| Show THE ANTI antl 16 PLOT THICKENS tim THE most rabid antl anti mormon would scarcely nave have the berneri temerity to call the proceedings in the third district court concluded yesterday in the case of president angus M cannon a trial they were solely a prosecution not a particle of evidence was admitted for the defense every aftem attempt p t to present defensive facts was met by an objection sustained by the court from the tho counsel forthe for fon the government ern ment the parody on public justice enacted yesterday has necessarily brought the court into such popular contempt that expressions are being made to the effect that who are accused under the law may just as well make up their minds to relinquish any attempt at a legai lesal defense against the villainies villa inies that are being perpetrated conviction is a foregone conclusion in every case it I 1 is urged and why go to ibe the trouble of making any uny legal resistance while forced force dici to admit ohp farcical character of the judicial proceedings livier consideration we decidedly dill r irom any idea tending to the adoption of a supine policy the encroachment encroach ments of tyranny should and must be resisted to the utmost extremity the rea reasons solis for this position are numerous and strong if there were no other motive for intelligent tell teil igent resistance the necessity to force the crusaders to show their utter inconsistency should inspire it conviction in every case being the objective point sought by the prosecution and court the latter by the way forming a prominent part of the former they have already shown with what unscrupulous facility they can change bases and rulings 1 to suit different cases They operate with such a total absence of principle that in order cruder to convict they will tomorrow to morrow go 0 directly in the face of precedents e established by themselves today to day A short time since sexual commerce was by them made unade an indispensable element la in making out a case of unlawful cohabitation chameleon color of yesterday was utterly varied from that exhibited today to day sexual inter coarse is immaterial in such cases now it lt is only necessary to show that a man has acknowledged more than one woman as his wives ilves what the next nest fluctuation or variation may be remains to be seen if no trouble is taken for defense these outrageous inconsistencies which will yet bring those who resort to them into irretrievable shame and di disgrace race will not be exhibited it is by b interposing ater osing defensive tactics that th they are brought out and developed I 1 anar and the villainous legal and judicial contortionists are manifested in their unprincipled nakedness by their own inexcusable perversions there may be cases where the tho evi dence is such that no no new developments would ensue in consequence of legal legai resistance or an attempt at it in such instances this idea of folding the arms supinely and accepting inactively the foregone conclusion ot of conviction may be consistent si but there are doubtless others in which the only class of evidence possessed by the prosecution is of a i character repudiated by the infamous rulings of yesterday in them a legal defense defens e should be made without doubt in an instance of that nature it would be necessary under the policy polley of the crusa crusade of conviction in any event for the prosecution to maintain with its usual unblushing in enn eff effrontery ron tery that proof of sexual intercourse is all that is needful to establish a case of cohabitation and for the court with its usual yielding to the counsel for the government to so decide judicially and thus would the antii I 1 mormon ormont Nf 9 judicial machinery flop over to its former position aud when a I case of another character arises make another exhibition of vacillation always leaping toward the point of cOnvict conviction ibri there ther e are numerous developments ili in cases which would force the anti antl mormon lil III legal c ga I 1 crusaders into a course of perpetual oscillation rende rendering rim necessary a species io lo 10 of co compulsory ry change of base that would be a spectacle to behold in t his this enlightened 11 age 1 the decisions of yesterday constituted a judicial monstrosity of oi pep peculiar uliar ullar contour and proportions toe defendant was convicted without trial the result being reached by a purely or more aptly still per process the maximum penalty of the law under which the conviction was obtained is imprisonment for six months and a fine line of according to the rulings of yesterday it would simply be imi imprisonment rison ment for life with a short vacation between each half year ear car providing the convicted individual should after emerging from prison have the temerity to visit his wives and partake of a meat meal with them the cruelty of such procedure is f further ur exhibited by the fact that aitu altu although ough yesterdays rulings defined such to be the intent of the law no method as to how a person could evade the punishment by living within the law was prescribed the terrors of the law were exhibited with probably a hundred fold told moret mores intensity than it was ever I 1 intended to possess but no pre was made to give a definition ot what constituted living within the tile statute according to the interpretation given the decision of the supreme court of the united states bythe by lne the utah commission Inis sion slon in the election cases against thein themselves selves taken up on appeal the definition of what constitutes cohabitation given by the district court yesterday is erroneous the commission formerly stretched the law in order to exclude mormon colla coha biters only f from rora voting to effect this they inserted in the notorious test oath the words 1 1 I have not lived or cohabited with more than one woman in the marriage relation rea tea 19 the italicized italicised sed words were inserted for the tile protection of the libertine adulterer and whoremonger this bulwark of the was however in their opinion evidently demolished by the decree of the court of last resort and in the recent circular to the registration officers the phrase ill ili in the marriage relation was eliminated thus indicating indication that the edmunds act as defined by the decision 0 n was intended to exclude from th the c privilege e of the franchise non mormon as well as mormon co more than one woman 11 at least that seems to be the understanding stand iii iri of the commission since the they y received the new lighten light on the subject else why was the peculiar phrase inserted in the first place and eliminated now the situation is I 1 getting no better very fant fam and presents on the part of t in hv crusader a gnass of contradict contradicts i bous lous aie lie aling mingled led aed with malignity that is is pitiful to behold |
