Defense of the Faith and the Saints (Volume 1 of 2)Roberts, B. H. (Brigham Henry)
Religion
Defense of the Faith and the Saints (Volume 1 of 2)
Roberts, B. H. (Brigham Henry)
Latter Day Saint churches
I will not ignore my own case. During nearly three years I have waited
this great hour of justice in which I could answer the malignant
falsehood and abuse which has been heaped upon a man who is dead and
can not answer, and upon myself, a living man willing to wait the time
for answer. Lorenzo Snow, a very aged man, was president of the church
when I was elected to the Senate. He had reached that advanced time
of life, being over eighty, when men abide largely in the thoughts
of their youth. He was my friend in that distant way which sometimes
exists without close acquaintanceship, our friendship (if I may term it
such) having arisen from the events attendant upon Utah's struggle for
statehood. For some reason he did not oppose my election to the Senate.
Every other candidate for the place had sought his favor; it came to me
without price or solicitation on my part. The friends and mouthpieces
of some of the present leaders have been base enough to charge that
I bought the Senatorship from Lorenzo Snow, president of their own
church. Here and now I denounce the calumny against that old man, whose
unsought and unbought favor came to me in that contest. That I ever
paid him one dollar of money, or asked him to influence legislators
of his faith, is as cruel a falsehood as ever came from human lips.
So far as I am concerned he held his power with clean hands, and I
would protect the memory of this dead man against all the abuse and
misrepresentation which might be heaped upon him by those who were his
adherents during life, but who now attack his fame in order that they
may pay the greater deference to the present king.
You must know that in that day we were but five years old as a State.
Our political conditions were and had been greatly unsettled. The
purpose of the church to rule in politics had not yet been made so
manifest and determined. Lorenzo Snow held his office for a brief
time--about two years. What he did in that office pertaining to my
election I here and now distinctly assume as my burden, for no man
shall with impunity use his hatred of me to defame Lorenzo Snow and
dishonor his memory to his living and loving descendants.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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