The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1899-11-23
CONGRESSMAN ROBERTS
MAKES FIRST ANSWER
Text of Utah Representatives. Letter Published in
the New York Times
Says That the Opposition Partisan and Sectarian
That Church Controls P0litcS-Fah Not Broken.

Congressman 3. H. Roberts, in the
New York Times last Sunday pub
lished a lengthy answer to the charges
that have been made against him. A
summary of the letter was wired to this
paper and published on Sunday. This
morning The Herald reproduces YER
batim the communication as it ap-
peared in the Times. 1t follows:
Those engaged in working up a pub
lie sentiment against the representa-
tive from Utah demand of the house of
representatives either that he be not
allowed to take his seat, to which it is
admitted that he was legally elected,
or, after being admitted, that he be
expelled. That the house can do either
of these two things is extremely doubt
full. To refuse representative his seat
when he has been legally elected-no
fraud charged in the election returns.
no contest made by opposing candidates
for the office, and il is admitted that
the representative possesses all the
qualifications prescribed by the conSti-
tuition of the United States-is a pro-
ceeding utterly without precedent and
altogether so absurd as to be out of the
question. As TO the proposition to ex-
pei the member from Utah after seat
ing him. while ii is conceded that the
precedents of the house are not alto
gether harmonious on the subject OF
expulsion of members, il is perfectly
safe to say that it never yet has eX-
PEELED a member for an alleged defect
of moral character. The clause of the
constitution that grants to the house
the power to eXpel a member is as FOL
lows: Each house may determine the
rules of its proceedings, punish its
members for disorderly behavior. and,
with the concurrence of two-thirds, ex-
pei a member" May punish him for
what? For disorderly conduct May
eXpel him for what? Evidently for dis
orderly conduct of a more aggravated
kind, by which the house is disturbed,
its business interrupted, or its dignity
or honor infringed. Certainly not for
an alleged misGemeanor which, if COM
mitted at all, was committed before the
said members election. was well known
TO his constituents, was cha gel against
him during the campaign in which he
was elected and punishable under the
laAYs-cf the state from which he comes.
think those who are at the bottom OF !
the present agitation TO encompass the
expulsion of the member from Utah are
aware of the weakness of their posi-
tion from "a legal standpoint, and heLce
are seeking by all the means their in
genuity can invent to induce. the house
of representatives TO act without regard
to precedents or the legal rights involv-
ed, and to that end they have started I
among some of the churches and other
religious societies the present agitation 1
not only against the member from
Utah. but against the whole Mormon /
people l have no fear. however, that /
the house viii act without regard 10 I
the precedents established or my legal y
rights. Nor 90 believe the members |
of the house will be much Influenced by /
the clamor OF sectarian religious So /
cieites, for the reason, first. that ii is I
matter clearly outside the sphere of the !
churches: and, second, because the 4
whole agitation is based upon Tnisrepre-
sentation of facts and absolute false /
hood. And as many well-meaning peo-
pie and Christian ministers outside of 4
Utah are misied by the falsehoods of
those at the bottom Of the religio-polit-
ical scheme to unseat Utah's represen-
tative, and thus defeat the expressed
viii of the people of a sovereign state,
/ point out some of the false charges on
which the agitation is based: