The age-herald., 1900-01-26
ROBERTS EXCLUDED FROM HOUSE
 BY AN OVERWHELMING MAJORITY
He Says He VIII Go Back to His Mormon Home With Lgh
 Heart and Clear Conscience

rights of my constituents. single handed and alone. to the best of my ability, but have been overwhelmingly defeated by force of numbers.
 Notwithstanding all that has been said, the people of Utah are not a lawless peo- pie. Those of them who have been in- yolved dn the past in the plural marriage system, once taught and sanctioned by the church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. are not wanton violaters of the laws; but finding themselves in the posi- tion where the law commands to do one thing and moral obligations, sacredly en- tered into under the sanction of the Nor mon church, commands to do another, they are placed in @ very trying situation and some few of them, including myself, may nave found 1t necessary to regard their moral obligations as more binding upon uneir consciences than their technical obedi- ence to statutory law Such position however, is but transitory in Utah, and comes down to the Mormon people from conditions growing out eff the plural mar rlage system of the past. The condition
 
 away.
 from authoritative figures officially col lected recently by tke Mormon church it has been ascertained that at the time of the discontinuance of plural marriages un- der the authority of the late President Woodruffs manifesto in September, 1S9O,, there were 2,451 polygamous families throughout the whole Mormon church. Since then it has been ascertained that sos of these families have ceased to exist through death, divorce, or abandon ment, leaving at the present time but 1,543 families in the church throughout the world, and as most of these are well ad- vanced in years and all beyond middle life, the system will soon be obliterated from the earth: and under these circumstances there has been little excuse for the extraordinary efforts put forth throughout the country to crush system of marriage already prac- tically abandoned and dead
 No Effort to Revive Polygamy
 "The election of the member from Utah to the house of representatives was no ef- fort on the part of the Mormon church to revive polygamy, or stuff it down the throats of the American congress or people.
 SOhSiCSS IdS pcch iiittuc tS DciicFS, uoW- ever, that such was the intention of Nor monism, or at least have been awed into acquiesence that such were its intentions. There is not virtue enough, it appears, in the American house of representatives to stand for their convictions as to what is right in this matter. Only this morning the representative of Utah received a com municatioh from person, who is evidently a member of the house, since the letter is written upon house official stationery, and sent to him in an official envelope of the house of representatives, although the sig nature is "A Republican Friend" After citing the member from Utah to a speech delivered by the Hon. James G. Blaine in 1872 with reference to polygamy, he says:
 .'I regret that I am not at i!Derty to vote as my conscience dictates on this question (the Roberts easel for reasons which you fully understand. President Mckinely and Speaker Henderson have made the support of the Tayler resolution the test Of re- publican. orthodoxy and I am obliged to wear the yoke.
 "So far as this matter being personal one, may say whatever happens, the mem- Der from Utah can congratulate himself from obscure birth and conditions of iron fortune, and in spite of having espoused an unpopular faith he has fought his way up- ward until he reached sufficient proml- nence to be the decided choice Of the peo- pie of sovereign state to represent them in the American house of representatives.
 "Conscious of the rectdtude of his own Intentions, he will face the future undis- outraged by this incident Tn his career, and will weave again his fortunes; he will face the future with light heart and de- termination to succeed. No, he will not stand for reelection as a vindication ot himself, even should his people desire 1t: he will ask that his exclusion be permitted to close for the present this incident in Utah's history"