Excerpt from The North American Review, Vol. 138 This unconstitutional exaction, which at one fell swoop for the time being disfranchised a whole Territory, amounted to this, that a man must swear that he had never simultaneously lived with more than one woman in the marriage relation. Those who cohabited with more than one woman in adultery or prostitution were not affected by its provisions. The roue, the libertine, the strumpet, the brothel-keeper, the adulterer and adulteress could all vote; no matter how licentious a man or woman might be, all were screened and protected by this law. It was not enacted, as has been supposed, to punish licentious ness and debauchery, but was aimed expressly against those who were associated with more than one woman in the marriage relation. All, indeed, had their franchise protected except the man who had now, or ever had had, more than one wife, or the woman who had ever been the wife Of a polygamist, be she the first, second, or other wife. For the commissioners were such broad constructionists that they declared that no man or woman who ever had been a member of a family practicing plural mar riage should be permitted to vote. This action was ex post facto in the extreme. It punished men and women without trial, by robbing them Of the franchise for doing acts which, at the time when they were done, were not unlawful. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.