Show THE REASON WHY t but last wednesday afternoon thoi thos 11 IL bullock appeared before the first dietrict district court at ogden judge H P henderson presiding mr bullock had been convicted of illegal s 1 l coll cohabitation abi tation upon hie his own plea of guilty he had bad given give ithe the court officers no tro trouble tible and only walked lik like Q jamb to the slaughter therefore his attorney solicited leniency for him judge henderson in in response rei ponie to the appeal for clein clemency eucy expressed ome some graceful sentiments respecting the reluctance with which hie his honor performed the duty of passing sentence on an all occasions and ti ally expressed the wish that the prisoner before him would relieve the tho court from the necessity of passing sentence in the case by kroml in to obey the edmunds law a in tee haure future 11 mr r bullock would make no euch promise and lu judge 9 e tend henderon Hen denon e rejo rejoined i ned that his honor did aia not know why people made ade the remark that they cannot promise obedience to the 1 J ni I 1 in any that there is no real legal reason why they should not promise to obey ae 11 1 lawand l and that it was the only thing equi red in arder that the court might suspend the penalties of the law the judge further declared that he could not un understand why the khe prison prisoner tr might not avoid six months imprisonment by ruch uch promise ra ise but although his honor adverted to the possibility of being rearrested which the defendant a might incur after he had bad satisfied thelah the law in bis his present cue and revamped the fifty millions of pie iris tragedy gedl yet dd the court refrain from any bitter 0 or r vindictive tirade and ana therefore we may give his hi I 1 honor credit for sincerity it is true that there is no legal reason why men convicted und under erthe the edmunds act should pot not promise to obey the law in the future but to the mormons there are moral reasons of primary importance why such a course bourse cannot be the taken merely to escape unjust punishment which is directed at a religious tenet tenc tin in which they sincerely believe originally it was claimed by the supporters of the edmunds law that it waa was enacted in the in forests of morality the first rul courts upon what constituted the cohabitation sought 0 to be interdicted by that e enactment n Act ment tended to confirm the view that sexual relations were alone aimed at then came the famous hold ing out construction and ana a dozen ether other conceived ill contradictory coal rA dictor y ja judicial AT acial 1 interpretations at first the courts held that a polygamist might live with any one of bis his wives andrit and not violate the law so long as he h did not cohabit with another or others otters but when it was desirable to convict an in eminent apostle Apo itle for the first fint time the court ruled that the polygamist must live w with his is first or legal wife anly and that asit if he lived with if si plural wife 0 exclusively and yet had bada legal wife living be he was guilty of unlawful cohabitation from the first most of the mor nor mons accused of unlawful cob cohabitation under the edmunds law have been victimized by peculiar rulings aad and from the first also they rave felt that they could jnue obedience to that enactment bithe la ane future without doing violence to their conscience conscience if indeed they could ever comprehend just what such x promise woud would imply dived and conflicting ruling of the court courto A few did try the efficacy of a promise to esca escape pe punish punishment P ent however bov tover and among hese raso P arnold no doubt he made the promise in J good faith and kept it as he thought but he waa was nevertheless fined and in a few month months notwithstanding hia his promise he was accused and convicted again and sentenced to pay nearly the full penalty of the law on a three count indictment the circumstance circumstances in his case and in in other cases made it clear to the public that a promise however conscientiously made or carefully kept WAS no safeguard against a re and a repetition of punishment hence the folly ofa of a promise simmered down to its primary elements a promise made by a mormon convicted of unlawful corabi tation implies a pledge to repudiate one or more faithful wives with whom the promising party has entered into a most moist solemn engage ment to love cherish and provide for as long as be he and they might live thus a mormon polygamist who promises to obey the edmunds law jaw ag interpreted by the courts must either break that promise or in the event that he keeps it he be must violate an equally or even more aafred promise made to god and his plural wife or wives after lu such ch a promise is made to escape punishment at the hands ofa of a court dishonor becomes the only alternative it is true that a dishonest and unscrupulous person need never be punished hed for unlawful cob cohabits abita hiob when he can escape with a cheap promise but the mormons accused under edmunds act areas are as a rule upright honest and sc lupu lous men who are accustomed to fulfill every moral and reli religious gigus obligation and to ask our such 12 men to make a promise which they must 18 either ither break forthwith or allow their most solemn marriage vows to stand impeached and broken broke uio is to offer an insult to their integrity and honor which they would preserve unsullied even though menaced ac ed with death this is one of many potent reasons why people in utah sometimes reject the eunity to purchase immunity from punishment by making a promise |