Show THE CHICAGO TIMES AT IT AGAIN bitte chicago time haeg continues the controversy tro tr versy oVerby with the DESERET news on the statehood question iti estion it refers to the editor of this paper as the most zea zealot ls and untiring advocate of the scheme 01 we can scarcely accept this credit as our efforts in this regard have been chiefly devoted to meeting objections such as have been raised by our chicago contemporary it will be remembered by our readers that we turned upon that paper the charge it made that the mormon convention bad resorted to pettifogging the times now says that the pettifogging with which it accused the convention was in that it injected into the frame of a political charter an argument on polygamy as a pretext for prohibiting the practice of that relic of barbarism we dislike to reply too much in the spirit of retaliation but we can scarce scarcely help calling attention to this renewed ren ewe pettifogging on the part of the times rimes the convention did not I 1 inject an argument of any kind into the political charter under consideration the language referred to is not in the nature of an argument it is a simple statement of a fact to show why an unusual provision bad to be injected into the frame of a political charter it Is neither affirmed nor denied that polygamy is incompatible with a republican form of government ern ment 11 but the fact that it has been so considered is mentioned to account tor for the peculiar provision that is all there s no attempt at argument therefore the latter epithet is only applicable to the times method of to itself out of a difficulty if the announcement of a reason for fer a provision in a political charter is pettifogging then nearly all the states in the union are guilty of the offense feuse of and the united states are to be condemned for a similar reason for most moat of the former have something in tue shape of what the chicago times calls an argument and the national constitution opens with a statement of the reason why that instrument was formulated the chica chicago o times charge of petti pettifogging against the foring utah constitutional Constitution ar convention had better be quietly abandoned As to the fact that polygamy I 1 had been declared incomparable with a republican form of government before the convention cited it as a reason for making the special provision concerning tre the practice we nave have already given ample proof and it we thought the dispute worth continuing we could hunt up plenty of press utterances to esta establish blisk it but whether those who made the assertion understood auder stood what they were talking about or not the times says not net the convention did not argue the point or admit or deny its truth so all the attempts attempt a of che times to bring odium upon that body on this account are unjustifiable we agree with that paper that it if there is no better ground for objection to statehood than that polygamy Is ia incompatible with a re publican publican form of government there is i no ground for objection at all that is just our position and it has been so for years so ao the times cannot make a controversy with us on that point As to polygamy being a relle relic of bar that to is another question and one that we do not propose now to discus although it could be shown that tile the saying adopted a republican national convention 0 o very much of a mere catch phrase and in the nature of pettifogging marriage jn in any form might be dubbed with the same title and it is not the province of the national government to make special regulations or er require special guarantees against some social custom that play may be considered a relic of barbarism unless it is incompatible with a republican form of government for that is what congress must secure and preserve to every state in the union there are many things open open to the objection that athey are I 1 condemned and rejected by civilization throughout the world I 1 in name but still practiced widely and to the general knowl ledgett ledge of the people which it is not considered consider edthe the province fice of the general government to suppress or prevent the times thinks we are in error because we are inclined to raise a doubt as to the powers of this nation in this respect we simply contend that the powers of the national government do not extend beyond those bestowed upon it in the national charter that they are specified that all others are reserved and that if it steps over the limits therein clearly defined it encroaches upon the liberties to secure which the government itself was founded and the great national charter was formulated but this is ground upon which we have entered to meet the position of the times foreign to the main question that thatis is the attitude aad action of the utah convention it has taken a solid basis in view of the objections raised to admission as a state whether those objections were valid or invalid they were given great creat prominence by enemies ene inies action was taken to settle the great controversy so far as it could be settled as a political question it if the chicago times ay es can point out a better way by which tho the convention could have proceeded under the circumstances let the way be shown although it is a little late in the day if not what is the use of carping not to say pettifogging about a sentence injected into the constitution to account for the course pursued that is a little too small for the times to continue to quibble about |