Show BIGAMY THE TUCKER EDMUNDS BILL in the house of representatives august 5 1886 mr bennett from the committee on judiciary ciary submitted the following views of the minority which were referred to the house calendar lendar tea and ordered to be printed to accompany bill S 10 the undersigned undersigner under signed regret that they jeannot agree with the majority in their report oi on senate bill no 10 nor give their assent to some of the provisions ot of the bill which has been reported as a substitute forthal for that measure there is a misapprehension of the historical facto us os we understand them this is not surprising in view of the intense feeling almost invariably displayed in the discussion of the so calleck mormon problem for nearly half a century local focal and general agitation of the mormon question has excited a degree of warmth which is not creditable to tile the good sense of our people or to our statesmanship religious problems are always vexatious and in dealing with them legislators are liable to be influenced by their preconceived notions and always in danger ot of being led astray by clamor it itis is not necessary to discuss the nature of the faith of these people that is not the province ot of legislators happily for our fathers and for us all matters of religion were by our organic 1 c law left to the domain of the fa individual 1 i v i dual conscience it is admitted that outside the ahe belief in polygamy and its practice the mor mons have all the virtues and few of the vices of other communities the work they have accomplished in redeeming deemin g a desert and making ra akine it t to 0 b bloom as the rose speaks lor itself we regret that the majority should have instanced the occurrences of because we believe that they did rot pot reflect entire credit upon our rulers at that e tha th precaution 0 of f having an investigation lives ignation made by rella ole ale and unbiased men who would have avoided an expensive and unnecessary expedition simply in demonstrating the family of the charges which had bad been wade against the mormons cormons Mor mons the organization of the state of des eret cret is represented as a purpose on the part of the mormons cormons to establish an independent government the fact neglected to be stated that application N was as at once made for ad admission into the he union is a sufficient refutation here were more than twenty thousand people who had been ignored by ane general government the necessity lor some sort of government was imperative pera tive it was criminal nor evidence of ambitious intentions to form a provisional government it was not so regarded thelby then by the feder al authorities or brigham atu young would not have been made governor ot of the new territory it was not unnatural that a people who had bad been driven out of missouri and out of illinois and who had made an unparalleled journey of more than 2000 miles to find new homes should seek to strengthen themselves against those who might follow and seek to renew the old strife they had sought aad and found a new abiding place in a new land water and timber were precious was it an evidence of dis to the government that these people endeavored to conserve for themselves and their posterity two such essentials it IL may have been grasping and ungenerous unfortunately human nature has never yet been entirely reformed by any religious creed or teaching 1 it is puerile to insist that this 11 little tle community could have at any time seriously menaced our republic it is positively childish to insist that there Is now do w or ever can be any danger to our civilization or our institutions froin the exertions of the mormon people we refuse to dignify with so much importance fm a sect that all told in all the world numbers less than two hundred and fifty thousand i souls whose beliefs are so BO directly antagonistic to the intellectual tendency Jen dency of the age and whose practice of polygamy is so repugnant to the notions of europeans ind and americans the practice of polygamy is an evil which we desire to see eradicated we yield to none in our condemnation of this offense which has been made a crime by our laws these laws deprive polygamists isis of the right to vote to serve as jurors jabors and to hold office it matters not that they entered into the polygamous relations long before they were made criminal the penalty of disfranchisement and disqualification is imposed tile the offense of unlawful cohabitation created by the act of congress approved dag march as construed construe by the court of last resort can be constructively committed and persons who were only guilty ot constructive cohabitation are now dow in the pe penitentiary ten moreover the offense has been held to be continuous and the courts coulta allow se segregated legated indictments tor for such periods of time as the district attorney sees fit to subdivide the past so far as the guilty are concerned there seems to be no undue clemency shown they maybe may be fined to the extent of all their worldly possessions and imprisoned for the balance of their natural lives there has not bees a single failure since an effort toll enforce these laws was made to indict and convict an accused person there here can therefore be no necessity for additional legislation incani ng the power of the courts or of creating new rules of evi debbe it does not appear that there has been any lucrease crease la iu of polygamous mar hl biages on the contrary the evidence of the utah commission shows that so far as they could learn no such marriages had bad occurred in Territory the thel during the year 1865 18 the statistics which th they ey gw give disclose disclose moreover the fact t that ht bolg polygamy my has never been in universal practice among the mormons cormons Mor mons t it I 1 is undoubtedly true that a large majority ty of the mormons cormons hold that kneir so called revelation on the subject of polygamy was not mandatory out but permissive whatever the power and influence of the mormon church may have been it has never succeeded with impressing its adherents with the belief impressing lie imy that polygamy was essential to salvation it is not reasonable to su suppose that this tais majority will caturan na naturally turaN grow and that if do not interfere the minority will soon disappear there is no difficulty in enforcing the law the overcrowded pe penitentiary tiar z in salt lake city attests th this s fact the rhe penalties are sufficiently severe deprived of the right to hold office to vote to serve on jur juries ies with the certainty of f swift and vigorous punishment following even constructive tive offenses what motive can there be for mono monogamous amous or for unmarried mormon cormons Mor mons to offend against the laws already provided there can be but one danger that intemperate zeal on anthe the part of those who enforce the law may excite a re intemperance which will convert mormons cormons into religious zealots zealous and saper induce a desire for martyrdom the legislation proposed by th the e original senate bill and by the substitute reported by tue the majority is in our judgment calculated to effect something et at this kind it is unprecedented inthe in the united states and for severity can only be compared wita the nonconformist non conformist laws of great britain or the blue laws of connecticut c at the specific objections we desire to submit to the bill begin with section 3 report reported id by the majority of the committee this section as we believe invades the personal rights attacks and overthrows the personal security of the citizen this provision of the bill empowers the officers named therein to arrest a citizen upon ex parte affidavits and iLu imprison prison indefinitely unless released on bail it contains no provision fora lieari hearing Dg on the grounds of his arrest it does not specify any terms nor generally the facts chien I 1 shall be deemed sufficient if proved to authorize tile the imprisonment of the citizen nor does it require that any facts shall be stated in the affidavits upon which the imprisonment is made the party imprisoned is not permitted dermitt ed to controvert the ex parte affidavits and by disproving regain his liberty nor can he show that the affidavits are maliciously made against him and thereby secure his release the only requirement ot oi the law is that hyvo two citi citizens zeus shall swear that in their opinion there is good reason to believe that the person I 1 imprisoned will 11 unlawfully 1 IT fail to obey a subpoena this his rule of procedure is arbitrary anoma lous and unheard of Itis it is oppressive without a precedent and capable of af great abuse and is not justified by the constitution A general warrant for arrest is insufficient sanford vs nichols 13 mass the facts justifying must lie he first stated and ascertained and after the arrest and before imprisonment a an opportunity must be given the person dealt with to be heard otherwise the person so imprisoned is deprived of his liberty without due process of law this section may be used to corrupt a witness by y restoring him to liberty after imprisonment on condi tion that he will swear as the party causing his arrest desires it imprisons for contempt when no contempt has been committed and denies a hearing on the alleged grounds of his imprisonment and makes his bis release only possible by giving bond and for that reason among others is vicious bradley vs eisher section 6 is useless inasmuch as there are no such laws as are therein denounced section 7 annuls certain laws conferring jurisdiction upon the probate courts of utah this provision judged by the doctrines bf the report of a majority of the committee is full fall of destruction on page 7 of the major its report it is said the organic organic act expressly provides that all laws avs passed assad hy by the territorial legislature shall be submitted to the congress of the united baates and it if disapproved shall be null and ot of no effect this power whenever exercised makes the original law null not only hereafter but of no effect if disapproval only nullifies its effect for the future no force will be given to the laba words the doctrine just quoted is asserted by the majority of the committee to justify the repeal of the charter ot the mormon church if the effect ot of the annulment of the laws heretofore giving jurisdiction to the probate court is as it is in this majority report declared a r e d to be then the laws repealed are not only not to have any effect be berea reatter iter but to have been in the past of no effect this position if a correct one overthrows everything that was done by the probate court while acting un der the laws which this bill proposes to annul all disposition of property all ada adjudications all acts ot ol said chui coui cobit t coming within the icove ol 01 i the he laws annulled are by this bill and under the lie doctrine of the maori tv report also au annulled and of ab effect 11 we shall have something to ady ya y af 0 f this doctrine further on section 11 declares that I 1 polygamy or any polya polygamous amous associations or cohabitation tation between the sexes is ia hereby declared a felony what is any polygamous associations is not defined ded but bat is left open to 10 construction to the courts of utah that it does not include unlawful sexual intercourse between parties is evident the su supreme reme court in united states v cannon U S 17 has held that cohabit cohabitation aLio D may exist though there be no sexual intercourse though the parties do not occupy the same bed or sleep in the same room justices miller and field dissented from this definition of cohabitation and held that such a construction of the law is strained and unjustifiable polygamous associations in this bill is not synonymous with unlawful cohabitation but is an incident of polygamy more imore remote from polygamy than unlawful uni awful cohabitation as defined by the supreme court as above quoted cohabitation may exist without illicit intercourse polygamous associations ciati clat ions ons is of a lighter chade of wrong than unlawful cohabitation and ceu cen templates the punishment ot of a person for countenancing approving or tolerating in those with whom he asso elates polygamy this raises the question whether it is competent for congress ontress to punish a person for his associations only it is believed that no case can be found where punishment is held heid to be conati constitutional where imposed upon a person not participating in any degree in an act made crim cam inal by law lathe ia the case of the city of st louis against william fitz 53 mo it was decided deel ded that an ordinance 2 which w ich punished an who wh 0 knowingly associated with persons having the reputation of being thieves and prostitutes was unconstitutional one odthe of the judges in passing upon the ease case said I 1 hold the ordinance ordinance 4 absolutely invalid on the broad ground that its direct effect is to invade and necessarily destroy one at least of those certain inalienable rights of the citizen bestowed by the creator and granted iby the organic law personal onal lib erty city in the case of murphy v glover 41 mo the court says it must be admitted that their opinions and feelings v hen not put forth anany in any known acts of resistance to the law belon belong ang to themselves and cannot with nuth reason and justice ever law lawi tilly be punished as if they w ere offenses against the law lav in state v keys 5 mo 33 it was held that it was not competent compete DL to punish a person who was present at a murder murd erand er and approved of the same bame he taking no part in the murder and do ing no act which promoted it of the same sama import is beix v pury 67 mo 89 9 this T 1 bill however hovi ever for the first time in the history of the government pio poses to punish janit s h polygamous associations that this lau language guage does coet not denounce polygamy is clear because polygamy is punished as the law now low is with the severity seventy that it is not limited hunted to the punishing u shing of unlawful cohabitation is je as the law now is both real and constructive truc tive cohabitation are punished by imprisonment in the penitentiary polygamous associations then means something different irom polygamy or unlawful cohabitation and is a new offense designed to punish acts which are not included in pol polygamy or unlawful cohabitation ve we submit that the law already inflicts punishment pum puni upon polygamists to tile the limit of constitutional toler lole toleration ration and that a further punishment of a person for associations is without warrant of law or constitutional justification fi section 14 annuls the law incorporating the church of jesus christ of latter day saints so far as the same sam e has any legal validity and also annuls the corporation of the ab association called the perpetual Perpetu gl emigrating fund company Coin and dissolves said corporation this provision which undertakes to annul a corporation of a private character without a judicial hearing in court is justified in the report ot of the majority of the committee on the ground that there never has basl been any uch corporations that they were void from tile the beginning that the state of deseret had no authority to incorporate them and that the legislature of utah had no power subsequently to confirm them section ib 16 requires the attorney general to causse cause proceedings to be taken to dissolve said corporations mentioned in the preceding section the 1 he status of these corporations as fixed in the maori majority mao rity tv report is t that bat then charters ch aiters are aie void ab inirio initio yet one section of the bill dissolves disa olves them how any force can be given to the bill to dissolve a |