USA > Utah > Salt Lake County > Salt Lake > History of Salt Lake City > Part 108
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"I. That the returns of the election of Delegate to the 47th Congress of the United States, held on the 2d day of November, 1880, in the several counties of the Territory of Utah, which were prepared and forwarded to the Secretary of the Territory, under sections (23) and (24) of the Compiled Laws of the Territory of Utah, copies of which returns marked respectively, A, B, C, D. etc., are hereto annexed, showed, as the fact was, that 18,568 votes were legally cast for me at said election, that only 1,357 votes were cast for you, and that only 8 votes were cast for all other candidates, and that I was therefore legally elected to said office of Delegate from the Territory of Utah in the 47th Congress, and was also entitled to receive the certificate of election, and to be enrolled and sworn as such Delegate.
" 2. That said returns showed, as the fact was, that you received less than one- thirteenth of the votes legally cast at said election, and therefore were not entitled to hold the said office of Delegate from the Territory of Utah in the 47th Congress, or to be enrolled or sworn as such Delegate, or to receive the cer- tificate of election to said office.
"3. That the action of the Governor of the Territory of Utah, in withholding the certificate of elec- tion from me, and giving it to you, was illegal and fraudulent.
' Very respectfully, "GEO. Q. CANNON."
The continuation of the history of this famous suit is from Mr. Campbell's claim submitted to the Forty-seventh Congress of the United States. Mr. Camp- bell filed his answer to Mr. Cannon's contest. The answer was as follows :
"SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH, February 26th, 1881.
"GEO. Q. CANNON, ESQ .:
" Sir : To your notice of January 20th, 1881, served on me on the 4th day of the present month.
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to the effect that you will contest my right to hold a seat in the House of Representatives of the Forty- seventh Congress of the United States, as Delegate from the Territory of Utah, etc., I have the honor to answer in respect to the facts alleged by you, and to state the grounds on which I rest the validity of my election as follows :
"I. I admit that the returns of the election of Delegate to the Forty-seventh Congress of the United States, held on the ad day of November, 1881, in the several counties of the Territory of Utah, were made to the Secretary of said Territory, of which copies are annexed to your notice and referred to therem as marked A, B, C, D, etc. Bat I deny that said returns showed, or that the fact was, that 18,568 votes were legally east for you at said election, or that you were legally or otherwise elected to said office of Delegate from the Territory of Utah in the Forty-seventh Congress, or entitled to re- ceive the certificate of election, or to be enrolled, sworn, or otherwise in any manner recognized as such Delegate. I deny that said returns showed, or that the fact was, that I received less than one-thirteenth of the vetes legally east at said election, or that I was not entitled to hold the said office of Delegate from the Territory of Utah in the Forty-seventh Congress, or to be enrolled and sworn as such Delegate, or to receive the certificate of election to said office.
** I deny that the action of the Governor of the Territory of Utah in withholding the certificate of election from you and in giving it to me, was illegal or fraudulent.
"And I allege as the grounds of the foregoing denial and of my claim that my election was valid, as follows :
"1. No statute, Federal or Territorial, required or authorized said returns of said election to be placed before the Governor of said Territory ; or authorized or required him to open or inspect said returns as the whole or any part of the evidence, on which he was required to determine the result of said election. and this state of the law has been judicially declared in said Territory.
" 2. Said returns do not disclose the names, sex or qualifications of the voters whose votes nre therein aggregatedly stated.
"3. A large number of the voters who voted for you were females, and therefore not qualified to vote for members of the Legislative Assembly in said Territory, and consequently not qualified to vote for Delegate to Congress at said election. The number of such illegal votes can only be estimated, but such votes were given in all the counties in relatively large numbers, and are an undistinguishable part of the votes mentioned in each of said returns.
"4. You were not at the date of said election eligible or qualified, nor capable of being made eli- gible or qualified to be elected to, or to serve in, said office of Delegate, because you were horn a subject of Great Britain, and have never been naturalized as a citizen of the United States; you are not a man of good moral character ; you are not attached to the principles of the Constitution of the United States, nor well disposed to the good order and happiness of the same; you have been for many years a polyg- amist, living and cohabiting with four women as wives, to whom you have joined yourself by a pretended ceremony of marriage; you do not loyally yield assent and obedience to the act of Congress against polygamy in the Territories ; you have for many years last past publicly endeavored to incite others to violate that statute in the Territory of Utah-therefore all the votes given for you at said election are void.
"5. At the time of said election on the second day of November, 1881, you were known through- out the Territory of Utah to be an alien and not eligible to said office of Delegate. All the persons vot- ing for you were aware, and had full notice, that you were an alien, unnaturalized. and disqualified to hold any office under the laws of the United States, or of any of the Territories thereof.
"6. 1 am a native born citizen of the United States and qualified by age and residence in said Ter- ritory to be elected at said election to said office of Delegate to the House of Representatives of the Forty-seventh Congress of the United States, and besides eight scattering votes cast at said election, I re- ceived all the legal votes given at said election for said office of Delegate in the Forty-seventh Congress from the Territory of Utah ; that on the 8th day of January, 1881, the Governor of said Territory, in pur- suance of the statute in such cases made and provided, and in the due and regular exercise of the power in him vested, did declare and certify under his hand and the great seal of said Territory, that I was the person having the greatest number of votes, and therefore duly cleeted as Delegate from said Territory to said Congress.
" Respectfully Yours, "A. G. CAMPBELL."
ยท I hereby admit service of the within and foregoing notice to me directed by a copy delivered to me personally at Washington, this the fifth day of March, A. D. 1881.
"GEO. Q CANNON."
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On a suit instituted before Chief Justice Hunter, at Salt Lake City, on the 8th day of June, 1881, in the name of the " United States ex rel. Allen G. Camp- bell vs. George Q. Cannon," that court pronounced its judgment as follows :
"In the District Court for the Third Judicial District of Utah Territory.
"THE UNITED STATES on the relation of ALLEN G. CAMPBELL, Plaintiff, vs. GEORGE Q. CANNON, Defendant.
" COMPLAINT TO ANNUL A CERTIFICATE HELD BY DEFENDANT AND USED BY HIM AS A CER- TIFICATE OF NATURALIZATION.
" The demurrer of the defendant to the complaint filed in this action having been heretofore argued by counsel for the respective parties, and taken under advisement ; and the court having duly considered the same; and it appearing to the court that the Attorney-General of the United States should file com- plaint in behalf of the Government in such cases; and that from the facts stated in the complaint, which are admitted by defendant's demurrer, that there is no record of defendant's naturalization, and that no proceeding for that purpose ever took place in court, and that the certificate held by defendant as a cer- tificate of naturalization was obtained by fraud and has been fraudulently used, and is void on its face in not professing to be the copy of a record and not certifying a regular naturalization, and therefore that there is no sufficient cause shown for annulling it, it is ordered that the said demurrer be and the same is hereby sustained, and that the complaint be and is hereby dismissed.
"JOHN A. HUNTER. Judge.
" Attest, October 31st, 1881.
" H. G. MCMILLAN, Deputy Clerk. [SEAL.]
" Filed October 31, 1881."
Notwithstanding that Mr. Campbell did not obtain the seat in Congress, which was scarcely expected either by himself or his political friends, the Utah Liberal party considered that he won for it a great triumph in Congress, and on his return he was received as a victor, not a defeated candidate.
The following review of the case from Hon. George Q. Cannon's great speech, delivered to the House of Representatives on his retirement from Congress after the passage of the Edmunds Bill, is the other half of this remarkable chap- ter of our Territory :
" On the 2d day of November, 1880, in a convention of delegates from all parts of the Territory of Utah, I received, on my part, the unanimous nomina- tion for delegate to this House. Notwithstanding all that has been said about church and state, I assert here that there is no place in the United States where there is greater freedom and greater liberty for the expression of opinions by the people respecting the men whom they wish to serve them, than there is in the Territory of Utah. Our political organization is entirely distinct from our church organization. It is true that the members of the church are members of the political party, because they are all-that is, the great bulk of the people, now numbering over 120,000 according to the last census-members of that church. We have no salaried ministers. Every man is a preacher who is a reputable man among us. From the midst of the congregation men are called to preach, very frequently without any previous notice. All the males over twenty-one years of age of good repute hold office in the church. It is this, and this alone, which can give any color to the statements that there is a connection between church and state.
" Now, I wish to say here, though I have had probably as much influence in
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political matters as most of the men in the Territory of Utah, occupying as I do a position of confidence among the people, I can state on my honor that beyond the expression of an opinion as a citizen when asked, at no time and under no circumstances have I endeavored to influence any inan or any body of men in the Territory of Utah respecting the selection of any one they had in view for office. I have not myself used any influence of that kind that could possibly be called by any one improper. When I speak this of myself of course I speak of my own personal knowledge. But I think I can say the same for the rest of the leading men of Utah. Whatever influence they have used has been always to have the people select and vote for men who would worthily fill the offices. Knowing the jealousy there is abroad respecting this matter, there is the greatest care exercised so as to prevent anything from occurring which would give color to the prejudice existing upon this point ; yet of course where men have influence, if their opinions are asked their views will always have considerable weight.
"All the forms of political procedure prevail in Utah as in other Territories and in the States. The people hold their primary meetings, elect delegates, and those delegates meet in convention, sometimes instructed whom they are to vote for and sometimes not, and every delegate has the right to express his views in favor of or against any candidate, and to vote for whom he pleases, and as the se- cret ballot prevails in Utah there can possibly be no interference on the part of any one to prevent citizens from expressing their unbiased choice for any candi- date. It was a convention of this kind, composed of delegates from all parts of the Territory, which nominated me as Delegate to Congress. I had given my friends to understand that I was not a candidate, and done so upon every previous occasion when I had been nominated; for you know, gentlemen, the position I have occupied here now for nine years is one which no one capable of filling the place would desire to occupy. It is not pleasant to be made a target for every man who wishes to gain credit for his morality to aim arrows at. In coming here, however, I have been sustained by the consciousness that I was at a post of duty where it was necessary for some one to represent the people and that I had the sole support of my constituents. It was the unanimous feeling of the delegates coming from all parts of the Territory that I should be nominated, and I received their unanimous vote. At that time I was occupying the position of Delegate to Congress. No question as to my eligibility had risen or could arise ; my consti- tuents had the best of evidence in their possession that I was eligible from the fact that I was at that time a Delegate in good standing in this House with an un- questioned right to my seat, and was in the same position when I was voted for and elected. Directly after the election I came here and took my seat and served through the last session of the last Congress.
"But the governor of Utah Territory, having an idea that he had the oppor- tunity to gain fame and make himself popular, entered, as I have full reason to be- lieve, into a conspiracy with others to precipitate upon the country this question for the agitation of which a favorable opportunity had been long sought, to fur- nish some excuse for nullifying the election, and, either making the seat of the delegate vacant, or have a man occupy it whom the people had refused to elect. I having been born in a foreign land, he affected to entertain the belief that I was
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not properly naturalized. At our last interview, before I came to Washington to occupy my seat at the last session, he told me he thought some question would arise on that point. I told him then that it was a matter which the House had decided in the Forty-fourth Congress, that the question had been fully examined and adjudicated, and I thought there ought to be some time in a man's life when the statute of repose should intervene to prevent his being annoyed upon a ques- tion of that kind, especially after it had been so thoroughly investigated. I told him further that it was the province of Congress to decide upon the qualifications of its members. But in accordance, as I believe, with this pre-arranged pro- gramme, he withheld from me the certificate of election.
" I came here, as you know, and claimed my seat as I had done before. I courted investigation. I have been willing that this charge should be thoroughly re-examined, although, as I said, it was thoroughly investigated by the committee on elections of the Forty-fourth Congress, who unanimously reported that I was a citizen of the United States. Since this session began, a distinguished Repub lican member of the committee on elections well-known, if not personally, at least, by reputation, to every member of this House, Hon. Martin I. Townsend, told me-and I will be pardoned for mentioning his name, because I have no doubt he would be quite willing I should use it-" Mr. Cannon, there is nothing whatever in this charge about you not being a citizen. I went to the bottom of that case my- self in the Forty-fourth Congress, and if you are not a naturalized citizen, I do not know where to look for one." But at this session my case was referred, and four- teen of a committee, composed of fifteen members of the House, have decided that I was properly elected. Of that there can be no question ; for the governor himself in my presence gave to the clerk of this House last winter his decision upon the election ; and in response to my question, in the presence of the then clerk of the House, "Governor, do you admit that this is your official action ?" he replied that it was. In that decision he stated (and it is his duty under the law to declare the result of the election) that I had received 18,568 votes and my competitor 1,357. This is the decision also of your committee ; and further, they decided after thorough discussion and examination that I am a citizen, and so far as election and citizenship are concerned, am entitled to my seat.
" Mr. Speaker, it is now clear, that if I had my rights I should have come here by law with a certificate from the Territory of Utah under the seal of the Territory, signed by the Governor and countersigned by the Secretary of the Territory. That would have been my position if I had not been defrauded of my rights. I say " defrauded ; " it is not too strong a term. I was defrauded of my rights and thus prevented from taking my seat on this floor ; and the country has been inundated with falsehood since the election eighteen months ago to make the public believe that I was not eligible to a seat. I have been held in that position until within a few weeks a law of Congress has been passed which now disqualifies me in the opinion of many gentlemen on the other side who previously favored my case and said that I could not be kept out of my seat on account of any alleged disqualification arising out of my marital relations. I have been held in this position, bound hand and foot, until the passage of this act, and now it is
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proposed to make this law operative against me to expel me literally from the House, not by a two-thirds vote, but by a majority vote.
" If any gentlemen feel that they can vote thus to exclude me, and thus be jus- tified because of the clamor that is raised about Utah, and the people of Utah, and the religion of the people of Utah, I do not envy their feelings, but from the bottom of my heart I pity them. Of course every man must be responsible to himself and his constituency and his God for whatever vote he may cast. I do not question the right of any man to vote as he thinks best. I do not quarrel with any man on that account. His is the responsibility. I do not do so now ; but I say it is a great wrong to thus act. Whatever may be said about my cor .- stituents or myself does not justify the violation of the Constitution and the laws in my case.
" It is conceded by the best lawyers in this House, if that recent law had not been passed, my case would have been a good one, notwithstanding the report of the committee on elections, and I could not have been kept out of my seat by that report nor by any reasoning embodied in it. This is the unanimous opinion of the best lawyers in the House. I had no fears about the subject myself. I was undisturbed as to what the result would be. But when this law was passed, I knew it was intended to furnish ground of justification for voting against me for many who were doubtful previously as to what vote they should cast.
"Mr. Speaker, if religious prejudice, if religious animosity, if allegations against the people of Utah are to be accepted as the foundations upon which action in my case is to be based, then it is clear I am to be excluded, and cannot take my seat. If these are to be accepted as reasons why Utah should not have representation, then certainly all representation will be stricken down on this floor, and the seat of the Delegate from Utah Territory, legally elected under the laws and under the Constitution, will be declared vacant.
" But I ask you, gentlemen, all of you, who say the people of Utah shall obey the law, will you who say we should comply with the law, religion or no religion, will you set us the example by smiting law down here, in what ought to be the temple of justice ? Will you do this? Will you who ask equity from the people of Utah do equity, or will you deny us equity, and say we shall not have it because there are allegations made against Utah Territory ; because they are falsely ac- cused of everything that is vile, and charged with being bad inen, just as the first Christians were when Nero burned them, made torches of them, and justified him- self in doing so-will you, because of the alleged bad character of the people of Utah, be guilty of this great wrong ?
" I say to you, Mr. Speaker, that before I would be guilty of that, I would want my right hand to loose its cunning and my tongue to cleave to the roof of my mouth-ay! before I would tear out the corner-stone of this grand and glorious temple of liberty which has been reared with so much costly toil and sacrifice, tear out the corner-stone of the right of the people to representation.
" That, sir, has been conceded to Utah from the beginning. You now pre- scribe by law certain disqualifications. This, upon no principle of fairness can ap- ply to me. It would be an outrage to have it do so. It would be giving legisla- tion a retro-active effect. I am just as eligible to this seat in Congress to day, as
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I was the first Monday in December, 1873, when the Forty third Congress con- vened in this Hall of Representatives ; for this new law does not affect me. I have not exposed myself to its disqualifying clauses. My eligibility has not been inter- fered with in the least. I have not committed any act which makes me any more unsuitable to that position than I was at that time. And if this idea shall prevail -which is the ground upon which the majority of the committee base their re- port-that every Congress shall have the right to prescribe new qualifications for Delegates to Congress, imagine the condition of the people of the Territory. They elect a man in good faith, believing they have a right to elect him, and because of some whim or caprice, through some change in popular majorities, when he presents himself, for some reason or other, he is objected to, and is told he cannot have a seat in this House, because in the opinion of the majority he is disqualified.
" It may be plural marriage to-day ; it may be something else to-morrow, or some offense, real or imaginary, the next day ; it may be the Mormon to day, the man who believes in marriage, and it may be to-morrow the Shaker, the man who does not believe in marriage. It may be the Catholic the next day, and so on to suit the ever-varying whim of popular caprice, if Congress can prescribe new regulations for the Delegates from the Territories. Such will be the inevitable condition if the conclusions adopted by the majority of this committee shall prevail.
" It has been stated that I represent a church ; that I am the ambassador of a church. Mr. Speaker, I represent the people of Utah Territory. I represent no church, and yet I represent every church that exists in that Territory. I am not here as an ambassador from any church. I am here because the voice of the legally qualified people of Utah Territory have chosen me to represent them here. It has been asserted also that I have no votes outside of the community of which I am a member. I dispute that statement also. It is not true, if the testimony of voters themselves car. be believed, for they have stated to me, many of them, that they voted for me.
" We have a secret ballot in Utah Territory, and there is no means of know- ing the candidates for whom votes are cast. I was voted for, if I may believe what I am told, by many non-Mormons. My last contestant, that was in the Forty-fifth Congress received over 4,000 votes. There has been an increase of the non-Mormon element since that time, and as one prominent man from Utah said to me in this city recently, ' Mr. Cannon, when we wish to get the seat of the Delegate from Utah, we will send some man here with more votes than 1,357 to get the seat.' This was said by a prominent non-mormon of that Territory, and if the entire vote had been cast in the Territory at the last election, I have no doubt there would be nearly 5,000 in opposition at that time. I am, therefore, a representa- tive of the people of Utah, and if I do not represent them, certainly there is no one to represent them; but I am here because the law of Congress says that Utah Territory is entitled to a Delegate on this floor, and because the law said who should vote for the Delegate, and because the votes were cast for me.
" But in regard to licentiousness concerning which so much has been said, I wish to say a few words. Do gentlemen understand that if the people of my
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Territory, those who are accused of violating law in having more wives than one -I say do gentlemen, in considering this question not understand that if licen- tiousness and lechery were the objects to be accomplished, that the people could reach this in a much cheaper and much more popular manner than by marrying women and sustaining and making legitimate their children ? Why it needs no argument upon this point. The mere suggestion brings conviction to the mind of any person who reasons that the methods in vogue elsewhere and which pro- voke no wrath would be much more likely to have been adopted to accomplish such a purpose if that had been the object.
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