Show IS THE EDMUNDS LAW A FAILURE eail yail tire lire it may not be just to hold the present administration responsible for the failure to properly adjust the mormon problem but as in a certain bense eegao success or failure must be placed somewhere credit given when success is achieved and blame laid when failure results it I 1 is a difficult to seo see how the present administration will escape the censure which public opinion will visit upon it for the now very evident failure cf senator edmunds pet scheme when that scheme was devi devised sed zed in utter disregard for constitutional restraints or authority tha the able and astute senator from vermont promised the country that the mormon fabric would tall tail to pieces and the civilization of the age assert itself with great rapidity benator senator edmunds and his hla puritan brethren in congress were very sanguine of the success enema of the measure and they congratulated themselves and the country that they had found a panacea for the ills with which the body politic was wab afflicted by reason of the mormon malady but rut the deeply laid scheme has failed to produce that healthy reaction which the senator promised indeed it seems to have aggravated the disease the learned and valuable researches made by the senator in the fields of human buman endeavor have signally failed to show such gratifying results as the country had bad expected from so great a sacrifice of constitutional authority instead of worrying the mormons cormons and forcing them thena to abandon the twin relic of barbarism with all that thag it implies the followers of the sainted prophet continue to act as a unit in defense defens oot cof of the peculiar tenets and the polygamous wives adhere closely to the fortunes of their much married husbands and this too in the face of the fact that tho the prohibitory legislation devised and set on foot was intended to dissipate and utterly scatter such pernicious practices and doctrines not a month ago an election was held hoid in utah and as the franchise there includes the women tho mormons cormons won a alidal and decisive victory no excuses or explanations will breall the forces of thia this fact there Is no dearth of explanation as to how this was accomplished but no explanations will relieve the projectors of this much vaunted system of the acknowledged fact that it 16 has been a failure and that the mormon power is as much of a power as aa it ever oven wata wag and under present appearances likely to remain so BO to say that the mormons cormons voted aa althey they were directed by the church la Is an excuse more dangerous than the frank admission of the fact without explanation this would indicate that the church is of wonderful power both over the note acts as well as the consciences of its followers and may serve to show to senator edmunds how futile was the idea that congress could abolish the church and its teachings by the passage of an act not without asaumi assuming ng to question either the wisdom or judgment of senator edmunds and his brethren in congress it does seem as if there had been a total lack of common sense in dealing with tho mormon problem the senate should know and poast possibly bly does know that sects thrive by persecution se and this case evidently has no exception pornapa perhaps after al ail it if left to itself the problem will work out its own solution and it may be best to let timework time work out this much needed re reform forin it Is ia plain that congressional enactment will not hurry the matter it is doubt doubtful tal tai whether therit it will willu not ot retard or delay the ad avancing civilization must force it to close quarters and the march of better methods and nobler aspiration must in time antagonize and destroy it if the course of empire westward does not engulf this pi plague ague spot of moral wickedness there Is no use trying to root it out by benevolent methods or even by public legislation it will give way to the resistless progress of commerce and immigration for soon its field of activity will be overrun and trampled upon and as its converts are not gained from americans it will be outvoted and outmatched and its doom be sealed this seems to be the only remedy left for means mean scan can be employed andthil and this thib seems the easy and natural way of dealing with it the foregoing dispassionate article on a question which usually arouses so GO much passion that most editors lose their common sense bense in dilating upon it adversely appears in the american Be belister gister a very able weekly journal published at washington b D oln oin oia cin which the principles of democratic government are discussed with uncommon force and clearness there are so some bome memis mis mib takes in the article which might be reasonably expected because there Is no subject about which journalists bay say so eo much while understanding so little as thia this same bame mormon question the failure of the edmunds law seems to be generally admitted it Is alleged by democrats and confessed by republicans and yet the common opinion on the results of that peculiar piece of special legislation is entirely wrong unless the object had in view in its enactment was something greater and different from that specified in its provisions we ve would like somo bome of the papers which are croaking over the failure of the edmunds law jaw to define what it was expected to accorn ash in less than eighteen months after aften af ter ten its passage the principal end in view if we may fhay judge from the language of 0 the law was the dis and exclusion from office of persons pens perL wons in utah living in the practice of polygamy it was for this that the election and registration offices of this territory were vacated it was for that five commissioners were provided for to appoint proper persons to fill the vacated offices it was for this that so BO much care was exercised in arrangements for the election of members ot of the utah legislature it was dorthis for this that the commissioners went beyond the powers apeci specified nned fled in the law and assumed authority which if it was contemplated was certainly not expressed it was waa for tor this thia that they formulated a test oath which no person could take who had ever been in the practice of plurality of wives it was for thib athis thia that they excluded all citizens from the polls who cohabited with more than one woman clin in the marriage relation while they admitted persons who cohabited with any number of women and women who cohabited with any number of men provided it was done out of the marriage relation this object has been accomplished how then can the bill be regarded as a failure the complaint seems to be that cormons mormons Mor mons voted in such numbers at the recent election as to carry all before them well weil did the edmands law JAW propose to prevent non polygamous mor almor mons from voting certainly not it provided to the contrary it was intended to protect all cormons mormons Mor mons in the exercise of the elective franchise who had bad not entered into the practice of polygamy here is the language of the law 1 provided that said board of five persons shall not exclude any person otherwise eligible to vote from the polls on account of any opinion such person may entertain on the subject of bigamy or poly ga mynor ahall shall they refuse to count any such vote voto on account of the lopin opinion loa ioa of the person casting it on the subject of bigamy or polygamy 1 the object Is plainly indicated that Is ia to cast a stigma on practical and encourage mormon monogamists tho the act yas vas was not designed to disfranchise people or disqualify them for sor fo r holding office on account of belief who but a blind bigot or a rash and radical revolutionist would desire that any such measure should prevail as would destroy in any part of his this hia republic the sacred right of free opinion the Mor Mormon mons sP then who did not actually practice polygamy my were as free to vote as thenon thonon the non cMor Mo mons imons they were allowed to exercise equal political privileges with libertines and prostitutes but rat this seems to have been too lenient to suit sult some of the pious soled called ca christians of this land of liberty because any of the mor imor mons mono were permitted to vote in regard to the local officers for the transaction of their affairs and the people of this territory were not handed and baggage into the political control of a minority not equaling one fifth of the voting population ula tion many persons and among them some bome of the journalistic of public opinion affect to be scandalized and they loudly proclaim the edmunds law a failure they are very inconsistent and they have fallen into a very grave error even the close reasoning american reg nev ister speaks of the result of the election as serving aito ahto to show to senator edmunds how futile was the idea that congress could abolish the church and its teachings by the pas sage of an act now there Is no indication in the edmunds jaw that such an object was held in view what has con grebb greas to do with abolishing a church or interfering with its teachings senator edmunds much as he strained the constitution and re sorted to measures that cannot be fairly defended in the of that sacred instrument knew new better than to attempt such a pa palpable leable ability the only re reference f erenee in his enactment to the mo mormon rmon church is in section seven which legitimates up to january 1 1883 the issue of or polygamous marriages r ages solemnized according to the mormon ormon sect but this appears to be the consummation devoutly to be wished 11 which the edmunds law did not bring about and the failure to accomplish com which is the cause of the great complaints against it the register la Is so BO far night right congress cannot destroy nor nuoi muoi ish fah its teachings by law jaw bluso who have looked for such an effect from the edmunds act have naturally been die dih appointed disappointed lt it did not aim at such an end that which it chiefly provided for has been effected indeed a great deal more has been done than it provided for the commissioners have not only done everything which thelah the law an authorized thoria td them to lo do but much more in their zeal and determination to perform their part of the work cus cas out they not only arranged matters and und eLL ele enacted acted jules juies antt and regulations for the ment alent of actual ts bue but carried the business to the extent of shutting out from the polls and from holding office men and women who are ate not now practical mists and some who never entered into plural family relations the passage of any law jaw of congress against it thus stretching the provisions ot of the edmunds law far be yond their legitimate limit and making them unjust retroactive retro active ez ex post port pacio facto and therefore unconstitutional to find fault with the law as a failure is therefore unreasonable and chil chii childish diah and to rail against the commissioners for not accomplishing comp lishing more is mulish and absurd the difficulty is ie there la Is not an editor in ten who is V grumbling rum about the edmunds act that really understands its provisions and there is not one in a hundred who comprehends the real situation la in utah the register says bays con cerling the church chure 11 t that 11 at its co converts n are not gained from americans americana which is a great mistake and it talks about utah as the plague spot of moral wickedness wicked nebb nesb when it Is infinitely superior in morality and all the virtues that tend to make up good society tto ito any other part of this nation that boasts so much of its christian enlightenment but bui in inthe the main the ke register glater is night right and if those agencies which in their very nature have the greatest power over errahle notions and practices cannot march over or uproot mormonism then it is because the system called by that name is different to what is generally supposed and is superior to its moral antano nieta la in any crae czae special legislation Is the wrong remedy to apply to the alleged disease dibease and force will utterly fall fail in effecting the destruction of that which lies in the convictions of the soul and which cannot be reached by any of the tho methods of violence |