On the same subject the women said: "And moreover, we your petitioners hereby testify that we are happy in our homes, and satisfied with our marriage relations and desire no change. * * * And we most solemnly aver before God and man that our marital relations are most sacred, that they are divine, enjoining obligations and ties that pertain to time and reach into eternity. Were it not for the sacred and religious character of plural marriage, we should never have entered upon the practice of a principle which is contrary to our early teachings, and in consequence of which our names are cast out as evil by the Christian world."

The following paragraph occurred in the memorial of the young men: "We deny that the religious institution of plural marriage, as practiced by our parents, and to which many of us owe our existence, debases, pollutes, or in any way degrades those who enter into it. On the contrary, we solemnly affirm, and challenge successful contradiction, that plural marriage is a sacred religious ordinance, and that its practice has given to thousands, honorable names and peaceful homes where Christian precepts and virtuous practices have been uniformly inculcated, and the spirit of human liberty and religious freedom, fostered from the cradle to maturity."

This in the young ladies': "We have been taught and conscientiously believe that plural marriage is as much a part of our religion as faith, repentance and baptism. * * * We solemnly and truthfully declare that neither we nor our mothers are held in bondage, but that we enjoy the greatest possible freedom, socially and religiously; that our homes are happy ones and we are neither low nor degraded; for the principles of purity, virtue, integrity and loyalty to the government of the United States, have been instilled into our minds and hearts since our earliest childhood."

In each memorial the petitioners prayed that Congress would suspend further action on all bills relating to Utah, and send a commission of honorable, intelligent and unprejudiced men and women to enquire into and learn the true state of affairs in said Territory. The signers to the men's petition numbered 16,256; those to the women's, 19,108; young men's, 15,636; young ladies', 14,152; a total of 65,152.

Surely petitions so respectfully worded, solemnly denying such grave charges, asking for so reasonable a thing as an inquiry into the true condition of affairs in Utah, and so numerously signed as these were, had some claim upon the attention of Congress. They were laid aside, after being read, however, and the Edmunds Bill passed with indecent haste. The bill was ably discussed in the Senate, and many constitutional objections urged against it; but when it came to the House, it was "railroaded through," and that with a rush; debate upon it being limited to five minute speeches, the whole discussion not lasting more than two hours. It was approved by the President on the 22nd of March, and then became law.

In addition to defining polygamy and fixing the punishment for it, the new law also made cohabitation with more than one woman, a misdemeanor, to be punished by a fine of not more than three hundred dollars and six months' imprisonment; it provided that counts for polygamy and unlawful cohabitation might be joined in the same indictment; it made actual polygamists and those who believed in the rightfulness of it, incompetent as jurors in any prosecution for polygamy or unlawful cohabitation; it also made polygamists, or those cohabiting with more than one woman, incompetent to vote or hold office. It vacated all registration and election offices of every description, and placed the registration of voters and the management of elections under a federal returning board, known as the Utah Commission.

When the news of the full enactment of this law reached Utah, President Taylor, knowing the vindictive hatred of the conspirators in Salt Lake City who had concocted that law and aroused the popular clamor which induced Congress to enact it; and knowing that they would seek first to entangle him within its meshes because he was President of the Church; and further knowing that such were the nature of his duties to the Church that it was imperative that he have his liberty, that he might watch over the interests of the great people committed to his care—he resolved to make a great personal sacrifice by submitting to this law, unjust, cruel and infamous as it was. He therefore took counsel with his family and it was arranged that his wives return to their former homes, while he continued to reside at the Gardo House.

Footnotes

[1]. At a Methodist conference held in Ogden during that year, a number of resolutions were adopted on the subject of Mormonism, in one of which it was said:

"Mormonism holds the balance of power in Idaho and Arizona and menaces New Mexico, Colorado, Wyoming and Montana. We believe polygamy is a foul system of licentiousness, practiced in the name of religion, hence hideous and revolting. It should not be reasoned with, but ought to be STAMPED OUT."