Show THE UTAH CONTESTED TION CASE JW the farcical attempt of mcgrorty to the seat of the delegate of efthia this territory hon wm H hooper has had excited no other feeling than ridicule in the mind of every man who is famil lar lar jar with the circumstances of the c case ase anthe miserable creature is beneath the contempt of every respectable person and aad no notice would have been bestowed upon him had not congress by en pertaining his case and referring it to td its lt committee on elections and the ip t press in various part parts given it undeserved importance we have never alluded to him or written his nama name without being ashamed and disgusted we viewed him while here as a contemptible temp tible lickspittle lick spittle and never was wa thrown in his hia company without being isgut ed with his fawning obsequiousness and servility his manner gave evidence notwithstanding his constant attendance at meetings and the loud and repeated professions of friendliness and nd sympathy which he made that he was a thoroughpaced thorough paced hypocrite in conversation it would be difficult for an tob lob observant servant listener to have any other idea than that he was being licked preparatory to 0 o being swallowed while he thought thou ht he had any pros of making money out of the I 1 mor mons he was most friendly if they had believed him there never was an other man who had felt quite the same amount of sympathy for them that he had hild but when he found he was be coming known anahis and his little game of hypocrisy did not succeed then the mask was thrown aside and appeared reappeared be in eis his true colors with the aid ald of OB valte baite waite salte Va ite who was once a federal judge of this territory lie he got u p nn argument m en t before the committee on elections which was intended to be very formidable gab Gai gaibler sas bled extracts from discourses misrepresentations of writers writ ers erg affidavits of apostates and extracts from their works made niad up a 06 tissue of slanders that has rarely been heen excel excelled fed it was this strange medley that as an argument the whole of the claim blaim and argument t might be summed up in a few fe w words the contestant ought to have the seat because if he did not get the majority of votes and was not elected it was not his fault he was a candidate and was willing the people should vote for him and I fliey filey did id not vote for him because labere here was no inducement congress 0 lalit ait to punish them for their obstinacy elid anu ano make him Dg delegate legate any how 11 r captain hooper in hh his reply took high around ile he very pro property pery peny did not admit that McGrorty was legally in curt i he refused to recognize him aa as a legal contestant he having failed to c comply m p ly with thelah the law of congress which requires rt q u ires notice of contest to be filed within thirty days after the result of the ahe election has been ascertained officially ile he did not yot therefore condescend to place himself upon a level with mcgrorty by replying to hi s lying statements but offered the following statement of the positions relied upon by him they cover all the ground and thoroughly y demolish and annihilate all the pretensions of mcgrorty and waite the sitting delegate william H hooper objects to the course of proceeding in this case because it does not conform to the law in iii any respect nor to any established precedents SECOND no reason whatever is shown why contestant has not complied with the law regulating contested elections his hia own affidavit filed and sworn to more than eleven months after atter the election was held is wholly unsupported by that of a single other person whose statement hp he has taken and is pointedly contradicted by the statements of men of character and position reside residents tits fits of said territory and not members of the mormon church to wit the affidavits of F H head superintendent of indian affairs utah territory amos anios reed beed late secretary and acting governor S P mccurdy late associate and now chief justice of utah frank fuller faller late acting governor of utah and also to the statements of forty one citizens not mor mons who are the leading merchants bankers and business businessmen men of salt lake city all alt of whom state that contestant could at any time since the election held on the ath of february 1867 have proceeded with this ease case casein in the manner prescribed by law with entire and perfect safety to himself without the least possible danger of personal violence and who state further that the fullest freedom and expression of opinion is indulged in and tolerated in said territory and that mcgrorty himself publicly announced it often and arid repeatedly upon the streets in salt lake city deflor prior to his leaving said territory that he e was contesting thereat the seat odthe of the sitting delegate was in no manner molested on account of said announcement and yet in the face cfall of all ali these facts he took no steps towards preparing his notice of contest even either before the regular session of march 1867 nor in I 1 n aply following nor yet again before the beginning nino nine 0 of the december term of the same year but waited until the day of or january nearly a whole year after the election and when aben near half the term of the fortieth congress had expired under these circumstances circumstance e s the sitting delegate insists that there is neither a shadow of law nor of fact ud under tier iier which the contestant ban ak ask a k the committee on elections or the house to act in this case the law regulating contested elections requires notice of contest to be filed within thirty days after the result of the election has been ascertained officially see statutes at large vol ix the sitting delegate ventures to assert that this thia ia is the first time in history that a contestant has asserted that the laws lawa of congress regulating the rights of persons claiming seats in its body do not apply to territories THIRD the ex parte affidavits cannot be used as evidence to try this thia case on its merits no law or precedent would authorize this and these of themselves show no reason why contestant should be allowed an au order of the house to be permitted to take testimony under the law such being the case the contestant has no right to be heard upon the merits of the case ease and th the house eHouse has no right under any law or precedent to act upon contestants claim as it now comes before it FOURTH the sitting delegate specifically objects to the notice of contestant as not legal nonbeing noh not being filed derany un law or precedent near twelve twelve months after said electa election on the law not having been complied with the sitting delegate was not bound to answer an answer would have been a waiver of his hia rights righta to have this thia ease case tried inthe in the usual manner prescribed by law and established by precedent FIFTH for the same reason he objects to the use of the depositions of smith and williamson he did not appear to cross examine because an appearance would have been a recognition of the illegal proceeding which would have committed him to a defence before the committee the notice itself of contest being illegal all proceedings under it fall fail SIXTH these two witnesses do not a agree aree P ree in lu their state statements ments and id p prove rov e nor ning thing again against bit zit the fitting I 1 kleg delegate at who denies that be he has ever at any time taken any oath which could in any manner Jn interfere with his duties as a loyal and law lavy abiding citizen of the united states and lie he further states that to the best of his knowledge and belief there bisno oath oah taken oi or required to be taken by the people known as mormons cormons Mor mons under any rule of their church inconsistent with their duties as loyal and law abiding citizens of the united states SEVENTH on contestants printed affidavits all that he be has filed as well as on the statements of smith and mrs williamson illiamson VV he makes no case for himself and none against the sitting delegate by these ex pane statements taken before he had bad even filled his notice of contest be only shows what he has haa alleged as irregularities in two voting precincts and should the vote of the two whole counties in which the precincts are located be rejected the sitting delegate still has haa over twelve thousand majority mcgrory but 64 sixty four votes these being the only two counties to which statements have been taken as to irregularities and the evidence is not sufficient as to these I 1 EIGHTH the returns of the eloe eloc election tion as shown by the papers filed by contes contest i tant are made in strict conformity to the laws of the territory see ee territorial laws of utah pages 89 90 92 and alid 26 NINTH all the alleged occurrences of outrages cited by contestant in his argument occurred there by his big own showing Dg from eight to fifteen years ago even if true which is not admitted as charged by the contestant they fall far below the number and degree of outrages which occur in all n newly ewi y settled fettled territories and are not worse either in acts or words than are of constant and almost daily occurrence in the oldest and most thickly peopled states of the union can have no kind of relation to this contest and the sitting delegate denies their competency as testimony herein not bearing on him or this case in any manner whatever i TENTH R restating re e stating his objection to the whole proceeding because became contestant has in no manner complied with the law and has shown no reason for diot riot complying with the same and not waiving any right he has by reason of this failure the sitting delegate insists that contestant has made no show of claim for himself and no case whatever against the pitting delegate he states further that if it be the object of the contestant mcgrorty and his friends as would appear from the opening sentence in the he printed argument rahe counsel mr 0 walt wait to ind in duche u people through th their ir national L legislature to take tak e hold hoid hola of the complicated political problem arising out of the settlement of utah territory and solve it upon principles of justice justlee of moderation and of bound sound statesmanship the sitting Delegat ehas has bas no sort of objection to their thein doina doing so in n the proper manner and here challenges the fullest arid and fairest examination by congress Con COD gres gress ina lna in a legitimate manner into all that pertains to said sald territory and its people and he here pledges himself and the people of said territory of utah to give every facility that may be needed to throw light upon all that may be desired to be examined into to the end that the whole status of said eaid territory and its people and their relation to the government of the united states may be fully understood ELEVENTH ELEV entla AS to the indirect personal allusions made by contestant contestants ys counsel in his big printed brief which he has hag furnished the committee and circulated among the members of the house I 1 wherein by insinuation be seeks to implicate the sitting delegate in crimes the sitting delegate has no hesitancy in denouncing such as untrue in every particular ti and there is not a particle of justification for such insinuations aren even upon the ex parte statements upon which alone contestant rests his case case ease he does not deem it is duty nor this the time timo or place to notice them further reither neither erdoes does he be here edtice notice the great mass of matter which counsel has brought out in his printed brief reflecting upon the people of utah and find charging disloyalty upon them and to hostility to the united states for the reasons heretofore assigned contestant in no manner having complied with the law and having shown no reason f for r not complying therewith to have entered into a refutation of these cal which can be done by the same authorities from which contestant has selected his extracts would have been an acknowledgment of the right of contestant to have had the committee to act upon and deolde decide this ease upon the mere ex parte statements of contestant his counsel and his friends thereby disregarding every principle of law aw aa as well aa as the rules and statutes regulating the production of testimony the whole course of said people of utah chal ebal challenges lenges leDges history for a parallel in devotion to that government of which they form a part persecuted and driven from their homes more thanteen ty years ago while stripped of almost everything necessary to life and houseless and homeless on the west bank of the missouri they promptly answered the call of the united states then engaged ina lna in a foreign war furnished all the men asked for soldiers penniless they took up their line of rn march reb reh and westward moved with their families their wives and their little ones over barren plains through hostile bands of savages twelve hundred miles from civilization after having endured untold hardships they came to a halt bait in what ovas as then a desert this desert in this short space of time they have filled with more than one hundred bundred thousand people and by their industry and frugality have lave made it a prosperous land enabling them thus to add greatly to the rapid development of the country surrounding them the very first step P taken K by the expelled exiles after once price being settled in their new homes was to seek to connect themselves aka again i in to the federal union and to ask a government guaranteed by its laws and although they have been constantly abused and almost continually denounced noun ced even by many who have held high places they have never ceased to seek and cultivate more intimate relations with the government and people of the united states aldno and no people look forward with more eagerness and earnest delight to the completion of that great work which is soon to bring them and their once isolated country in reality almost to the very doors of the nations capital I 1 |