Page:Bigamy and Polygamy - Reed - c. 1879.pdf/11



It is proposed, in the following paragraphs, to examine the decision of the Supreme Court of the United States, in the case of George Reynolds, plaintiff in error, versus the United States, defendant. Reynolds was indicted in the District Court for the Territory of Utah, charged with having married one Amelia Jane Schofield; the said defendant being then already married to Mary Ann Tuddenham. The indictment was under Section 5352 of the Revised Statutes; which is as follows:

The first question that arises under the judgment of the court, is in respect to the constitutionality of the statute upon which the indictment was predicated. All the authority which Congress possesses, or may lawfully exercise over the Territories, or over whatever they may include, either directly, or at the hands of the judiciary, is conferred by the third section of the fourth article of the Constitution; which is as follows: