Show U > > II W GEORGE T cmms His Manly Letter to an Eastern East-ern Journal t I SOME PLAIN FACTS FOE ALL Statement the Snow CaXr Curtis OplnloB What COB gross Should Do To the Editor ol the cetw fait SirOn Saturday lajt there appeared in the public press a statement purporting pur-porting to have beea telegraphed from i Salt Lake City dat 4 on the 14th instant in-stant to the effect that that the Governor Gov-ernor pf Utah Territory on the 13th instant visited the peaitenliary where Lorenzo Snow is imprisoned and asked him if he Snow asia cendltion of the Governors recommsadiag him to the clemency of the President would eub mU to tOe laws and urge others to do so that Snow refused and put him selt on the higher law of God which he said cannot give way to the laws of mau As I was counsel for Mr Snowin the recent argument of liteeases in the Supreme Su-preme Court I am ia A position to Know from the uncontradicted evIdence contained in the records of his three trials That the wliota conduct was from the time when the Edmund Act went into operation down to the time of his indictment and conviction No rightminded pers A can make himself him-self acquainted with all the facts as they appeared in evidence at the trials and not admit thatMr Saowscouduct was all that could reasonably required of him prior to an authoritative construe tion of the one word eebaoitation1 in the 3d section of the Kdmnnds Act The Territorial judges JM cons trued the law as to make any kind el association mere visits of sympathy or kindness without any dwelhng tegetaer couplet with the fact of apolygatheus marriage relation however long laiace the marriages mar-riages took place evidwee unlawful cohabitation with mere than one woman This construction if correct would not only compel Mr Snow to abstain ab-stain from dwelling with more than one of his wives after he is discharged from prison but would force him tp turn hIS other wives and their children adrift upok the world to abstain from contributing con-tributing to their support and to renounce re-nounce every possible rotation to them Six of his marriages took place accord to the reUg4oea kuraattileMt efUe Mormon Ofcerci te ag before the act of 1862 was UIetIaBiI tfeeAevecth marriage mar-riage took place eleven yean Before tke passage Of the Edmunds t If Mr Snow ho been asked Whether he will promiss to obey the law ia Ute sense which requires him to renosaee every religious and moral duty the women he married forty thirtyfive and seventeen seven-teen ears ago with tae fall tolerance ot tbe people and government of the United States think it very likely that he said he could not promise anything any-thing of the kind Mr Snow brou bt hiS c 5eS before the Supreme Court the United States by I writs of error in order to obtain a thia land l-and authoritative construction of the Salute abd determination of the 9Ile thin whether he was rightly convicted No one can doubt that under the cir camstante it vtarght that be should havVtbe decision of the highest judicial tribunal in the land Alter the argument argu-ment f tbe cases and wails they were under advisement a doubt arose among the judges whether they hive appellate jurisdiction in this class ef cases com me up from the Territories under the third section of the Edmunds Act On Monday the 10th lust the Court dismissed dis-missed tue Snow cases for want of jurisdiction juris-diction and they also reversed their toner decision ia Cannons I I case and dismissed it for the same want jurisdiction This U a situat on unparalleled un-paralleled in the administration ofthe criminal law since the United States have bad any criminal law The third aectioa of the Edmunds Act is now without any construction whatever by the Supreme Corirt the United States i ri l reference to a new crime recently created by a statute which affects thousands thou-sands ot persons in a Territory where polygamy in a period of tl rt1 five years grew up under at least the tacit permission of the people and government govern-ment of the United States Under hcse circumstances it is sid that the dismission of the cases by e Supreme Court of the United States leaves the meaning of the law tobe as it las been declared by the Supreme Court of the Territory This is technically true but in all righteousness and jus j tIce15 it fit that Ihes people should n t hAve the construction of the Territorial Court evised bv the Supreme Court of the United States when that conslruc Uon makes them guilty of a crirae by reason of conduct that waspn CUyJn nocent and harmless and forees them not only to renounce dwelling with more than one of their wives but to cmbfrticc all Jture care for ant associ ation o every kind with any of the there I should be untrue to eery eonvtcfien of moral duty if I did not argethat they are entitled to have ihe law interpreted by the highestjudidal tribunal of the governlBeBt w c retraCted retr-acted it It is for the twfedow of Congress Con-gress to determine whetaer appellate jurisdiction in this class of cases qpa > t lotiow to be conlerr4Gu tbe Sapreae Court of the United SUtea a Allow me Mr Editor to ask why tbe apersrwhich keep UIJ the excitement 1 igaiwt the Mormpns and which Trint scurrilous attacks upon me because iij my professional capacity I have de fended one of them tetore the Snpreme Court do not make taertselves l a5 = uainted with the facts sad with wHat I said 1 can afford to deipise laLIil hood and mIsrepresentatiOn But bode de Jent newspaper caB aSbrd to make Itself the vehicle of either 11 i I 5 GonoariOaCUKT15r WtsUuitGTOi1 Pi CJ4ayWn A 19 New york EeeeiilPe4tiMa1hl i fii t |