Show EXCLUDING ROBERTS the new york sun claims to have discovered a fatal law in the case against B H roberts the reasoning of the sun is full of logic and the case cited are highly interesting aside from their bearing on the present struggle to debar congressman therefore we reproduce what the sun has to say as follows those who are attempting to exclude brigham H roberts from the seat in the house of representatives to which ahe was elected by the people of the state of utah rely upon the act of congress commonly known as the edmunds law as the justification and warrant for their course the eighth section of that statute provides that no polygamist bigamist or any person cohabiting with more than one woman in any territory or other place over which the united states have exclusive jurisdiction shall be eligible for election or appointment or be entitled to hold any office or place of public trust honor or emolument in under or for any such territory or place or under the united states assuming that congress can by leg isolation add to the qualifications which the constitution requires a member of the house of representatives to possess the argument against mr roberts is that he pleaded guilty of the offense of unlawful cohabitation under the edmunds law in 1883 for which lie suffered an imprisonment of four months that the subsequent amnesty proclamations of president harrison and president cleveland did not operate to effect his pardon and that consequently he is disqualified from sitting as a representative an congress by that clause of the edmunds law which hibits a bigamist polygamist or person cohabiting with more than one woman from holding any under tho united states the validity of this conclusion depends upon the question whether the office of a representative in congress is an office under the united states the weight of legal authority is strongly in favor of the proposition that it is not A senator in congress is not an officer of the united slates the senat so decided a hundred years ago in the celebrated blount case the house of representatives in 1797 presented articles of impeachment against william blount a senator from the state of tennessee charging him with conspiring to set on foot a hostile military expedition against the territories of the king of spain in florida and louisiana and with other high crimes and misdemeanors mr blount was brought to trial before alie senate sitting as a high court of impeachment peach ment in december and on january the impeachment was dismissed on the ground that a senator was not a civil officer of the united states within the meaning of that provision of the federal constitution which declares that the president vice president and all civil officers of the united states may be removed from office on impeachment tor and conviction of treason bribery and other high crimes and misdemeanors the like principle says mr justice story in his classic treatise on the constitution ution must apply to the members of the house of representatives if a representative in congress is noc an officer OF the united states so as to be liable to impeachment it is still clearer that he is not an officer UNDER the united states within the meaning of tho edmunds law tho very language of the constitution itself shows this for the sixth section of article I 1 expressly provides that no person holding any office UNDER the united states shall be a member of either hodoe of congress during his continuance in office it does not say no person holding any OTHER offic under the united states as would be the case it the place of a congressman were deemed to be such an office biu the prohibition is stated in terms which under the plainest principles i interpretation leave no doubt that th framers of the constitution excluded senator and representatives from th category of persons holding office under the united states it bould be preposterous to give any broader meaning to the declaration 0 ineligibility found in the edmunds law if the prosecutors of mr have any case against him which at fords good ground for his expulsion from the house of representatives let them bring it forward after his admission and turn him out the case tor excluding him which they have th presented is fatally detective and it is no exaggeration to say that its success tie a menace to american liberty |