History of Utah, 1540-1886 - Brigham Young University

684 CHURCH AND STATE.
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
16 The secretary of the territory was to be the secretary of the board, keep
a journal of its proceedings, and attest its action.
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, 18S2. 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 Beliijious Biyhts of the People of Utah.