The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1903-02-22

less control continued, and we shall see
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS l want to avoid be-
ing too lengthy in my statement on
this subject-that the Mormon church
has been more persistent. far-reaching.
and more effective, perhaps. if less
demonstrative, in the control of the
state than it was when it controlled
the territory.
What was done in the house regard
ing polygamy? 1t was agreed that t
had ceased Much of that is in tfS
debate. II was said it was only an
economic question which needs no po-
litical solution, which needs no. drastic
measures. IT was said the Edmunds
act and the like had worked their way,
too, and polygamy had blancned in the
face. of the power of the government
and in the face Of the competition for
a livelihood with Gentiles. The multi
family man of Utah had given before
cheaper homogeneous domesticity like
that in the other states of the Union
This and much more like it contented
the house. But General Wheeler
seems to have had his doubts. earnest
man as he was, and when the COM
mittee ran away from their serious
duty. the chairman seems not to have
ran away, because he made minority
report on this matter, and made it es-
peciaily because of this neglect 10 put
in the Utah statehood bill restrictions
upon the Mormon church and polyg-
amy.
1t appears from the minority report
of General Wheeler in the house that
the senator from Utah must have hyp-
Noticed pretty nearly all of the COM
mittee, and he says that the argument
before the committee of the senator
from Utah, then a delegate, had
changed the situation of affairs, but
that he still adhered to his belief that
something must be done to restrict
Mormonism. They had something to
fight with outside the statehood bill.
Mormonism hoped to become a state
in the Union. They had the act of the
Utah legislature, which does not find
place in the statute books of Arizona
and New Mexico, but a very strong
provision. Section L of the constitution
which had been adopted by the people
of Utah when they knocked at the
doors Of congress for admission pro-
vided
Section IL. Bigamy and polygamy
being considered incompatible with "a
Republican form of government each
of them is hereby forbidden and de-
clared a misdemeanor.
Amy person who shall violate this
section shall on conviction thereof, be
punished by a fine of not more than
$1,000 and Imprisonment for a term not
less than six months. nor more than
three years, in the discretion of the
court. This section shall be construed
as operative without the aid of legis-
lation, and the offenses prohibited by
this section shall not be barred by any
statute of limitation within three years
after the commission of the offense;
nor shall the power of pardon exterE
thereto until such pardon shall be ap-
, proved by the president of the United
States.
Not by a Mormon governor. mark
you. but by the president of the United
States. Another section of that Utah
constitution made the foregoing pro-
vision irrevocable.
As General Wheeler then said, the
people of Utah asking admission had
thus closed the door against the repeal
of that drastic measure to restrain
polygamy in Utah, and the senator
from Utah will bear me out-becauSe
/ do not mean to recite it to the SEN
ate-that statute Immediately follow
| ing practically followed the same line
providing severe penalties for offenses
in the same direction.
What have we here when senators or
members of the house come to frame
an omnibus bill for three states2 They
/ do not find such provision in either
Of the territories where the MormOns
have such foOthold, where they are
/ important. as they are in the state of
/ Idaho from the statement of the SEN
atOr from Idaho to a degree. For New
/ Mexico with fewer Mormons. and Ari-
| zona with many Mormons, there is no
profert of such a provision in the con-
/ stitution of either. There is no pro-
/ vision even Of legisla tive enactment so
/ far as we can here find out. There
/ is nothing done except to insert, par
! rOt-like, this single line of utterly idle
r.wsr h - ion Lob. 4Tr.v. -
{ rites of plural marriage. which means
nothing. is simply wind and sound,
| without sense, without substance
/ Now, Mr.. President, following the line
/ of objection of the chairman. General
/ Wheeler proposed an amendment and ]
will read part of it:
But said constitution shall prohibit
/ polygamF or dual marriage. and polyg-
amy or dual marriage shall be de-
clared by such constitution to be fell
ony and punishable by a fine of not
less than $1,000 or more than $4,000. and
confinement in the penitentiary for not
less than one year or more than five
years"
] Even that provision, framed by a gal
liant soldier, perhaps not a lawyer, re-
lated simply to the celebration of mar
riage, In easy frame of mind. the
| house accepted much less-accepted
this proviso of a single line:
provided, That polygamous or
plural marriages are forever prohib-
ited''
And without report or consideration
apparently on the record, without dis
cussion in the senate, the Utah bill
passed. and the statehood bill was sent
to the president for his signature.
When they came to frame this bill
in order to meet the confessed pres
ence and growth bf Mormonism in Ari-
IONA and the like banker in New Mex
leo. those who framed the statehood
bill were in such a great hurry thai
they added only that single line and
no more:
provided, That polygamous or plural
marriages are forever prohibited
I I wish to know, Mr.. President, if thi.
weak salve has such a soporific effec
upon the mind of any senator, as i
seemed to have upon the mind of M
friend the senator from New HamD
shire, who thinks il quite effective
Suppose that line also had been omit
ted, because it is like a parenthesis-
something which can be omitted with
out altering the sense.
I say most respectfully of the sen
ate Of that time, that when this body
which had time after time debated
and then passed, in 1882 and in 1887
the Edmunds acts amending a section
OF the revised statutes TO provide pun
ishment for polygamy and to restrain
the Mormon church and the Morrlol
practices-if we initiate such action,
think the senators now would be s.
negligent that they would be, in tn