OCR Text |
Show DISCUSSING THE UTAH BILL. A Telegram from Commisioner Paddock and a Ileply from Senator Van Wyck. Washington, January .7. At 2 o'clock the Utah bill came up and Senator Morgan addressed ad-dressed the Senate upon it. He spoke in support of an amendment offered of-fered by him, providing for the disposal of the property of the-Mormon church, according accord-ing to the rules and principles of the common com-mon law, as in case of the dissolution of a corporation. He felt, he said, that we ought to strike the Mormon church organization out of existence. It was its shrewd temporal organization that had gained it so much power. Its emigrant arrangements, its tithing tith-ing capaoity, its money power, and generally its organizing vigor, had been the wonder of our time. Instead of appointing trustees for the management of temporal matters, Congress should cut up the organization at the root and branch. Mr. Call did not believe that Congress had the right to destroy a religious establishment. estab-lishment. THE MOBMON PBACTICE OF POLXOAMY, ' Unholy though it was, did not authorize us to viols te the Constitution of the United States, by legislating in regard to an establishment estab-lishment of religion or to take private property prop-erty for publio use. Referring to Edmunds s point that it was not the religious but the temporal concerns of the ohuroh that were to be administered by the trustees provided by the bill, Mr. Call inquired, what would be the right of Congress if it should undertake under-take to administer by trustees or otherwise the property and temporal affairs of, for example, the Roman Catholic Church. He read from the early Puritan laws to show that in the seventeenth century, - the Quakers Quak-ers were denominated "a damnable sect," and that all persons who encouraged their entry into the colonies were subject to a fine as well as imprisonment. The Christian sentiment sen-timent of the country and the ordinary laws enforced were amply SUFFICIENT FOR DEALING WITH POLXOAMT. He therefore opposed the bill. Edmunds said the bill would not effect the religious affairs of the Mormons. It would only affect the temporal assignments of the Mormon church so far aS these arrangements contributed to the perpetuation of what the people of the United States regarded as crimes. - - . Mr. Morgan, did -not feel that we were dealing with an establishment of "religion." It might pass as a "religion" in China, or in the Valley of the Congo, but here it was AN ESTABLISHMENT, NOT OF EELIGION, BUT OF VICE. The sentiment of the whole people of the United States was against it. It was an establishment es-tablishment opposed to the spirit of our National Constitution. Considerable debate ensued as to the legal effect of the provisions relating to the testimony testi-mony to be given by the husbands and wives, and some amendments of detail were made, but Mr. Morgan's amendment was lost, as also were some amendments offered by Mr. Brown, to one 'of which, that certain- portions por-tions of the act should apply equally to the Gentiles and Mormons, Mr. Edmunds exclaimed, ex-claimed, sotto voce, "Oh don't put any such revision as that into a statute of the United tates." Laughter. Mr. Edmunds said the laws of the United States applied to everybody in the United States. Mr. Yoorhees sent to the desk and had the olerk read a telegram from Salt Lake, whioh he said, IN JUSTICE TO THE UTAH COMMISSIONERS, Ought to be read. It was a dispatch from Mr. A. S. Paddock, saying: "Mr. Van Wyck is mistaken about the clerks of the Com-, mission. The average of permanent clerks from the beginning does not exceed three, possibly four, including a temporary clerk. Only one olerk is now employed." Mr. Van Wyck thought it extraordinary that the Commissioner did not know how many clerks it had. He did not like that expression, "Three possibly four." Perhaps Per-haps if they employed another clerk they could probably find out exactly how many clerks they had. Laughter. .Taking into account the distance and allowing for the mistakes of .the telegraph, he guessed it would turn out after all that they had about the number of .clerks he had stated, viz.: six. Great laughter. Without concluding the consideration of the bill the Senate adjourned. |