Show conscience w A if jhc thc recent tj bathe amor 1 1 r V IS mon TB problem haab brough tinto a question as to the scope of opinion or conscience the people of utah claim as a constitutional privilege the right of obey ing the honest conscientious dic batea of their the anti clement try to maintain that belief is no excuse for practices which are not generally sanctioned by the common consent of man kiml As nn merit against plural marriage it is alleged that the moral sense of the civilized world is opposed to it and that therefore it coughl to bo sup pressed by baw what is that moral sense Is it anything luord than a mere conviction that is more or less correct and righteous according to the intelli gence and rectitude of the individual if not then those who believe in polygamy and those who adhere jtb monogamy ought to have eual rights before the law tho great majority of the people of the united states fao vor monogamy and practice it because they believe it aright ur ight the mormon people believe quite as sincerely in plural marriage with an equal confidence as tu its rightfulness ful ness and they claim only the same freedom of opinion in the exercise of their belief which ia granted to monogamists some enter anti mormon writers arc fond af comparing polygamy with slavery they argue that both are twin relics of barbarism and therefore repugnant to the spirit of modern civilization but in reality this is only a foolish assumption slavery which has happily been abolished by the civil war was not based upon the conscience of the slave Alf chough involuntary servitude no longer exists in america except as u punishment for crime yet no one can or could deny the right of any individual to submit himself without compulsion to the will and service of another if the degrees of the south really desired to go back to their old masters and allow themselves to be controlled as they were war congress could not step in and eay to the voluntary it was a crime for him to willingly submit to the anle what made african slavery wai alio fact that the colored race was held in bondage against its will but there is not the analogy between slavery and the institution of plural marriage nor can polygamy amr bigamy bo in any way used as synonymous terms bigamy presupposes fraud the bigamist marries one woman and then for sordid or lascivious purposes marries another without tho knowledge or consent of the first wife who is often deserted and always defrauded bigamy therefore a crime of th e husband against the righta of a first wife and it ia also a fraud upon spouse who docs not know that she is wed ding a man already married but plural marriages marri agens it ia practiced here in utah is based on the conscientious ious consent of all parties aliat participate in its consummation if the farsi wife did not consent her husband could not lake an additional consort and ft he dad go he ought to be held anic nabla to punishment under the law but when the plural wafe aswell aa the first spouse deliberately libera tely knowingly and conscientiously enter nito polygamy no hu joau rights arc violated no confidence ia betrayed and up perpetrated and as long ai the husband of more than one woman provides for each of his wivel tup port children and recognizes them honorably as a part of his family no third party alio is in no way effected by the plural relationship liaa a right to step plural marriage ou eranea his moral it fiust therefore be a cri mcany more than the government of the united states would lave right hosny tosny that one man could not volunteer to bo the blaye of another if lie should chose to do so monogamy as it in connection with prostitution in the christian world is repulsive to tho moral feenst of the mormon people and yet would not monogamists consider it an outrage if the cormons mormons Mor mons hap bened to bo in tho majority and madi monogamy a crime the conflict between plural marriage and monogamy is entirely a question ot conscience which no law can properly with under the constitution of the united states marriage aa it 13 tisch in utah interfered with the rights of if it was objectionable to those who practise it then the law 9 nud should step to guarantee every against wrong or but it isi an indisputable fact that tho women of utah aro conscientiously devoted to polygamy otherwise under the provisions of the edmunda law they would speedily turn their polygamous husbands over into the hands of the courts and the institution madriago mar riago would perish at ence where a de facto crime is committed some one is injured in person or yand the wronged individual is not slow to seek justice at law but here in utah no ino has been injured and the only possible way to trump ap a case a polygamist under the edmunds act is by employing sneaks and disinterested hirelings to pry into alio harmonious domestic affair of plu ral families and swear out warranty of arrest against men who have never wronged their accusers di erectly or by imputation and then in order to secure a conviction plural wives have to bo literally forced to testify against their husbands to revert to the simile of slavery let us suppose that often the of the south had been liberated some of them had chosen to remain with their old masters and servo as they had before aliey were manumitted and continued to be virtual but voluntary slaves then would any ble person have been so foolish as to ask that Congress might inter lere and force such slaves to relin aguish the relationship of slavery which they deliberately desired to maintain why certainly not well on a like principle the people here in utah who are practicing plural marriage do BO voluntarily and conscientiously and their acla ship doea not wrong anybody or effect any one save themselves alone we know that the anti cormona Mor mona are fond of declaring that polygamy is immoral and therefore offensive to society but there is nothing in this allegation plural marriage is practiced practised in this territory solely as a means of begetting ch alx dren the plural wives are respected spec ted cherished and protected and their offspring cared for and made legitimate in every essential particular the great ghristian Ghi istian communities where the cry against polygamy is raised tolerate and footer prostitution although it makes women outcasts brings in bastards into the world branded with the badge of unavoidable shame and disseminates loathsome disease while it is destructive of the family relationship lation ship and subversive of the sanctity and purity of home and yet forsooth those who tolerate or practice this horrible harlotry as almost a necessary adjunct of monogamy cannot bear tho idea of plural marriage which offers to eradicate the ulcer of prostitution preserve the holiness of acknowledged wifehood and t all men and women in the performance of all the most hallowed duties and natural functions of life the conscience and the reason of the mormon people approve polygamy as they practice it under religious restraints for a pure purpose the misinformed and incon distant conscience of the christian world condemns polygamy while it the grossest immoralities the whole matter is entirely a question of conscience which should be left to settle itself and which is beyond the pale of law under a republican form of government 0 W POWERS opened court in ogden this morning his honor occupied the bench as enuch ease grace aa if jio had been born a judge ho pays the most careful attention atten lion to all that tho attorneys who appear with business before hitoi havo basay and exhibits every qualification of a able and weir meaning judge ho mani feats a most sincere and cordial desire to do his duty with such courtesy and exactitude that we are confident that ho may yet become one of the greatest judicial who have ever adorned he judge anent seat in any land A r little sheet published hero in ogden ia eternally professing to bo nonpartisan non partisan and nonsectarian non sectarian but perpetually ins dulling in dirty ely hub under banded clings at tho mormon peo tho city authorities and the chief residents of ogled last night ui disgusting print harped about law defying traitors tho aint of treason and tho vermin of vice when it kiowa well enough that there is no such thing us treason or traitors in this territory except in the lying minds of rabid anti cormona and as for tho veri nin of vire it ia generally supposed the little sheet means that the low class grog shopkeepers are vermin of this description and seems strange eliat a whisky pal try scribbler should thus RO back on hia kindred vermin which ho baa defended so in alio past |