Show THE RULES ettles FOR yoe loe lor WE wn publish this evening the registration rules adopted by the utah commissioners to regulate the november election it will be seen that in maby many respects they closely follow the law that athe provisions of the edmunds act and of tho the territorial statutes so far as they can be har bar moni ionized zed in some other particulars however they are not in accordance cor dance with any stat ute local or congressional it was expected that the commissioners would take some latitude in their rendering of the section of the law which defines their powers rhe the supposition was that they would devise measures to prevent pr vent pe persons esons frum from voting bought sought to to be dis franchised by the late anti auti poly gamy legislation and considering the ambiguity of the edmunds act it anticipated that they would go beyond the letter of that law and by inference assume the right to do things which neither territorial nor national law directly authorized ahern hem to perform for In e the edmunds act requires elections to le fco conducted by proper persons appointed by toe commissioner under the existing laws of the united states and of this territory it also declares that no poly polygamist gadist bigamist arany or any person cohabiting with more than one woma woman a and no woman cohabit ig lug with guch tuch euch pr persons sons shall be entitled to vote but kat it does not provide any means by which they y shall be prevented from voting and the local statutes not being libin g framed oth with nth a view to any such prevention the means at command to exclude such pers persons na from voting privileges were thought scarcely sufficient clent to effect before the november election the sweeping change chango in the voting strength of the territory which was desired by some parties and aimed ut in the law ui of congress therefore it was expected that thag the commission would perhaps go a little beyond tae exact letter letier of the law la la in order to the conducting of an election at which etc could not vote but under the consideration that the commissioners appeared to be fail fall and just men who desired to accomplish what was required of them in th the espirit spirit of the law jaw and with no L desire to favor or injure any cliss class of the community it was noi not anticipated that they would go very far beyond the limits of their defined authority whether they have done so or not is open to question and tho tha first point to be consider considered td here Is are the commissioners endowed by law with any legislative gisla tive power is the provision which confers it upon them we fail to find it their whole authority la Is contained in lon ion mno nine of the edmunds act and nothing of tho the kind bind is mention ed there the tha legislative assembly has haa prescribed a certain oath to be taken by every person who desires to be registered with a view to voting the commissioners in their thein rule 3 have added to the form of oath provided bylaw by law in doing EO so they have assumed legislative powers lot not warranted by any law either ol 01 the united states or of this territory but their action in this re respect is not a surprise in view of what was expected of them by the country and the narrow limits of the laws under which they are required to act examination of their legislation however dise dibe discloses iotes lotes the fact that they have in their kulo kule 3 not only transcended the bounds of their lawful powers but Im imposed poseA one condition which 1 is 13 3 out ol 01 harmony with all an the thu leg legislation that governs them in the discharge of their dut ea it is contained in tho tha words italicized itai Ital leiz in the following and I 1 do further solemnly swear or affirm that I 1 am not a bigamist biga nor a polygamist that I 1 am not a IL violator of the laws of tile the united baates prohibiting or polygamy tha that tIdo hido I 1 do not live or conable with ith more than one woman in the marriage relation this italic italicized zed expression Is not to be found in the edmunds act net nor non any other law in relation to utah the language langu age ago of the law Is 13 as we have quoted it above ai nyo no polygamist bigamist or any person cohabiting ha Ka habiting hariting biting with mora more than one woman etc if tho the commissioners claim the right by implication they certainly cannot sh show ow it by the letter of the law to enact or impose impose this additional dit ional oath they will win utterly fall fail to find any shadow of right to insert the words in the marriage relation because that changes s at once the purport and object of the law under which they act and from which they derive their powers let ua us look at the effect of this provision it will exclude from the registry lists and consequently from the polls all persons who ca cohabit with m re than one woman in the marriage relation but let in the libertine the whoremonger the adulterer and the seducer it will also exclude every woman who is married to a man who cohabits with any other woman in the marriage relation whether by her consent or not and let in prostitutes and harlots however vile and polluted A married man who consorts with the denizens of odthe the lowest haunts of vice or keeps any number of mis tresses or leads astray other mens wives or betrays and seduces innocent girls iss ism is under thia this provision of the commissioners comm competent to be registered and to exercise the suffrage but a man who has ha s married two or more wives and lives with them in the marriage relation la to not permitted to register or ap vote this is in close accord with governor murrays Mur rays official morality and is indeed the illegal and immoral oath prescribed pi described bed by him to notaries not aries public tacked on to the oath provided in the local statute if the commissioners can stand aland the effect of their action we can we are not under any concern about this let lot it he understood persons whom the edmunds act seeks sects to deprive of the franchise were not in fending tending to vote at the november election they would have stayed away from I 1 the poll if there had been no new now legislation in their case like that enacted by the commissioners but they did not intend and do not intend by staying away from the polls polla to relinquish any uny right ot of citizenship or any privilege of law of which unconstitutional legislation bas has b as sought sough t to debri deprive ve them therefore this premium on and encouragement of debaci debauchery chery embodied la in the uwe oath added to the law by the commissioners will not affect street our oar side of the question if it had not been inserted it might have kept quite a number of liberals away from tha th registration officers some of them would with unblushing chesk cheek have taken the oath that they do not cohabit with more than one woman but others notoriously unchaste we think have yet enough self respect and sense of danger arising from perjury not to subscribe to an oath which their lives will not justify now however they can take talle it with impunity in company with the most corrupt debauchees debau chees in the count country y while the husband of two wives who has kept himself true to his marriage covenants stands aside as for such euch com pany aa as he truly la IS the excluded husband of plural wives will stand on a moral plano plane i which the tainted and defiled denied co habiger with women out of the marriage relation cannot reach by any process and may muy congratulate himself that a dividing line is placed between him and the besmirched bes mirced voter even if it it ft la Is drawn without the tho shadow of legitimate authority but if the commissioners have gone too far in bulo kulo 3 they thes have not gone far enough in rule 8 sup po ing that they have hava any power at all to prescribe the oath they there provide that the registration off omm meers officers whom they thes they thes y appoint and their deau ties shall take a certain oath but it does not cot include the cohabitation clause at all they simply swear that they are not bigamists biga mists or mists they may cohabit with aa as many women as they pleas r in cr out of any kind of a relation but may strike tho names on off the registration hats fats of those thore who do not take abo commissioners enacted oath in all its parts how is that for consistency c 10 the question will arise what are aro the people going to do about it we bay eay let lot every man and woman who can ta tako tabo ke the 0 oath ath I 1 lawfully a be bure sure to register and tb then on bo be sure to vote at M the november election at the rame game ba me time let every point be guarded so that the enactments and the rules wherever they are contrary to the constitution or the law may be properly tested while we protest against the oath as illegal let it be subscribed to by those who can do BO so conscientiously and while we submit for the present to the law which was framed to deprive men and women of the franchise unconstitutionally cewill we will not neglect to contend for right and aad liberty by every lawful means the battle la Is only just getting ready let us prepare for fon dortho tho the fray we have not ourselves alone slone to consider conald erg our liberties as citizens of this republic and our vested rights under the supreme law of the land but the rights and liberties of our children and the cause of human freedom throughout the country let us be found on the right side the object now to be achieved is the election of a delegate to congress by the peoples peopled party by means of its monogamous voters that can be accomplish accomplished td d if those voters will do their duty if it is unpleasant ant to subscribe to an illegal and unjustly discriminating oath oathy never mind protest andge and go ahead BO so that the unprincipled enemy who have plotted for a shameful purpose mayr may not succeed arid ardd meanwhile the struggle will be inaugurated which will demonstrate whether or not this gnat at nation ia Is to depart entirely from that constitution which la Is at aft once its safeguard and its ita chief glory |