The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1899-11-23

When it was suggested to the gentle
man who introduced the resolution
making the above settlement that the
part of the law defining and Furnishing
unlawful cohabitation should also be
, included in the constitution, he replied
in effect that those were conditions he
way not aiming to meet; that the en-
abling act was only required that po-
lygamous marriages for the future
should be prohibited, and that is all
that was done. All this appears in the
officially reported and published de-
bates of the convention. That was the
settlement of this question. That is
the compact between the United States
and the people of Utah. Those were
the terms so far as polygamy was con-
cerned, on which Utah was admitted
into the Union. And / affirm positive
ly that that compact has been kept on
the part of the people of Utah. TIE
people of my state are not covenant
breakers, as her enemies charge. There
is no attempt made to repeal or annul
the parts of the constitution prohibit
ing polygamous or plural marriages.
There Is no desire to disrupt that COM
pact with the United States. The Nor
mon church has not violated the COM
pact and has no desire TO annul it, but.
on. me contrary, the venerable head of
the church has officially avowed his
ment of the question.
The representative to congress from
Utah has not violated this compact,
the assertion of his enemies TO the con-
trary Notwithstanding. When the little
coterie of sectarian ministers and dis
appointed would-be political bosses in
Utah who began this agitation say
that the Mormon church or its mem
bers violate the compact between our
state and the people of the United
States because few men in Utah feel
morally bound to fulfill their obliga-
tons to the women they married under
sanction of the Mormon church, pre-
vious to the issuance of the church
manifesto of 1880 disseminating polyg-
amous Neutrality-suspicious. they say this
is violation of the compact with the
United States, they say that which they
know to be untrue; disrupting and dis
continuing those polygamous relations
was no part Of the compact. 1t was
not demanded by the enabling act. 1t
was not any part of the action of the
constitutional convention, but, on the
contrary, steps were studiously taken I
not 10 disrupt those relations by con-
stitutional provision. by discarding the |
parts of the -polygamy law which |
would have brought about that result. !
And. indeed. was not that a just and |
statesmanlike settlement of the vexed |
iGAfeliD-. W hat SOoQ NOQlu cOIne 10
the people of the United States by a I
disruption of those plural families?
What good would come to either NOR
alitv or religion to turn those plural !
wives and their children adrift? What |
Christian woman's home would be the
securer for knowing that a Mormon
plural wife's home was now destroyed? |
And let Il be remembered that the home |
and family of that plural wife was es-
tablished under the sanction Otto her
"a holy church ceremony, and with the /
approval Of all her people. A broad .
mind and a Christian spirit will ap-
prove of the settlement that was made /
of that question. The fountain of the
evil was dried uD. the people of the
United States can be generous enough |
to allow the streams that flowed from
II to take their course until lost in the
oblivion of death. Since her admission
into the Union. Utah has been under
the Strictest surveillance. The whole (
nation has watched her. Even sectari-
an priests in Utah, according to their
own reports to church conferences and
articles TO the press, left somewhat
their high calling as ministers of the
gospel and turned spoilers and spies
upon their Mormon neighbors. to see if
they could catch them violating the
agreement with the government; and
yet all they can truthfully charge is
tnat some mel-lne NUMBER Is Few and
rapidly growing lese-who entered into
plural marriage relations previous to
1890. when the church formally and of
icially discontinued such marriage, and
hence. OF course previous to the settle
nent of the question by the compact
# our state constitution. have felt it
morally binding upon their consciences
20 fulfill the obligations of their mar
'iage vows TO those polygamous tam
lies. This is the only "polygamy" that
has existed in Utah since the admission
If the state, or since 1890, in fact. And
yet these cases have been so Ingenious
Y reported by the present agitators as
o make it appear that they were new
,ases of polygamy; that the Mormon
,hurch was ''resuming' the practice of
'polygamy": that the state of Utah was
breaking its covenant with the nation.
refrain from any effort to express the
contempt one naturally feels for those
Who like to deceive. and bear false wit
less against their neighbors. A con-
empt increased by the recollection that
or the most part this despicable agita-
ion, based on Misrepresentation and
Imported by falsehood. is the work of
men posing as ministers of the gospel
f Jesus and sent out to Utah, forsOoth,
o convert the Mormons from the error
f their ways,
II