| Show CHARGE TO THE gnann GRAND JURY DELIVERED BY 0 W POWERS rowers AT ON TUESDAY y sov KOV ov 17 1843 1845 the paneling em of a grand errand jury for the first district court was completed on monday afternoon last the fol foi following lowin named persons constituting the panel ganel the first mentioned beia beta being the foreman J W mcnutt D thorburn J S lewis L B stevens WM chapman S peterson S S schramm P F A shi ells elis 0 G hill C B fayou J r crandall geo 1 I lilibel 11 II 0 Wardle wardie hyll byll john B judge powers then proceeded to deliver the following charge the text ot which we copy py froin rom tho the den norald t gentlemen of the grand jury you have been called by your country to act in a most important capacity you have been taken from the ordinary affairs of life to serve as grand jurors of the present term of court none of you nave sought this duty and 1 feel certain that all of you yon would have preferred to remain at home as private citizens rather than take up the grave responsibilities which you noy now nov assume but jury duty is one of the burdens of citizenship it must neither be sought nor shirked sh irked it Is a public duty which the government requires ot its citizens in return lu in a slight degree for the blessings that are arc showered in such abundance upon those wild live in this land of liberty lam iam I 1 am sure that you yon fully appreciate the importance of the position which you yuu 0 occupy c c u py and I 1 trust that you are kingto IN willing to withdraw yourselves from the tile malice m a i ie e prejudice and envy that too often sway mens minds in the affairs of the world and that you will consecrate Ives without fear or dav favor or to the wrea grea great f public trust that our laws have placed in your charge upon the very threshold of your duties let me an arge urge e yo you ti to resolve that you will be faiuu faithful t to 0 your oaths that you will indict no maii mail man through prejudice or malice matice and that you will leave none through fear or through favor in all things let me admonish you to be brave firm fair and just in other words be faithful falth faith ful fui fearless and conscientious ious jurors I 1 desire to impress upon you the absolute necessity for fairness and impartiality in all that you may do you must not be influenced by matters that you have no right to consider you must in your deliberations simply consider the evidence produced you must not take thou thought ht of the consequences to yours yourselves yourself elv es if a certain line of action is pursued but you must simply seek to do your duty you must not inquire whether your action will be popular or whether it is politic to do or not to do a particular thing 19 for you must simply consider wh whether e therit it Is right you must not consider whether men subject to your investigations investigation sare are rich or poor powerful or weak your eyes must be closed and your ears mastbe sealed to all outside or irrelevant matters the institution of the grand jury Is of very ancient origin in the history of england it goes back many centuries in the struggles which at times arose in that country between the powers of the king and the rights of the subject it often stood as a garrier barrier against persecution se in his bis name until at length it came to be regarded as an institution by which the subject was rendered secure against oppression from unfounded prosecutions of the crown in tills this country says a distinguished judge his honor justice field of the supreme courto from the popular character of our institutions there has seldom been any contest between tiie the government and the citizen which required tile the existence of toe the grand jury as sis a protection against oppressive action of the government yet the institution was adopted in this country and is continued from considerations similar to those which give to it its chief value in Em england flaud and is designed as a means not only of bringing to trial persons accused of public offenses upon just grounds but ut also as a means of prot protecting alm aim th thu e citizen against unfounded accusation whether it comes from government or prompted bv by artisan partisan pashion passion or private enmity ifill 11 from these observations it will be seen gentlemen that there is a double duty cast upon 3 ou on as grand jurors of this district one a duty duly to the government or more properly speaking to so society clety citty to see that parties against whom there is just ground to charce charge the commission of crime shall be held to answer the charge and on the tile other band a duty to the citizen to see that he be is not subject to prosecutions which have no just foundation I 1 you will direct your inquiry in your investigations to such subjects as age are are called to your attention by the court in this charge or are submitted to your consideration by the district Attorn attorney ev some other matters may way I 1 come to your knowledge it will be your duty to investigate while you yon are inquiring as to one offense onnen offen sc another and a dit different offense may be found or witnesses before you may in testifying commit the crime of perjury so also some of you may have personal knowledge of the commission of offenses a against ainest the laws of the tile united st Sta abeso r 01 of this of facts which tend to show that such all an offense has been committed or possibly attempts may be made to influence corruptly or improperly your action as drand grand jurors if yo you a are per personally so nally possessed of suc sue such h knowledge you should als ais disclose close it to your associates and if any attempts are made madu to in influence fl bence your action c corruptly crupt or improperly or to intimidate e you in 3 our action you should inform them of it also and the they Y will act upon the information thus communicated communicate as is presented to them in the first instance by tile the district attorney I 1 instruct you that your investigations are to be limited first to such matters as may maybe be called balled to your attention by the court or second may be submitted to your consideration by the district attorney or t third may come to your knowledg knowledge c in the course of your investigations i into the matters bl brought glit before you or from your own observations or fourth may kalay come to your knowledge from the disclosure of your youn associates socia tes it will be your duty to inquire whether any of the laws of the united states have been violated it Is my duty to charge you specifically to make due an and d diligent inquiry whether the laws of your country relative to polygamy and unlawful cohabitation are bela beta infringed in this district I 1 therefore charge you to investigate this matter for years the laws relative to the marriage relation have been set at defiance in this territory this Is a fact of such common notoriety that the court is bound to take judicial knowledge of it but this state of affairs cannot be allowed longer to exist the government is in earnest the laws of the land must be enforced and guilty parties taught that it they copti continue nue in their evil course they must pay the penalty people must learn that the law can no more be violated with impunity in utah than it can be in t the he states they must understand that the great moral sentiment of the nation is opposed to plural marriage the sooner they learn the les ies lesson s on that they must roust learn sooner or later la ter that the law must be obeyed and t hat that utah Is a portion of the united states the better it will be for all it is strange that any will pursue the path that the people of this territory seem determined to take here amid these mountains na natures great treasure vaults enclosing valleys so fertile that they need only to be tickled with the tile no noa hoa in the springtime to laugh with the harvest in autumn could be framed an intelligent enterprising state some day this will be done but it will not be until our people learn to love their country learn to obey its laws and learn to reverence that thit great institution of civilization the nome home with its wife wile and mother revered and honored by the husband landfather and father the laws relative to the marriage relation which the court expects your aid ald in enforcing are just juat laws and are constitutional constitution al laws As was said bythe by the supreme court of the united states no leg legislation s can be supposed more wholesome e and necessary in the fo founding of a free self governing commonwealth fit to take rank among the coordinate ordinate co states of the union than that which seeks to establish it upon the basis of the idea of the family as consisting in udd und springing from the tile union for life ot one man mif and one woman in the holy estate of matrimony the sure foundation of all that is stable and noble in our civilization the best guaranty of that reverent morality which is the source of all progress in all social and political improvement the crime of bigamy or polygamy consists in entering into a bigamous or polygamous marriage mar ruge the offense is complete completo when any person who has a hii hil husband band or wife living marries another it is also complete when any man simultaneously or on the same day marries more than one woman this however does not apply to any person by reason of any former marriage whose husband or wife by such mar liage has been absent for five successive years and is believed by such person to be dead nor to any person by reason of any former marriage which shall shail have been dissolve dissolved dby by a valid decree of a competent court on the ground of nullity of the marriage relation int in this his territory there is no law regulating ula uia ul tine atins it arriage no form or ceremony is required and no record of marriage marri age g is kept marriage is left as it was at common law there need be no witnesses present if the parties are competent to contract all that is essential is a present agreement the marriage in arriage is complete when there is a full free iree and mutual consent of parties capable of contracting proof that parties have treated each other as hu husband s and wife have lived toge together theras as such and have held each other out to the world as such is sufficient to unable enable a court or jury to find that ansome at some previous time the parties did as a fact tact consent to be married and as a fact agree to be husband and wife the mode of life the holding outtie declarations or admissions of the tile accused and the li like ilke keare are circumstantial evidence from which the fact of marriage may be inferred the offense of cohabitation is co complete m when a man to all outward appearances a p pe arances is living or assoni associating abing with more than one woman as his wife eils ells ills honor laid particular stress upon this definition and that it might be thoroughly understood by the jury he re repeated e at ad it to constitute the offense feas c it is not necessary that it be shown that the parties indulge in sexual intercourse the in intention of the lawmaking law making makini dower power in enacting the law against cohabitation and aud polygamy was to protect monogamous marriage by prohibiting all otner other marriage marrial cw whether hether evidenced by a ceremony or by co conduct n and circumstances alone an indictment may he ie found against t a man mail guilty of cohabitation for every day or other distinct interval of time during which he offends each day that a man cohabits with more tuan one woman as I 1 have defined the word cohabit is a distinct and anti separate violation of the law and is liable to punishment for each separate offense A AL grand jury is vested with very large discretion in ll 11 limiting miti n t the h e time within which a series 0 of f acts t S may be alle alie alleged ed as constituting a single offense it has been by some that if a grand jury can find an indictment for each sach lay day that a man cohabits with more than thau one oue woman I 1 they can find an indictment for e ach each houn hour or each minute the lear learned tied lawyers who have raised this point and the chev are not members of the bar have pro prot t ably forgotten that the law takes nu no notice of fractions of a day hence you TOO vou cannot find an indictment for any jess liess iless period than thau a day I 1 I 1 also charge you that if you should shout find that a man is guilty of coha coba cohabiting bitin 13 with two or more women one of whom resides in this district and the other in some soule other district in this territory you should indict him for the offense is deemed by the law to be completed I 1 and committed here the statute ol 01 the united states says where any offense against the united states is begun in one judicial district and com corn gletes plated in another it shall be deemed to have ave been committed in elthe eithe rund may be dealt with inquired of tried determined ter mined and punished in either district J in the same manner as if it had been actually and wholly committed therein I 1 also charge you to investing invest investigate ig at whether any person and wilfully or 0 opposed an officer of the united states in ing r or attempting to serve any process groces or warrant or any rule or order 0 01 other judicial w writ r it of this co court urt art or assaulted beat or wounded an any officer ar 01 other person duly aut authorized hortz j in servin servina or executing any writ rule order process or warrant of this court I 1 also whether any person co corrupts crupt IN or by threats or force has endeavor e eJ to influence intimidate or impede in an witness or officer of this court in the th e discharge of his bis duty or has corruptly or by threats ori or force orce obstructed 0 01 impeded the due administration 0 justice I 1 and I 1 also charge you to inqui cinquin whether any persons in this territory I 1 have conspired to deter by force intimidation timi dation or threat any party or wl wic t ness from attending this court orbron or fro a testifying to any matter pending herein i freely fully and und truthfully 0 01 0 have conspired to injure such party 0 01 J witness in his person or property 01 0 1 account of his having navin havin so attended ci 01 testified I 1 I 1 call your attention to these las lasi three points because it has come to tiu knowledge of the court that certani parties in this territory haveit have set tat cert cerl at denance the laws have publicly aavo bated that an oath taken in a court cj 0 4 justice can be properly violated hav have obstructed the officers while engado engaged in their duties and have threat enec the officers of the govern government ment meat at wit altra serious consequences if they continue to aid in enforcing the laws sue suc things impede th the e course of justice louwill you will not confine your in eions to the determination of th thu question ont whether the laws of th the united states have been violated but bu von will ascertain whether there lav eav cave cavi been baen infringements of the laws of thi cerri Perri territory tory you will inquire whether there have been any murders committed whether any persons are guilt guilty tit t rape larceny riot robbery elbez clement or any of the various offense s upon the statute books you will find these various crim crimes e and misdemeanors defied denned in fhi t hu statutes of the territory to which yoi i will have access and to which your at I 1 will be called by the attorney i for the people I 1 charge you yon particularly to investigate whether parties are guilty in this thill district of the offense of grand larceny I 1 by stealing stock from farms an am i ranches the stockmen stoc kmen of this territory i complain grievious ly of the manner I 1 in which |
