| Show ANOTHER TURN OF THE kaleidoscope KA THE glorious glorious uncertainty of the law I 1 was never illustrated since the world began as vividly as during alie the raid upon the mormons cormons Mor mons of the last year anda and a half thelama the law against ai unlawful cohabitation has been twisted and distorted and construed in so many different ways that no one ne can give it an interpretation that will hold good tor for a day the courts after giving it a definition in order to secure a con diction in one case cade will depart from it and give an essentially different meaning to the law to secure conviction in another case after explaining what it takes to constitute the offense if the stated elements are lacking in a new case the court following the dictates of the prosecuting officer will decide that those elements are unnecessary and a fresh construction is given to be changed again when it does not cover ground enough to convict the defend defendant atit the term terin au unlawful lawful cohabitation as manipulated by the courts here is made so elastic that it will tit fit the case of every mormon who has married more wives than one even if he does not cohabit with either of them and to shrink up so closely that it will not cover a gentile no matter how many women he may cohabit with outside of the marriage relation or how much he may practice consecutive polygamy mistress keeping and unbridled debauchery there is no telling how many new construct constructions construction io will yet be put pat upon the term jud judging ging by experience the they y will vary with every case containing new features and will be stretched or shrunk as the circumstances may require conviction baug bf aug the object irrespective of actual guilt that this is calculated to inspire the people with profound I 1 for the law and with adoration for the persons who pose as its ex and administrators must be clear to every reflecting mind ane case of solomon edwards reported in tuesdays EVENING NEWS shows one more turn of the judicial kaleidoscope the facts are as disclosed by the evidence that the defendant shortly after marrying jane a plural wife in 1880 was divorced from his first wile wife in 1883 he married again the third wife emma became of course his bis leeal wife and a charl chan e of poly polygamy amy preferred against the defendant ant h had ad to be abandoned I 1 in a order to sustain a charge of unlawful cohabitation it had to be shown that the defendant had lived with the two women jane and emma they w were ere both called calle d as witnesses for the prosecution it was shown that on his proposition to marry emma his plural wife jane announced nur her determination not to live with him any more and an ah arrangement was made that he should have one of their two children and she the other after his marriage with emma he called with wita her on his way to pleasant valley and stayed at jan janis janes Is house going there to get the child the evidence was positive that he had hadnot not lived witti with jane as his wife since marrying the other the prosecuting Prose cutini attorney contended that thai this visit constituted the crime of cohabiting with more than one woman the court instructed the jury that it they believed the defendant a associated with the two women as his wives if only for one day their verdict should be guilty 11 of course the defendant was convicted with Witha a jur jury selected tor for the purpose and virtual instructions to convict what else could be expected according to the ruling of the supreme court of the united states unlawful cohabitation consists of holding out to the world and living with more than one woman at the san same e time as aa wives in thi this cage neither of these essential elements were present it was not shown that the defendant hadi had since his marriage with emma ever held out to the world the woman jane as U his wife neither was it shown that since that time he had lived with her as a wife she said she made it too hosfor hot for him the relationship with her ceased from the time of his marriage with emma this was the evidence for the prosecution was not the verdict in conflict with the evidene evidence we think every sane mind will answer in the affirmative but the jury were instructed by bv the court jo in such a way ay that tha t they mey could scar scarcely oely have nave decided differently without cohig against the judicial iudici al 1 te th ehfe dentition of un 1 iiii this time was to women its as wives ohl atil r ati associate with a woman you cohabit with her therefore if any gentleman becomes acquainted with judge zanes wife and associates with her he cohabits with her how dow does judge zane like his own definition if association means cohabitation every woman who has a circle cire leof of male inze acquaintances cohabits with several men how do the wives of the court officials and the jurymen juryman like the term they ought ought to leel feel under great obligations to judge zane for its application there was no need for the defendant to obtain a divorce from his plural wife their relations were nut noot recognized by the secular law they bad separated their relations had bad ceased ceded and when they associated if calling at the house to get his child and visiting there can be so described they did not ilot associate as man and wife the witness jane testifying that she did kotcon not consider the defendant at the ti time as her husband now what do the promoters of this kind of expect to accomplish by it they may secure the imprisonment konwent of a few victims to their malice but how much will that affect the situation here it only serves to increase the profound contempt with which the people are animated both tor for a so called law which is made capable of such gerrymandering and of the persons who perpetrate these outrages on justice and travesties on law those who believe in the rightful ful ness of the family rela ions Jons they have religiously formed will not dot be impressed to thel disfavor by these unrighteous gs and the general public bublie will not be impo imposed sed upon by these absurd and unlawful verdicts the sense sease of injustice and 0 oppression pres under which the mormon people abc now smarting marti n is made wore more intense and abiding by the course pursued to fasten conviction ou on those who have not really broken the law that the third section of the edmunds act has been disregarded by many men who have entered into plural family relations before its enactment is not denied their prosecution and conviction by lair fair means reflects no discredit on the public prosecutor the courts or the juries but when the facts elicited in the prosecutions show that tham some men have actually lived without violating vio latine the law have taken measures to comply with its provisions have made such arrangements to this end as are known and recognized by their families and the public and they are yet convicted and punished bud with as much animus and severity as those who have made no pretense of keeping 11 th the e law respect tor for all ail wao are engaged in ill tue the legal infamy must cease if it ever existed and tue the law itself is necessarily brought into scora and conte contempt in pt the edwards case is another on the list of perversions of the law and violations of justice which will appear in the history of the unholy war upon the cormons mormons Mor Nl ormon mons 11 and the whole crusade will be viewed with wonder aud and denounced with disgust by the future readers of american history but who no can caa paint the features of those who have promoted and waged this shameful ill wardale as they will appear when tile the books are opened and men are judged out of the things written in the books before that tribunal where truth thines bhines undimmed and falsehood trickery aud and malice will stand unveiled ind and receive their just deserts I 1 |
