Show UTAH AFFAIRS i I 1 I 1 1 k A lawyers better letter 0 to o the sec see detary of thel n ifer for i I 1 I 1 HOW TO DISPOSE POLYGAMY OF or I 1 1 I 1 president john Tayl letter to george recommendations ti I 1 I 1 I 1 1 Conclude dT of the difficulties in the way bray of the public forming kite safe opi opinions anions mr curtis says no public question has arisen in ruy my time on which the ize public have so little means for fd safe opinions as a they have on what is called the mormon question to moet most persons the practice of polygamy is all that is supposed to be involved Inthis in this matter very few of the moet most intelligent people have any comprehension of the problem in statesmanship and jurisprudence which has come about the omis orals olon of the federal government to deal with polygamy in the tha at an earlier period when the whole question waa was much more simple than it isalow is now when there were were fewer persons to be affected and ind when there bad had not come ln into 16 existence many thousand thousands of offspring of poly gamoua marriages now constituting about one fifth of the whole population of utah very few people in the country at large understand the circumstances cum stances which have caused intelligent and virtuous women to enter into plural marri marriage agNA connection that is just as voluntary as any other form of the marriage relation the relation elation of plural wives to one husband is just as holy and innocent innocent according to the mormon religious belief as a the relation of marriage be one woman and one man no one can understand this peculiar moral phenomenon without referring to the religious belief of the he people called Mor mons and no one can perceive the true limits to public interference with these relations without knowing what the religious belief of these people Is andhor and how it originated this is the first time that a public question has arisen sin since the adoption of the first amendment of the federal constitution in which the meaning and operation of the ous liberty guaranteed by that amendment have come into legisla le gisia live tive and judicial consideration to ah xh aw the line brie between that individual conduct which the civil power may prohibit or punish and that which it may not is not attended with insuperable difficulties but it has now become 1 in the case of these mormons cormons Mor mons imperatively feces sary the questions what ia cc cohabitation ib abita and the power of Cong reea over the territories are treated exhaustively hau and clearly the first amendment to the con ution is discussed as follows when the first amendment to the constitution declared that congress Cong reps shall make no law respecting an es of religion or prohibiting tho the free exercise thereof it meant to make two things constitutionally impossible to establish ah any national religion or any religion to be bea supported up ported or upheld by the federal authority ad to make it impossible pow tible for congress to prohibit 1 abit the free exercise of religious beliefs there Is 1 DO no difficulty whatever in determining ter the meaning of this last provision the free exercise of afre religion comprehends the holding of any rel religious ou belief and the do doing ilog of any act c t dictated i t ted by that belief which Is in itself and its consequences innocent or praiseworthy to prohibit the free exercise of religion is to make a law which prevents the individuals from carrying out in their lives those rel religious u beliefs which dictate orleaf to actions in no way injurious to society perhaps it will be asked askea why upon the concession that congress may prohibit polygamy in a territory notwithstanding the r religious elig lous belief ort e i ef of those who practise it that it is commanded or permitted by the divine law it is not equally competent to congress to punish any conduct that congress may deem it necessary to sepress in order to put an end enato to polygamy I 1 propose to answer this que question tion by examining the existing legislation on the subject of vo polygamy ly and cohabitation and the ju ju acial interpretation abat baj bull been given to it in the territorial court courts of utah the subject t of legislation aaion on polygamy and cohabitation and the judicial interpretation thereof is treated at great length and the ludicrous recommendation of gov arnor west yest in regard to the military is entirely demolished the utah commission come in for a bare of criticism ip which tb the ollo yng occurs brand the cormon population bf utah as religious fanatics and ani they cay aay that tho the government has to deal with a IL people who are wonderfully superstitious aad aRd fanatically devoted to their Is system yate m of r res e union thie this is put forward its a kind of motive for additional legislation and as a reason for expecting that polygamy gamy will be suddenly or eppedi polygamy Foly ly v exterminated individuals who biffer differ from each oilier other on any sub subject elect lect of religion way call each other fanatics if they are so disposed but ft a government which undertakes to treat any portion of its subjects as fanatics or r to shape ito its measures mea euree towards thorn them on the tho assumption that they aro are wonderfully su eubera titio ua is on the high road to renious religious par persecution se and will soon sooner eror or later end at that coal I 1 it I 1 had an op opportunity portiA to do eo so I 1 should like to ask sk tho hon Com Commission cra to be good enough 3 PU public birc or governs govern advisers to define maligi fan abiam and superstition I 1 rathey rather think wink that alie effort woul end in the vorhof definition eliat makes orthodoxy ty ray d doxy and heterodoxy your doxy mr curtis then closes with t the ile following te commendations I 1 I 1 can conceive of a policy very different from that which has been followed of late and is now propos proposes eU to be supplemented by still 0 r e stringent measures and I 1 will ketch h one that would as I 1 believe strongly tend to bring polygamy to an end men mary who married plural wives before there waa was any law prohibiting buch unions but who since that law went into operation have confined their sexual relations to one of their wives should not be prosecuted or pu punished dished at all under that section of the statute which makes polygamy bigamy so loria long as se they mai maintain etain with all of their w wives ve but one no other than tho the relation of protecting friends belief or the profession afes sion of belief in the eternity 0 of ft the e moral and spiritual tie is a perfectly unfit and improper matter to be interfered with by the civil power ad men who married plural wives after such unions were prohibited by law should be required after conviction of bigamy to give security that they will confine their sexual relation to one of their wives and that woman should be registered as the admitted wife wire of that man ad neither of the above class classes eaon of men should be lie prosecuted or molest ed under the ad section of the statute for unlawful cohabitation on account of any association emaciation with the plural vf wives ives that thit is not sexual or on account of any recognition or profession of the religious and moral tie which the par ties all believe to be for time and for eternity ath in in order to have the ad section of the edmunds act in cases where convictions have been had under it receive construction by the supreme court of the united sta states tes provision for that purpose should be made at on once i ce by law ath in order lo 10 ro carry out this poll oy let there be detailed from the de apartment part ment of justice some suitable person erson as counsel to proceed to utah under proper instructions authorizing him to take of all prosecutions under the edmunds act now pending or that may be instituted for on one year with authority to direct the district actor attorney in euca cases cues and to supervise the ad administration mints of the law lat und under er the control of the actor attorney ney general the adoption of such a course as this would supersede all nee necessity casity for measures respecting the mormon church er or respecting immigration or the employment of a military force and kind atwould it would aided by known differences of belief among the mormons in 10 regard to plural marriage put an end to polygamy poly camy in no very long time for it ie is beyond question that while the older mormons believe plural marriage to be a religious duty when circumstances favor it the younger member the denomination regard it as permitted but not required by the divine law and consequently very few of the younger men have married more than one wife we have only to exercise a little patience and refrain from persecution and we may look to see polygamy die a natural death at no very distant day we do not need to modify the law that makes polygamy bigamy bigam y andall and all that we have to do I 1 in regard re ard to con babi tion tiou is to allow tre the supreme C court ourt to do what congress has never done to define the ine meaning aning of the word I 1 beg Secretary Mr to be explicitly understood that in making this suggestion lr estion of a better policy towards the mormons of utah I 1 express my own opinions only without any prompting from any quarter my voice may be the voice vote of one crying in the wilder nesa nem I 1 am conscious that ih I 1 have aye very little power of any kind still lees less have I 1 any political influence but while I 1 have strength to utter my protest against the policy that has been for sometime pursued I 1 shall not cease to utter it I 1 look upon that policy and the further measures that are proposed in the same samo direction as a huge mistake to me it elems very plain that we are preparing to have on our hands a problem quite as formidable I 1 as that which baa has long troubled the british government in ireland bu but for different reasons and on a smaller scale the panacea of disfranchise anent ent of the mormon people of utah and the bugge suggested 0 le d project of abolishing the ter territorial r i t r ia legislature a and nd governing go vernin the territory ry by a federal commission are kindred measures tending directly to the establishment of f a pro consular system and the removal of every ve tige of home rule such a system would doubtless afford magnificent opportunities for plu plunder rider and this gove ament cannot expert to be so fortunate as its not to bare bave its PO powers were wielded at times by men who will bo be quite capable of making the most of such Q especially if the tho des despoiling polling of the mormon church should be enacted into a law and made an example for other nations liati ons add to all this the presence of a strong well disciplined and efficient military force to aid the civil power and the work of making our ireland ireland will be coin complete I 1 am mr secretary with great respect your obedient servant ervant 11 ow |