TITLE PAGE PIONEER (full name) Helon Henry Tracy BIRTH (date and place) 25 Feb 1849 Council Bluffs, Pottowattmie, Iowa DEATH (date and place) 25 April 1893 Ogden, Utah PARENTS Moses Tracy Nancy Naomi Alexander MARRIED (who and date) Emma Burdett Tracy Jane Burdett Tracy Phoebe Draper Tracy ARRIVAL IN UTAH (date) 15th of Sept 1850 (Company arrived with) Thomas Johnson was Captain of fifty wagons they were in. HISTORY (who wrote) (date written) (who submitted) Mae Baker (address) 5808 Wasatch Dr. Mt. Green, [Morgan County], Utah CAMP & COUNTY SUBMITTING (Camp Historian & address) County Historian & address) SOURCE OF INFORMATION & PAGE NUMBERS: This [is] an account of the court proceedings of Helon Henry Tracy when he was convicted of unlawful cohabitation with his 3 wives. OGDEN DAILY HERALD WEDNESDAY EVENING, MAY 19, 1886 POLYGAMISTS Are Instructed How to Live Within the Law. BY JUSTICE O. W. POWERS Barnard White Commited on One Indictment A BUSY DAY IN COURT Messers. Saunders, Maycock and Tracy Receive an Additional Six Months Imprisonment Each — Miscellaneous Business. Mr. H. H. Tracy was asked to stand up, and in answer to the reading of indictment 806, withdrew his previous plea of "not guilty" and entered a plea of "guilty." The same course with regard to indictment 805 was pursued. The statuatory time before passing sentence was waived, and Mr. Tracy was asked what he intended to do as to the future. In reply he said he had thought the thing over and he desired when he shall leave the pen to leave it a free man and to let his conduct speak for itself. In reply to the question whether he had anything to say why sentence should not be passed upon him, Mr. Tracy said he could say much with the Court's permission, but under the circumstances he would keep silent. He married his wives for time and eternity, and he felt in his heart that the doctrine came from God. The Court stated that this was not a valid and legal reason for arrest of judgment, and Mr. Tracy replied that he had nothing more to offer. The Court then sentenced Mr. Tracy on indictment 806 to imprisonment in the penetentiary for six months the sentence to be in effect at the expiration of the term of imprisonment defendant is at present undergoing. The passing of sentence in the thrid indictment, No. 805, on Mr. Tracy was postponed til this afternoon. AFTERNOON SESSION At two p. m. the court resumed its session and the Court called Mr. Tracy up and informed him that he had taken into consideration the fact that he (defendant) is already under sentence under two indictments, and that his health is also very poor; the Court therefore suspended sentence in the third indictment. The Court admonished Mr. Tracy to remember that when he is liberated from the Pen if his conduct does not conform to the requirements of law he can be called into Court and the suspended sentence brought down on his head at any time. OGDEN HERALD, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 1886 POWERS LECTURES Two Sentences Passed for Unlawful Cohabitation H. H. TRACY was then called for sentence. Mr. Tracy was recently convicted, on his own evidence, of cohabiting with his wives during 1883. Following is a transcript of the record touching the proceedings in his and MR C. H. Greenwell's case: UNITED STATES VS HELON H. TRACY THE COURT — Mr. Tracy you may stand up. Mr. Tracy, you were indicted by the Grand Jury of this District, charged with the crime of unlawful cohabitation during the year 1883. You plead not guilty to that indictment, and you were convicted by a jury of your countrymen. Have you anything to say at this time why the sentence of the law should not now be passed upon you? MR. TRACY - No, sir, I have nothing to say. THE COURT — Do you desire to say anything, Mr. Richards? MR. RICHARDS - I do not wish to detain the court long. I have not been requested by the defendant to say anything in his behalf, but there are a few facts within my knowledge which I think the court should be in possession of, and which may, perhaps, aid the court in pronouncing judgment upon the defendant. At all times while these proceedings have been pending before the jury and the court, the defendant, Mr. Tracy, has held himself in readiness to respond to the process of the court and to the convenience of the officers. As soon as he learned that he was wanted, I think it was sometime before his arrest, he arranged his affairs so that he might be able to respond at any time that such call might be made upon him, and he has not made any effort to evade the officers, or to conceal himself, or to escape punishment that might be passed upon him, or to which he might be sentenced after conviction. At the time the officers came for him he went out to the road to meet them; he reported to the District Attorney that anything he could do in the way of furnishing the evidence to enable the jury to get at a proper understanding of the manner in which he had been living, he would be pleased to do, that it would be unnecessary to subpoena the members of his family or other witnesses, that he would furnish the testimony himself, and thus save the expense and trouble attending its procurement. This, I believe, the District Attorney will bear me out in saying he has done at every stage of the proceedings. Further than this the defendant is the head of a large family — he has a dozen children, a number of whom are of tender years and who are dependent upon him for their support, in fact for their daily bread. He is a mechanic, he has but little property — very little to leave with them to support and maintain them while he may be taken from them. So far as the defendant is concerned, I know he would not have me lift up my voice to ask that his term of imprisonment, if it shall be imprisonment, or that his fine should be lighter. He is a man of noble spirit and does not wish to ask favors in any respect. But he has a family who are dependent upon him, and if he cannot be there to support them, the community must of necessity carry the burden for them. It is but justice to the community, it seems to me, that I should make a statement of these facts. Mr. Tracy is a mechanic, and it is from his daily efforts that he is able to support his family, and of course when his labors case it will leave them in a very unpleasant position. I desire Your Honor to consider these things, and, furthermore, I will say, after a personal acquaintance with the defendant; covering a period of fifteen years, a part of which has been intimate, I can say that this is the first time that he has ever been known to violate a law of the United States, or a law of the Territory, that has come to my knowledge. He has the reputation in the community in which he lives of being a peaceful, noble and law abiding citizen; he has the confidence and respect of his neighbors and of his friends. Furthermore, the indictment under which he has been convicted was for unlawful cohabitation during the year 1883. At that time your honor, it is true, that the Edmunds bill was as much in force as it is today, but this may be said in connection with it: That no trial had yet been had under it; that no offender had been brought before the courts and punished, and the courts had not construed it or passed upon it in any way, shape or form, up to the time the defendant is charged with having violated its provisions. There had been no construction of the act, and, as your Honor is aware, other statutes had been lying as dead letters upon the statute book, and while he in one sense had legal notice that the law was in force, yet no man within the Territory of Utah, I presume, had a conception of what the construction of that statute and the enforcement would be. That is all I have to say. THE COURT — Mr. Tracy, you may stand up again. Possibly it will not be improper for me to review briefly, and in a spirit of kindness, the remarks that have been made by your counsel in your behalf. He has referred to the fact that you were convicted under the Edmunds act, for cohabitation during the year 1883 and that during that year no prosecutions were had by the United States Government, under the law, and that consequently it had not been construed by the courts, and has intimated that the people were not aware, and could not tell to what extent the law could be enforced. But in that connection, a matter which must of necessity have weight with the court, and I will call your attention to it, that cohabitation is the result of bigamy or polygamy; it is the living in a state of marriage; it is proceeding, after having taken more than one wife, to pursue family relations with them. That being so, you and others who have offended in like manner, could have learned that polygamy was an offense against the common law of this country. It was an offense in England, before this nation became a republic, and at that time was punishable by death. It was considered so serious and so grave an offense that it was punishable by death by the country from which we obtained our laws, and from which most of the people of this nation descended. It was the statute of James the Second that inflicted that penalty, and that very same statute was afterwards reenacted in most of the colonies of Great Britain and in this country. It was reenacted in Virginia with the death penalty included. The offense was a crime at the common law, and consequently was always an offense in the United States; it has always been illegal. The Mormon people removed from the United States into this Territory while it was a part of Mexico, but they came into this Territory subject to the laws of our sister republic, and polygamy was an offense against the laws of Mexico then, as it is today. Therefore, there never has been a time in this country when it has not been illegal, and there never has been a time when a man had a right to enter into it. The only excuse that has been given for it has been the excuse that it was part of a religious belief. But a man could not violate the laws of his country under the guise of religious belief; could they do so then a sect that should spring up, that believed it right to villate the law in my particular, could set at defiance the laws of the government of this land. You could believe just as long as you choose, that polygamy was right, or that it was right for a man to live with more than one woman as a wife, and the law could not touch you; but when you put that belief into acts, then the law could touch you. Then it became an illegal act. Therefore, you do not stand before me as a man innocent until that law was passed. You had violated the law against polygamy, but it was impossible to prosecute you under the law, because the statute of limitations had run against the offence, but you were living in a state of polygamy. So much for that suggestion. The fact has also been brought to my attention that you gave yourself up willingly to the officers; that you aided the officers as much as you could; that you put no obstacles in the way to defeat the ends of justice. Two views might be taken of that; one, that it was done as a means of indicating your defiance of the laws of the land and your willingness to stand firmly and disobay the law and to set an example. A more charitable view, however, and the one which the Court is inclined to take, is this: That you have been a sincere believer in the false doctrines that have been taught, a doctrine that a man could violate the law of the land, and be a good citizen. It shows that the followers are more sincere than the leaders. While the leaders have been evading the law in every way possible, and throwing every obstacle in the way of its enforcement — hiding, fleeing, secreting themselves underground and in other ways, in cellars and in by-ways, and in every way that is possible; you came up, believing sincerely that you had done that which was right, through their false teachings, and gave yourself up to the officers. I prefer to take the more charitable view; that you have been misled. My attention has been called to the fact that you have a large family dependant upon you for support. It is unfortunate that innocent people should be obliged to suffer for the wrong of another. That is one of the misfortunes of this life. It does seem, indeed, as if the sins of the parents are visited quite as severely upon the head of the child as they are upon the parent themselves. It seems to be an inexorable law of God that others must suffer. But you ought to have considered that a long time ago; and I fear you do not appreciate it this morning. It is through your conduct, through your defiance to the law that others are put in a position where they must rely upon the public for support. I cannot, however, take that entirely into consideration, although I can somewhat in passing sentence. It is one of those unfortunate things that cannot be helped. I am obliged in passing sentence, to determine how much punishment you should receive as an example to yourself and as a practical illustration that the laws of the land must be enforced, even in this Territory, and that there is no Power on earth or above the earth, or beneath the earth, that is going to prevent the execution of the law, as some believe there is. Before, however, I pass sentence, I would like to know whether you propose to obey the laws of the land in the future? MR. TRACY — Your Honor, I have no promises to make; the future alone must determine that question. THE COURT — Under those circumstances the court has but one duty to perform, no matter how it may injure others; it is a duty to society which the Court must not shirk. The sentence of the Court is that you be confined in the Penetentiary for a period of six months. You are remanded to the custody of the United States Marshall. OGDEN DAILY HERALD FRIDAY EVENING, FEBRUARY 26, 1886 POWERS' HOMILY On the occasion of the sentence of Mr. H. H. Tracy his Honor, Justice O. W. Powers, availed himself of the opportunity to deliver an excruciating little homily to the prisoner. His Honor was considaerate enough, however, not to fine luckless Mr. Tracy after he had lectured him. And we only object to these homilies from the Bench because we believe they are unconstitutional in that they in our opinion, come within the category of "cruel and unusual punishments" interdicted by the Constitution of the country. Otherwise we believe that these little judicial homilies are harmless except that they may reflect upon the discretion of the Justice who utters them. A casual reader of the verbatim report of Justice Powers remarks to Mr. Tracy as published only in the OGDEN HERALD of last evening, might be misled into the belief that the learned Justice was a missionary authorized to annihilate false doctrines, but no one would ever accuse his honor of being a student of the Bible, or even a Doctor of Divinity. He alludes to the prominent and honorable Mormons as leaders "hiding, fleeing, secreting themselves under ground and in other ways, in cellars and in by-ways and in every way that is possible," forgetting that Christ found it necessary to withdraw Himself from public places and "hide" from his enemies. Mr. Tracy probably had reasons of his own for making no effort to evade legal prosecution; he was probably ready to suffer for conscience's sake. OGDEN DAILY HERALD WEDNESDAY EVENING, MAY 19, 1886 POLYGAMISTS Are Instructed How to Live Within the Law. BY JUSTICE O. W. POWERS Barnard White Commited on One Indictment A BUSY DAY IN COURT Messers. Saunders, Maycock and Tracy Receive an Additional Six Months Imprisonment Each — Miscellaneous Business. Mr. H. H. Tracy was asked to stand up, and in answer to the reading of indictment 806, withdrew his previous plea of "not guilty" and entered a plea of "guilty." The same course with regard to indictment 805 was pursued. The statuatory time before passing sentence was waived, and Mr. Tracy was asked what he intended to do as to the future. In reply he said he had thought the thing over and he desired when he shall leave the pen to leave it a free man and to let his conduct speak for itself. In reply to the question whether he had anything to say why sentence should not be passed upon him, Mr. Tracy said he could say much with the Court's permission, but under the circumstances he would keep silent. He married his wives for time and eternity, and he felt in his heart that the doctrine came from God. The Court stated that this was not a valid and legal reason for arrest of judgment, and Mr. Tracy replied that he had nothing more to offer. The Court then sentenced Mr. Tracy on indictment 806 to imprisonment in the penetentiary for six months the sentence to be in effect at the expiration of the term of imprisonment defendant is at present undergoing. The passing of sentence in the third indictment, No. 805, on Mr. Tracy was postponed til this afternoon. AFTERNOON SESSION At two p. m. the court resumed its session and the Court called Mr. Tracy up and informed him that he had taken into consideration the fact that he (defendant) is already under sentence under two indictments, and that his health is also very poor; the Court therefore suspended sentence in the third indictment. The Court admonished Mr. Tracy to remember that when he is liberated from the Pen if his conduct does not conform to the requirements of law he can be called into Court and the suspended sentence brought down on his head at any time.