The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1900-01-12
MENACE TO LIBERTY
Would BE the Expulsion OF Roberts on the
Edmunds Law.
New York SUM-

Would BE the Expulsion of Roberts on the
Edmunds Law.
New York SUM-
Those who are attempting to exclude
Brigham II. Roberts from the seat in
the house of representatives to which
he was elected by the people of the
state of Utah, rely upon the act of
congress commonly known as the Ed
munds law as the justification and war
rant for their course.
The eighth section of that statute
provides that no polygamist, bigamist
or any person cohabiting with more
than one woman in any other place
over which the United States have ex-
elusive jurisdiction shall be eligible for
| election or appointment, or be entitled
to hold any office or place of public
trust, honor, emolument in, under or
for any such territory or place, or under
! the United States"
| Assuming that Congress can by legis-
lation add to the qualifications which
the constitution requires a member of
the house of representatives to possess,
the argument against Mr.. Roberts is
that he pleaded guilty of the offense of
unlawful cohabitation under the Ed
munds law, in 1889, for which he suf-
fered an imprisonment Of four months;
that subsequent amnesty proclama-
tions Of President Harrison and Presi-
| dent Cleveland did not operate to eff
feet his pardon and that consequently
he is disqualified from sitting as
| representative in congress by that
clause of the Edmunds law which pro-
hibits bigamist, polygamist or per-
son cohabiting with more than one wo-
man from holding any office under the
| United States.
The validity of this conclusion de-
pends upon the question of whether the
office of representative in congress is
an office under the United States.
! The weight of the legal authority is
strongly in favor of the proposition that
| it is not.
A senator in congress is not an officer
of the United States. The senate so de-
| cided 100 years ago, in the celebrated
| Blount case.
| The house of representatives in 1897
| presented articles of impeachment
against William Blount, a senator from
| the state of Tennessee, charging him
with conspiring to set on foot a hostile
military expedition against the terri
tories of the King of Spain, in Florida
| and Louisiana, and with other high
crimes and misdemeanors. Mr.. Blount
was brought to trial before the senate,
sitting as a high court of impeachment,
in December 1898, and on January IL,
1899, the impeachment was dis missed
on the ground that a senator was not a
| civil officer of the United States within
the meaning of that provision of the
federal constitution which declares that
the president, vice president and all
civil officers of the United state may be
removed from the office of impeachment
for and conviction treason. bribery or
other high crimes and misdemeanors.
"The like principle" says Mr.. Justice
Story in his classic treatise on the con-
stitution, must apply to the members
of the house of representatives"
If representative in Congress is not
an officer of the United States, so as to
be liable to impeachment, it is still
clearer that he is not an officer under
the United States within the meaning
of the Edmunds law. The very Ian
| iguage of the constitution itself shows
this, for the sixth section of article
expressly provides that no person hold
ing any office under the United States
shall be a member of either house of
congress during his continuance in Of
flee. 1t does not say mo person hold
ing any other office under the United
States" as would be the case if the
place of a congressman were deemed to
such an office; but the prohibition is
stated in terms which under the plain
est principles Of Interpretation leave no
doubt that the trainers of the constitu-
ton excluded senators ard representa-
tives from the category of persons hold
ing office under the United States.
1t would be proposterous to give any
| broader meaning to the declaration of
ineligibility found in the Edmunds
law.
II the prosecutors of Mr.. Roberts have
any case against him which affords
good ground for his expulsion from the
house of representatives let them bring
it forward after his admission and turn
him out. The case for excluding him
which they have thus far presented, is
fatally defective, and it is no exagera-
ton to say that it's success would be a
menace to American liberty.