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Show I A FINAL DECISION. A Washington dispatch to the Herald says that the case of Angus M. Cannon has been advanced on the calendar," and will be heard by the Supreme Court on Monday, the 16th inst. This decision will put at rest the question whether or not the construction put upon the fainou3 cohabitation clause of the Edmunds Act by our local courts is correct. (The Edmunds Jaw was enacted for a special puriose, and to further this purpose pur-pose the unlawful cohabitation clause thereof was inserted. The term, "unlawful "un-lawful cohabitation," ' was susceptible , of various interpretations in accordance ac-cordance with the different phases of crime to which . it might be applied. The general interpretation put upon it in ordinary use was that it meant lewd cohabitation between all parties, without reference to the previous relationship relation-ship of the parties guilty of the crime. This interpretation was not adopted by the Third District Court, nor afterwards by the Supreme Court of the Territory. The construction of the Third District Court was that the term "unlawful cohabitation" co-habitation" must be construed in accordance accord-ance with the general object for which the Edmunds Act was passed, and this being the case, the Court, in construing the law, was bound to take cognizance of the relationship of parties prior to their trial for unlawful cohabitation. In other words, the Act must be construed as a J whole and not separately. With this 2 view of how the Act was to be con strued, the cohabitation clause thereof was interpreted as meaning a continuation continua-tion of the polygamous marriage relation without any reference to the question of carnal knowledge. It is to test the correctness cor-rectness of this construction of the cohabitation cohabi-tation clause of the Edmunds Act that Angus M. Cannon has appealed to the Supreme Court of the United States ; and it being a criminal case, the Supreme Court has advanced it on the calendar. What the decision of the Supreme Court will be it is impossible to say, but the general impression among members of the bar is, we believe,that the construction of the local courts will be sustained ; and this is onr own nnininn Tf that, onnctmo. Ition is declared to l)e wrong, it is quite certain that a new act having the same , object in view that the Edmunds law, as construed by Judge Zane, had, will be passed by Congress this winter, with additional ad-ditional clauses and heavier penalties. The possibility that the construction of the cohabitation clause of the Edmunds Act given by the local . courts may be declared de-clared wrong, brings us to the considera- i tion of an important matter. No one j whose opinion is entitled to any consideration consider-ation doubts for a moment but that the Government is in earnest in its endeavors to suppress polygamy. The condition of things in Utah is anomalous, and one that is entirely new in the catalogue of political problems. The condition of things in Utah is consequent upon the widespread and largely successful attempt to introduce a system. of marriage that is at variance with all modern civilized ideas of marriage and the family, and one that is entirely Oriental in its origin and practice. That system threatens the monogamic s'stein of marriage, and I threatening that, invites the civilization civiliza-tion of polygamous countries, which is barbarism and despotism combined. Much legislation has been passed upon this mattcr.and the probabilities are that much more will be. A great fault with much of it has been that it has failed to define the crimes in the act. If the Edmunds Act had defined the meaning of unlawful co-I co-I habitation as used in that Act, there would have been no chance for a misconstruc- I tion of it. Future legislation as to polyg- I amy should define all the things meant j to be made crimes the same as a criminal I code does. The practice of polygamy is very apt to assume various shapes, and it should be met and punished in these chapes, but to ' know them they must be defined." We trust this will be done in future legislation for Utah. |