The Weekly Elko Independent

The decision of the United States Supreme Court in the Reynolds polygamy case which has anxiously been expected for the last five or six weeks has at last been rendered. The fundamental question involved in this case was the constitutionality of the law of Congress passed in 1862 against polygamy. The position taken by the attorneys for the Mormons was that polygamy being a part of the Mormon religion the law forbidding it was in contravention of the Constitution of the United States which provides that "Congress shall make no law prohibiting the free exercise of religion." Now, the fact that polygamy is undoubtedly a part of the Mormon religion, and that positive provision of the Constitution above quoted was calculated to encourage the Mormons in the hope that the decision would be in their favor. There is no doubt but that the decision given in favor of the constitutionality of the law is contrary to the letter of the Constitution, and it is equally certain that the provision of that instrument guaranteeing to all the free exercise of religion, is a wise and proper one, but it is also certainly true that there must be a limit to the exercise of religion. Otherwise the entire spirit of the Constitution is liable to be subverted, because history abundantly shows that there is no conceivable crime that has not at some time been a part of some religion.

It is true that the fixing of the limit between what may and what may not be done in the exercise of religion is a delicate matter, but there is no doubt that the decision against polygamy is a wise one from the fact that unless it is suppressed or at least its increase prevented it is sure to bring upon the country a disaster similar to the one produced by slavery.

The dispatches state that the decision expresses the unanimous opinion of the Supreme Judges.