The evening times., 1899-11-24
The Question of PoIyEamy.

! The statement of the Hon. Brigham II.
! Roberts. Representative in Congress from
Utah. printed in our morning edition to-
day. il entirely frank. is not without force.
If the people of Utah have actually ,aban-
doned polygamy since the advent of State
hood. and there have been no plural mar
riages from that time, then the question
simply resolves itself into one merely af-
fecting the relations of the leftover patri-
archs and their multiple families to the
Government and to society.
II the American people could be satisfied
that the Mormons in good faith have def
nitelv and finally given up all intention or
desire TO indulge in the criminal pastime
of polygamy, then the husbands, wives, and
children of polygamous families estab-
lished prior TO the monogamic revelation
and the Mormon contract with the nation
to obey the law in future, might be well
treated with great charity and lenioncy,
and made to feel the humiliation of their
disgrace in the eyes of modern civilization
as little as possible.
But even in such circumstances. il is in
conceivable that American public opinion
could tolerate the presence in Congress OF
avowed polygamists. any mere than it
could the assumption of legislative func-
tions by avowed canribals, who might also
advance the plea that their peculiar insti-
tuticn was of divine authority and binding
as such upon the conscience Mr.. Roberts
of course, is unable to recognize such an
analogy but he will find it 4 good one
on study and reflector.
What he rests his claims upon-for his
seat and surcease of persecution-is that
he has been duly elected to the House of
Representatives by the people of sover-
eign State; that neither the fact nor the
regularity of his election is questioned;
that his polygamy is of date anterior to
the pact that he does not violate the
spirit of the law by continuing in plural
relations with his ante-reveIation spouses,
and that he is. therefore, entitled to sit
in Congress On his own statement he
does not appear to quite make out a COM
plete case. The general opinion seems TO
be that if he has lived in polygamy since
Utah was admitted to the Union, although
refraining from fresh marriages, he is a
violator of the law, and thereby furnishes
sufficient justification for his expulsion
from Congress as an infamous person. 1t
has been stated. and is widely believed
that Roberts has appeared in the role of
bridegroom within two years or such a
matter. but We need not press that point
What he and his friends do not under
stand, and must be made to. is that
even assuming the truth and honesty of
all his assertions and claims; even con-
eeding that under the law as it stands he
is technically entitled to his seat in Con-
gress, yet, nevertheless, American public
opinion will not tolerate in that body any
man actively identified with system at
once barbarous and abhorrent to the ma
tional sense of social order and decency
Ii, under present conditions, a person like
Roberts is even a remote possibility in
our halls of legislation, then the law must
be changed, the Constitution amended, and
else necessary be done and done |
at once to remedy the evil. Polygamy is |
to be crushed and stamped into the ground,
no matter at what trouble or cost. 1t was
4 hideous blunder to admit Utah to the |
Union at all; but it is too late to talk |
about that. 1t is not too late to make |
realize that their peculiar |
crime can only be indulged in at the cost |
of hard labor in the penitentiary.