Jasper County Democrat, Volume 2, Number 43, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 January 1900 — ROBERTS IN DEFENSE. [ARTICLE]

ROBERTS IN DEFENSE.

Mormti* Makes a Strong Plea for Justice Before the House. Debate on the Roberts case reports began in the national House Tuesday. Chairman Tayler argued for the majority resolution, which provides for excluding the Utah member. Mr. Littlefield of Maine argued for the minority resolution to permit Roberts to be sworn in and I then expel him.. Mr. Roberts cloSt-d the I debate for the day, without exhausting the period allotted to him. He quoted (from the. findings of the committee, and [ asked. “Without a violation of the eon- | stitution of our country can you deny me the right to appear at the bar of the ! House, from which 1 have been improperly turned away, and prevent me from bring sworn?” The House, he continued, was subject iVo a great temptation at this time to respond to the popular will, without regard to the limitations imposed by the constitution. Other great and proud nations, as mneh so as the United States, had for violations of this kind gone into decay and naught but ruins marked the places they once occupied. "And so I would warn yon of the danger of the departing from the constitution to respond to the clamor of misled people.” What was proposed in the House now, Roberts said, was that because in the sanctity of the ehnrvh men hare taken a plurality of wives, one of whom has been elected a Representative in Congress, and the sanctity, of the home is threatened, a more lawless act than polygamy shall be done ito rebuke the man so elected. Mr. Rob|erts said, as he had said on the second day of th*' session, that he did not stand as th** advocate or defender of polygamy. It had been conceded by 'Lutljpr, to I whom more than any other man tbp people of to-day owe whatever of religious and civil liberty they possess, that .polygamy was not prohibited by the scriptures, and that it was a crime merely because it was prohibited by law. The people who I believe,! and practic'd polygamy, he said, did so as a part of their religion, which they believed came to them direct from Gad. In that view they had not at first submitted to the laws against it, hoping for a favorable judgment by the court, and when that failed, for a reversal. But the reversal did not come. Thirteen hundred Mormons iu Utah suffered puuish-

ment by the courts, including the Representative from that State. “They need not have suffered." he went ou, "if they had but said the word." Th*' laws against plural marriages did u«*t obtain in the States surrounding Utah, so that many plural wives had been <*-nt into them, the husbands remaining in Utah and there observing the law against plural marriages. Rolwrts said it was a mistake to hold that he was the representative of the Mormon church, chosen over the protest of the gentile citizens. He had been elected after a thorough canvass, in which the people knew all about him. by a plurality of 5,065. The right of. a constituency to the free choice of its representative ought not be denietl or abridged by the action of the House. In conclusion Roberts said he could neither be excluded nor expelled without dangerous action—action that threatened to overthrow the foundation of Government. “And I intend, gentlemen." he continued, his voice rising to its highest pitch, and his whole manner intense and dramatic to the last degrtH*. striding up and down the aide, “to cliug so closely to the pillars of* liberty that you shall not drag nu' away unless *<>u pull the pillars down with me." The Honse resumed the debate on the Roberts ease at 11 o'clock Wednesday. The galleries were again well filled, most of the occupants, as on Tuesday, being women. Mr. Powers (Vt.)'waß the first speaker. He argued in behalf of exclusion of Mr. Roberts. The contention of the minority for expulsion, he said, ran up against the very precedents which were cited in its snpport. "We are not separating wife from husband,” said Mr. Power*, commenting on Mr. Roberts’ speech. “Polygamy has never been legal in Utah, either before or after her admission into the Union. Polygamy was illegal under the common law of England. The moment he took wife No. 2 the marriage was void. Mr. Roberts knew the law. He cannot now plead the 'baby act' against the law and stern justice.*' M.*. Bnodgrass of Tennessee followed Mr. Powers, supporting the views of the minority in favor of seating and then expelling Mr. Roberts. Mr. Landis (Ind.) argied that Utah had violated her compact w >th the United States. Mr. Landis wets over the record of the apostles of th** Mormon Church to show that most of them were guilty of continued polygamous practices. Some of his statements were sensational.