Free Republic
Browse · Search
Religion
Topics · Post Article

To: Scoutmaster
And I like to serve up softballs for you.

POW!!!


Inasmuch as laws have been enacted by Congress forbidding plural marriage...
I hereby declare my intention to submit to those laws..."

~ Wilford Woodruff, 4th LDS President


41 posted on 12/31/2011 5:24:49 AM PST by Elsie (Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 39 | View Replies ]


To: Elsie
I hereby declare my intention to submit to those laws

I don't want to pick at nits, but didn't he entered into another polygamous marriage after that statement when he married Ms. Mountford in 1897?

As a lawyer with some experience at dancing in the head of a pin, there's a difference between 'present intention' and an agreement. Grammatically, that's also the difference between 'will' and 'shall' in the first person (particularly for legal documents). Shall means you are going to do it. Will means you have a present intention, but that may change. In the second- and third-person, it's just the opposite (man, we attorneys make things confusing. Will, with respect to a second or third party, is a commitment. Shall is present intention. Although that distinction has been watered down greatly in recent years just as grammar has been watered down.

So he used weasel words. He didn't said he would submit. He said he intended to submit.

That's my Johnny Cochran $29.95 apologetic argument for why it was okay to double-cross the U.S. government. He changed his mind. Yeah. That's the ticket.

Just disregard the fact that the Utah Constitution not only forbids polygamy, but has a singularly unique provision that the people of Utah can't bring back polygamy without the consent of the federal government.

65 posted on 12/31/2011 9:10:30 AM PST by Scoutmaster (You knew the job was dangerous when you took it)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 41 | View Replies ]

Free Republic
Browse · Search
Religion
Topics · Post Article


FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson