Democratic Sentinel, Volume 7, Number 41, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 November 1883 — CURSE OF THE NATION. [ARTICLE]

CURSE OF THE NATION.

rhe Report of the Utah Commi*sionen» Submitted to Secretary Teller. Recounting the Tear’s Operations and Hinting at Thunderbolts in Besom. The Utah commission, composed of Alex, Ramsay, A. 8. Paddock, G. L. Godfrey, A. B. Carlton, and J. R. Pettigrew, have made their report to Secretary Teller. The clear intimation is that, unless the monogamic Mormon Legislature shall enact laws which will carryout the Edmunds act In the spirit and provide for the disfranchisement of polygamists, the most severe legislation compatible with the limitations of the constitution will be recommended. The Commissioners privately say that this reserve recommendation is the abolition of suffrage. They do not expect the Legislature will enact any such laws, so that It may be presumed that the most important recommendations for the overthrow of polygamy will be made in a report next January or February. After making a statement of the fdrmer legislation of Congress in relation to bigamy or polygamy, the commission said: The duties of the commission appertain only to matters of registration, and election, and eligibility to office, while the punishment of thecrime of polygamy is Wt, as under the former law, to the courts of justice. Under the AntiPolygamy act the commission had good suoces* at the general election of August, 1883, In excluding polygamists from the polls, and as far as advised very little If any illegal votes havebeen cast in Utah since the commission took charge of the registration and elections in August, 1882. The enforcement of the present law against 12.000 polygamists who have been excluded from the polls shows the act ha* been fully and successfully executed. It Is thought that the discrimination between those Mormons who practice polygamy and those who do not, while not likely to have much effect upon elderly men who have already a plurality of wives, must have great weight on the young men of the Territory, many of whom are ambitious apd aspiring, and would not like voluntarily to embrace political ostracism. The very existence Of a law disfranchising polygamists must tend to destroy their influence whenever it is understood it le to be a permanent discrimination. The fact also that it will be necessary to the preservation of the political influence of the "People's party" (as the Mormons style themselves) to have a large body of their members who are not polygamists, must tend In time to weaken the practice of polygamy, for every Mormon who takes but one plural wife loses three votes lor his party—his own and those of his two wives (woman suffrage being established by law In Utah). • Concerning plurality of wives, that a doctrine and practice so odious throughout Christendom should have been upheld so many years against the laws of Congress and the sentiments of thecivilized world is one of the marvels of the nineteenth century, and can be scarcely appreciated, even by those familiar with the world’shistory in relation to the difficulties of Governments to control or supposes religious fanaticism. Certainly no Government can permit the violation of laws under the guise of religions freedom, and, while Congress may not legislate as to mere matters of opinion, yet it may denounce and ‘punish as crimes those actionswhich are In violation of social duties or subversive of good order. The right of Congress to ennpress this great evil is undoubted. It i» equally plain the dignity and good name of thisgreat Government among the nations of the earth demand such Congressional action as shall effectually eliminate this national disgrace. The commission renow the recommendations contained in the report of Nov. 17/1882,. notably the one regarding the enactment of a marrige law by Congress declaring all fut>ure marriages In the Territory null and vold> unless contracted and evidenced in the man ner provided by the act. If the next Legislature shall fail to adopt measures in conformity with the provisions of the act of 1882 forthe suppression of polygamy, the commission “will be prepared to recommend, and Congress certainly will not delay the adoption of the most stringent measures compatible with the limitations Of the constitution that may be considered necessary for the of this great evil.”