The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1900-01-21

seat in the House of Representatives,
and that the seat 10 which he was elected
Is hereby declared vacant"
A SEVERE ARRANGEMENT
The full report of the committee elabor-
ates the summary and in some parts uses
strong language against Mr.. Roberts. AS
TO his plural marriages II says: prior to
lSS2 b. II. Roberts had married one Louisa
Smith. She has born him six children and
is still living. About 1885. when Utah was
fairly ringing with the blows of the Ed
munds act OF 1852. while numerous prosecu-
tons were going on and after the Supreme
Court had passed upon the validity of the
acts, when the American people supposed
that polygamy had received its death blow
when no man Of the many OF whose cases
went TO the United States Supreme Court
pretended the provisions against polyg-
amous marriages were invalid, with all
these facts insistently before him, Brigham
II. Roberts took another wife; his first
polygamous wife, Celia Dibble by name,
who in the following twelve years bore him
six children.
This second wife he married In defiance
OF the Edmunds law. He spat upon that
law; he declared by his act that he recog-
nlzed no binding rule upon him of a law
or Congress; he declared by IL that he
recognized higher law. The Congress of
the United States was TO him an object Of
contempt. The Supreme Court of the
United States might declare the law for
others but not for him. He laughed at it's
futile DEGREES and spurned its admonitions
The executive which had declared in
solemn messages its qualification that po-
lygamy seemed gone forever he defied and
desplsed Or what consequence to him
were laws or Congress and declarations Of
the highest court and proclamations of
Presidents against his sensual interpreta-
ton Of a sensual doctrine? And ali the
la da0lo rod Qnlx
polygamy but cohabitation with more than
one woman unlawful. Roberts not only
bigamously married a second WIFE but he
persisted in violating and defiantly tramp
ling under foot every other provision OF the
act
But he had not yet sufficiently pro-
claimed his utter contempt for the Supreme
Court, for Congress and its most solemn
enactments. A few years later he took
third wife. From the time of his second
marriage to the third he cohabited with
two women. From the date of his third
marriage down to his election and we
doubt yet to the present time he has been
cohabiting with three women.
las recently as Dec. 16 1892 he defined
his position as follows: These women have
stood by me. They are good ana true
women. The law has said that / shall
part from them. My church has bowed
to the command of Congress and relin-
quished the practice OF plural marriage,
obligations assumed before il spoke. No
power can do that. Even were the church
that sanctioned these marriages and per-
formed the ceremonies to turn its back
upon us and say the marriages are not
valid now and that / must give these good
and loyal women up, I'll be id If /
would
In this statement he adheres to the
audacious assumption that the law OF 1882
did not speak to him and that ne did not
recognize IL as a rule of conduct to him.
We assert TO the House, the country and
history that 1t is absolutely and impreg-
nably sound, not to be effectively attacked,
consonant with every executive precedent,
In harmony with the law and with the
textbooks on the subject. That Brigham
III. Roberts's persistent, notorious and de-
fiant violation of one of the most solemn
acts ever passed by Congress, by the very
body which he now seeks to enter, on the
theory that he is above the law, and has
defiant violation of the laws OF his own
State, necessarily render him ineligible, dis
qualified, unfit and unworthy to be men,
Der of the House of Representatives. And
this proposition is asserted not so much
for reasons personal to the membership of
the House as because II goes TO the very
integrity of the House and the Republic
such"
The report is signed by Robert w. Tay-
Ter, Charles b. Lands. Page Norris, Ro-
meo III. Freer. Smith Mcpherson, Samuel
w. L. Lanham and Robert W. Miers.