POLYGAMOUS MARRIAGES AND PLURAL COHABITATION.
The PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Chair lays before the Senate the resolutionsubmitted by the Senator from Idaho [Mr. DUBOIS], which will be read.
The Secretary read the resolution submitted yesterday by Mr. DUBOIS, asfollows:
Resolved, That the Committee on the Judiciary be, and it is hereby, authorized andinstructed to prepare and report to the Senate within thirty days after the beginning ofthe next session of Congress a joint resolution of the two Houses of Congress proposingto the several States amendments to the Constitution of the United States which shallprovide, in substance, for the prohibition and punishment of polygamous marriages andplural cohabitation contracted or practiced within the United States and in every placesubject to the jurisdiction of the United States; and which shall, in substance, also requireall persons taking office under the Constitution or laws of the United States, or ofany State, to take and subscribe an oath that he or she is not, and will not be, a memberor adherent of any organization whatever the laws, rules, or nature of which organizationrequire him or her to disregard his or her duty to support and maintain the Constitutionand laws of the United States and of the several States.
Mr. KEARNS. Mr. President, I will not permit this occasion to pass withoutsaying, with brevity and such clearness as I can command, what it seems to meshould be said by a Senator, under these circumstances, before leaving publiclife. Something is due to the State which has honored me; something is due tothe record which I have endeavored to maintain honorably before the world andsomething, by way of information, is due to the Senate and the country.
Utah, the newest of the States, to me the best beloved of all the States,appears to be the only one concerning which there is a serious conflict with thecountry. I was not born in Utah, but I have spent all the years of my manhoodthere, and I love the Commonwealth and its people. In what I say there ismalice toward none, and I hope to make it just to all. If the present day doesnot accept my statements and appreciate my motives, I can only trust thattime will prove more gentle and that in the future those who care to revert tothese remarks will know that they are animated purely by a hope to bring abouta better understanding between Utah and this great nation.
Utah was admitted to statehood after, and because of, a long series of pledgesexacted from the Mormon leaders, the like of which had never before beenknown in American history. Except for those pledges, the sentiment of theUnited States would never have assented to Utah's admission. Except for thebelief on the part of Congress and the country that the extraordinary powerwhich abides in that State would maintain these pledges, Utah would not havebeen admitted. There is every reason to believe that the President who signedthe bill would have vetoed it if he had not been convinced that the pledges madewould be kept.
THE PLEDGES.
As a citizen of the State and a witness to the events and words which constitutethose pledges, as a Senator of the United States, I give my word of honorto you that I believed that these pledges consisted of the following propositions:
First. That the Mormon leaders would live within the laws pertaining to pluralmarriage and the continued plural marriage relation, and that they wouldenforce this obligation upon all of their followers, under p