Conference of the Church—Reorganization of the First Presidency—John Taylor Appointed President—His Appearance and Mien—the Edmunds Bill—Its Penalties—An Ex Post Facto Law—Polygamists Disfranchised—Utah Again Refused Admission As a State—Operations of the Utah Commission—Govenor Murray's Message—His Administration.
Many years before the death of Brigham Young it was predicted that whenever that event should happen dissensions would occur among the Mormons, if not entire disintegration of the sect; for die when he would, or succeed him who might, such absolute power as he possessed would never be tolerated in another. He was elected at a time when his people were in distress, and accepting him as their deliverer, they had almost sunk their individuality, vesting him with all the powers of pope and potentate. But now, it was said, all was changed. Contact with the gentile world, the establishment of gentile schools and churches, together with other influences that had long been at work, were telling gradually upon their faith. Already they had grown weary of the yoke, and once Brigham was laid in the tomb, his followers would no longer exist as a people. Never was anticipation so ill-founded. The world was now to learn that the inherent vitality of Mormonism depended not on the existence of any one man or body of men, not even on the existence of the twelve. "If every apostle was slain but one," remarked George Q. Cannon at
the October conference of 1877, "that one had the right and authority to organize the church, and ordain other apostles and a first presidency to build up the kingdom of God."
On the decease of the president of the church, there was for the second time in its history no quorum of the first presidency, to which authority, and to no other, as the prophet Joseph had declared, the twelve were subject. Once more, therefore, until the presidency was reorganized, the apostles must step forward and take its duties upon themselves. 1 At a meeting of the quorum, held two days after the obsequies of Brigham, ten of the number being present, 2 it was unanimously resolved that John Taylor, the senior apostle and acting president of the apostles, should be sustained in his office, and that the quorum should be the presiding authority of the church. 3 But this resolution, as well as the election of all the authorities of the church, from the twelve down to the deacons and teachers, must be indorsed by a vote of each quorum of the priesthood and of the people assembled in conference.
The forty-eighth semi-annual conference of the church was held, as was now the custom, in the great tabernacle; 4 and in addition to the general congregation, there were present more than five thousand of the priesthood. First was presented the name of John Taylor; then in their order and separately those of each member of the twelve, together with councillors John W. Young and Daniel H. Wells, 5 the
patriarch of the church, 6 the presidents of the seventies, and other church dignitaries, concluding with the lesser priesthood. The votes were cast first by the twelve, then by the patriarchs, presidents of stakes, and high councils, after whom followed the high priests, the seventies, the elders, the bishops, with their councillors, the priests, deacons, and teachers,
and finally the entire congregation. During the proceedings there was no haste. Ample time was allowed for objection to be made to any of the names proposed or to any of the propositions offered; but throughout this vast gathering there was not a dissenting vote. As the quorums rose to their feet, and with uplifted hand vowed to sustain those whom their leaders had chosen, the choice was in every instance confirmed by assembled Israel. It was evident that, as yet, the church was in no danger of dissolution. 7
Addressing the congregation, President Taylor remarked that the apostles were thankful for the confidence and faith that had been manifested. For several reasons he had said little since the death of the president, who for thirty-three years had stood prominently before the church. In common with the rest of the community, he felt sad at heart. Moreover, a multiplicity of cares now devolved upon the twelve, and, so far as his position was concerned, he did not wish to say anything that might influence their choice, but desired to leave the minds of all perfectly unbiased. "If," he said, "we could carry out in our lives what we have made manifest this day by our votes, the kingdom of God would roll forth, and the favor and blessing of God would rest upon us." "No man need think this work would stop. It would go on and increase until the purposes of Jehovah were accomplished, and no power on earth or in hell could stay its progress." Three years afterward 8 John Taylor was elected president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, with George Q. Cannon and Joseph F. Smith as councillors. The vacancies which thus occurred in the quorum of the twelve were partially filled by the election of Francis M. Lyman 9 and
Says Mr Burton in 1861: "Austin Ward describes John Taylor as 'an old man, deformed and crippled,' and Mrs. Ferris as a 'heavy, dark colored, beetle-brewed man.' Of course I could not recognize him from these descriptions—a stout, good-looking, somewhat elderly personage, with a kindly gray eye, pleasant expression, and a forehead of the superior order." 12 When I was introduced to him in 1884, Mr Taylor being then in his seventy-seventh year, there stepped forward with a quick, decisive, nervous tread, greeting me with a smile and a cordial shake of the hand, a white-haired, benevolent-looking man of medium height and well-knit figure, long, oval face, gray, deep-set, penetrating eye, square, broad forehead, and firmly clasped lips, displaying a fixed determination, slightly tinged with melancholy, such as might be expected from one who had passed through many trying scenes, not the least among which was the escape, as by a miracle, from the tragedy of Carthage jail, and who knew that he had still many trials to undergo. 13
Days of tribulation were indeed at hand. The saints, who for so many years had been buffeted, afflicted, tormented for opinion's sake, were again, after a brief respite, to be subjected to so-called christian influence. The anti-polygamy law of 1862 was, as we have seen, inoperative, although declared constitutional
by the supreme court of the United States. Under the Poland bill only one conviction was made, that of George Reynolds, private secretary to Brigham, the man being sentenced to fine and imprisonment. 14 Both these measures were sufficiently ill-advised, and rank, perhaps, among the clumsiest specimens of legislation as yet devised by man; but it remained for the Edmunds bill to cap the climax of absurdity by virtually setting aside the statute of limitations, and providing for the punishment of persons living at any time with other than their legal wives.
By the provisions of this bill, approved March 22, 1882. and of which brief mention has already been made, 15 polygamists were made liable to punishment by fine not exceeding $500 and imprisonment not exceeding five years, the president being authorized to grant amnesty on such conditions as he saw fit to those who might have offended before the passage of the act, provided the conditions were afterward complied with. Cohabitation with more than one woman in any territory of the United States, whether in the marriage relation or otherwise, was declared a misdemeanor, punishable by a fine of not more than $300, or by imprisonment for not more than six months, or by both, at the discretion of the court. In all prosecutions for bigamy, polygamy, or unlawful cohabitation—the three offenses being classed together, though differing widely in law—it was to be deemed sufficient cause for challenge that a juryman lived or had ever lived in these practices, or believed it right for one so to live. No polygamist was to be entitled to vote at
any election, or to hold any position of public trust, honor, or emolument.
All the registration and election offices throughout the territory were declared vacant, and all duties relating to the registration of voters, the conduct of elections, the receiving, rejection, canvassing, and return of votes, and the issuing of certificates, were to be performed by persons selected by a board of five commissioners, of whom three might belong to the same political party. 16 After scrutiny by the board of the returns of all votes for members of the legislative assembly, certificates were to be issued to those who had been legally elected, and on or after the first meeting of an assembly, the members of which had been so elected, that body might make such laws as it saw fit concerning the offices declared vacant, provided they were not inconsistent with the organic act and with the laws of the United States. 17
The Edmunds act, intended to be supplementary to the act of 1862 and to the Poland bill, is virtually a penal statute, as indicated by its title, "A bill to amend section 5352 of the revised statutes of the United States, in reference to bigamy, and for other purposes." It is also an ex post facto law, a bill of pains and penalties, wherein the judicial function, after being misinterpreted, is usurped by the legislature and the executive—one that might not have
been amiss in the days of the star-chamber, but is directly at variance with the spirit and letter of the American constitution; and the more so when we consider that the Mormons, driven by persecution out of the United States, settled in what was then no portion of the territory of the United States, though aiding in the conquest and settlement of that territory, as did the colonists of Rhode Island, in 1636, when they fled from the sectional intolerance of Massachusetts.
But not only were the Mormons to be judged as criminals by an ex post facto law—one that barred the statute of limitations, and if strictly enforced would bring within its pale no inconsiderable portion of the adult male population of the United States—they were also to be stripped of the franchise, and made ineligible for office. It was argued in the senate that this was no penalty, and it may be admitted that, as a rule, to deprive men of the suffrage, and disqualify them for office, is not a severe punishment; but in Utah, where at least five hundred lucrative positions would have been laid open to a hungry horde of gentile office-seekers, the suffrage was worth more than houses and lands, for by the ballot alone could be held in check the greed of demagogues, who sought the control of the territory as a field for plunder and oppression. The bill virtually proposed to disfranchise a people, and to govern them by a committee of five men, or at least to create a government by a minority over a large majority; for it was not to be expected that these five men, of whom a quorum belonged to the same political faction, would decide impartially on the electoral qualifications of the people. It was so expressed, and its measures were indorsed by the congress and president of the United States, the question being not whether congress had power to repeal any or all of the laws in each of the territories, and intrust the legislative, executive, and judicial functions to whomsoever it pleased—this was
not disputed—but whether it was at liberty to violate for any purpose the rights guaranteed in the constitution.
If there be anything sacred in the American constitution, or in the annals of American jurisprudence, it is that in criminal prosecutions the accused should be tried by an impartial, and not by a packed, jury—by men opposed to him through interest or prejudice, and on whom a religious test is imposed as a qualification. Under the Poland bill it was ordered that grand and petit juries should, if possible, be composed in equal proportions of Mormons and gentiles, or non-Mormons. The latter included, in 1874, about twenty-two per cent of the entire population, and as this measure gave to them the same representation in juries as was allowed to the remaining seventy-eight per cent, its injustice is sufficiently apparent. But under the Edmunds act juries might be composed entirely of gentiles, thus giving to twenty-two, or at that date perhaps twenty-five, per cent of the population the control of the entire criminal proceedings in Utah, although more than seven eighths of the arrests made in the territory were among gentile citizens. 18
Before striving to regenerate the Mormons, it would seem that congress should have attempted the regeneration of the gentile portion of the population of Utah. At the time when the Edmunds bill was passed, all the keepers of brothels, and nearly all the gamesters and saloon-keepers, were gentiles. Two hundred out of the two hundred and fifty towns and villages in the territory contained not a single bagnio. 19 Until gentiles settled in Salt Lake City there were seldom heard in its streets or dwellings oaths, imprecations, or expletives; there were no place-hunters or beggar-politicians; there was no harlotry;
and there was neither political nor judicial prostitution. The Mormons were a people singularly free from vice—unless that can be called a vice which forms part of the tenets of their church—and they were one of the most industrious, sober, and thrifty communities in the world.
Partly with a view to avoid the operation of the Edmunds act, the Mormons once more asked that Utah be admitted as a state. Seventy-two delegates from the different counties met at Salt Lake City, and during a nine days’ session drew up a constitution, 20 which was duly presented by Delegate John T. Caine, but with the usual result; and now the Mormons were left to the tender mercies of the commission. The members 21 went to work vigorously; between 1882 and 1884 some twelve thousand persons were disfranchised, 22 and at the latter date all the municipal and other officers in the territory living in polygamy or unlawful cohabitation were superseded, each elector being also required to swear that he was not so living. It would be a curious subject for speculation to estimate how many voters would be disqualified if the law against illicit cohabitation were enforced in other portions of the United States.
The commission was seconded by Governor Eli H. Murray, who succeeded Emery, arriving in Salt Lake
Among the first important acts of Governor Murray was to grant to Allan G. Campbell a certificate of election as delegate to congress, although he received only 1,350 votes as against 18,568 polled for George Q. Cannon, 24 and to declare that the latter
was not a citizen of the United States, 25 notwithstanding that he held a certificate of citizenship. Thus the chief magistrate took upon himself a function altogether
outside the intent of the national legislature as expressed in the Edmunds act, which was at best but a temporary and ill-judged measure, and one that in the opinion of some of the ablest lawyers in the United States was unconstitutional.
Not content with this puerile display of authority, the governor, at the conclusion of what he terms "the faithful labors of the commissioners appointed under the Edmunds act," recommended that the legislature be abolished, and that Utah be placed entirely under control of a commission to be selected by the president, not as was done with the territory of Louisiana and the District of Columbia, but to reduce its inhabitants to the condition of serfs; "for," he remarks, "I confidently believe that from such action by congress and a council composed of men loyal to the constitution and the laws, there would come that adjustment of wrongs and termination of contentions so earnestly prayed for by those in Utah who possess the intelligence and one third of the wealth of the territory." 26 To the Mormons, as it would seem, he denied the attribute of intelligence; and by such rulers, with scarce an exception, has this people been misgoverned—a people which to impartial observers has been subjected to abuse, calumny, and persecution such as are almost without parallel, even in their Hebrew prototype.
678:1 At the conference above mentioned, George Q. Cannon remarked that some had been much exercised about the organization of a first presidency, 'but he wished them distinctly to understand that whenever God commanded a first presidency to be appointed it would not be revealed through any one but his servant, who was now God's mouthpiece.' Deseret News, Oct. 10, 1877.
678:2 Apostles Orson Pratt and Joseph F. Smith were in England at the time. Millennial Star, xxxix. 682. They arrived two or three weeks later. See Deseret News, Oct. 10, 1877.
678:3 General Epistle of the Twelve, in Millennial Star, xxxix. 680-4. See also Deseret News, September 12, 1877; Mormon Pamphlets, Religious, no. 16.
678:4 Completed in 1870. A description of it is given elsewhere in this vol.
678:5 Daniel H. Wells was a native of Oneida co., N.Y., his father, who was a direct descendant of the fourth governor of Connecticut, having served in the war of 1812, while his mother, née Catherine Chapin, was the daughter of a revolutionary soldier who fought under Washington. In the spring of 1834, being then in his twentieth year, he settled at Commerce (Nauvoo), and purchased a tract of 80 acres, a portion of which he afterward donated to the Mormons as a site for their temple. He was among the foremost to aid and welcome the saints after their expulsion from Nauvoo, and indignation at their maletreatment, rather than sympathy with their sect, caused him to join the church a few weeks before the commencement of the exodus. Arriving in the valley of Great Salt Lake in September 1848, he was appointed superintendent of public works, and was chosen a member of the legislative council of the provisional state of Deseret. In 1857 he was elected second councillor to Brigham Young. In 1864-5 he was in charge of the European missions, and was afterward mayor of Salt Lake City for several terms. The part that he played in the history of Utah as lieut-gen. of the Nauvoo legion is mentioned elsewhere in these pages. Wells’ Narr., MS., 1-8; Tullidge's Life of Brig. Young, suppl. 13-17; The Mormons at Home, 114-15; Beadle's Western Wilds, 93.
679:6 John Smith, son of Hyrum Smith, was a native of Kirtland, where he was born in 1832. Nearly two years after the assassination of his father in Carthage jail the boy set forth from Nauvoo in company with Heber C. Kimball's family. Reaching the encampment on the Little Papillon, he became acquainted with Col Thos L. Kane, whom he nursed through a dangerous sickness, probably saving his life. In April 1848 he started for Great Salt Lake in company with his brothers and sisters, and though only 15 years of age, performed a man's work, or rather the work of several men, driving a team composed of wild steers, cows, and oxen, with two wagons tied together, standing guard sometimes day and night, bringing in wood and water, herding cows, or assisting other teams as occasion needed. In the spring of 1850 he was enrolled in the battalion of life-guards, and for several years thereafter was frequently called on at dead of night to set forth in pursuit of marauding Indians. In 1852 occurred the decease of his step-mother, whereby he was left alone to provide for a family of eight persons, three of them being aged and infirm. In 1855 he was ordained patriarch, this being the only office in the church which is handed down from father to son in direct lineage. Ten years later he was sent on a mission to Scandinavia, and arriving in Liverpool with a single guinea in his pocket, about sufficient to procure him a meal and pay his railroad fare to London, borrowed the money for the remainder of his passage. After two years of missionary labor he returned to Salt Lake City, taking charge of a company of 300 emigrants on board the ship Monarch of the Sea. During his journey across the plains he had under his care a large party of Scandinavian emigrants, and was frequently urged by the officers at government posts which he passed en route to remain with them for a season, as the Indians were at that time extremely troublesome. His answer was: 'I am used to Indian warfare, and have only provisions enough to take us home if we keep moving; We had better run the risk of fighting Indians than starve on the plains.' After his return the patriarch was engaged in the duties of his calling and in attending to his business interests. Autobiog. of John Smith, MS.
680:7 For account of this conference, see Deseret News, Oct. 10, 17, 1877.
680:8 At the general conference, commencing on the 6th of October, 1880.
680:9 Francis Marion, the eldest son of Amasa Lyman, a pioneer, who was excommunicated in 1870, was but seven years of age at the date of the exodus from Nauvoo. As an instance of the experience of Mormon evangelists, it may be mentioned that when ordered on mission to England in 1859, he was compelled to leave his newly married wife almost destitute, building for her with his own hands a log hut of green timber. In the spring of 1863 he settled at Fillmore, and there remained until 1877, when he was appointed president of the Tooele stake. In 1860 he was elected a member of the legislature, and on the death of Orson Pratt was appointed speaker of the house of representatives.
681:10 The son of George A. Smith, and a native of Winter Quarters, where he was born Sept. 18, 1848. The first portion of his life was spent mainly at Provo, where he worked on a farm until 1874, when he was sent on a mission to Europe, returning the following year on account of the sickness of his father, whose decease occurred a few days after his arrival. In 1875, also, he was ordained bishop of the 17th ward at S. L. City, in which capacity he served until called to the apostolate. For six years he was a member of the city council, and in August 1881 was elected a member of the legislature, where he soon became one of the most prominent debaters.
681:11 Orson Pratt, in 1881 the only surviving member of the first quorum of the twelve, was accounted one of the most eloquent preachers in the church; and for his championship of the cause, as a speaker and writer, was known as the Paul of Mormonism. At a general conference held in 1874 he was appointed church historian and recorder, retaining this position until his decease, and was also speaker of the legislative assembly. He was well versed in the sciences, including that of the pure mathematics, and in addition to several elementary works, published A New and Easy Method of Solution of the Cubic and Biquadratic Equations, and left in MS. a treatise on the differential calculus. S. L. C. Contributor, iii. 58-61. For resolutions of respect to his memory, see Utah Jour. Legisl.
George Teasdale, a native of London, and an episcopalian by training, joined the church in 1852 being then in his 21st year. After several years of missionary labor, during which he was appointed in 1858 to the pastoral care of three English conferences, and in 1859 to the charge of the Scottish mission, which comprised the Edinburgh, Glasgow, and Dundee conferences, he was ordered to set forth for Zion. Borrowing the necessary funds, he took a steerage passage for New York, and journeying over the plains from Florence, accompanied by his wife, a refined and delicate woman, arrived in Salt Lake City in 1861, and looked about him for something to do. He was offered the 20th ward school, a position which he at once accepted, laboring faithfully for nearly a twelvemonth, after which he accepted a position as manager of one of Brigham Young's stores, under the direction of Hyrum B. Clawson. In 1867 he was intrusted with the charge of the general tithing office, but the following year was ordered on a mission to England, in company with Albert Carrington, and, among other duties, filled that of sub-editor to the Millennial Star. Returning to Utah in 1869, he narrowly escaped death from a railroad accident, in which several persons were killed or fatally injured. After further labors as merchant, missionary, and contractor, being chosen meanwhile a high-priest, he was elected a member of the legislative council for the sessions of 1882 and 1884. In 1885, being then in his 56th year, he was still actively engaged in forwarding the interests of his church. Autobiog. of Geo. Teasdale, MS., passim.
Heber Jeddy Grant, the son of Jedediah M. Grant, whose decease occurred when the former was but nine days old, is a native of S. L. City, where he was born in 1856. At fifteen, the family being then in straitened circumstances, he obtained a position in an insurance office, and four years later started an agency for himself. Since that time he has been engaged in various enterprises, in all of which he has been successful, his income ranging from $3,000 to $8,000 a year, though in 1881 he met with a serious reverse through the destruction by fire of the Utah vinegar-works at Ogden, of which he was proprietor. In 1884 he was a member of the legislature and of the S. L. City council. After being called to the apostolate, he travelled extensively, in the interest of the church, in Arizona, Idaho, Colorado, and New Mexico. Though still but 30 years of age and in feeble health, his average weight being only 145 lbs, while in stature he was considerably over six feet, Mr Grant affords a striking example of the energy displayed by the descendants of the Mormon patriarchs. Autobiog. of Heber J. Grant, MS.
682:12 City of the Saints, 328.
682:13 Descriptions of President Taylor's appearance will be found in many of the books written on Mormonism, some of them fair and accurate, as is Burton's, and others varying in degrees of absurdity from that of Lady Duffus-Hardy, who speaks of him as a man 'with a rather large, loose mouth, and cunning gray eyes, which look as though they would never let you see what was going on behind them,' down to the one given by a correspondent of the New York Sun, who in 1879 stated that he was six feet high, and that his appearance, manner, and speech were those of a member of the British parliament. See Duffus-Hardy's Through Cities and Prairie Lands, 117; Deseret News, Nov. 12, 1879.
683:14 He was indicted and convicted at S. L. City in 1874. An appeal was taken to the supreme court of Utah, and the case dismissed on the ground that the grand jury had been illegally constituted. In October 1875 he was again indicted, convicted, and sentenced to two years’ imprisonment and fine of $500. After a long but useless struggle, the case being argued before the supreme court by the attorney-general for the prosecution, and by Sheeks & Rawlins of S. L. City for appellant, Reynolds was finally committed to jail in Jan. 1879. For review of the decision of the supreme court by George Q. Cannon, see Utah Pamphlets, Political, no. 19.
683:15 See p. 395, this volume.
684:16 The secretary of the territory was to be the secretary of the board, keep a journal of its proceedings, and attest its action.
684:17 For copy of the Edmunds act, see United States Statutes, 47th Cong. 1st Sess., 30-2; Utah Commission, 1-5; S. F. Call, Feb. 17, 1882. As soon as its passage became known in Utah, petitions asking congress to send a deputation to investigate matters before enforcing hostile legislation were signed by 75,000 persons, some refusing to sign the petition, among them Fred. H. and Sam. H. Auerbach, who, though declining merely on the ground that they did not wish to interfere with politics, suffered in consequence. On the other hand, a mass-meeting called by the anti-polygamy society was held at the methodist church, among the speakers being Gov. Murray and Judge Boreman. For resolutions, see Hand-Book of Mormonism, 87. For principles adopted by the liberal party at their convention in October 1882, see Important Doc. Bearing on Polit Quest. in Utah, 10-13; for declaration of principles by people's party, Id., 7-9. The speeches of Vest, Morgan, Call, Brown, Pendleton, and Lamar against the bill during the final debate in the senate were afterward published in the form of a pamphlet entitled Defence of the Constitutional and Religious Rights of the People of Utah.
686:18 For criminal statistics, taken mainly from the census of 1880, see p. 394, this vol.
686:19 Utah and its People, 21. Of the gamblers 98 per cent were gentiles, and of the saloon-keepers 94 per cent.
687:20 For copy, see Constit. State of Utah. Its provisions were directed mainly against the Edmunds bill.
687:21 Their names were Alex. Ramsey of Minnesota, Algernon S. Paddock of Nebraska, G. F. Godfrey of Iowa, Ambrose B. Carleton of Indiana, and James R. Pettigrew of Arkansas. For brief biographical sketches of these men, see Contrib., iii. 315-16.
687:22 Special Rept Utah Commission, 1884, p. 18. In Barclay's Mormonism Exposed, 18, the number is erroneously given at 16,000. Mormonism Exposed, The Other Side, an English View of the Case, by James W. Barclay, is a pamphlet originally published in the Nineteenth Century Magazine, and containing a brief and impartial statement of affairs. Mr Barclay was a member of the British parliament. Though, as he admits, he went to Utah with strong prejudices, he comes to this conclusion: 'Mormonism, apart from polygamy, which seems to me a temporary excrescence, will, in my opinion, grow, and probably be the religion of the settlers or farming classes in the mountainous country between the great plains east of the Rocky Mountains and California on the west.'
688:23 The governor's messages for each year will be found in Utah Jour. Legisl., and of late years have been printed in pamphlet form. See also the files of the Deseret News, and other Utah journals.
688:24 Barclay's Mormonism Exposed, 18-19. The certificate was rejected by congress. For papers in the case, see House Misc. Doc., 47th Cong. 1st Sess., no. 25. The seat was declared vacant, and in 1882 John T. Caine was elected. In 1884 he was reë1ected. Mr Caine was a native of Kirk Patrick, in the Isle of Man, where he was born in 1829. Arriving in New York in 1846, not as a proselyte, but as an emigrant, he joined the church in the spring of 1847, about the time when the pioneers set forth from Council Bluffs. In September 1852 he reached Salt Lake City, and found occupation as a school-teacher at Big Cottonwood. Soon afterward he was employed in the office of the trustee in trust, and in that capacity won the confidence of Brigham Young. Sent on a mission to the Sandwich Islands in 1854, he was appointed after his return assistant secretary of the legislative council. In 1874 he was elected a member of that body, being reëlected for the three ensuing terms. Tullidge's Mag., ii. 468-73.
For laws regulating elections, see Utah Election Laws, 1878, 1882. In 1884 the Utah legislature consisted of 12 counsellors and 24 representatives, elected biennially on the first Monday in August of every odd year, the sessions commencing on the second Monday in January of every even year, and lasting for not more than 60 days. For list of members elected in 1883, see Utah Gazetteer, 1884, p. 268. In 1878 a criminal procedure act was passed, and in 1870 a civil practice act, the text of which is given in Utah Laws, 1878, 60-165; Utah Acts Legisl., 17-124. For further acts, proceedings, and memorials of the Utah legislature, see Utah Laws and Utah Acts Legisl., 1870, pp. 11-12, 133, 146, 148; 1872, 25-6, 41-2; 1878, 27-37, 169-70; 1880, 45, 95-6; 1882, 106, passim; Utah Jour. Legisl., 1872, pp. 234, 1876, 24-5, 31, 104-5; 1878, 36, 45-6, 225-6, 339, passim.
689:25 S. F. Call, Jan. 9, 1881. As the reader is probably aware, the Edmunds act was declared constitutional by the supreme court of the United States. For decision, see S. F. Alta, March 24, 1885. For arguments against the act, see, among others, the speech of Gen. Jos. E. Brown of Georgia, Jan. 11, 1884, in Cong. Globe; Utah Defence Constit. and Religious Rights; Stillman's The Mormon Question; Barclay's Mormonism Exposed; Utah and its People (by an ex-U. S. official); Goodrich s Mormonism Unveiled, Black's Federal Jurisdiction in the Territories. Senator Brown's argument is very forcible, though perhaps a little strained. Quoting the clause in the constitution, which reads, 'Nor shall any person be deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process of law,' he cites Blackstone's Comm., 36, 'Offices which are a right to exercise a public or private employment, and to take the fees and emoluments thereto belonging, are also incorporeal hereditaments,' etc. So the chief justice in 2 Ala., N. S., p. 31, remarks, 'An office is as much a species of property as anything else capable of being held or owned.' Comparing other provisions of the act with the U.S. constitution, he quotes Judge Strong in the case of Huber vs Reily, in Smith's Pennsylvania Repts, iii. 117. 'There are, it is true, many things which they [judges of election] may determine, such as age and residence of a person offering to vote, whether he has paid taxes.' 'But whether he has been guilty of a criminal offence, and as a consequence forfeited his right, is an inquiry of a different character. Neither our constitution nor our law has conferred upon the judges of elections any such judicial functions.' Thus with other features of the bill. As the senator remarks, 'There are probably twenty times as many persons practicing prostitution, or illegal sexual intercourse, in the other parts of the union as the whole number who practice it in Utah.' For arrests, prosecutions, and convictions under the Edmunds act, and cases of persons committed for contempt for refusing to answer questions under Chief Justice Zane's ruling, see S. L. C. Tribune, Nov. 4, 7, 1884; S. F. Alta, Oct. 4, 8, 1884; Jan. 25, Apr. 14, 1885; S. F. Chronicle, Jan. 31, Apr. 30, May 10, 23, 1885; S. F. Call, Nov. 8, May 23, 1884, May 11, 26, 1885; S. F. Bulletin, Apr. 21, 1885; Sacrarnento Rec.-Union, Apr. 25, May 23, Oct. 7, 1884; Jan. 21, 22, 30, Feb. 6, 9, 11, March 13, 16, Apr. 27, 28, 30, May 1, 12, 14, 15, 20, 21, 22, 29, 30, June 4, 29, 1885. For prosecutions in Arizona, see Id., Sept. 29, Nov. 28, 1884; Apr. 8, 13, 1885. At Paris, Id., polygamists resisted arrest. Id., May 12, 15, 21, 1885. In 1880 further alterations were made in the first and third judicial districts, for which, see Utah Laws, 1880, pp. 67-8.
690:26 S. L. City Tribune, Nov. 28, 1883. The governor's policy was indorsed by President Arthur, and of course by the gentile community of Utah. See Id., Dec. 23, 1883.