That Proposed Anti-Polygamy Amendment to the Constitution
By K. C. Russell
INTERESTING information has come to us since the publication of the last issue of the REVIEW, regarding the proposed anti-polygamy Constitutional amendment. It has developed that the campaign which has been carried on by the National Reformers to secure a religious clause incorporated into the proposed anti-polygamy amendment to the Constitution has been aimed at something which had no real existence. The following is a statement of the matter by the chairman of the Judiciary Committee of the Senate in response to an inquiry concerning the question:— “In reply I beg to inform you that no such resolution was brought before the committee, nor was the committee instructed to introduce at this session of Congress a form of amendment for polygamy. So far as my information goes, on Feb. 22, 1905, Mr. Dubois introduced in the Senate a resolution to instruct the Committee on Judiciary to prepare and report within thirty days after the beginning of this present session of Congress, a joint resolution providing for the prohibition and punishment of polygamous marriages. This resolution was never acted upon by the Senate, nor was anything done therewith, except on Feb. 28, 1905, a speech was made upon the resolution by Mr. Kearns, of Utah. This is the last indication I have that anything whatever was done with the resolution.” It appears from this explanation that the introduction of this resolution in the fifty-eighth Congress was made for the first purpose of making a speech on the subject, but there was no motion to adopt, so the resolution was never acted upon. We are glad to say that, notwithstanding the fact that the National Reformers were beating the air in their campaign, we were not opposing something that was imaginary, but a real thing; for these so-called reformers were attempting to mold sentiment both in and out of Congress in favor of the object which they have sought so many years. We believe that the efforts which have been put forth by the Religious Liberty Department against the proposition of the National Reformers to secure a religious clause in the Constitution will be effective.