Show SPEECH of ri lion jion 0 n A alten alien lle ile n S 2 1 u rn i a n of oh ohio io on the utah eill dill in the senate feb 26 1873 mr president it is not my purpose to goat go at this time into a discussion of this bill I 1 can bear witness with the senator from new now jersey of the tiie perfect good faith with which the committee oil on the judi Sudi judiciary clary ciary entered upon the tile investigation of the matters contained in this bill and sought to make it a bill which would further the ends of justice and arid not be perverted into an instrument of persecution of anybody oil on account of a arence of opinion on religious or social subjects but while that was undoubtedly the tile purpose of the tile committee and great care has been taken io to draw this bill so as to prevent as far as possible as it was thought any such perversion of the law in my rny judgment the safeguards are not lent I 1 thought so in committee I 1 think so still the more reflection I 1 have given to this subject the more moro I 1 am satisfied of IL it The tiie condition of utah presents a problem of the tile most difficult solution arld and tile tiie more difficult perhaps when submitted to t the 1 congress of the tile united states because I 1 do not believe there is ill in all this congre congress with the exception of tile the delegate from utah himself one person who does not d disapprove of what is called the peculiar pecullar institution of utah ill in other words monogamy is the rule in lit the tiie united states the tile mormon mornion church the first attempt to estu establish blish ulish within the united states the institution of polygamy it is very true polygamy t is is an old institution it is s 1 very ery true that it pre prevails this moment among more than the tile inhabitants of this globe tile people of tile tiie united have bave lave always set their faces it and I 1 trust the they always will as far as they have lave ti the w power to do ao so the tile church has grown up this peculiar institution has lias up and this church lias shown vitality that to pers persons wons sons who wiio not made the tile crowth of sects study seems almost miraculous those who have been in utah even for a short time as I 1 was wms a years ago on a visit there with committee of this body it is difficult to comprehend theatta the climent of the tile people of that church to c hurcil church but sir it is all an attachment equal to that which i is felt any devotee on the tile face of tile the globe and its reasons reason sare aare are aro to be found simply in spiritual unspiritual motives but to be found perhaps perli peril aps still stronger in the workings of that church for the material well being of tile tiko people I 1 think a large majority of the Mor mormons niong in utah are persons from europe I 1 think that a large majority of those who wiio come from europe in fact ninety per cent them are perhaps persons who wiio in their original I 1 homes never lad had ten dollars worth of property in the tile world that they could call their own perhaps that statement is not strictly correct but I 1 think I 1 may safely say that nine the mormons cormons brought brough t from europe and are now in utah never in their original homs hornes owned fifty dollars worth of property that they tiley could their own very few of them indeed ever had a good suit of clothing very few of them ever even saw a day pass over their heads that they could say this day 1 I will have hav e a good wholesome meal 01 os very few of them indeed were able to read one word much less to write and a large portion of them never were inside the portals of a church it was those people hardworking hard working ignorant in tile the very depths of poverty bont and without the tile slightest hope of ever being able in lit the world to call a foot of land their own or ever to have lave a comfortable subsistence that tiie tile mormon missionaries found found and have brou brought lit to tilo territory of utah anz ant anu there sir what a change in their material condition lias has taken place tile tiie lead of a family bro brought u glit gilt to utah Is Ls immediately put upon a piece of ground an nere acre and a quartel quartee called a town lot or from five to ten or fifteen acres of land according to his capacity to work it for farming purposes he be is aided in his liis farm farming ilig operations if lie does not know how to farahe is instructed how to farm aided in the building of his house aided in tile the cultivation of his lands seed and agricultural implements are furnished him and lna ina in a very few years that raan man who had never known anything but the depths of poverty finds himself ina lna in a comfortable for table home biome the owner of a comfortable for table farm his clad three good meals every day for them and all ali liis his children childre going to school being taught to read and to write you might as well try to make that man believe that he could live without air as mi to make him believe that that change in his liis circumstances thus brought about by the tile mormon church was not the work of almighty god he does believe it and will die for that belief bellef and therefore it is sir that this problem is so difficult of solution that belief which is thus implanted in that man which grows with liis his growth that marvelous marv elous clous change which lias has taken place in his circumstances cum stances that to him seems like an immediate interposition of the divinity itself will make him stick to that religion pass what laws you oll oil will it is by something else titan than law that this tilis evil this peculiar institution ution of theirs must be eradicated I 1 do not say that core lore we should recognize that institution on the tile contrary I 1 think that we should not recognize it at all we llave recognized it to a certain extent and perhaps further than we ought ever to have llave done ly enough we made utai utah a terri territory tor for y there were nono none there and still moro more strangely we made tile the chief priest of the tile mormon church the tile governor of df that territory if I 1 am not mistaken this tilis government did that this tills government made those people organize the tilo territory and arid made the president of tile the church and the man they consider the apostle of god the tiie territorial governor and has maintained that territorial government eni ment ever since but sir whatever we have done I 1 still admit that nothing ought to be done that recognizes or that sanctions this peculiar relation of utah and I 1 am not without hope that in lit time and by the tile working operation of causes not produced by law the tiie peculiar institution of that church will be given up tip but fir F gir ir it is a most delicate subject t to handle we have lave seen that mormons cormons Mor mons when wilen persecuted as they thay thought first in lit ohio left ohio when persecuted as they said they were in lit missouri they left missouri when afterward persecuted ai ag they ald aid said they were in illinois they left illinois and arid went across what was then tilen an almost unknown desert and settled in utah then within the tile bounds of mexico we have seen them manifest their determination not to give up ill their religion and to endure any per Q ecu acu cution rather than give it up that being the condition of those persons 1 ons anything which tends to ee bring ri 1 g about a conflict between them and those entertaining different opinions is if possible to be avoided no matter how right we may be in lit our opinions and certainly no one believes in our opinions an and in our social institutions more than I 1 do or is more averse to those of the tile mormons cormons no matter how right we may be we must not lose sight of the condition of the eighty or ninety thousand mormons cormons in the territory of or utah you may say gay that they are wrong but they believe that they are right you may say pay they are superstitious they believe that it is religion you may say that their institution is contrary to civilization they believe belleve that it Js Is a civilizing institution as well as a sound and a just one and arid sir if you proceed against them too severely the effect ia is to make not simply the male population there but to make the women and the tile children suffer bythe by tile conflict that you sou will provoke T the 0 mode that has lias lately been inaugurated t in respect to utah is to enforce or attempt to enforce with great groat rigor the tile laws against polygamy you have seen the tile president bitsi of the church br brigham ig in young brought into court on an indictment for murder you have seen him threatened with indictments for bigamy I 1 will not sa say ray y what kind of courts we have there for I 1 am a little elary diary about making accusations against men for which I 1 have no plain and obvious foundation but I 1 will say that they are courts in which I 1 have havo lave no confidence fi or very little you have seen liow how those courts have lave undertaken a kind of legal crusade against the mormons cormons Mor mons I 1 do not say that there have been no faults on the part of the mormons cormons Mor mons they have been pe perhaps chaps as great or greater on their side but we see what shape this new crusade takes not a crusade of arms but a crusade of law and this tills bill is intended to give to those courts additional power to carry on legal proceedings 0 against those people the most material part of this bill practically that which relates to the selection of jurors jurors are now selected dundei a law of the territorial assembly this bill proposes to take their selection wholly away from territorial authority and to vest it in three persons the united states judge marshal and clerk and it provides that they shall shail select two hundred names and put those names in a box and arid that from that box the jurors grand and petit shall shail be drawn now sir on its face that is a very fair provision in new jersey or ohio that would operate very fairly and very well I 1 do not think it is at all equal ual uni to the system in some of the estates states for the tile selection of jurors brors I 1 do not think it is at all equal to tile tiie system in my lily own is the tile best that I 1 know anywhere and arid which secures s for jurymen juryman the tile very best men in tile tilo county but sir so far as a territory is concerned or so far even as one of the old states is concerned this law if fairl fairi fairly y and honestly executed would be a good law but there is where the trouble comes in I 1 will not no t say ay that it would not be honestly executed I 1 will not say nay that irwill it will be perverted but I 1 do not like to give rive a power which can be pervert edwit id without hout bout any restraint upon it I 1 am afraid to clothe men with tile tho power to pervert it I 1 am afraid to trust human nature in lit such a contest as is going on out there and arid therefore it is that I 1 want that board of jury commissioners so to call them which this bill proposes shall be composed of tile the judge the marshal 1 1 and arid the clerk enlarged so that the 1 1 people may have havo lave some somer word in lit the selection of the jury commissioners then I 1 think wo shall shail have lave a safeguard the pro that the names immes of j jurors brors shall shail be selected ted without reference to religious and social opinions is I 1 very well indeed but to guard against a perversion of that law I 1 want tl tile I 1 e board that selects them to too be one that cannot possibly pervert the law there is another thing tiling that I 1 want in this bill bili I 1 want a provision that in criminal cases of a 0 very grave and serious character there may be a writ of error from the supreme court of the tiie united states to the supreme court of the tiie territory the tile questions that are likely to arise anise there the tile questions that will arise there are such that it will contribute immensely to the peace of that territory and to its well being if now arid then a ease case can be taken to the tile supreme court of the tile united states and there can cau be an all authoritative decision of the law say what you will mr president it will be extremely troublesome to produce in the minds of all the people F eople of utah a perfect confidence in n their district judges the tile suspicions of the people may be unfounded their distrust may be without reason but that distrust on the part of at least one half if not a majority of the people eople of their judges there will be E e inevitable and it would be of the tiie greatest importance to quiet the tile public mind there and also tend to prevent those judges themselves from doing wrong and make mako them more ear car careful if ay there thero was a power in serious criminals criminal e canes cases given to tile tiles supreme u preme court of tile tilo united states these are the tiie two points in tills this bill to which ibish I 1 fisli principally to call tile attention of the senate first as to the mode of selecting tile tilo jurors and next as to the propriety of allowing an appeal by way of writ of error to the tile supreme court of the tile united states in tile tiie most grave and criminal cases I 1 have lave therefore mr president prepared a motion which I 1 now make I 1 move that the tiie bill be re committed to the committee on the tile judiciary with instructions to provide for tile election by the tile legislature or by the tiie qualified electors of utah whichever may be the tile better letter mode of three jury commissioners who wilo shall act in conjunction the tile judge marshal and cier cler elerk clerk and with equal powers in lit selecting all the tile persons from whom the jurors are to be constituted and also to provide for writs of error from the supreme court of the tile united states to the tile 8 supreme supreme court of said territory in lit criminal cases in which the punishment is capital or imprisonment for six months or upward or a fine of 1000 or upward if that be adopted mr president you will have then your jurors selected by a basir composed com vom posed of six persons three oc chehi lucers lH cers of the united states the tile judge the tile marshal and the tile elerk clerk and three of them elected either elther by the general assembly or by the people as congress may see fit to provide I 1 am indifferent which it shall er the three jury commissioners be elected by the tiie legislative Aw assembly gembis of utah or whether they shall shail be elected by the tile quail qualified fiell electors of utah whichever is the tile more advisable course may be taken then tilen you ou will have a board where in ali all kuman human human probability there can be no perversion of the law a board too that will give satisfaction to tit all lit the tile tilo keople people at least all the right mill minded ed people of that territory and I 1 think that it will contribute very much indeed to harmonize matters there if such a provision be made chenin then in respect to the other provisions that the supreme court of the tile united states in extreme cases a supervisor IT 13 power by writ of error that explains itself congressional grobe globe |