Show THE COMING SESSION All Interesting Paper on the Gentleman from Vermont I EDMUXDS AND THE HOU03S 1 li t HRIronfWill The EnemlrsH t Has Jlaje Dtah andtUe Il pablicac The Tucker Bill SALT LAKE CITY Nov 271SSG One week from Monday the second session of the Fortyninth Congress will commence in Washington and will terminate its existence on the 4th of March ndd lSo far the members comprising com-prising the fortyninth body of national na-tional legislators have not immortalized themselves by cluing anything extraord Jiary in te way of legislation In the first session they sat pearly eight months tint most of the time was consumed con-sumed in talk One important measure after another would be taken up discussed dis-cussed for dayaandsometimes week and finally laid io one side without any decisive action being reached whatever In thejbeginning of the session Senator Edmunds of Vermont managed to getup get-up a contest between the Senate and the President Considerable interest was manifested in this issue Edmund shrewd politician that he is worked the subject for all it was worth He posed as the champion of the Republicans in the body to which he belonged He thought that in the matter of tae removal of certain Republican Repub-lican officials from office he would compel the President to furnish certain papers which the donate in no very courteous manner man-ner had demanded The debate dragged along for days great speeches were made by both sides and finally a vote was reached which to all intents and purposes gave Mr Edmunds a very black eye The resolutions that he had submitted and that had provoked so much discussion were only adopted by a majority of one It was a complete com-plete victory for the President Ed munds himself could not fail to perceive per-ceive this He smarted under the snub He ls not a man that likes to be defeated de-feated anything He glories in having hav-ing his own way As chairman of the committee on judiciary it is said that he bulldozes that body intocomplying with his wishes in almost everything If the members of his committee WIll not agree to his wishes in almost every thing he goes off in a temper and there is a cessation of business so far as that committee is concerned until he gains his point or something eqnir alent to it Mr Edmunds is undoubtedly undoubt-edly a great man He is a firstclass lawyer ana as a politician be stands at the top of the tree His overbearing manner however combined with an i iron will has made him many enemies both in and out of the Senate He is recognized as the leader of the Republicans Repub-licans in the Senate but many of his colleagues refuse to follow fol-low him They refuse to submit to be bulldozed by him If its it-s its them they will Tote as he votes it it does not they vote as they please His name has often been mentioned in connection with the Presidency but he i has too many enemiesall of his own makingin the ranks of the Republicans Republi-cans to ever succeed no matter his desire in getting the nomination for President at a Republican convention His refusal to go on the stump for Elaine while it may be a small matter did him a great deal of harm Blaine will never forgive him and the Blame ites will bear him a grudge as long as he is on top of the earth and they will not perhaps let him alone when he is underneath it Edmunds chance therefore ever to get nominated by any Republican convention as its candidate for President is about as remote as it possibly can be He seems every thing considered to have risen as high upon the political ladder as he can ever climb not because he lacks blains experience ex-perience aptitude peculiar fitness for the highest political position in the land but because he has gained for himself a reputation which has sown the seeds of animosity for future harvest So far as his seat in the Senate is concerned he can occupy it for life He hails from a very small State the constituency of which are willing to overlook all his faults Some show of opposition based upon his attitude to wards Blaine was made a short time ago to his reelection to the Senate but almost without spending a cent or giving himself the least concern he had a walkover or in other words nu was reelected for j 1 an ther six years Death alone will remove re-move him from an active political life I He will always be a power in the Senate Sen-ate of the United States and will only j I l cease to carry through whatever meas inre he introduces in that body when the Republicans lose the majority l which it is to be hopedthey will in avery I a-very short time Senator Edmunds j I I has always made the most of any question ques-tion which was likely by his advocacy 1 i to gain him public notoriety This has j 1 been evidenced time and time again I His attitude upon the Mormon question I may be cited as an example Although he pretends to tae contrary he cannot even in private conversation hide his I I vindictiveness noon the subject The I Edmunds bill of 1882 pertaining to I Utah now being enforced in a manner I I that never was contemplated bv Ed1 I I munds himself believe he has so ad mittedis I one of his shrewd productions j I produc-tions His second bill that introduced in the early part of last sessionwas bv a great many degrees worse than the 1 I first Its provisions are too well known to require comment at the present time Nothing half so infamous in the way of legislation was ever attempted before in either house of Congress Nothing in the same line ou side of Mormon I ism or pertaining to the people called Mormons would dare be attempted in I any Congress of tne United States I h 4de land of the free and the home of the brave without cans1 ing the greatest opposition on the i part of every patriotic freedom loving citizens of tbi country Ilave conversed with too many members of i Congress natonlnnd Representatives f Iupon the subject not to know that so I far as Republicans are concerned the > polygamy of the Mormons was not the ito i-to ti kernel in dispute at ull Oh no It I w s and is the political power of the j I Mormons if sot now then bynd by that was feared I veritably believe I and I am entitled to my belief I sup pose that if the Mormons hid altrevs I voted the Republican ticket Vtzb mi > nt I have been a State today Bat because the Mormons not only in the Territory of Utah but in other Territories where they have settled have always voted the Democratic ticket the Republican leaders det mimed by ar y sort of meals to make Utah and her people Republican against their will Had they remained in power perhaps they would have accomplished their end Perhaps they would have frachised every m tuber of the Mormons Church This would have ha 1 th effect of placing plac-ing the politico power of the Territory of Utahnot 10 speak of other Territories Territo-ries in the hands of the minority on the plea of course that the Mormons were disloyal to the government under which they lived The Republicans however went out of power before aov sch scheme could be consummated Thy were rejected at the poll in November 18S4 and it will be along a-long time uutil that reelection is rescinacd for I believe that referring to a speech made by Col S Merntt of this city in front of the Dfmocrat office just after tap election elec-tion of CleveanJ the Republican party as party is as dead as Julius Caesar The Republicans through the medium of Edmunds or anybody else may continue to draft and introduce bills in Congress against the Mormons bat will the Democrats when they are shown the true inwardness of the whole scheme be foolish enough to carry on the same unhallowed work to their own unmistakeable harm and hurt Up to the present tIme so far as the hue and cry of polygamy is concerned they have certainly been made the catspaw of the Republicans Edmunds with a welldefined but thinlydisguised motive mo-tive inroduced what 1 have already referred to his second antipolygamy bill as a feeler to the Democratic party He desired in a word to find oat at the earliest possible moment how the Democratic party were going to handle the Mormon question I have Often wondered in this connection if he was satisfied with the bill as reported to the House by the House committee on judiciary whose chairman was the Hon Randolph Tucker of Virginia He must have been staggered beyond measure when he had put into his bands the bill that the latter committee had agreed to report to the lower house on the Mormon question He must have looked very critically for his own bill but lol and behold he could not find it With the exception of the enactIng enact-Ing clause there was nothing left of his bill at all The committee on judiciary of the House after the most elaborate arguments simply scored outevery line of the original bill and drafted a bill on their own account And what a bill I 1 No republican could have desired any thing more forin its provisions it may be said to have outCsestired Caesar If the Republicans ever thought that the Democrats now that they are in power were going to favor the Mormons Mor-mons in any shape or form that thought must have been entirely disabused dis-abused when they read what is now known as the Edmunds Tucker anti polygamy bill Such a bill must have exceeded their fondest anticipations In its provisions it went very much farther than Edmunds himself bad ever suggested and in this I fancy he must have felt greatly disappointed Indeed if ever the bill should reach his committee com-mittee he might take it into his head to oppose many of its provisions for the reason that they had been drafted by somebody else than himself He seems of all men to be very anxious to make a great record in regard to passing severe legislation against the Mormons Not content with the terrible suffering he has already wrought in the midst of as good a community as exists upon the face of this continent he seems judging by the bill he introduced and had passed in the Senate last session anxious to inflict further suffering regardless of every remonstrance or protest on the part of the community themselves or their representatives Such a spirit is not to be envied Any I man that would seek to oppress his fellow man in the way that the Senator from Vermont has done may expect some day in the eternal order bf things to be himself oppressed in no uncertain manner The same will apply to any set of men no matter what their political politi-cal creed or the object they may Lave in view The oppressor shall ultimately be paid back in his own coin with interest It has always been the case and will continue to be to the end of the chapter The Mormon problem may be difficult to solve One thing sure however it never will be solved by a system of persecution or the passing and enforcing of unconstitutional laws Indeed it is a truism that whenever a whole people are opposed to a law that law is bad and the sooner it is wiped off the statute books the better Thousands Thou-sands of men have suffered death for conscience sake and surely at this late hour of the day it is well understood that it is impossible to legislate away the conscience of any man or woman on the face of the earth In dealing with the Mormon question this shoula be borne in mind If it were the mistakes mis-takes that are now oemg commUted would not be committed and a common com-mon sense fair minded literal policy brought to bear on the subject JoE IBVISK r |