POLYGAMIST ROBERTS,
DENOUNCED BY HONEST MEN,
FLEES FROM CONGRESS
BACK TO HIS ROOF-TREES AND FIRESIDES.
(Special by leased wire, the longest in the world.)
WASHINGTON, January 24. — To-morrow at 4:30 Brigham H. Rob-erts, polygamous member-elect from Utah, will be formally excluded from the House of Representatives. Unsworn as a member, he will, to the last, occupy his present status and will never be able to say, in the future, that even for one moment he was an actual member of the House of Rep-resentatives. The legal quibbling will avail nothing and the door that has for six weeks apparently stood ajar will be clasped to in his face.
The debate on the majority and minority resolutions continued all of to-day in the House. Representative Charles B. Landis of Indianapolis, a Republican, attracted the most attention, because of the strong lan-guage he used in discussing Roberts, and the splendid tribute he paid Helen Gould. Mr. Roberts was not present during the excori-lation. He was at the Capitol until the House met, but soon afterward disappeared.
Mr. Landis held the attention of the House for nearly two hours. His perora-tion, in which he spoke of the millions of firesides awaiting the verdict of Congress, evoked a storm of applause. The galler-ies were crowded, the women as usual, be-ing in the majority.
Mr. Landis began by describing the re-joicing that filled the land when Utah was admitted as a State, in 1896, because it was universally conceded that the birth of the new State marked the death of a system that had plagued the country for over half a century.
"There were those," he said, "who stout-ly maintained that polygamy was not dead. that the people of Utah were practicing a deception upon the Government and were desirous of changing their political status in order that they might practically live their religion unhindered. But bitter as was the opposition to the admission of that State, none of the opponents of statehood were ever so bold as to charge that in less than three years after the territory was admitted, her people would go to the polls in the sovereign capacity of electors and commission a polygamist as their sole rep-resentative on the floor of this House. And yet Utah did that very thing, and in 1898 the whole country was aroused by the an-nouncement that a polygamist had been elected to the American Congress and was getting ready to move on Washington with a plurality of wives and a multiplicity of children."
Mr. Landis resented as unworthy of belief the charge made, he said, by Senator Raw-lins, that the President had appointed no-torious polygamists to office. The Senator might as well accuse the House of indorsing polygamy, since it had passed a bill appro-priating $40,000 for the agricultural college at Logan, Utah. Said he:
The President of that college is a polyga-mist, living in open and notorious polygamy with three wives. One of his leading profes-sors is a polygamist, living with two wives The trustee is a polygamist, living in open and notorious polygamy with seven wives (laugh-ter), and they have blessed him with thirty-nine children (laughter). The President is innocent and we are innocent, because we put faith in the pledge and promise of the pious covenant breakers. (Applause and laughter.)
Three of the members of the first Presidency and ten of the twelve Apostles who signed the petition for amnesty were polygamists.
Of these fifteen leaders who solemnly pledged their honor and faith for the future obedience to the law by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints three have probably kept their pledges, namely, Wilfred Woodruff, Franklin D. Rogers and Anthony H. Lunn. The two first named, at the time of the sign-ing of the petition for amnesty, were over 80 years old.
George Q. Cannon, first Councilor to the president of the church, is also morally guilty. On the death of Elizabeth Hoaglin Cannon, his lawful wife, and after taking unto himself three additional wives, Mr. Cannon now claims to be legally married to one Caroline Croxall, a fifth wife, by whom he has had two children, and he and all his wives live in a suburb near Salt Lake City, having no neighbors, and it is known as Cannonville. (Laughter.)
Mr. Rawlins might have said that Joseph F. Smith, second Councilor to the presidency, has three women among whom he distributed the title of wife. Mr. Rawlins might have stated that Lorenzo Snow, now prophet, Pres-ident, Seer and Revelator, and at the time of the signing of the petition of amnesty Presi-dent of the Forum of the Apostles, is also trampling under foot the solemn compact made by the government.
He took his first two wives in Nauvoo, Illin-ois, over forty years ago, by one and the same ceremony, in a block of two, as it were. (Laughter.) The elder of the two women has since died and he has since married, in the order named, Sarah, Harriet, Elinor, Mary, Phoebe, Minnie and Caroline. (Laughter.) Would not you like to sit down to breakfast in that family? (Laughter.) Snow is now living with the youngest and last wife, by whom he got his youngest child during the winter of 1896-97, six years after the manifesto pledging the faith and honor of the church had been issued
Moses Thatcher, one of the Apostles who
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POLYGAMIST ROBERTS FLEES FROM CONGRESS
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signed the petition of amnesty, has three plural wives, two of whom bore him children, one on January 8, 1899, and the other on January 11, 1899. They just lacked three days of being twins. (Great laughter.) Mr. Roberts truly said yesterday that Moses Thatcher was, by a majority of the members of the Utah Legisla-ture, tendered a seat In the United States Senate, and that Moses Thatcher, having more discretion than Mr. Roberts or the people of Utah, declined the honor, stating that he would add fuel to the flames already kindled by Mr. Roberts. So you see we had a narrow escape from having trouble in both ends of this capital. (Laughter and applause.)
Pages must be written of the violation of the compact by which Utah was given a star. Ah, Mr. Speaker, that star is a fallen star, it does not shine with the brilliancy and lustre of her sister stars. It shines by cunning and by deceit, by treachery, by fraud. It speaks of crime and of violation of the most solemn covenant ever made between territory and the Union! (Applause.)
We have as a representative from Utah, a man with three wives, the last one taken, the report says, as near as we can ascertain, before 1890. It is in evidence that he did not hold her out as his wife, nor she him as her husband, until 1897. Up to 1895 she lived under the name of Shipp and under the roof of Shipp. I don't believe if any marriage ceremony was ever solemnized that it was solemnized prior to 1896. I believe, and he did not deny, that that woman became his plural wife after Utah was taken into the American Union. And I charge here that Utah came in as the result of a deliberate conspiracy to free that people from the heavy hand of the Federal authority, and then enable them to live their religion un-hindered.
In 1896 Mr. Roberts was a candidate for Con-gress and the church disciplined and defeated him because the time as not then ripe for a polygamist to come to the American Con-gress. He became a candidate in 1898 and the man who placed him before the convention said that he ran by permission of the church. In 1898 we were engaged in a war with a foreign foe. American manhood was away from home or all absorbed in the coun-try. Valor was at war and virtue was at prayer. It was then that this perjured cheat tried to crawl in. Sir, it came by itself, but it will be hurled back boldly and in the open day by the outraged indignation of the American people. (Applause.) And across yon threshold will be written in letters large enough to read from the national capitol to the Mormon temple: "No polygamist shall ever sit as a member of the American Congress." (Ap-plause).
The gentleman from Utah (Mr. Roberts) has been particulaly severe on the missionaries. I don't wonder at it. The missionary has given attention to the polygamist, has stood in his path, has scat-tered thorns along his way, and for this he is branded as a spotter, an informer and a spy. History will bear out this statement, that al-though these fanatical priests and and their de-luded followers put a thousand miles of trackless wilderness, a thousand miles of desert wast, in-fested with savages, between civilization, between their camp of bigotry and crime, yet the distance was not too great nor were the hardships too se-vere to daunt, the spirit of the missionary of the Christian church. He tracked polygamy and faced it in its lair. The Danites, as cruel and pitiless a band of cutthroats as ever handled the glittering steel, carried on the murderous work of the church. Still the missionary toiled on. The blood-atoners silenced forever in death the voice of apostasy, but that hindered not the missionary. The government practically abandoned the field, considering that it was powerless to hinder that monster, fortified in those mountain fastnesses, but the American Christian missionary, with a courage that now seems sublime, with a fidelity to purpose that is now an inspiration, battled on in the fear of God and for the love of humanity. (Applause.)
But the gentleman says: "We took these women in good faith and we should not abandon them." There are 2,000 polygamous families in Utah. Pro-vide for your plural wives, take care of your plural children, but refrain, for God's sake, refrain from multiplying the illegitimates in the new State of Utah. (Applause).
Mr. Roberts has sneered at a good and noble woman (Miss Helen Gould), who helped to organ-ize this movement against him. When our boys fell from disease or in battle, her millions wept. And who knows but that to-day the same name that was spoken so reverently at Santiago, Mon-tauk Point, by American soldiers, is lisped in reverence out there in Utah by those women, doomed by brutal bigots to the beliefs that their celestial exaltation will be in proportion as they minister to the rotten and lustful notions of a corrupt priesthood. (Applause.)
I say that the people of this country expect us to turn him back. I protest against his coming in. I protest on behalf of the constituency that has read the ten commandments and the sermon on the mount. I protest on behalf of the Ameri-can homes, made beautiful by love and devotion, and holy by the virtue of our womanhood. I pro-test on behalf of the American mother and her child and the American father, who will never consent to the enthronement and deification of human passion. I protest on behalf of those doomed to llegttimacy. I protest on behalf of the honest Mormons, those who believe in keeping inviolate the conditions upon which Utah was admitted to the American Union. The country is waiting for us to act. The people are waiting, off in New England, whose homes have been made a pattern for this continent. They are waiting, in the broad sweep of the Mississippi Valley, a section of this country purged of this very infamy a half century ago. They are wait-ing in the new States of the West, States whose territory has been invaded and whose atmosphere has been poisoned by this very plague. And way down south in Dixie, where honor is religion, where gallantry is law, and virtue is the high ideal of beautiful womanhood, States are wait-ing to-day, waiting for the American chivalry to speak. (Loud applause.)
The other speakers were Messrs. Powers, Republican of Vermont, and Meirs, Demo-crat of Indiana, for the majority resolu-tion; Messrs. Snodgrass, Democrat of Ten-nessee, and Wilson, Silver Republican of Idaho, for the minority resolutions; Mr. Lacey, Republican of Iowa, for his propo-sition to expel without swearing in, and Mr. Crumpacker, Republican of Indiana, for exclusion by a two-thirds majority.
The "Examiner-Journal" has polled the House of Representatives on these two questions:
Do you favor the exclusion of Roberts now, according to the report of the majority of the investigating committee?
Do you favor the swearing in of Roberts and his expulsion immediately afterward, according to the report of the minority of the investigating committee?
Out of a total of 355 members the opinions of 303 were secured. Here is the result:
For exclusion (to send the polygamist home without permitting him to take the oath as a member)—177.
For expulsion (to permit the Utah man to be sworn in)—54.
Non-committal (fifty of these have pre-viously declared themselves in favor of exclusion)—72.
Therefore there is no doubt that the ma-jority resolution, which provides for the exclusion of Roberts before he has been sworn in, will be adopted to-morrow by at least a two-thirds majority of the House.
Here are a few of the many statements made to the "Examiner-Journal" in the work of taking a poll of the House on the Roberts case:
Representative Hull ( Republican)—My views on the Roberts case are as pronounced as the "Exam-iner-Journal's." I believe in putting him out of Congress without giving him the oath of office.
Representative Swanson (Democrat)—The deter-mination of the House is to exclude Roberts. Fine speeches will not affect the purpose of the majority to do the right thing promptly.
Representative Crumpacker (Republican)—I am in favor of expelling Roberts now, without admin-istering the oath, because to do that at this time would be a useless ceremony.
Representative Crump (Republican)—I shall vote for exclusion rather than expulsion.
Representative Hopkins (Republican)—There was not a member of the Illinois delegation who voted for Roberts before. I see no reason to change now. Representative Dovenor (Republican)—I am with the majority on the Roberts case. I shall vote for immediate exclusion.
Representative Hill (Republican)—I shall vote for the majority report and help keep Roberts out.
Representative Southard (Republican)—If Rob-erts is good enough to be admitted he is good enough to stay; therefore I am opposed to his going in at all and shall vote to sustain the ma-jority report.
Representative Heatwole (Republican)—I am op-posed to having Roberts sworn in and shall vote to keep him out.
Representative Hamilton (Republican)—I adhere to the view that exclusion is justified and shall vote with the majority of the committee.
Representative Baker (Republican)—I shall stand by the majority of the committee in their report.
Representative Watson (Republican)—I shall support the majority of the special committee and vote to exclude Roberts.
Representative Howell (Republican)—I cannot do less than support the majority report and help to keep Mr. Roberts out at the threshold.
Representative Talbert (Democrat)—I am op-posed to Roberts' sitting as a member in the House under any circumstances.
Representative Hemenway . (Republican)—I heartily indorse the majority of the committee and shall support them with my vote.
Representative Hepburn (Republican)—The Ma-jority of the committee is right and I shall help it with my vote.
Representative Reeder (Republican)—No argu-ment can convince me that Roberts should be per-mitted to be sworn in.
Representative Gardner (Republican)—There is no sense in admitting a leper into your house and then kicking him out. Roberts should go at once.
