Show THE EDMUNDS STATUTE AND JURORS editor HERALD the recent decisions of the tb e third district court in relation to the qualification of jurors under the edmunds statute and the allowance of certain questions put by the united states attorney to hem them have caused a review of said statute by section bit 5 it is provided that in any prosecution for bi bigamy polygamy or unlawful colia cohabitation 1 under any statute of oft ho tic united states it shall be sufficient cause of challenge ac c first for actual polygamy second that he lie believes it right t for a man to have lave more than one living and wife at the sometime same time orto or to jivoin live in the practice of cohabiting with more than one woman now the question is what does this lau guazo import there ia is nothing eaid said as to the disqualification of grand jurors more than trial jurors it is I 1 not said that in any anticis anticipated abed prosecution the juror shall be disqualified for said causes what ia is a prosecution in its pa legal sense does it mean a mere mero intent br or anticipation of inducting indicting indic ting some one sec see 3 criminal procedure p 71 session acts 1878 which provides that every public offense must be pros by indictment except 0 frenses cs triable in justices and police courts and in those courts it is provided in said act the prosecution ahall shall be by information it also provides b how ow prosecutions may bo be begun before the inferior judiciary even for offenses lenses of triable alone in tho the district courts bo we have a leeal lecal definition of prosecution se whether in the superior or inferior courts and until started as provided by law there is no prosecution i and euch such wag was the territorial law I 1 when the edmunds statute was enacted and its language and meaning were perfectly understood and accepted bv congress and adopted by it without modification prosecution means to put in motion tho the legal machinery by which act an offender frinder of may be finally brought to whether by information or ins in di S ament and whether process be bo sued out of the district justices police or united states commissioners or other inferior interior magistracy by which the party may bo be held to ap cearto pear to answer any indictment no doubt it would come within the legal definition cut but suppose there be no such prosecutions pending and the V U S attorney merely anticipates 1 starting artinr t some prosecution what authority has lie to put such quett question ions or the court to reject the grand juror for any euch such caude by the langu language ago of the edmunds Edmund 8 statute the prose cu tion must exist before tha juror can be so challenged it is not applicable to an anticipated prosecution webster defines prosecution let to pursue with a view to reach 2nd and tho the instituting and carrying on oil a suit in a court of law but suppose the prosecution has been actually started and is pending and a monogamist mormon is called him tho the language of tho the statute ia is not dubious but ia is plain and intelligible that he lie be lieve it right for a man to have more liau than onu one living and wife kc c and he answers there is a law of tho the united states against it I 1 reco recognize nize that every man whilst living under a government should obey its lairs wa and that it is wrong to violate them has he not riot then fully shown his competency corn potency but the U S attorney by bermis permission sion of tho the court J goes around the direct provision of the statute by inquiring do you be bes long to the mormon church and if so 80 do you believe in revelations an and d that polygamy is authorized by the divine vivine law and being affirmatively answered tho the question is then pu put t which do dodou you recognize as the supe bior law the divine or the municipal law and being answered justas just as every christian Cli ristian minister ar or believer in the ald and new testaments and as taught by all english and american i commentators 0 in menta tors on law that the divine is s the superior law he is directed to stand aside I 1 submit with all due deference to prosecution attorneys and courts that this does not disqualify ij il should d like to see any methodist episcopalian catholic presbyterian baptist congregational and other christian minister say ho he believed the municipal law superior to tho the divine law could any but an infidel daro dare to put the laws of god inferior to that of man would the impious thought much less expression ever be tolerated that puny man in in hia his infirmities and fac buies could make a better code than god Is there a true believer in josua who would acknowledge that any earthly government has a municipal system equal to the code olour of our savior as found in the new testament the questions eo so put are calculated to entrap the unwary and unsuspecting and 3 et every man knows that it is wrong to violate tho laws of a country when lie owes its alle allegiance gianco and is under its protection al although tb ough he may condemn some of its laws theman the manufacturers and benders of ardent spirits loe relieve lieve they have a natural right to and sell it but out when ahe government prohibits its laic sale they recognize recoe nizo that it is wrong to violate the law many believe thai that no man should bo be allowed to own and indeed that they cannot own more land than is is necessary for his occupancy aud and support yet when the laws of tho the country secure the title to him they believe it wrong to coerce it from him many disbelieve in churches toland that they area burden to the community yet they believe it wrong to disturb them in their legal rights many believe the th dicine law that the harlot should betoken betaken be taken without the gates of tit the 0 city and stoned to death to be right and yet to do so in a gov prohibiting euch such an act would be wrong this elucidation might be carried on onca ad infinitum but all know that the belief in the tle superiority of divine over municipal law is not a test of what is wright and wrong when there ia is a positive statute to be obeyed for it is the citizens duty to obey the law laws of his government and when h he a can no longer do so ho he should expatriate himself and seek for a moro more congenial government and lawa law men often believe laws unconstitutional yet recognize their duty to obey them until the proper bunal determines the question as to their validity others besides polygamists and the government are interested in the formation and personnel of each grand jur jury y and froug is often dona done them by the judicial amendment to the edmunds statute and which ia is be bes lieven to be without legal sanction and wit will be so 19 held when the proper presentation is made to the united Sup supreme rense court lux HOWL and democrat democrats growl grow and liberals and all run afoul the american constitution which they tread under foot and pull out by root and the branches to boot when at uth utah they shoot with their r guns full of filth and pal lution they clamber and climb and they chant chaut and they chime without reason or rhyme and the songs songe nil all the ti time r a e let the tho mormons cormons go to old harry but their ruin or rule prescriptions a fool though their issues they pool they will learn in our school tho the Mor mormon mons still live and till still marry no SPECIAL attention adema hitherto to have been culled calle t to 0 th the remarkable portraits of american statesmen that have recently been appe appearing aring in Jr harpers arpero they have included BO so far full page portraits of washington tho the elder adams Jef jefferson fierson madison Madi aon and alexander hamilton besides several smaller portraits for the may number we are promised monroe henry olay and rufus king and mr brueh olat rue I 1 the distinguished engraver who has done most of these is understood to be busy upon the younger adams jackson calhoun webster and others the portrait of Buchanan in the january number may also se be mentioned many of theao these have been en engraved raved from original paintings gra 1 n gs or drawings drawings wings not before reproduced u ed and the result is likely to be an american portrait gallery itly fitly presented in the highest etyle style oft of the he especially capeci ally american art of wood engraving |