Bradford County telegraph. (Starke, Fla.) 1888-current, 1900-02-02
ADOPT MAJORITY REPORT
Fifty Members Were Willing to
Admit and Then Expel--Seat
Is Now Vacant.

The case of Brigham 81. Roberts,
the Mormon representative-elect from
Utah, which had occupied so much Of
the attention of the house since the
assembling of congress-, was decided
Thursday by the adOptionof resolution
to exclude him by a vote of 26S to so.
The exact language of the resolution
was as follows:
THAT under the facts and cir
cumstances of the case Brigham
H. Roberts, representative-elect
from the state of Utah, ought not
to have or hold seat Ill the house
of representatives., and that the
seat to which he was elected Is
hereby declared vacant"
The amendment to e1pel Mr.. Rob-
erts without seating him offered by
Mr.. Lacey was ruled out N point Of
order, and the house only voted upon
the resolution Of the majority an
minority Of the committee. The latter,
to seat and then expel M. Roberts,
was defeated 81 to pa.
An analysis Of this vote shows that
ITO Republicans, ~ Democrats and 2
Populists voted against it and II Dem
ocrnts, 6 Republicans, 2 Populists aud
2 silver Republicans voted for it.
The majority resolutiOn-to exclude
Mr.. Roberts and declare the seat va
cant-were adopted, 269 TO so. The
affirmative vote was divided as fol-
lows: Republicans, 168; Democrats,
90; Populists, 4, while the negative
vote was: Democrats, AT; silver Re-
publicans, 2; Populists, l. There
were a score of speakers during the
day. Mr.. Roberts was present through
out the session, and only left after
the result of the last vote had been
announced. As he did so he gave out
o statement justifying his retention OF
his plural wives on the ground that
his moral obligation was more binding
upoh his conscience than the technical
obedience to statutory law, and saying
that there was little excuse for the
extraordinary efforts to crush a system
already abandoned and practically
dead.
He says he was martyr to spasm
of prejudice. He would not, he sad,
attempt to run for congress again, al
though he would go back home with
q light heart confident of the future.
Mr.. Talbert, of South Carolina, said
that in a case of such abnormal aud de-
FAINT immortality techniealities should
not weigh. Representing the consti-
tuency he did, he said, he should vote
against Roberts, first, last and sill the
time.
Mr.. Adams, OF Georgia, said viola
ton of the statue against unlawful
cohabitation entitled the offender to
membership in the penitentiary rather
than the house of representative.
Mr.. Grosvenor, of Ohio, supported
the views of the majority in favor of
exclusion.
Mr.. Morris, of Minnesota, a member
of the special cOmmittve which inves-
tigated the Roberts case, and who
signed the majority report, advocated
it's adoption in an hours speech. If
the constitutional qualifications could
not be added to, said he, the house
would be compelled to admit drivel-
ing idiot, q base traitor or a red
. handed murderer. The supreme court
had held that po!ygamy was not a re-
ligious tenet.
Mr.. DeArmond, Of Missouri, closed
the debate on behalf of the minority
committee with a forty-minute speech.
The argument of the majority that lie
method of turning Mr.. Roberts out
mattered not was the argument OF
Judge Lynch, he said. When he de-
cided that q man should he hung. a
also said it was immaterial how 10
hung. Mr.. DeArmOnd scored th' pc
who had unnecessarily abused Mir.
Roberts. He would seorn as beneath
him and beneath contempt an effort to
evoke applause by denunclation.
"But let it be not understood by
some carping critic that / favor
polygamy. 1 oppose it; 1 soorn it, y