Show of george curtis nils tei icily ly Arguin argument ent THE SUPREME COURT I 1 in behalf of apostle lorenzo snow plaintiff in error against the united states in these days when nearly all men are worshiping at the shrine of copus larity with the devotion of zealots zealous zea lots it Is e seldom one finds a man who is willing to undertake the defense of an unpopular cause especially when the parties interested have no political influence and aarein are in no condition to reward with political honors those who advocate the justice of their claims by the interposition of a constitutional objection or otherwise if one is found who has the intrepidity to stem the tide of popular clamor and say to the frenzied populace why do ye so a chorus of clamors clamors is vamped from the throats of the tile leaders leader of the opposition to drown his dein demands ands for justice and bis his appeals for mercy they seldom if ever answer his argument satisfied if they can by any means turn against him the tide of popular sentiment still in our day as in all the ages that are past wo we find men grand enough in character to lo defend a cause they may esteem to be right what whatever eyer may be the applause on the one hand br or the popular condemnation on the other it therefore comes to paes pass that the mormon people though banned by the popular sentiment of modern christendom with every mans liand hand raised against them powerless to reward men with poll political cicat patronage wb who 0 may render weir ti ervIce b by V i a vl werd I 1 their defense have borall this found men who would risk the loss of lar favor and regard it as a privilege to defend those rights they ar believe devoto to be infringed infringed upon buch such was gen thomas L kane and judge jeremiah S black and now george ticknor curtis may be added to the list thomas L kano and judge black learned that neither the purity of their motives the uprightness of their private lives nor the probity of their public careers was sufficient to 0 ward off black wounding calumny which still at the whitest virtue strikes the experience of mr curtis promises to be the same in ill the exordium to his argument before the tile supreme court in the snow case the other day bo he appended tore mark that he be had bad pa passed eg that time of life when the energies were full when ambition was hiah 1 when a applause was sweet and th alie e desire fg for success was keen and that he lie had bad readied reached that period of life past three score a and nd ten where man looks backward and not forward when nothing is left but duty to be discharged because it is duty this is all called daiv eling seni senility liti and cited as a proof r that in old a age e a avarice y arice outweighs all other cons considerations erat ions in his concluding remarks he lie expresses regrets that he had not given besses his lie time earlier to the causa cause of the oppressed this is called hypocrisy sy a and is is ridiculed but some day t the le world will know that ridicule ridic tilo is not argument nor a sneer refutation mr curtis presented resented his argument before tt the e court under two inabin main propositions the first which when condensed conden ced la Is the construction given by bv the etab courts to the third ejection of the edmunds act makes it violate the fust amendment to the constitution because it makes the tile statute punish the profession of a religious belief when applied to a state of facts euch such as the snow cases pre bent pent ander this general he reviews the evidence on which snow was convicted 1 and proves that his client was convi convicted c ted for living in the village with several ladies that bad been married to him but with whom he had ceased to cohabit as a husband and who lived in their own separate houses blowing by the evidence that for over four years his client had cohabited exclusively exclusive lv with but one wife true he acknowledged ed the others ae as his wives not in a car nal but in a religious sense which could give no offense ense under the statute aa as it was not attended by any haunting flaunting of the opportunities of a bigamous household in the face of society ithial aich only prompted acts giat were innocent and meritorious and in the assertion of any cohabitation consisting of visiting at rare intervals supporting driving out in a carriage with one or more ot of them attention to a sick child A festivity on oil hie his birthday in the place of their public woral worship wora hip lipis in this connection mr cu curtie asks ask if the word cohabitation is to have an interpretation that will require a man to renounce every duty 1 to disi dis honor the dead and agonize the living bring shame upon himself Is it to receive an interpretation without any reference to the obligation obligations or restraint restraints resting on the sov which enacted the law Is it to be made to mean a coni con tive living together when there tins been nothing but the discharge of la odthe highest obligation thia this constructive cohabitation makes this single word the r most elastic plastic that was ever put into a statute there is nothing that it will not reach let me enumerate 0 I 1 cohabitation with sexual inter course that ie is of cobrae within the statute 2 cohabitation by dwelling under the same roof without sexual intercourse that was cannons case now we come to the diving line 3 cohabitation by dwelling under different roofs but c each other and wl without th ont B sexual e lin intercourse ter 4 cohabitation by dwelling in different towns but writing to each other sending supplies delle aces medicines etc in case of 81 5 3 celia cohabitation citation by living in different countries but corresponding and speaking of each other as husband and wife 6 cohabitation by nets acts of kindness and attention during a series of years although not dwelling together and then when the deathbed deathbed death Zed bed scene comes and the husband stands there for a last lut farewell and when all la Is over for this life he be follows tier her remains to the grave and writes on the gravestone fl harriet arriet wife of lorenzo snow that too is unlawful coli cohabitation abita 1 have we enacted a law so barbarous as this in the vain hope that we can call stamp butof the buman heart a re livious belief in the relation that subsists in it when oceans roll between the parties and when one has crossed the gulf that se time biorn from eternity no we aye have hotl not such constructions are impossible the second proposition urged by mr curtle curtis was that aside from any constitutional object objectless lens there was no evidence or cohabitation in either of the ehret cases on which snow was tried except with one woman this proposition he lie demonstrates beyond all question but to no avail so far as bringing relief to his client as the case was subsequently dismissed for want of jurisdiction in none of the comments in the i press is the there re any either of the facts or arguments of the learned lawyer but there ie is a resort to what degraded minds will not scruple to descend when unable to meet an issue with argument and I 1 that is abuse that is the one to which the op opponents p ants of the mormon people and to their e 1 r defenders arc are ter resorting now but it to be hoped that those who have raised their voices in the defense of an oppressed people will not falter in the ehod cause jn time to come it will be said of them they were friends in truth they sueO succored Ked tile OP oppressed they defends defend ed the weak tuy they died cried avaunt to tyranny and demanded justice and mercy for the tile despised and hated a record that will be a monument more mor e enduring more valuable than a marble marible 1 shaft however embellished by the cu cunning nning of the skilled sculptor S L herald |