| Show REVIEW OF TIIE THE commissioners NERS REPORT no 3 2 tiie tile utah commissioners in their report allege allega that the edmunds act offers f ull full amnesty for past offenses and that it also invites the people through a legislative assembly to be chosen by themselves to formally accept this generous offer of congress to condone the past and only requiring of them that they shallon eythe cy the law in future 9 it is needless to tell those who are familiar with the edmunds lawthan nothing of the kind is to be f found sound in its ita provisions but many are not acquainted with its details and for their benefit we quote the sixth section of the act says 66 the president of the united states Is hereby authorized to grant rant amnesty to such classes of offenders guilty of bigamy polygamy or unlawful ua cohabitation ewt ion lon before the passage of this act on such conditions and under such limitations as he hb shall think proper but no such amnesty shall have effect act unless the conditions thereof shall be complied with thus it will be seen the act so far from offering lull amnesty for all past offenses does not offer any amnesty at all but places the power in the hands of the president to impose just such conditions as he thinks proper and to grant or withhold amnesty on those conditions at his option one curious feature of this provision pro bro vision is that he is only authorized to grant amnesty for offenses committed before the passage of the act and one of those offenses could not be committed before the passage of the act because the act itself created the offense before the passage of the act there was no such offense as unlawful cohabitation I 1 within the meaning of the third section and therefore the thu prop proposition to grant amnesty for etwas it was either a piece of sly humor at the expense of the chief magistrate or a bit of bungling characteristic of anti mormon formon lel iel legislation lei now let us see how much the people are invited by this act t through h r a legislative assembly ll ato to for formally all ali 0 uj a 1 accept c the I 1 generous us off offer erl ery I 1 tha that t a as we have shown was ermade nev by th the edmunds act the last clause of the lav provides and at or after the first meeting of the legislative assembly whose me members m shall have been elected and returned ad according cording to the provisions of this act said legislative assembly ma may make k e such laws conformable to the th ya organic rg n e act of said territory and not inconsistent with other laws of the united states as it shall deem proper concerning the filling of the offices in said territory declared vacant by this act the Commissio commissioners neis have all along pretended that the legislative assem by was required by this thia act to pass some laws in relation to the onn off eases uses named in the act to supplement we laws of congress with legislation of its own on the same subject in their report of october 30 1883 they say in reference to the then incoming assembly it will be their duty under the act of 1882 to adopt measures in conformity with tile the provisions of that law for the suppression of polygamy and now be because bemuse muse the assembly has not acted according to the dictum oi of the commissioners rs they advise as they threatened to do in their report of 1883 the most stringent measures compatible with the limitations of the constitution ution and indeed such extreme legislation as would if enacted be thoroughly hostile to the spirit and letter of that sacred instrument and yet as the language of the edmunds act which we have quoted proves the utah legislature is no not nov required to do anything of the kind no such require requirement merit is stated intimated or implied in the law athe ethe e the legislature is simply authorized to pass such laws as it shall deem prosper i 0 o inper I 1 concerning the filling of the offices in aid said territory declared vacant by he edmunds act there is not a sen ence or a line or a word in it bequir 11 1 ng or suggesting the passage of such 1 I aws a ws as the commissioners have taken upon u n themselves to declare it is made mo the duty of the legislature to enact 4 it has been already shown that the legislative assembly did pass a Is law v ally fully f meeting the requirement if such it may be called of the edmunds aut aci but it was vetoed by the governor as any law will be without doubt which really 1 y fulfills 1 s t the he intent of the edmunds ac ili iii n c as act in 1 n c utting cutting short the thu official lives and salaries of the utah commissioners sio ners and does nou noi enlarge the gubernatorial bernat orial powers or pander to the undue ambition of the executive this attempt of the commissioners to put the legislative assembly in a false light before the government and tile the country is not at all to their credit and when properly understood as it will wili be in the e not distant future will prove rove to them no source of delight of E honor onor or of reputation the commissioners undertake to instruct the sec see secretary r of the interior as to the meaning and intent of the edmunds act with a gravity that would be amusing if it were not so misleading in they sav the law was not directed relied at individual lascivious practices 11 this will ba be a surprise to many of those congressmen who voted for bof the bill I 1 if they should ever see the report of the commissioners rhey they were no doubt under ine the imp impression res that the third section of the law was aimed against what they considered individual lascivious practices and was intended to cover all cases of unlawful cohabitation but according to the commissioners it was only aimed against the Mormon Church or what they please to call its assault upon the system of w which bich we shall have something urther further f to say at another time this is intended by the commissioners as an apology for the course of the federal courts of utah in turning loc lols st gentile ci criminals gul gui guilty ity of tile the grossest lasciviousness lascivious ness nesa while they send to prison honorable men whose offense consists in simply acknowledging the wives with whom they have made the most solemn agreements they claim that the courts tave lave have nave been merciful in giving persons charged with this offense the opportunity ofa of a full fall renunciation 91 that is to say the inestimable privilege of ot procla procia proclaiming imin to the world that they repudiate that which the they have hitherto regarded dedas as sacred and will henceforth dishonor those whom they have formerly regarded regard edwith with the highest honor and affection it that is mercy the quality is terribly strained butto batto but to still further apologize forthe for the partiality of the courts in favor ot gentile criminals as against 11 mor mons under indictment the commissioners ners repeat the stale calum calumny ily liy that 1 there is no local st statute a tute in utah against adulterous or lascivious practices and the responsibility for this is with the mormons cormons themselves what are the facts in the case the laws against adultery and other sexual crimes which were upon the old statute books were wrested and twisted by federal judges to meet cases of plural marriage contrary to their plain meaning and intent and when by advice of some of the federal judges and many non mor alor mon members of the bar a new penal abde was enacted after being submitted to their supervision those statutes which had been wrested to act in the place of the congressional law of 1862 were crepea repealed ed with many others rendered unnecessary by the new code the mormons cormons themselves are not responsible for the omission of those laws from their statute books but the federal judges who aided and abetted in their misapplication for the purpose of an assault upon the mormon people but this attempt to throw dust in the eyes of the country in the shape of these of oft t exploded fallacies A will wil I 1 not obscure the fact that it is t the he law of congress con gress a against cohabitation with more than 0 one e woman that is corruptly administered by the courts for which the commissioners make apology the absence of certain laws in the utah statute book is not the question lion llon it has nothing to do with it the guestion question is why do the utah courts send to prison mor mons who have been found cuilty guilty of nothing but open of women as their wives sno no proof of carnal cohabitation having avi 2 been brought against them and at the same time turn loose without punishment I 1 gentiles who have been proven 9 guilty of the grossest immorality and who have violated the third section of edmunds act by cohabiting with more than one woman not I 1 in the marriage relation when the commissioners ners make this clear there are some other questions waichee wai wal chwe would like to ask them in relation to their latest report and there are further P points eints in the document that call for some comment which we will reserve for fora a f future occasion i not aestrid desiring 11 to crowd too much of this r review upon our readers in one article there is to come |
