Show THE CASE WELL STATED george georee ticknor tichnor curtis on jon admission in the november number of the forum george geore ticknor curtis has baa an article entitled shall utah become a state in which the justice of her claim to admission into the union is ably set forth the writer begins by b saying that it is forty years since the people called mormons cormons Mor mons expelled from the state of illinois by the pressure of an odium excited by their religion ligion organized and made an emigration en masse across the public domain ot of tithe the united states in search of a country where they could found fludd a community on their own religious and social ideas this great body of men women and cn ildren among whom were very few persons of foreign baith were tor for a whole year on the national domain out ot of the limits state marchi marchisio sig slowly through the wilderness until aney got beyond the rucky rocky mountains the whole country knew that they carried their polygamy poly eamy and their church organization along with them they were within reach of the federal power until they passed out of the united states yet not a finger uge r of the law a w wea was lifted against their practice of plural marriage mr curtis says that at that time he be was more than thirty years of age and was just as conversant with what was taking place as be is with what is going on today to day Thel state of public sentiment was one ot of entire indifference to the polygamy of the mormons cormons Mor mons provided they took look it where it would no longer be in contact with the civilization of the country in the matter of marriage in july 1847 the head of the column reached the neighborhood of the great salt lake it was some in months however before they were all gathered in hut when all bad come they amounted to a population of souls they immediately laifed the tae stars and stripes founded the community which they contemplated called it the state of deseret and suon after applied for into the union the country was then a province of mexico at the termination of the war between the united stated and mexico this province of utah became under the treaty of guadalupe hidalgo the property of the united states it was organized into a territory by an aa act of congress passed in 1850 and then occurred it if not net A DIRECT SANCTION OF POLYGAMY what was at least a marked bairt fe station of public indifference about it brigham young the civil and religious leader of tue mormons cormons Mor mons was made imade by the government of the united states territorial governor and lie be held the office for seven years he did not inot seek it it was offered to him and he accepted it every well informed person in the united states knew that ne he hal had numerous wives and numerous families ot children by his bis several wives the government could just as well have sent a non mor mon to be governor but brig ham young was selected because it was assumed tuat his bis people were to be a community by themselves and because the people of the united states did not care enough about the poleg amy to take any public action against it this torpor and indifference continued tor for a period of fifteen years during which plural marriages were greatly multiplied in utah 16 in 1852 during the first term of the governorship C over of brigham young plural marriage was officially officials y announced as a doctrine of the mormon church and published abroad as well as at home in that period there began beean to be a considerable influx into the territory of persons who were not mormons cormons Mor mons and who are now BOW known there as gentuso Gen tUss s 1 THE MORMON civilization in respect to marriage thus came in contact with ebat other civilization that chat has always existed throughout this union in 1862 the country rather suddenly awoke to 0 the necessity of exterminating polygamy this change from a state of iu indifference difference and to measures of suppression coming after neglect not to say encouragement encourage meLt has been like other paroxysms of public virtue succeeding public toleration of a supposed evil productive of about as much harm as good in 1862 an act ot of congress was passed making polygamy unlawful la in the ter territories and punishing it as bigamy witti with fine and imprisonment at first the mormons cormons honestly believed able law to be unconstitutional because polygamy was au an article of their religious faith bat in 1879 1879 they learned from a decision ion of the supreme court of the united states that marriage being a civil relation between imen and women it its is no infringement gement of reli religious ious I 1 berjv for the legislative authority to prohibit a 9 man from having more than one living wife mr curtis shows that even after this decision the law of 1862 1802 was allowed to remain practically a dead letter until the passage of law lav of 1882 which embraced the provisions of the abe former law and created a new offense known as unlawful cohabitation 9 mr curtis shows the injustice of creating adis offense without defining it and in graphic and eloquent language depicts the sufferings have been entailed by the judicial administration of this section of the edmunds law by the utah courts the writer says ll it is disgusting to it has been his djs duty to read the ac couLta of these persecutions perpetrated without the t be least necessity std made possible poss iole by the fact that the territorial rit orial judges have known that their I 1 I 1 FORCED AND constructions of the statute are not subject tto to revision by the dacial tribunal tr bunal in the land 11 he is willing to believe that the omission to pr provide avide any appeal to the supreme court ot of th tho united states in these cohabitation cases was in an unintentional oversight on an tile the part ot congress but it was none the less a great wrong felt has become a common practice with the terri territorial tortal judges ad to make an ostentatious show 0 of f clemency by asking the prisoner after conviction for unlawful cohabitation it if lie he will obey tie law in te future if he will make this promise it is intimated that a light sentence will be imposed for hits his past offense again and again the sr hasteen has been 11 1 I cannot obey the law as you interpret it I 1 married my plural wives for time and eter eternity anity in the f full all belief that thai such marriages were innocent in the sight of god I 1 cannot renounce my duty to provide for women who are dependent upon me although since this law was passed I 1 have had no sexual relation with any wife but the one with whom I 1 have dwelt this has not been accepted as a sufficient submission and the man has been sentenced 40 to the UTMOST PENALTIES of the statute what is the more extraordinary tra in this arti dei it and ab surd construction of tile the law is that it has been reg regarded aided as aimed aime against the mormons cormons alone and not a as s ig including d ordinary forni fornication cadou so that in utah a maia maa may dwell or be in the same house wiep any number of pros tit utes aad may inay have sexual connection with every one one of them and aad yet he cannot be convicted of unlawful cohabitation with more than one woman under the third section of the edmunds act that law is held beld in utah to have reserved all its terrors for cases where there wa claim of a marriage relation with more than one woman according to the mormon belief and practice it ills Is not strange that among a people like the mormons cormons Mor mons this abominable construction has been regarded with horror and indignation especially in towns where prostitution was unknown until gentile vice had bad penetrated with gentile virtue mr curtis disclaims holdin holding that the omission of congress to eier exercise else authority has abrogated it but while admitting the anti polygamy statutes to be constitutional he makes the moral deduction that Con contress having tolerated polygamy from 1857 to 1862 and from frodi the latter date to 1882 ought to shape its policy differently from the he mode which ha has been lately followed mr curtis declares that the mormon question has hair lately assumed an entirely new aspect in consequence of the move that has been made to secure the admission of utah as a state and he contends that tile the sole question a est on for or the be people and congress of 01 the united bi tates is whether het er the mormons cormons now offer satis facto factory y and reliable guarantees that they can and will PUT POT AN END TO POLYGAMY themselves they are a large major ity of the population and they make a certain offer it is equally unimportant what has led them to take this step those who have been in favor of the heroic measures pursued by the federal government may if they choose assume that they have driven the mormons cormons into submission others say that the whole thing js designed as a trick and that when utah is into the union the mormons cormons will change their constitution or restore polygamy in some seme way it would be great folly to repulse them on the shallow sul suggestion that they are people who are not to be trusted because causette cau seThe h real question is whether after utah has become a state stata under the proposed constitution it will be possible for the mormons cormons Mor mons by any contrI contrivance vatice whatever to restore polygamy or to create any legal or constitutional status of plural mar abage in the pre presence of this question their religious belief become of no consequence whatever the writer says that he be presumes person at te oe present day who understands aads the relation between the government of the united states and taase peculiar dependencies called territories will dispute the follo following winz proposition that congress is at all times under the obligation of a public trust to bring every territory into the union as a state whenever its inhabitants desire desir it and they have population and resources sufficient to sustain a state government the sole source of the power of congress to to CREATE AND GOVERN those peculiar political bodies which are denominated iles is in see sec 3 of article IV of the federal constitution commonly called the territorial clause the section was framed for the purpose of creating a plenary le legislative i power not only to dispose ofa of t the he public lauds lands but to create and govern political bodies of the settlers and to bring them into the union as states this was the constitutional doctrine for which the writer con 4 tended thirty years ago in arguing the dred scott case before the supreme court of at the united states it was the doctrine accepted by the minority of the judges and it is now almost galver universally sally held to be the true doc doctrine trim fi mr curtis treats of section 3 of article IV ot of the V constitution institution which confers upon congress all the authority which that nat body possesses in respect to governing tae territories and that it has au an dhority to regulate the social octal relations in the latter B but 3 lie he maintains that the author authority ity of 61 con coin gress over ever the territories is held as a trust to allow of gieir forma formation tion into states and not for the purpose of indefinitely prolonging toe territorial condition thereby keeping open a field for the e exercise excise of federal patronage and power he says that there may be in ue tre social condition of a particular territory Terri toy at the time when its people seek for admission into the union special circumstances which require specula and after makine making this admission iun says but it is the manifest duty of congress so to deal with such a peculiar state of at af fairs airs as not to obstruct the entrance of last community into inlo tile the union a as a state and 9 TO PROLONG the territorial condition for the pur pose of keeping up the exercise afif ed erta power if the social peculiarity which is supposed to co require removal is one the people of ane propof proposed ed state can themselves thema elves deal with and they offer safe guarantees and compacts which will insure its rem val by the state power howerin po in place of the federal there can be no good reason for con to exclude them f privileges illges and r gots of statehood because of a peculiarity peculiaR ty of their social condition their manners their customs or their religious beliefs the following is is the provision of the proposed constitution of utan on the subject of polygamy art XV see sec 12 bigamy and polygamy being considered incompatible with a form of government each ot of them is hereby forbidden lor bidden ano declared a misdemeanor any person who shall violate io this section shall on conviction of be puni punished blied by a line of not more than one thousand dollars and imprisonment tor for a term terin of not less than six months aitor nor more than three years ears in in the discretion 0 of f the court this section sections shall liall be construed construe d PS operative without ahe aid of legislation and the offense prohibited by this section shall not be barred by any statute of limitation within three years after the cominis sion aion of the offense nor shall the power of pardon a andon extend thereto until such pardon shall S I 1 be approved by the president of the united states AS A FURTHER SECURITY the power of amendment is limited by the following lowing lol iol proviso I 1 provided that section 12 of article XV shall not be amended revised or in any way changed until any amendment revision or change as pro proposed posea therein shall 1 in addition to the requirements of the pro pio visions of this article be reported to the congress of the united states stales and shall be by congress approved and ratified and such approval and ratification be proclaimed b by the president lent of the united states and it not so ra ratified tilled and proclaimed said section shall remain perpetual mr curtis declares that he is not unaware of the depth and magdi magnitude tude of the constitutional question which arises on these provisions but blit after full and he trusts dispassionate study he is prepared to express his entire conviction that it is perfectly competent to a state especially to a new state when it enters the union to make a compact with the united states that will effectual effectually Jy limit its own sovereignty in a matter peculiar to it itself self and its social condition mr curtis in closing says that every state in the union sas aas in many ways limited its sovereignty by bom corn pacts with the united states and and expresses the opinion that congress has power to enforce such compacts an attempt be made to violate them the forum is published by the forum publishing co 97 fifth ave new york and is one of the must influential magazines in the united states it devotes devote much space e to the discussion by the ablest I 1 living mae writers of the questions relating to social and political science and kindred themes mr curtis views made public through such a medium will attract a great amount of intelligent attention we have been compelled to omit and pass hastily over ever valuable portion of his article but the whole will be found extremely interesting te to people in utah th they 1 should get the magazine in which hert ft appears in full |