The PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Chair lays before the Senate the
resolution submitted by the Senator from Idaho [Mr. DUBOIS],
which will be read.
The Secretary read the resolution submitted yesterday by Mr.
DUBOIS, as follows:
_Resolved_, That the Committee on the Judiciary be, and it is
hereby, authorized and instructed to prepare and report to the
Senate within thirty days after the beginning of the next
session of Congress a joint resolution of the two Houses of
Congress proposing to the several States amendments to the
Constitution of the United States which shall provide, in
substance, for the prohibition and punishment of polygamous
marriages and plural cohabitation contracted or practiced
within the United States and in every place subject to the
jurisdiction of the United States; and which shall, in
substance, also require all persons taking office under the
Constitution or laws of the United States, or of any State, to
take and subscribe an oath that he or she is not, and will not
be, a member or adherent of any organization whatever the laws,
rules, or nature of which organization require him or her to
disregard his or her duty to support and maintain the
Constitution and laws of the United States and of the several
States.
Mr. KEARNS. Mr. President, I will not permit this occasion to pass
without saying, with brevity and such clearness as I can command, what
it seems to me should be said by a Senator, under these circumstances,
before leaving public life. Something is due to the State which has
honored me; something is due to the record which I have endeavored to
maintain honorably before the world and something, 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 the country. I was not born in Utah, but I have spent all
the years of my manhood there, and I love the Commonwealth and its
people. In what I say there is malice toward none, and I hope to make it
just to all. If the present day does not accept my statements and
appreciate my motives, I can only trust that time will prove more gentle
and that in the future those who care to revert to these remarks will
know that they are animated purely by a hope to bring about a better
understanding between Utah and this great nation.
Utah was admitted to statehood after, and because of, a long series of
pledges exacted from the Mormon leaders, the like of which had never
before been known in American history. Except for those pledges, the
sentiment of the United States would never have assented to Utah's
admission. Except for the belief on the part of Congress and the country
that the extraordinary power which abides in that State would maintain
these pledges, Utah would not have been admitted. There is every reason
to believe that the President who signed the bill would have vetoed it
if he had not been convinced that the pledges made would be kept.