OCR Text |
Show ! j! AFTER THE HOLIDAYS. Senator Edmunds has given notice that : he will ask the Senate to take up his j Utah bill immediately after the holiday I recess. This shows that Utah is to oc- I : cupy a prominent place in Congress this I winter. The earnest, persistent work of ( I ., Congress is not begun until after the hol- ' idays, and the fact that the ' Utah bill is ; to come up immediately after New Year j is proof sufficient that legislation of some s f sort on the Utah matter will be had early i J in the session. There may be other bills S l introduced beside this one of Senator I Edmunds', but if none are, it goes to I f show that Congress has no interest in I j Utah, or that Congress is content with the measure now before it. j This bill of Senator Edmunds' is not entirely adequate to the Utah question, while it contains some provisions that are ; ' pernicious, and others that will prove in- I i operative. There is no reason in the world why the jurisdiction of justices of 1 the peace should be conferred upon f ! ; United States commissioners, and such !' i jurisdiction can only tend to degrade the office of commissioner. If commission- I era are to have the same jurisdiction as justices of the peace have, that jurisdic-! jurisdic-! tion will not be confined to any particular ! 1 county, but will extend throughout the i Territory. Is there any reason whatever why this should be ? That provision of this new bill to cure I ! all our evils which contemplates the con- i . fiscation of the property of the j Mormon church, will prove to te f inoperative, while the policy of such I : ;.' a measure is extremely doubtful, f ' The spirit of the age is against such measures, and the spirit of the age means j civilization softened by the influence of : Christianity. The United States are not I , ; m as much danger from Mormonism as ; t England was from Catholicism in thesix- j j teenth and the seventeenth centuries, and yet the confiscation of Catholic prop- : ) erty in England in those ages is even to I -j this day looked upon as an act of barbar- ' j ism. It may be desirable to re-enact in I, ; j the United States the statutes of mort- .; main, but to prevent a future ac- j cumulation of property in a dead " i hand is entirely different from wrest- I ; ng a present accumulation from i f ; such a hand. And then again, the j ; property of the Mormon church at which I ! j this bill aims is in such a condition and I I i the title is so held . that it will be next to I ; ) impossible to come at the property. The I I ; chief source of wealth of the Mor- ' i mon church is the tithing. The Mor ! mon people will not pay their tithes j- to the fourteen trustees to be appointed ! ; under this bill, and they would be foolish if they did. ' A mandamus could not issue to compel them to pay tithing, nor would I a quo warranto lie against a bishop who ; 6hould receive it. Tithing offices would of course be done away with. The pow-I pow-I ; ers conferred upon deputy marshals are j most extraordinary, and the situation in I j Utah does not warrant their grant. I The provision relating to adultery is j j :1 probably the most searching of all. Un- I i ? der this clause it will be impossible for ' men who have been living in unlawful co- I habitation to cast off their legal wives after I ' I having promised to obey the law as re- j J gards unlawful cohabitation. For such I 'j men to choose to live with a second or j third wife and abandon the first wife will . be impossible so far as running no dan- I - ger from the law is concerned. If this i , :' new Edmunds bill shall become law such I a course of action will lay these men lia- : j ble to prosecution for adultery, f ! -All these provisions for tbe suppression : ; of polygamy will fail of a desirable result unless this new bill shall be so amended as to require the registration of births, I ' j and make the failure to register births ! ; .' punishable by fine and imprisonment. Tolygamy is inconsistent with the unit $ j of the State as founded, but the family as ' - such unit looks forward to the rearing of ' ' children to be future citizens. If the j I j State did not look with solicitude upon I-... tlie fam'"y as the source from whence .' its citizens come, the danger to it from "; polygamy would not be so great. Hence the necessity for a registration of births in . s Utah. |