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
As for myself, I am willing to take the Senate and the country into my
confidence, and make a part of the eternal records of the Senate, for
such of my friends as may care to read, the vindication of my course
to my posterity. I had an ambition, and not an improper one, to sit in
the Senate of the United States. My competitors had longer experience
in politics and may have understood more of the peculiar situation in
the State. They sought what is known as church influence. I sought to
obtain this place by purely political means. I was elected. After all
their trickery my opponents were defeated, and to some extent by the
very means which they had basely invoked. I have served with you four
years, and have sought in a modest way to make a creditable record
here. I have learned something of the grandeur and dignity of the
Senate, something of its ideals, which I could not know before coming
here. I say to you, my fellow Senators, that this place of power is
infinitely more magnificent than I dreamed when I first thought of
occupying a seat here. But were it thrice as great as I now know it to
be, and were I back in that old time of struggle in Utah, when I was
seeking for this honor, I would not permit the volunteered friendship
of President Snow to bestow upon me, even as an innocent recipient, one
atom of the church monarch's favor. My ideals have grown with my term
of service in this body, and I believe that the man who would render
here the highest service to his country must be careful to attain to
this place by the purest civic path that mortal feet can tread.
I have said enough to indicate that for my own part I never
countenanced, nor knowingly condoned, the intrusion of the church
monarchy into secular affairs. And I have said enough to those who know
me to prove for all time that, so far as I am concerned, my election
here was as honorable as that of any man who sits in this chamber; and
yet I have said enough that all men may know that rather than have a
dead man's memory defamed on my account, I will make his cause my own
and will fight for the honor which he is not on earth to defend. This
will not suit the friends and mouthpieces of the present rulers, but I
have no desire to satisfy or conciliate them; and in leaving this part
of the question, I avenge President Snow sufficiently by saying that
these men did not dare to offend his desire nor dispute his will while
he was living, and only grew brave when they could cry: "Lorenzo, the
king, is dead! Long live Joseph, the king!"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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