| Show ANOTHER stroba STRONG str ona oba JE defence lepene pene pENZ OF THE RIGHT BIGHT la the speech ef of senator call cau delivered fon fin feb during the debate in the senate on the pas pan sage or of the Fd edmunds munds bill mr president the bill now under consideration by the senate Is fain in my judgment the most extraordinary bill that has baa ever been presented in the history orthis country whether it la Is regarded in the whole or in ita its details it Is Js a bill I 1 think that will long stand as a monument of the invasion upon the constitution of the disregard of personal rights of the violation of every essential principle contained in our form of government and in incur our oun institutions the bill proposes to bo a bill for the punishment of bigamy in the territories of the united states and in places where it bas baa exclusive jurisdiction it destroys one government and organizes another for the avowed purpose of giving efficiency to provisions for punishing this crime it does not stop there it constitutes tribunals which are pari and in which it expressly and deliberately pr provides avides that the person charged ath crime bu not have an impartial trial it imposes a religious test upon thib the jurors furors which Is in violation of the cardina cardinal provision of the constitution of states t khat that at when a man is charged with crime be have a ajr ain fain air and and impartial trial it imposes a religious test by which persons persona entertaining that opinion are excluded from the juries who are to try individuals charged with this crime if there he be rny any anything thino thina acred sacred in the history fornof of american jurisprudence and american liberty it la Is that a person charged with crime shall have a fair and an impartial trial by a jury of his bis peers and not by a packed jury selected of men known to be opposed to him andt and prejudiced against him and a religious religions test imposed upon them for their qualification quail fl cation catlon as jurors mr President while the bill avows itself to be bea a bill for the punishment of bigamy it is avowed in the r ent here and is known in the current history of the country to be a bill in which the population of a territory by a large majority entertaining particular views and opinion which they regard as religion and others believe in practice are criminal in which a whole population or more of people declared by our form of government in its most essential principles to hate bate the right of self government are by iby the organization ot of a government against their wishes sought to be deprived of ail all political power and subjected to trial by partial coul ts and by partial juries that is the bill in its true purpose and true object it actually constitutes a court unfriendly to them avowedly so for their trial and conviction as a means of suppressing their religion and that la Is justified in the argument and here it la Is a court carefully prepared to give a partial verdle verdic tand com composed 0 sed ped of men selected because of their nesi to that population of people ople opie be they criminals or not dot ghey they they are citizens of the united states by express declaration of our constitution subject to our jurisdiction they have a light right to the equal protection of our laws that Is not the character american jurisprudence that ia is not the constitution of the united states that la is not the theory of government of gentlemen who claim manhood sunn suffrage rage the right of man to have free opinion who claim that every man is ia a brother and who have reconstructed one half of this country with millions of white intelligent tell teli igent and civilized people upon the theory that they should be deprived of the control of their states because every man should he be equal before the be law and as a man mau has a right to suffrage let us see cee what warrant there is in the constitution of this country for this proceeding let us go into its details my learned and distinguished colleague for whose opinions I 1 have very great respect cited yesterday the act by which the territory of florida was first organized as a government or as he pleased to term it by which arbitrary power was waa 4 inferred red by congress upon the authorities in that territory authorizing the president tor to govern those people and continuing the executives executive legislative and judicial power therein to such persona bor sor mashe as he appointed appoint edland and he conceived from that fact that the act created an arbitrary power there P no place in the constitution of the united states for arbitrary power there Is no logical proposition which can sustain it the act by which the territory of florida was constituted only authorized the officers designated bythe by the president to execute the legislative and judicial authority according to the powers and ahe the limitation of power contained in the constitution ot the united not otherwise to say fay that congress can confer power upon the president or a creature which it is prohibited from leg to say that the creature of congress can deprive the citizens of that guaranteed liberty and th ose individual rights which it was the object of the constitution to create and secure because be he Is upon land that la Is property of the united states to affirm that a government whose powers concern the people and are declared to bo be co so limited that they cannot deprive them of certain persona personal becomes an arbitrary and unlimited power when the citizen ente enters rampon upon the land or comes within the exclusive jurisdiction of the government is certainly without the sanction of either reason or authority there is nothing in the decisions in the cabe cate cited by my collea colleague gild that can contemplate a proposition such aa as that that under a constitution ution made to secure personal nights rights maae made by the people for the people peoples forbidding congress from invading by any law jaw these personal rights securing an impartial trial to every man charged ed with crime ini ink vesting ng the citizen with absolute immunity unity to these thebe personal rights because bemuse territory is i acquired by the government which la in the creature of and subject to that constitution when the citizen walks upon that territory ha he loses the guarantee of these rights la Is entirely without foundation no government manifestly can constitutionally te lle created in the territories of this country except a government which guarantees to the citizen the rights which congress Is forbidden for biden from exercising any power to deprive him of whether this government be that boneman one man chosen by nop Pop congress gress greas or of many men chosen by the people of the territory the power and the rights remain the same it is said that the clause that congress may make needful rules and regulation regulations respecting the territories of the united states gives an un limited power what argument Is lei that what are needful rules and regulations respecting the territories of the united states in the sense of the constitution will any man say that the constitution regards that as needful for the people of the territories of the united states which the constitution says jig i not needful but is hurtful and des der destructive truc to the people out of the territories will any one say that the of the grants graut of power in the th constitution are con confined koed toed to the states of the country when they are universal and relate to the immunities and rights of the citizen everywhere senators are strangely tr angely unmindful mindful nn of the first section of the fourteenth article ot of the Conati tulon the words of which are Allier Allter sons born or naturalized in the united states and subject to the jurisdiction thereof are citizens of the united states and of the state wherein they reside no state shall makee mate or enforce any law abridge the or immunities 1 etc here hero a bill and we us are told that it la is a proper bill blu what does it do will the senator from vermont who is its special champion undertake upon this floor or elsewhere to say that he will vote for a law giving to the governor of the state of vermont the power to designate five men who shall say to him and to every other man in lit vermont you shall not be eligible to office because we choose without trial without notice without a jury with constitution either to punish polygamy or to establish a despotism for some other purpose mr president while I 1 concur with every word of the ab able abie leand and unanswerable sw erable argument of the senator from georgia hir mr brown upon the subject of a religious religions test and with every ever word of the able demonstration of the senator from alabama abir mr morgan and the senator from missouri mr vest that this thia Is unquestionably and by the decision of the courts a bill of attainder ta I 1 am willing to vote to withdraw all powers of government from the people of this polygamous territory and let that power be exercised by the congress of the united states through a legislative council or otherwise convicting under fair and anti just modes of proceeding people engaged in improper practices but I 1 am not willing to destroy the very safeguards which rest around every individual in the country to deny the limitations of powers contained in tho the constitution ot of the united states upon congress which 7 are twofold two fold first as respects the th e grant to be construed unquestionably in the light of the objects of government of its own mode of government by the people and second in respect to tha the citizen and the im fin muni ties and rights which it guarantees to him with all this argument and discussion here Is the constitution of the united states stater and here la Is the fourteenth amendment which the honorable senator from vermont wa was largely instrumental in passing which declares that every person subject to ta the jurisdiction of the united states la is a citizen and entitled to the equal protection of the laws what equal protection of the laws la Is it between those men in utah when five men say eay that igwe we believe without eif eil evidence dence without trial without notice without maring hearing that you have been guilty of an act of impropriety with a female and we deny you the right to that franchise that eligibility to office which you now possess we deny you the right to a trial by a jury of your peers we require you yon to be tried by men who are unfriendly to out evidence to say bay that you have heen been guilty of a single impropriety in m your relations with the other acif ex will he undertake to t sg say bay that I 1 M the people of vermont shall be dig dis franchised and that a law would be competent in that state authorizing the governor to create an ex parts board to say bay that no man should vote and no man should holi office in lit vermont who in the opinion of those five men be they democrats or republicans had been guilty of a single act of impropriety without notice to the individual antl anti and aud without proof will he be under taketo affirm her here that the people of vermont would regard a state government fastened upon them by the arbitrary exclusion from the franchise and from flom eligibility to office of three fourths fourtha of her people by a board of five persons persona aa as a republican government will any man undertake to say that it ith Is republican government to constitute a board of that description are we to be told that it 13 necessary to create a picked and a partial court and jury to deny to men the right of a f fair air and impartial iury jury y t to deny denv to men the right of xi being g b heard before the consequences of crime are imputed to them and that it can be justified by the proposition that it la Is only an electoral qualification true it is Js a crime itley they say but it is not treated here as a crime that is ii a subterfuge the bill pro proposes to disfranchise and deny under specious and false pretenses the right of people in utah to create a govern government but it creates one for them by five men and it is a false assertion in the bill which asserts that these five men are intended to canvass and decide fairly the electoral qualifications of that people it is intended to create a government by a minority over the large majority it BO so avows itself it is BO so justified by its author and friends it is not net a question whether congress has power to repeal all laws in the territories and the executive judicial and legislative power to whom it pleases whether one or many all concede this but whether it can violate the personal rights lights guaranteed in the you and we tellene that your religious faith Js an enemy of the country and ough ought t to be suppressed sup bup pres presed ed with nire fire and sword your faith says the senator from vermont la Is a shaine shame to christianity and therefore must be destroyed by these cruel methods mr president I 1 have not so learned the precepts of our christianity ibave chave not so learned our constitution I 1 haye bays been taught that the christian religion was waa one of peace pence andwood and good rood will and that egno no religious test for office in the constitution forbids the exclusion of jew or gentile because cf of hla hia belief ml mr president it is useless to attempt to govern and control this question in this way the honorable senator from delaware arba Mr Bayard yard vard fidelity to the constitution has been distinguished and for which I 1 honor him and I 1 have no anima aulma animadversions aversions to io make upon his hia arguments upon this bill speaks ot of the Marni bini as a theocratic government why what right tight la is there for that allegation here what is the argument because the organization of the mormon church rests in religious matters and in social an absolute power in the head ot of the church does doea not another church do that does not our oar christian church in one of its ua leading bodies which is not to bespoken be spoken of anywhere except with the profoundest veneration ti the ecclesiastical body that witnessed the beginning of christianity ti that certainly contributed no small smail part to its early history and ita its struggles with paganism and maintained it all through the generations of the past assert the absolute lute infallibility of the head bead of the church upon all religious and social matters and when it speaks ex cathedra command comma nl the absolute obedience of its ita millions of votaries Tot vot arles aries there la Is nothing theocratic in the government of the mormon church that fa Is exhibited to tho world it does not claim to govern the territory of utah it acknowledges the authority of the government of the united state you yon cannot assail it by declaring as a matter of opinion on the part of the american congress that for a man to worship god according to his belief as mormons cormons do however contrary to our opinions and our wishes is a theocracy to be suppressed with fire tire and sword but if you yon will make war upon it let lot it not te by striking down the liberties of your people and doing violence to your own holy faith but assail it with the red right hand of war with the sword to stabat stab slab it out and say sayto bayto to them proclaim your heresies her esies and conduct your rites beyond on d the limits of this territory of on fave paye continued from page the united states bly sir this thia is woree than open flagrant war this is asserting to the people that what our fathers acting under the teachings of the christian religion fought for more than a hundred years to accomplish shall be thrown away this is an assertion by the congress of the united states that there may be a trial by a packed and |
