Utah. Prev
iously the house had rejected the sub
stltute resolution offered by Richard
son, the leader of the minority, to al
low Roberts to be sworn in and send
the whole case to the judiciary COM
mittee. OF the 80 who voted against
the Taylor resolution all were demo-
Gratis except two, Loud ,rep, CALI, and
Newlands, silverite from Nevada BY
the terms of the resolution Roberts is
denied a seat in the hall. The most re-
markable feature of the debate was
Roberts presentation of his own side
of the case, which lasted almost an
hour and became so absorbing that he
won the sympathy of the men in the
galleries and was several times show
cred with applause. During the de-
bate Mr. Grosvenor Of Ohio indignant
ly repealed the insinuation of Roberts
that the president had knowingly APP
pointed men guilty of polygamy to
federal Offices in Utah Taylor said
the power of congress to halt the
claimant at its door was clear. He
read from decisions of the supreme
court defining polygamy which stated
that irrespective of whether a man
had contracted plural marriages after
the passage of the Edmund's act and
irrespective Of whether he since CO.
habited with a plural wife, he was
guilty Of polygamy If he still main
tanned the relation Of husband to more
than one wife But higher than the
civil law was the law of civilization
which demanded that one so tainted be
excluded For supporting a higher
law the member was answerable only
to his conscience, his country and his
constituents In all his investigation
of presidents, Taylor said he failed to
find a single case whore the house hest
tated to assert upon proper occasion
its right to halt a member at the bar
when his qualifications for his seat
were questioned. We are tolu said
Mr.. Taylor his voice ringing out
clearly, that we are about to create an
unhappy precedent. Why, MIR. Speaker,
We are doing this in the open gaze Of
the whole world, not in a clustered
court. We are servants Of the people
empowered to do right as we see it.
The public eye is upon us In that
presence we can do no wrong If we do
>
desk and read his naturalization pa
pers. He held he had not been ar
rligned or condemned for any crime
since the amnesty proclamation If he
had been law breaker why had he not
been punished since the non-Mormon
power prevailed in Utah? Proceeding
he took up the charge that Utah had
broken her contract with the United
States by the election OF an alleged
pOlygamous representative. If that
were true then Utah had simply fol-
lowed the illustrious example of the
present national administration. Il
affirm, said he, that there is abund-
ant evidence that objections similar to
those in the present case were made to
the president and senate against the
appointment OF certain federal officials
in Utah but the objections were
waived aside In concluding Roberts
denied that the members who voted 10
seat him would be voting for polyg-
amy. The question of polygamy was