Decisions decisions!
Roberts was a Mormon historian who compiled the multi-volume Lds History of the Church.
Roberts was a "70" -- part of the Lds "general authority" hierarchy.
He was a would-be Democratic Congressman...
Utah FIRST began electing Congressmen in the late 1890s...
Despite having three wives and supposedly "already" yielding somewhat on polygamy, Utah went ahead & elected Roberts to Congress anyway in 1898.
But Congress refused to seat him as the Utah rep.
Why? Because three years after Utah began suppressing its polygamous inclinations (1890), Roberts took on yet a third simultaneous wife.
Grassroots America objected.
They put together 28 banners. Collected 7 million signatures on them...in the pre-media days of 1898, mind you!
Congress listened. They sent Roberts packing back home!
Thus, the 19th century was closed out by the social-issues minded Republicans...fulfilling the promises they made when they began in 1856...that they would take on the "twin relics of barbarism" -- polygamy and slavery!!!
