The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1900-01-26
Denies That His Election Meant q
Triumph of Polygamy, which,
He Says, In Disappenring.

He Says, In disappearing.
WASHINGTON, Jan. 25.--Mr Brigham
II. Roberts gave out the following state
ment tonight in relation to his exclusion:
Our griefs are past when remedies are
BY seeing the worse which late on hope
depended
II was elected by the people OF Utah
as their representative by the substan-
tial plurality of 5,G65 votes. An effort
was made by what I believe to be an
unconstitutional and unprecedented pro-
cess to exclude me from the house OF
representatives. In behalf of myself and
my constituents, comprising the entire
population of the state of Utah, i did
all I could to maintain the position to
which they had elected me; but the house
of representatives, under the whip and
spur Of popular sentiment, have decided
to exclude me from the house. I have
contended for my rights and the rights
of my constituents. single-handed and
alone, to the best of my ability, but have
been overwhelmed by force of numbers.
Notwithstanding all that has been
said, the people of Utah are not law
less people. Those of them who have
been involved In the past In the plural
marriage system. one taught and sane
toned by the church of Jesus Christ Of
lLdtteT lay odlNts. are not WdHtOn NlO-
lators of the laws: but, finding them
selves in the position where the law COM
mands them to do one thing and moral
obligations, sacredly entered into under
the sanction of the Mormon church, COM
mand them to do another. they are placed
in very trying situation, and some few
of them, including the member from
Utah, may have found 1t necessary to re-
gard their moral obligations as more
bindinr Iron their C0pccfencao than their
technical obedience to statutory law.
Such q position, however, is but
transitory In Utah and comes down to
the Mormon people from conditions grow
ing out of the plural marriage system of
the past. The condition here referred
to. however, is rapidly passing away.
From authoritative figures officially col
lected recently by the Mormon church, it
has been ascertained that at the time
of the discontinuance of plural marriages
under the authority of the late President
Woodruff's manifesto in September, 1890,
there were 2,45l poygamOus families
throughout the whole Mormon church.
Since then 1t has been ascertained that
908 of these families have ceased to exist
through death, divorce or abandonment
leaving at the present time but 1,543
polygamous families in the church
throughout the world: and as most of
these are well advanced 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
a system of marriage already practically
dead and abandoned.
1.-THE election of the member from Utah
to the house of representatives was no eff
fort on the part of the Mormon church to
revive polygamy or stuff it down the
throat Of the American congress of people,
Nothing of the kind was contemplated in
either his nomination or election, all re-
ports to the contrary Notwithstanding. The
alleged statement often quoted to the eff
feet that Brigham Young on July o. 1875
or at any other time, declared that he
would have the American people swallow
Mormonism, polygamy and ALL and that
the election of the present member-elect
from Utah was an effort to fulfill that
prediction. is absolutely untrue. He made
no such utterance and the recent agitation
respecting Mormonsm and its being a
menace to the purity Of the American
home is utterly unwarranted by the facts
in the case.
Congress has been made to believe,
however, that such was the intention of
Mormonism, or. at least have been awed
into acquiescence that such were its in
tentions, and hence have been led to vote
to exclude the member from Utah
There is not virtue enough, 1t appears
in the American house of representatives
to stand for their convictions as to what
Is right in this matter. Only this morn
ing the representative from Utah received
communication from a person who Ia
evidently a member Of the house of rep
resentatives, since the letter is written
upon house official stationery and sent to
him in an official envelope of the house
Of representatives, although the signature
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 / am not at liberty to
vote as my conscience dictates on this
question the Roberts case), for reasons
which you fully understand. President
Mckinley and Speaker Henderson have
made the support of the Taylor resolution
the test of Republican orthodoxy and I
am obliged to wear the yoke.
$50 far as this matter Is personal af-
fair I may say that, whatever happens,
the member from Utah can congratulate
himself that from obscure birth and the
conditions of iron fortune, and in spite of
having espoused an unpopular faith, he
has fought his way upward until he has
reached a sufficient prominence to be the
decided choice of the people of sovereign
state 10 represent thin in the American
house of representatives. From that sum-
nit he was hurled down by the house under
a spasm of prejudice. arising from mis-
representation and falsehood as to con-
ditions existing in Utah. That action will
not ruin him. Conscious of the rectitude
OF his own intentions, he will face the flu.
ture undlscouraged by this incident in his
career. and will weave again his fortunes
He will face the future with light heart
and a determination to succeed.
mo, he will not stand for reelection as
a vindication to himself even should his
people desire it. he will ask that his ex-
clusion shall be permitted to close, for the
present, this incident in Utaffs history"