| Show J T SPOTLESS TION OP relative to convictions in utah cn der the edmunds tucker law the following is the speech of hon john T caine of utah in the house of representatives august upon the resolution of inquiry relative to convictions in utah and idaho under the provisions of the several anti polygamy laws pardons granted etc ME the purpose of those who originated this resolution was plainly political As to the resolution as reported from the judiciary committee 1 not only have no objection favor its adoption the i information it shows conclusively that undue lemen cy has not been shown to convicted persons in utah and idaho and at the same time irwill demonstrate under whose administration the laws in question have been most rigidly enforced the president by the sixth section of the anti polygamy law of 1882 was given grant amnesty to certain p classes of offenders guilty before the passage of said act of bigamy polygamy or unlawful cohabitation during the debates in congress upon this bill while on its passage it was clearly foreshadower foreshadowed fore shadowed that the then existing status of the poleg would bo recognized and amnesty granted to those living in that relation bygones wore to be bygones thelast the past be for people were to be granted an opportunity to ecart anew J need not say that no such opportunity his been afforded no amnesty to classes has been granted all alike have been prosecuted bui of the hundreds convicted in utah and idaho very few have been granted pardons and those who have served a portion of time in the penitentiary none however have been pardoned except in cases of extreme old age sickness or for other good reasons no such pardon has been granted except upon the recommendation of tho united states district 0 attorney who prosecuted the case some petitions have been favorably endorsed indorsed indor sed by the judges who tried the case and some times the governor of the territory the united states marshal and other federal officials have joined in the request the petitions for executive clemency which have been presented through me have been mostly signed by non cormons mormons the bankers merchants and other prominent men of utah who while strong advocates of the enforcement of the anti polygamy laws do not consider it necessary to tho safety of the nation and the perpetuity of american institutions that men oyer seventy years of ago should be imprisoned for unlawful cohabitation awill not attempt to notice any criticisms made upon the president for his action in granting a few pardons to sick and aged men in utah and idaho I 1 believe that the president is abundantly able to take care of himself and if this resolution is adopted the attorney general will give such reasons of the presidents action in these matters as will be entirely satisfactory to this house and to the country the intemperate remarks of the gentleman from idaho do not call for any reply from me the whole history of the mormon people what they are what they have done in utah idaho arizona and elsewhere furnishes the refutation for stale slanders like those ho has treated us to speak louder than words but mr speaker with the indulgence of the house I 1 propose bristly to show what efforts the people of utah have made within the last two years to settle the so called mormon to bring the much abused territory into harmony with the rost of the nation to do so satisfactorily to myself and intelligibly to the house I 1 must go back and speak of the causes which led up to the existing state of things in utah forty two years ago a body of people abandoning their homes set out EO find an abiding place whore unmolested by mob might rear their tabernacles and temples j and worship god in and earn i an honest living by the sweat of their brows in all the history of mankind there is not tho record of another undertaking der taking comparable to that of the pilgrimage from nauvoo on tho banks of the mississippi to the valley of the groat salt lake ten thousand people within a little more than two years transplanted themselves from the immediate neighborhood of the mississippi eiver to a desert region more than 2000 miles distant the migration considered in all its aspects I 1 repeat is without parallel in the annals of the human race the exodus began in the dead of winter the pioneer band crossing the mississippi eiver on the ico sava a few hundred miles the way was through A country possessed by savages never friendly and often hostile to intruding white men the road had to bo marked out bridges built and means of crossing groat rivers provided the hostile Indian 3 had to bo conciliated settlements formed crops planted and grown to provide provisions for the thousands who followed from tho beginning to tho discipline was maintained end perfect there was no collision with the wild indians there wore hardships and sufferings endured endur od but none died of hunger disease exposure anxiety tho graved of loved ones marked along that 2000 floco of pilgrimage s t anum phing oe every obstacle laroi cilly overcoming every difficulty e desert valley on the of tb it tit lidike was reached the rion wa bot alio domain of i amio i states it was the territory sico with which we were at ir one of the first acts of the band was to scale a lofty dountain noun tain peak unfurl the stars and stripes and take possession in the name of the united states the weary wayfarers wayfare rs came to the valley through emigration canyon no more uninviting and cou raging prospect ever met tho gaze of emigrants than that which spread out west north and south today to day the prospect is pleasing and grand because the mountains the lakes the streams are settings to a picture which the patient endeavors of an n people have wrought then the grandeur of the setting but idled to the dull dead monotony of alkali plains covered with sagebrush sage brush the emblem of depressing solitude the men who led the thousands who followed were americans to the core they were of the best lineage new england new york pennsylvania and ohio can boast their sires and their grandsires grand sires had fought f or liberty and human rights for the principle of local community self gov ern ment of during the war of 1812 and the glorious struggle for independence more than one in five of their able bodied sons were then serving their country as volunteers in the war with mexico they were of the stock that helped to win for you and for me our great heritage of freedom and grand domain their descendants air speaker have ever cherished as priceless that heritage they realize the inestimable blessings they have enjoyed under the constitution of the united states and they revere it as the work of men who were inspired by god for that special service I 1 havo said mr speaker that the desert region of great salt lake valley presented an uninviting prospect in but it was the land to which an exiled people had been led under the direction of divine providence the winter that followed was one that men who were children then will remember to the hour of their death even now in dreams they experience anew the pangs of awful hunger endured during the terrible winter and succeeding spring when but for the roots which the indians taught them to dig and eat many scores must have perished the work which the settlers of utah have done speaks for itself it is not alone the material development they have wrought the conversion of a desert region into an earthly paradise the transformation of the drear iest and most forbidding of waste places into fruitful fields the building of great and flourishing cities and towns the founding of settlements and the planting of colonies the construction of railroads and the opening of mines they founded a commonwealth they laid broad and deep the foundations of a community which has been much maligned but which one day will receive the recognition its intrinsic worth entitles it to it is a community of souls with material possessions worth not less than a community mr speaker as thoroughly american as any one on this continent a community sir with a less percentage ot foreign born population than many others of your territories a community where the percentage of illiteracy is the same as that of the state of connecticut a community where the general morality the industry the sobriety the thrift of the people have excited the admiration of every unprejudiced traveler who has visited utah a community where 90 per cent of the heads of families own their homes where on this earth will you find another people of whom this can be said there is not an almshouse nor the necessity for one in any settlement where my people alone are found we have no labor problem no socialistic tendencies and the dread specter of anarchism does not disturb us in our waking or sleeping moments we are largely an agricultural and pastoral people our possessions are chiefly lands herds and flocks and the distribution thereof per capita presents none of the inequalities which elsewhere even in our country cause just alarm among reflecting men among my people the rich are not growing richer and the poor poorer for more than forty years the public affairs of a great and growing community have been administered with a wise conservatism which ought to excite your highest admiration the opportunities an arid country where cultivation of the soil depends upon irrigation offers the few for self aggrandizement must bo apparent to every thinking man water sources are easily secured by the first comers and incorporated companies can easily monopolize con arol of water rights point me to another region in the western cow try where the system of irrigation is a necessity and the allers of the soil are not dependent on capitalists who soil water by the inch mv people have dug their own ditches made their own canals by a system of community operation cooperation co and hence wo have no laud nor water monopolies tho public works of utah our roads and bridges our territorial rit orial institutions will compare favorably with those of any of the territories afa hae a common school system which id nonsectarian non sectarian and the excellence of which has been highly commended by your commissioner of education we have not incurred obligations for the future but havo paid our way from current there is not a dollar of county municipal or territorial bonded save in salt lake city where bonds issued in a roi small amount to build an irrigating canal more than 20 miles long for the benefit of the municipality nici this indebtedness has boon largely anticipated by redemption of the bonds before they 2 were due ohp aggregate assessment of r the property m the territory is ia while ilg actual value ia over tha rate of taxation is very low being only 6 mills on the dollar for territorial and school purposes not to exceed 6 mills for county expenses while the cities have not assessed iss essed over 5 mills for municipal purposes mr speaker there is no longer a possibility of objecting to cormons mormons on account 0 polygamy that is a dead issue it can not be vitalized vitali zed but undoubtedly our opponents will be most reluctant to abandon the old cry which has served them so long and so well they will however have to abandon the cry against polygamy because it has ceased to exist it has been suppressed by act of congress and the great bulk of the mormon people have accepted the situation what does the record show it shows that recently in regular judicial proceedings in salt lake fact was proven by a high church official that the mormon church no longer gave permission for plural marriage the late chief justice zane supreme court of utah in answer to an inquiry from general McCIer nand one of the utah corn missioners ners say a hat no case of polygamy occurring since the passage of the edmunds tucker law has come under his judicial notice moreover the territorial assembly adopted a resolution in regard to the laws en accod by congress known as tle edmunda and edmunds ancker act respectively ively of march 22 1882 and march which is as follows resolved that said assembly are in favor of a just humane and impartial enforcement of said laws of the united states in the same manner as other criminal laws are enforced under the constitution and laws of our country to the end that said offenses may be ef prohibited and further tha legislative assembly has enacted and the governor has approved a marriage law for the territory prohibiting the declaring void a marriage hen there is a husband or wife living from whom the person marrying has not been divorced vor ced providing also that no marriage shall be solemnized without a license for the issuing of which the most stringent regulations under pains and penalties are provided and who shall solemnize marriages and making it a penal offense punishable by imprisonment in the penitentiary not exceeding three years or fine not exceeding 1000 or both fine and imprisonment for any person knowingly with or without such license to solemnize a prohibited marriage no state in the union has a more complete and per fact marriage law and few if any states have one in all respects so good 1 I assort moreover and the official evidence supports my assertion that since the constitutionality of tho act of congress of july 1 1862 was affirmed by the supreme court of the united states plural marriages were exceptional and not general among the cormons mormons Mor mons the act of congress of march 22 1883 as construed by the courts and the utah commission franchised disfranchised dis every person who was or had been living in polygamy retroactive as this law was in its effects it was enforced and the supreme court of the united states strained a point to sustain its constitutionality by holding that it merely prescribed a status and did not inflict disfranchisement as a punishment we had woman suffrage in utah every man and woman who had lived in polygamy as well as those who were then in polygamous relations were chased the total number thus dis franchised according to the reports of the utah commission was about so that allowing for those who had ceased to live in polygamy old men choso whoso wives were dead widows choso whoso husbands were dead and plural wives the male polygamists could not and did not then exceed 2500 T honestly relieve there are today to day in utah less than 2000 males who can be termed and of this number there are very few if any who are violating the law against unlawful cohabitation mr speaker intelligent and philosophical students of the dangers threatening our social life have no fears of Mormonism or of the continuance of polygamy in utah hear what bishop spalding diug of illinois a thoughtful and earnest man has to forum for march in considering si the question as our social life threatened he says of sni too as a social danger much that is superficial and idle is spoken and written the cormons mormons are sober industrious and thrifty and their of is our onla against them but polygamy beyond all question we need not fear at all even among the cormons mormons it exists in comparatively few instances this is sober truth less than 1 per cent of the population of utah bajwa v aada have been VA j the great majority of the tl mormon voters voted to make polygamy a i punishable by fine and imvris nt A mormon territorial asly demands the enforcement of aws of the united states against ay polygamy unlawful cohabit incest adultery and fornica it provides a marriage law which imposes heavy penalties in the event of plural marriages being sol this ought to satisfy reasonable men among the cormons mormons of as I 1 havo heretofore stated thero iro not moro than 2000 aon who have over had a plurality of wives 0 2000 men can tinder the law exercise any political rights they can not vote and they can hot hold office the poly male citizen in political affairs in |
