which the forbidden relationship existed. This meant that for an
alleged misdemeanor--for which Congress prescribed a maximum
penalty of six months' imprisonment and a fine of three hundred
dollars--a man might be imprisoned for life, aye, for many terms
of a man's natural life did the court's power to enforce its
sentences extend so far, and might be fined millions of dollars.
Before this travesty on the administration of law could be
brought before the court of last resort, and there meet with the
reversal and rebuke it deserved, men were imprisoned under
sentences of many years' duration.

The people contested these measures one by one in the courts;
presenting in case after case the different phases of the
subject, and urging the unconstitutionality of the measure. Then
the Church was disincorporated, and its property both real and
personal confiscated and escheated to the government of the
United States; and although the personal property was soon
restored, real estate of great value long lay in the hands of the
court's receiver, and the "Mormon" Church had to pay the national
government high rental on its own property. But the people have
suspended the practise of plural marriage; and the testimony of
the governors, judges, and district attorneys of the territory,
and later that of the officers of the state, have declared the
sincerity of the renunciation.

As the people had adopted the practise under what was believed to
be divine approval, they suspended it when they were justified in
so doing. In whatever light this practise has been regarded in
the past, it is today a dead issue, forbidden by ecclesiastical
rule as it is prohibited by legal statute. And the world is