| Show DEBATE ON THE NEW HEW EJ BILL IN the united states senate on en wednesday feb the following debate took place over the proposed propos erd edd special legislation for utah ed by senator edmunds the text of which bag already been published in this paper mr edmunds As no appropriation bill is yet ready I 1 move to take up the the utah bill the presiding officer the senator from vermont moves that the senate proceed to the consideration of what is called the utah bill bili it will be reported by title and number by the secretary tho the acting secretary A bill to amend an act entitled I 1 an act to amend section of the revised statutes of the united state states 4 in reference re rence to bigamy and for other othen purpose 1 approved march 11 the presiding officer Is there objection to considering the bill mr call cali I 1 object the presiding officer objection being made the question is on the motion of the senator from vermont to proceed to the co consideration naldera of this thia bill mr call I 1 hope very much that bill will not be taken up at this time it involves lov olves olvea very serious constitutional question questions anu and wo we have but a few days left of the session cession and there are area a good many matters of very great importance to the current nu business siness alness ot of the country that have not been able to be considered at all we vve shall be occupied long with this question in regard to the condition of things in n the territory of utah if we go into JL it it occupied a great deal of time last bee bes sion blon I 1 think it la Is impossible to consider sider bider it at the present moment the presiding officer the question is on the motion of the senator from vermont mr brown I 1 T I 1 ask for the y and nays the result was announced yeas 23 nays 17 absent 36 83 the motion was agreed to and the senate as in committee of the whole proceeded to consider the bill CS S 2238 to amend an act entitled an aco aee to amend section of the revised statutes of the united states in reference to bigamy and for other purpose approved march I 20 1882 1 mr hoar I 1 move to strike out the seventh section the presiding officer mr harris in the chair the question is on the motion of the senator from massachusetts chu chub etts betts mr hoar HOST mr edmunds I 1 will state the reasons on which the tha committee inserted the seventh deprives for the jime sime being females in ia the territory af of utah from voting according to the information that we received from the commis Bi onera appointed under tho the previous act of Cong Congre regi aa and from other eo source it appeared that female suffrage in that territory was st BJ far as aa it relates to the mormons cormons a suffrage of servitude that the females vote exactly as their lords and mastors masters require lequire them to boj doj do be they many or or rew fow and that counts to keep up ju in this hierarchy and polygamous beally zeally governed territory as aa it has hab I 1 been the power of tho those thoe e guilty of the crimes that we wish to repress accordingly we without wilh any reference to the question of the tho general propriety aty of female suffrage in proposing that for the time being female suffrage exercised as it is in that territory i be suspended we do not by proposing this clause clauw undertake to express any opinion as to the general question of female guarage suffrage su urage arage but in order to accomplish the end and to put the political power in that territory in the hands of the people who are in accord with the laws and benti renti of the united baates athla was as ona one of the things that was thought to ba nez necessary essary to that end mr van wyck wych allow me to ask ash one question lor tor information I 1 did not hear all the statement of the senator from dermout Ver mout I 1 lost loht the authority he had for saying that the females in the territory voted a ap their lords and masters directed 1 I suppose le stated on what hat authority he asid so but I 1 did not hear henr it mr Edmun ulis clis wo wova ea all n ur al but one ot 01 tle ue sel seb lumen A were under the ibe furmer furmen act who bome some months in territory this observation that I 1 have made dues does not apply to te the gentile genthie Gen tile tiie women as they are called rhene abere very few of whom I 1 under ainuu really reany exercise exer eser else eise right of 01 suffrage but it lefers to the other class ot of females under me the domination of the mormon church for here there is no disguising the fact that ahe aho mormon government or of that 7 territory errit ory is a government of the most moat exclusive and powerful hierarchy by that exists on this continent mr morrill it the gentile women lid id vote one wife would woula not cot cou counterbalance a ter six mr hir edmunds that la is true nouga but our information drawn rom orn r these zent gent gentleman leman ieman who spent months there and from all other sources that we can get by letters ind nd so evinces us that the polli acal cal cai power of this territory is now argeiw influenced in respect of its eng ang kept in the hands of th the e peo le e who defy the laws of the united tates states by force foree of their casting the olid solid votes of their females in the Il that I 1 have named we hereford he thought that the greater of breaking up this great crime vonja duld justify y the suspension for the line ime being ing of female voting in the territory e without any reference I 1 el epert to the general question of emale suffrage mr hoar mr resident Pes ident t it seems c 0 me that thai the senator from vew ver to any legislator legi leg elator waton accustomed a 0 be bebe be governed by general conati principles has stated very the objection to the section which he proposes ja in his bill here i a criminal law a law aimed at the of polygamy and prescribing tae lle method of proving with a view 0 the punishing a certain crime ra that law he includes a general revision in regard to the right of af brage frage rag ida and he ile undertakes to mahe make a general provision in regard op 31 tha right of suffrage buu euf urage frage prohibiting I 1 11 I 1 women worm worn en from exercising exe ching a right lisy ley now enjoy and taking from the eople of a particular territory ie right to determine the fl irions of electors in that territory cording to all other people and ac to them in all other respects y saying baying that a certain class of omen whom the sanator thinks e in a majority will not vote as he linky linka they ought to that is the whole of this on as be i tates states it himself trans cited into plainer and clearer lan ian an lage aage so far as disclosing dh closing the pur me goes goeb I 1 do not mean to comire ure lre my general capacity for mak mab ng 1 ig a clear proposition with that of ne lie learned chairman of the judici ry Y committee commutes he says that the tn entile tile tiie women the unmarried the women who are the bole boie awful wives of lawful husbands all all be prohibited from the excise of a right which they now en yand which for the purposes of his ebent besent argument he does not deny ey ley ought to continue to enjoy be kuso kubo wo certain other women have cited or are likely 0 to o vote vota in a way that we do not want they should for the wrong candidate or because they are aro constrained by domestic or other influences into voting a patti particular way now suppose we may take it for granted though the senator chitea no authority except that of certain commissioners who have not been bean out of salt lake city that the women who have so BO far become adherents or disciples of mormonism niam as to live in polygamous connection with mormons cormons would be likely to cast their votes in the interest of that church and that institution I 1 should like to inquire of the senator from vermont why it if he excludes all the women of that territory from the right to vote because of the action of the majority of women he ha does not exclude all the men of that territory from the right to vote because of the way in which the majority of the themen men vote in that community if he excludes the mormon wife because of casting her vote in accordance with the will of her hus has band why should benot be not exclude the husband who casts his hla vote under the domination of he the same bier archy it seems to me mr president that this is really doing what the author of this ejection I 1 will not say flinched but shrank from doin doln gand from avowing in regard to men why not meet this question fairly and fay tsy that mormons cormons shail rhall not vote that persons persona under the iffla enc ence of toe mormon hierarchy shall not vote or at any rate that living in i ol 01 mania emale ur or female t diall not vote vole trial it what the 8 6 nater rater to ac comp and if he has a right to do what lle lie propose beg seg be has a right to do that but I 1 a suppose that whoever drew this section and that the chairman of the judiciary committee in proposing this section thought that would be a violation of general and pound hound constitutional principles he was not prepared pe pared to say even oven to a mormon you shall not vote because of your religious or pretended religious was not pre pared to bay eay even of Mor mon mormon mons f we will punish a certain class or of 1 lenses offenses of against society and against the marriage relation as it is conceived and understood by christians with the deprivation of the right of suffrage because whatever evils the exercise of the right of suffrage by this class of persons persona may operate in the particular class the assertion of the right by the government to connol the suffrage with a view of making tat control a lever or instrumentality stra mentality in regard to certain opinion el however erroneous they in might it be was the assertion of a vicious and most dangerous general principle worse it anything could be worse than mormonism itself I 1 will noi not nou not say bay ithal that thal not hot worse than mormonism mormon sm itself et because mormonism monism itself is a distraction dist diat ruction of that most sacred tie which lies at the foundation of the horns and of society itself now the senator from vermont says that he does not put this proposition upon any general objection to female suffrage whatever h his Is opinion may be on that question he is not governed by that opinion here but ho he puts it simply on the ground that the tho suffrage of a particular class of women preponderating la in numbers over others in a particular community cum Is ig exercised in favor of a vicious system or under the control of a vicious hierarchy if that ba the reason it seems to me with grest areu t respect to a senator for whose conclusions I 1 have so great respect always whom almost always I 1 ee tle light to follow in public questions that that is a bad reason in principle i hope therefore eF whatever may be done with the bill which I 1 shall be glad to without this clause that the section will be stricken ciren clien out mr edmunds edmunde mr president the question of suffrage Is a political qu qua tion within the con control t rol roi of the th political dation pation power at all times I 1 be believe belleve I 1 eve every body agrees to that all that the senator has eald eaid respecting the opinions of mormon women ja ia entirely apart from this thia bill ahta la Is motive merely it Is ia not law in the tho next place jf if we could get at the real opinions of the mormon women and give them the free ex ere arciee ee of those opinions desirous of breaking bre bie aking ahing up as I 1 am these practices in that territory cerri VerrI tory I 1 would say if the mormon women could not now vote voto they should have the right to vote because if you can get at their real opi opinions niona as aa thee the a commisa commissioners loners did from many of them in private interviews etc we should fand that chevery th the very every nature of woman in general t jho tho very nature of every virtu 4 ous woman revolts at the tho notion of polygamy and of all its influences but they are like the women of central asia at this present moment they are dominated by the lords of creation who wish to keep heep up a government which la Is opposed as my rny friend and myself agree to everything that Is good as we understand it in this thia world and that we all agree in desiring to put down that is the way it therefore we do not invade any principle of law or constitutional government gov emment in arranging the political affairs of a territory over which we have su sui 1 preme dominion if the argument of a learned citizen of the state of pennsylvania said to have been delivered to a committee of the tho house of representatives and a copy of which has been sent to me is sound bound then we have no right to legislate about any of the transactions in the territory of utah at all and utah Is entitled to the same powers of self government by its people that a state is but I 1 do not propose to go into that question I 1 dismiss it 16 as one 10 no senator benator or very few senators will agree at all then having the political power of arranging the suffrage in that territory and being determined to put down the practice of polygamy there and to abolish this anti re publican hierarchy which Is ia founded on that alone I 1 think wo we are justified in taking any step sterl that protects equal rights nece rece pary fary to that tha t end rhe fhe motive is not to make a distinct distinction on in re respect hect to opt ion but bul the motive is t to libe ilbe rate rats A hebe hebb women from tle jure un under ler which they keep up a government mi nt there which la Is injurious to their own fortune their own honor their own prosperity pros parity and their own instincts of female virtue that Is ia it and that is all of it my learned friend enquires why we do not exclude the men too on constitutional principles of course we must make general rules nalea we have not undertaken and I 1 do not wish to undertake and I 1 do not think it right to undertake and I 1 doubt if it is constitutional to undertake I 1 will not say bay I 1 doubt I 1 ana am sure it is not constitutional to disfranchise any man on account of an opinion that he has or any woman persons Pers ns must be dis franchised on some other legal ground everybody Every boey I 1 suppose except judge black agrees that in point of law we cin can connine confine voting in any territory or in the district of columbia to proper property ty holders of I 1 and that would reduce the tha government of the district to probably one hundred men we can confine it in the territories to and that thal would reduce the whole territory arri to one hundred men very like ly we can say that nobody who has a dollar in the world shall be entitled to vote we can bay aay that nobody who has any amount of property shall be entitled to vote and that all those who have no property at all the paupers shall be the bole sole voters in a territory over which we have dominion or in the district of columbia if we think it wise to do it because we make a general classification fi if you say exclude the mormon men as well as the mormon women you jou must exclude the gentile men as well as we do by this bill the gentile women and then you have nobody to vote in the territory at all so bo with the motive which I 1 avow with the utmost plainness of diminishing this power and relieving these mormon women from the slavery and duress under which they now casl cast their votes voted in a certain way it Is ia right t and proper to do this thing that is the whole of it now if my friend from masscho betts is so stirred up with his admiration mira miza mi ration tion and desire for woman suffrage rageth that athe be ii unwilling to take every step possible lawfully to 0 o repress polygamy and this |
