No. 3,000 26 December, 1885 T he American Senate has, it
is said, accepted a Bill which is expected to suppress polygamy within the territory of Utah. It not only makes it a penal offence, but compels the evidence of husband and wife, and makes adultery punishable on the persecution of a United States officer; this last provision is intended to meet any declaration of the Mormon Church that second or tenth marriages need not be legal; but it would not meet a rule declaring all informal marriages sacred. The Bill also abolishes female suffrage, which has been steadily used for polygamy — possibly under terror — and enables Congress to seize the Emigration Fund and devote it to schools in Utah, and places all the property of the Mormon Church in the hands of Trustees appointed by the President. If the Bill passes, the Mormons must either fight or fly, and will probably choose the latter.
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