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CHAPTER III.
Outline of the Cullom Bill.
By my investigations before referred to I became convinced that existing evils could only be corrected by adequate legislation of Congress, and therefore as I had mentally resolved while looking upon the mutilated body of my murdered client, Doctor Robinson, to do all that I possibly could do to place in the hands of the federal authorities the power to punish the perpetrators of such heinous crimes, I drafted the Cullom bill, which contained among others of less importance, the following provisions:
Sec. 2. Provides that the United States marshal and his deputies shall be the executive officers of the district courts.
Sec. 4. That the United States district attorney and his deputies shall be the prosecuting officers of said courts.
Sec. 7 Prescribes the method of procuring grand and petit juries.
Sec. 10. Provides that in all prosecutions for bigamy and the crimes specified in this act no person shall he competent to serve as grand or petit jurors who believes in, advocates, or practices bigamy, concubinage or polygamy, and upon that fact appearing by examination on voir dire or otherwise, such person shall not he permitted to serve as a juror.
Sec. 11. That in all prosecutions for bigamy, concubinage and adultery, the lawful wife of the accused shall be a competent witness to prove both the first and subsequent marriage or marriages of her husband, but for no other purpose.
Sec. 12. Be it further enacted, that whereas marriage in said Territory of Utah, rests solely on the contract of the parties followed by cohabitation, there being no form, manner or ceremony prescribed by the laws of said Territory for the solemnization of this important relation in society or requiring recordation certificate or publication of the same; that in all prosecutions for bigamy, concubinage, or adultery, it shall not be necessary to prove either the first or subsequent marriages by the registration or certificate thereof, or other recorded evidence thereof, but the same may be proved by such evidence as is admissible to prove a marriage in other cases, and proof of cohabitation by the accused with more than one woman as husband and wife, his declaration and admission that such women are his wives, his acts recognizing, acknowledging, introducing, treating or deporting himself towards them as such shall, unless rebutted, be sufficient to sustain the prosecution.
Sec. 13. That any man in said Territory who shall, after this act goes into effect, live or cohabit with one or more women other than his lawful wife as his wife or wives, shall be adjudged guilty of concubinage, and upon conviction thereof shall be punished by fine not exceeding one thousand dollars, and by imprisonment not exceeding five years at hard labor, and in all prosecutions for the violation of this section the adjudged concubines shall be competent witnesses to establish or disprove the charge, provided that no statement made by any such witness shall be used against, admitted, or allowed to affect them in any case whatever.
Sec. 14. That the statute of limitations shall not bar a prosecution for any of the crimes specified by this act, nor for the crime of bigamy, concubinage, or adultery hereafter committed.
Sec. 17. Provides in substance that in case the United States marshal, or any of his deputies, shall be resisted or threatened with resistance in executing any writ or process of any court, said marshal or either of his deputies may apply to the commander of any military camp or post of the United States in said Territory for a posse to aid such officers. Said commander is authorized upon such application to furnish such posse, and said marshal or any of his deputies were also authorized to make such application when necessary to suppress any mob, riot or disturbance of the peace.
Sec. 19. Provides that no alien living in or practicing bigamy, polygamy, or concubinage, shall be admitted to citizenship of the United States nor shall any person living in or practicing bigamy, polygamy or concubinage, hold any office of trust or profit. in said Territory, vote at any election therein or be entitled to the benefits of the homestead or pre-emption laws.
Sec. 23. Provides that no man, a resident of said Territory, shall marry his mother, his grandmother, daughter, granddaughter, stepmother, grandfather's wife, wife's granddaughter, wife's daughter nor his sister, his half-sister, brother's daughters, father's sisters or mother's sisters.1
1 At that time, and until the passage of the Edmunds Act of 1882, there was no law against incest. George D. Watt, who was connected with Brigham Young's office, and who reported most of the Mormon sermons contained in the Journal of Discourse, had married his half-sister and was cohabiting with her. There had been marriage between nephews and aunts, and numerous polygamists had plural wives who were sisters, and in some instances were a mother and her daughter.
The penalty for violating the foregoing section was imprisonment for not more than twenty years, and a fine of not more than one thousand dollars.
Sec. 24. Prohibits marking the ballots.
Sec. 25. Authorizes the probate courts to try and determine civil cases wherein the debt or damages claimed did not exceed five hundred dollars, and in criminal cases to act as committing magistrates.
Sec. 30. Provides a method by which polygamists could be compelled, when their plural wives and their children were in need, to support such wives and children.
By the provisions of said bill all acts and part of acts of the territorial legislature inconsistent with said bill were disapproved.
Every one of these provisions except those relating to the statute of limitations, the homestead and pre-emption laws and a few others of minor importance which I have not referred to, were afterwards, in substance, incorporated by piecemeal in the Poland act of 1874, the Edmunds act of 1882, and the Edmunds-Tucker bill of 1887. The latter added several provisions which were more stringent than those of the Cullom bill. I presented a draft of the latter bill in 1869 at Washington city to Senator Cullom, who was chairman of the House Committee on Territories, and after explaining its bearing on the Mormon question, he introduced it and had it referred to his committee. Captain Hooper and myself discussed it before the committee, he opposing and I favoring its adoption. The committee reported it to the House and recommended its passage. That Senator Cullons understood what legislation was required to put an end to the evil system at which the provisions of the bill were aimed, the following extract of his speech in favor of its passage shows:
"All that is necessary in my judgment is to give the courts of the Territory power to enforce convictions for violations of law and break down the political power now wielded by the Mormon church, and show thereby that the government of the United States means business and intends to use all the necessary means to crush out this iniquity, and compel obedience to law. A persistent, straightforward determination to do this is all that is necessary and if this course is pursued these people will submit to law as the people of other portions of the country do and are required to do. I am either for the repeal of the the statute of 1862, making bigamy or polygamy a criminal offense, or I am for such legislation and such action on our part as will compel obedience to that law by the Mormon authorities and people. * * * Are we to have any legislation that will effectually crush out this bold and defiant iniquity, or arc we going on as we have been for over thirty years allowing this practice of polygamy and bigamy to flourish in violation of human and divine laws, cloaked by the title of Latter-day Saints, a pretended system of religion? Shall we continue to temporize any longer with it and allow its defenders and abettors to go unpunished? But if we are to have any legislation upon the subject, let us have such legislation as will reach the evil and put a stop to it."
The bill was passed in the House by a large majority. When it reached the Senate it was referred to the Committee on Territories, of which Senator Nye of Nevada was chairman. That committee, without opposition, directed the chairman to prepare a report in favor of the passage of the bill, and present it to the Senate.
Notwithstanding the fact that this session of Congress would end in thirty days, Nye, although I frequently urged him to do so, failed to prepare the report. Had the bill been reported as ordered, I do not think there is the least doubt that it would have been passed, for I had canvassed the Senate. What caused Nye's failure is a matter of conjecture. Undoubtedly the enactment of the Cullom bill in 1870 would at a much earlier day have caused the changed conditions in Utah which were gradually brought about by the various acts of Congress afterward, passed piecemeal during the lapse of twenty years.
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