| Show LEGAL AND LOGICAL IN the third district court oi 01 monday jan 1890 judge anderson delivered a decision in evolving the heire hip of offspring horn born out of legal wedlock it appeared in full in the NEWS NEWIS on the day following the claim of george H cope son of the late thomas cope deceased by a plural wife to a share in the distribution of the residue of the estate was opposed by janet cope and thomas cope lawful wife and son of decedent the case came up on appeal from the probate C court court J george H cope being the appellant a ppe I 1 judge marshall marshal had bad decided that the law of 1876 which gave all surviving children of a decedent the status of belr ship is invalid because it to is lu in conflict with the congressional law of 1862 that statute hav having I 1 ng been enacted for t the he su suppression pares ef cf polygamy judge anderson affirmed the decision of the probate court adopting the same line of reasoning holding that the statute of 1862 annulled all territorial statutes that encouraged polygamy probate judge bartch gave a decision in a precisely similar case march ath it was in relation to an application of the children of the late orson pratt by his plural wives foi a share of their father fathers Is estate harmel pratt the administrator of the estate opposed the application while 1 I M waddell and B W driggs jr represented the applicants it was admitted that these applicants were the children of orson pratt by his bis plural wives and that he recognized them as his children during his lifetime the decision of judge bartch was the antithesis of that rendered by his predecessor judge Mar marshall elial I 1 and by associate justice anderson he hold held that the law of 1876 is valid and that the applicants are entitled eu ea titled to a distributive share of the estate i no decision could be more clearly right than that given by the present probate judge while per contra no opinion could be more preposterous than the ones mentioned which pi pie e ceded it upon the same question the highly seasoned absurdity of judge andersons Ander sens alleged reasoning to the effect that the local statute of 1876 was invalidated by the national law of 1862 because it encouraged polygamy must be apparent when the edmunds law of march 1882 is considered in connection with that position here to la an extract from it section 7 that the issue of bigamous or polygamous ma marriages cnown aown as mormon marriages in cases cages in which such marriages have been solemnized ao according cording to the ceremonies of tibe the mormon sect in any territory of the united states and such issue shall have been born before the first day of january anno domini eighteen hundred and ana eighty throe three are hereby legitimated if the odium of encouragement of polygamy attaches to the herrl statute it fixes itself equally upon n the edmunds measure enacted expressly for the suppression of that marital system thus the latter act would be asserted as in conflict with its alleged solitary ob object eject and with itself it does the same thing in relation to the offspring born outside of lawful wedlock as did the territorial law gives them the status of it went still further it gave them the quality of legitimacy the position taken by judge marshall justice adderson Au derson is a legal absurdity on its face the section of the edmunds law quoted legitimates the offspring of plural marriages born previous to january 1883 and legitimacy are inseparable it appears as if the two functionaries function aries last named had bad forgotten the existence of the ear munds act or at least its special provisions if this be not the case it Is possible that they preferred to swim with the prevailing current without reference to legal or logical consistency to say my nothing of the first principles of justice whose administration is due to every man woman aud child whether he or she be jew gentile gentele or 6 mormon 11 1 1 while this is the right of ull all without respect to age or condition that species of contravention of the requirements quire ments of justice jue tice presumed to gove govern rn the settles scales held by the blind j goddess which tends to take from children that to which they are clearly entitled has at an aspect of peculiar enormity we have because we considered him at the time deservi deserving 09 of it criticized judge baich with some severity for what we deemed uncalled for expressions used behim outside of his official ciRl capacity we are as ready to extend to himi him or any other man congratulation when he does the proper thing while it was no more than his bib bounden duty to decide as he did in these days ol of official degene degeneracy raty with two de decisions belons ot of a directly op character on the same question involved confronting him it was to his credit that he be elected to stand upon the law and logic of an important point and told injustice and prejudice to get behind him |
