Show STATEHOOD this morning the committee on territories of the house of representatives met to hear arguments in reference to the admission of utah as a state A formidable delegation of liberals had arrived under the impression that a desperate attempt was being made to push utah into the union at one stride they found everything quiet the house in a deadlock and on the ath dinst when they supposed this huge effort was to be put forth only a few members of the cammi committee were present and there was no appearance of war or of any demonstrations in that line their coming precipitated the very thing they feared A day was set for a hearing and this morning at 10 a m the time appointed judge jere wilson with delegate calne caine and P F 8 richards esq chairman of tiie the utah cons constitutional titu dional delegation were on hand on the other side aidt were governor west E P perry ferry J B R mcbride i lad and lat last but not least leass patrick H lannan all eager for the fray the proceedings did not pan out to suit the opposition apparently patently ly for mr richards introduced trod by mr caine made an address which created a profound im impression and signs of great uneasiness ness were exhibited b by all the liberals especially the iche governor the following lowing fbi is a synopsis of the argument of P F B S richards esq mr chairman and gentlemen of the committee this is ie the fifth time that the majority of the people of utah have appeared at the bar of congress and petitioned for admission sion as a state athirst at first we were told that our numbers were insufficient and that we were without the self sustaining qualifications requisite for a sovereign community and so we were relegated by the organic act of utah to a condition of territorial tutelage until we should gain the strength and experience per peri lence ence to fit us for the hiah higher nar sphere of statehood but in our later a r applications for admission admission it has been conceded again and d a again that we have obtain obtained ag all ail that was lacking in the beginning in the way of numbers and ana resources and yet our prayers have not availed to give us membership in the great family of states I 1 shall endeavor in the remarks which I 1 make on this occasion to show that the withholding of this sacred boon is an act of injustice to a patient patriotic industrious and law abiding people and at the outset of my remarks I 1 desire to remind you of a few pertinent facts which history has recorded in u undying characters upon the annals of the republic on the day of july 1847 when the mormon pioneers entered the great salt lake va valley ile y all that part of our great nation lying west of the missouri river was an uninhabited wilderness a barren desert these brave men and courageous women blazed the way across prairies over mountains and through rugged defiles which have since become the great highway of nations from the atlantic to the pacific they opened up this new country and demonstrated that human existence could be maintained in the midst of ruthless savages ferocious animals and deadly insects by a system of irrigation for which they had no precedent they succeeded in transforming the scene of barren desolation ola tion which met their gaze as they emerged from the deep canyons of the wasatch into an earthly paradise through following their example and partaking of their indomitable courage other colonies have been formed and other commonwealths created until today we can point with pride to five great states and nine populous territories that have been carved out of the inhospitable wilderness of 1847 so that the mormons cormons Mor mons have not only been the pioneers of the intermountain inter mountain region but the pioneers of the great west that part of our nation which bids fair to become a controlling factor in the destiny of the republic nor were these people who braved the dangers of the wilderness and the hardships of the desert wanting in patriotic devotion and allegiance to the country which gave them birth although driven from their homes in missouri and illinois because of their religious re IOUs beliefs and practices they c could 0 no not t quench the thirst for libert liberty wh which ich they th ey had inherited as a sacred ed bi birthright rth right from their patriotic fathers who had gained undying fame and won immortal laurels laurela in the service of their country during the revolutionary war and the struggle with great britain in 1812 so strong in them was this love of country that it prompted as one of their first acts on reaching the valley then mexican soil the unfurl ing of the glorious stars and stripes on ensign peak as they poured forth their songs of joy aud and prayers of gratitude for the divine guidance and preservation which had carried them safely through their perilous joi journey irney in the wilderness at this time five hundred of their brethren were regularly enlisted in the service of the united states and were taking an active part in the war with mexico at a late date some of these very men became the first discoverers of gold in california and from them went forth the clarion no note te which drew a stream of wealth seeking humanity across the continent in 1849 and 1850 I 1 trust that you ou will excuse me gentlemen of ze the committee for detaining you with this brief historical recital my purpose in so doing has been to show what kind of men our fathers were and to assure you that ar the fire of liberty which bur burned in their souls has been transmitted to i their children I 1 was born in salt lake city and utah has always beeb bee ray my home my great grandfather was a revolutionary 2 soldier my grandfather served in the wax war of 1812 and one of my fathers brothers brother lost his life in the war with mexico will it be said that I 1 have no claim on the sacred heritage of liberty libert for which any these men fought and bled I 1 mention my own case because it is like thousands of young men in utah whose mouthpiece I 1 am on this occasion we love the glorious institutions of what we believe to be the only government on earth founded on divine inspiration and it is repugnant to every impulse of our natures to remain in territorial vassalage when we know that we are entitled to the rights of freemen it is for the purpose of convincing you gentlemen are so entitled that I 1 now appear before the committee mr richards then gave in detail particulars of the population wealth resources prospects and condition of the territory showing b beyond d controversy that it possesses al all the material qualifications for date statehood hood he further explained the extent of the school system and its non secta rian character every indication he said k C points to the speedy growth in 0 of I 1 a populous and magnificent commonwealth mon wealth that will prove a source of riches to the nation and of added glory to this great government ak every requisite to the structure of a Q grand and prosperous state to is to be ba found in this the oldest of the territories tories which has plead for statehood from its beginning forty odd years ago all that is needed now for its development and full growth into the proportions and prosperity promised by her immense and diversified sifted resources is a stable government republican in form which will give ive that assurance of safety whit which capital demands and win settle forever for ever the agitations which have deterred its more extensive investment statehood is the great essential to this settlement and that assurance and utah can never expand into the proper measure of its power and dignity while hampered with the swaddling clothes of territorial infancy the claims of utah to the rights and privileges of statehood are indisputable pu table and have never been denied except for two reasons when seeking admission on former occasions her delegates have received for answer from gentlemen of both Pal parties ties provide in your constitution against the practice of poly polygamy and there can be no possible possible jobje objection ebion to your application this demand has been complied with the 8 speaker r then related the history to of the e constitutional convention ti n and read the provisions of f the utah h constitution belati relative ve to polygamy and the ratification thereof he read the oath taken by the members of the convention and the people who voted for the constitution he showed that they were not polygamists nor persons who intended to become such he also read ead the marriage law passed at the tast last session of the utah legislature and said president cleveland has informed the congress and the coun try yi in his recent message that polygamy is practically a thing of the past in utah A 11 the evidences go 90 to establish this there have been been no convictions for polygamy ifor or a long time the federal judges and other officials admit this to be a fact ct the cases that are being prosecuted and have been heralded to the country for two or three years past 8 are ae not for newly contracted polygamous marriages but for unlawful cohabitation that is the as assoria socia tion on of men w with ith plural wives whom hey married many years ago under the peculiar construction of the statute by the utah courts association that would be perfectly innocent if the parties did not claim the marriage arriage a relationship is deemed a violation of the law although there na say Y be no actual cohabitation or living n to together th or it is t this ir is species of prosecution which keeps up the appearance of a perpetuation of polygamy in utah rhe lue relation between a mormon 11 and his wife or wives is viewed by toe the parties as eternal even if the man aan does not live with his plural wife he is in duty bound to support her and her children as the bond between them is of a religious character ac what hat can these men do with the e women whom they conscientiously regard before heaven as their wives for time and eternity they cannot eat them like the new zealand convert to christianity they cannot promise to obey the law under its ite present remarkable construction st yet it is these cases in which th the e pa parties artl es are chiefly elderly persons Person and sand nave have in many instances contracted their polygamous rela eions ons before there was a law of the and forbidding polygamy that are belag cg cited by the opponents of statehood for utah as prokofe that polygamy is still a living issue recently there has hae been a more rational and aad humane policy in the punishment of this offense than prevailed formerly in the courts of utah the unprecedented construction of the law remains remain however having been established by the supreme court of the territory polygamy then that is the marrying of more wives cannot be shown to have a present existence in utah nor to be now even as frequent as bigamous cases in other parts of the country there is positively no proof whatever of newly contracted polygamous marriages this statement is confirmed by the testimony of judge carlton and gen macler nand of the utah commission and has recently been endorsed by judge judd the special report of the attorney general to congress shows that there have been only ten convictions for polygamy since the passage of the edmunds act of march 22 1882 and for unlawful cohabitation when it is reme remembered that in addition to the ordinary facilities for criminal prosecution the government possesses the extraordinary powers conferred by acts of congress to excle exclude de from the jury j u ry every person shown to have any belief in polygamy or sympathy with the defendant to attach witnesses without a kr previous evious subpoena and compel their immediate attendance to permit the legal wife to testify against her husband to compel the attendance and testimony of the alleged plural wife e the children and neighbors of the defendant to employ a horde of marshals possessing all the powers of peace officers to detect obtain evidence against and arrest violators of the anti polygamy laws and backed by a strong but uninformed public sentiment which justifies any extremes against a polygamous suspect is it not conclusively elusively clu evident that these statistics are a full showing of the proportions of the polygamous conditions now existing in utah Is it not almost impossible under these extraordinary tra provisions and powers that an offender should escape and and with these figures as the result of six years diligent and relentless prosecutions how can the reckless statements of our opponents that are made concerning the prevalence of polygamy in utah be considered anything less than monstrous exaggerations ge rations or wilful perversions of the truth the other objection is that in utah the church and the state are united or that a hierarchy dominates civil affairs no evidence is offered in support of this objection except that the mormon people usually vote the same ticket and that the efforts of the opposition to break this political unity are practically futile the rhe weakness of the inference that this union is the result of priestly coercion is exhibited in the fact that the minority who make the complaint are also compactly united against the majority they sink the common differences of party politics to join in a concerted attack on a majority they wish to divide but failing to break the ranks of the enemy vhey resort to tion and strive to destroy the very liberty of which they are the pretended champions they would have utah governed by a legislative commission and strike the ballot from the hands bands which will not support their measures and their candidates the next point taken up was waa the governors report to the secretary of the interior in which he declared that the mormon church was wae absolu tie tle in political and civil affairs and in proof asserted that the articles of incorporation of Z C M I 1 provided that no person not a member of the church could become a stockholder mr richards effectually disposed of this by producing an affidavit from the superintendent of the institution that no such provision existed citing the names ot or gentiles holding stock with the amount held by each and producing the original articles of incorporation with subsequent amendments he ateo also presented the statement of the superintendent of salt lake gas works in proof that the governors statement was false that the mormon church built and operated gas works the governors rash and untruthful remarks about the absolutism and despotism of the church were finely handled and it was shown that the governor was present avowedly to increase his own absolutism in utah by working for a legislative commission associated with the governor to appoint all the local officers now elective by the people the tithing system of the church the election laws of the territory and other similar matters were explained pla ined and then the following re maiks of the governor were read from his official report to show how he contradicted himself with polygamy out I 1 make the statement and challenge successful contradiction that there is no tenet no ceremony practice observance or rite inculcated or taught of a religious nature by the mormon church that the law has been or is invoked against the mormon church as a religious factor is under the law upon the same footing as every other religious body or denomination in the land with equal rights and privileges no more nor less and it should be left so without interference I 1 shall not arraign the mormon people as wanting in comparison with other people in religious devotion virtue virtu honesty sobriety industry and the graces and qualities that adorn beautify and bless life mr richards then remarked the whole mormon theory of religion is based upon the free agency or of man and his accountability to |