Show JUDGE BLACK la in vigorous Lau language guage exposes thi the injustice odthe of the edmunds bill the unconstitutionality of tho the hoai hoar amendment and other wrongs inflicted on the th people utah tiie the following from a lato late issue of oj the tile chicago times will bo be read with great interest iu terest t by al who like to read a fair statement odthe utah offices question t washington Tox sept 29 judge blacks argument in ih behalf of tile people of utah is in bis his roost most vigorous and characteristic style and gives liis ills opinions opinions of post ballum reconstruction per cent assessments and other matters as well as the right of suffrage in utah judge black begird with the tile statement that an election of territorial officers fixed by bylaw law for the esth of august could not lawfully lawfully y be held by the tile officers whom the people had previously chosen and whom the edmunds bill had displaced and the commissioners did not get to utah U tali or enter eliter on their duties till it was too late to make up u the registers and bold an election therefore tt ere there was no election and and can bo be none till august esth next year but dailve failure to elect does not create a vacancy in any office the general rule of law and the specified statutes odthe of the territory provide that all officers shall hold over till their successors are dulc elected and qualified fled the federal judges in utah knowing this very well but desiring to enlarge the powers of the government wrote to some senators a letter which was received at the close of the session in which the they v represented that gener al disturbance and trouble were liable to be caused good order en endangered dang ered and organic government put in serious jeci jeopardy pard unless congress would provide for legal successors to all officers whose successors would havo have been chosen at the annual election the judiciary committee of the senate did not understand the object b act or suggestion of this the tho budges judges wanted an act authorizing the governor to seize all off offices icea vacant or not and fill 1111 them with creatures of his own the senators supposed that all offices were liable to be vacant on august etli and judge black is of tho the belief that the senators had very little tle idea of what tho the edmunda edmunds bill which they had just passed meant for senator hoar eaid it provided r ovidea for a new election to be herd held in a new way and that a new territorial government might be started in three or four months mon th hoar and bayard fixed up tip an amendment to an appropriation bill giving tho governor of the territory power to fill vacancies resulting from non election on august etli tile governors Gov ernoes commission to be good good for not more than eight months in mont lia but no vacancies were nvere created crea teil by failure to hold an election and mr blackburn said in tho the house that every member odthe of the conference committee was agreed that the amendment could not give the government power lo 10 appoint ap point to offices whose incumbents held bold over yet vet tho the governor lias has within a few days made appointments point ments to various offices which lie tha present incumbents chosen by the people will not yield without a contest judge black sava I presume he intends to carry his ills point by force unless you the secretary of the I interior teri or in the absence of the president forbid him if he lie succeeds he and the small anti antl popular faction that backs him will possess themselves of unlimited authority which they will use for the foulest purposes the they will seize all the offices as their jwj lawful I prey put the people under their feet and trample tho the life out of society owning every assessor and collector of taxes and every custodian of the public money moncy and beine bein a at t the same time masters of t the 11 e whole ole police courts magistrates sheriffs and constables they will revel in plunder it will not cost their ingenuity an effort nor their conscience a i pang to burden the territory with dc debt bt sell bonds put tho the proceeds in their own pockets and tax labor to death fur for their payment not public property ro perty alone but the lands and goods of individuals individuals will bo be taken to orge 90 the rapacity of the false and illegitimate rulers peculiar circumstances not found in any other territory may bo be and already are set up as excuses for robbing the churches to justify these acts of oppression the privacy of families in the most sacred relations their kitchens and their bed chambers will bo be exposed and misrepresented by eavesdroppers coppers and lying delatore rc re latorE the tile judge praises the thrift and land enterprise Friter prise of the tile people in ili cultivating a desert and lys utah is rich now and the people arc are living in comfort but sho el I cannot stand what south carolina did there is no ten ton years of good stealing there 11 ko no man he lie says sa s is good enough to be trusted with such power in the great horde of thieves that overran the south under the auspices of the federal some were not without fair reputation repa tation at home what makes the matter worse for the cormons mormons Mor mons is that the leader ol 01 their enemies is tile same governor vilio less than a year car ago signalizes his lie bontem pt forlaw and justice a and rid t truth rut li by deliberately certifying to the election of a candidate for or delegate to congress whom he lie and a all I I men knew to be defeated by a majority of fourteen to one F furthermore any outrage on cormons mormons Mor mons would bo be hailed with sincere delight in all sections of the tile country the judge com concludes ludes this portion of his argument thus it ricel needs only that you tell the governor to give up hia his lawless enterprise that the Edin edmunds ands bill was not a bill of pains ains and penalties and that neither that nor any other law will mill justify his contemplated usurpation and that he lie must therefore confine himself to liis his proper duties dutie sand and leave the people in possession oft of their heir just ast ri rights gh s J cudse d ge black then turns to the consideration of the tile commissioners and asks if the tile disfranchisement imposed by the edmunds law could be inflict cd for or for future futuro offenses lensea of without legal co conviction and n replica l if I 11 had ta t the le voice oia of n thousand trumpets I would answer as loud as I could to suppose congress Con congi gresa evi meant to make acts retroactive ii I to chargo charge char go it with wilful violation of the tile constitution the commissioners commanded the reci registration officers t to strike from froin the list of voters every citizen who refuses to swear that lie is innocent c t of polygamy poly amy and to place none oe on the list w who f io will not undergo ho the tamo same purgatory ei process the commissioners ners had no more right to pass such a decree than they had to t order that every 31 mormon ormun in the te territory arito should bo be shot or strangled ind indeed the massacre at glencoe commanded by william III for delay in taking the test oath closely resembles this case in every p point int and circumstance except tai that at it t wag death there thero and and disfranchisement here ii ere the Ther measure ure is merely an act of attainder or bill of pains and penalties I and therefore unconstitutional it violates the fundamental da mental law by inflicting punishment without a trial a degrading and infamous punishment co consisting ri of deprivation de r of the th most important ri right that a citizen has entailing the tile loss of his caste in society and reducing him to the condition of a mere Pa pariah riall besides this it Is ex post facto in its operation aeration era tion the registers and election officers leers off arc are required bequir ed to extend inquisition on over twenty years of every mans and every homans womans previous life lire hold all to be guilty who do not furnish the demanded proof for their innocence and thereupon to adjudge them to suffer a punishment which no law annexed to their offenses at the time they were committed ko no man is bound to testify against himself you cannot command him to swear in liis his own ca case seand and tell him beforehand before hand that if ho be does not obey you on will take liis ills silence as A it confession of guilt the judge then introduces some striking illustrations the presence in washington of a large number of half breeds physical not political leads him to suggest that public sentiment would not tolerate a commission that attempted to turn out of office or away from the tile polls every man who would not swear that during in the tile past twenty years he lie had not men been responsible for the existence of any one of these recent events suggest another illustration to him lie says high placed men tax the salaries of their subordinates subordinate a to keep them selves elves in power the inferior officer the contractor the laborer are mado mere instruments for drawing money from the treasury and putting it into a fund which manufactures public public opinion and corrupts elections it it is tile worst form that public robbery has assumed it is money twice cursed in the wa way y in which it is taken and in alio t I l purpose for which it is 18 used it is s already prohibited b by law but still sti I it goes on and it will never sto stop u until util T the tic offenders are dis franchises franchised a consummation devoutly to be wished but the thought cannot be endured of treating them as wo treat the cormons mormons Mor mons catching them with a test oath which reaches back like the terrible hind hand ofa of a corilia corilla would our mighty leaders leade i rg like the alternative of losing their offices and their votes on the tile one hand land or sw swearing earine on the other that they had never violated the law against political assessments or evaded it by gettins getting members of Con congress gness to do the prohibited thing in their elead and for their benefit judge bluck concludes as follows this is my argument now hear my prayer pryer remove these unfaithful commissioners ners unless they immediately retrace their steps and betake themselves to the path which the law and the have traced out for i them |