Bigamy and Polygamy.
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:
"Every person having a husband or wife living who marries another, whether married or single, in a territory or other place over which the United States have exclusive jurisdiction, is guilty of bigamy, and shall be punished by a fine of not more than five hundred dollars, and by imprisonment for a term of not more than five years; but this section shall not extend to any person by reason of any former marriage, whose husband or wife by such marriage is absent for five successive years, and is not known to such person to be living; nor to any person by reason of any former marriage which has been dissolved by the decree of a competent court; nor to any person by reason of any former marriage which has been pronounced void by the decree of a competent court, on the ground of nullity of the marriage contract."
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:
"The Congress shall have power to dispose of and make all needful rules and regulations respecting the territory or other property belonging to the United States."
