brevity and such clearness as I can command, what
it seems to me should be said by a Senator, under these circumstances,
before leaving public life. Something is due to the State which has
honored me; something is due to the record which I have endeavored to
maintain honorably before the world and something, by way of
information, is due to the Senate and the country.

Utah, the newest of the States, to me the best beloved of all the
States, appears to be the only one concerning which there is a serious
conflict with the country. I was not born in Utah, but I have spent all
the years of my manhood there, and I love the Commonwealth and its
people. In what I say there is malice toward none, and I hope to make it
just to all. If the present day does not accept my statements and
appreciate my motives, I can only trust that time will prove more gentle
and that in the future those who care to revert to these remarks will
know that they are animated purely by a hope to bring about a better
understanding between Utah and this great nation.

Utah was admitted to statehood after, and because of, a long series of
pledges exacted from the Mormon leaders, the like of which had never
before been known in American history. Except for those pledges, the
sentiment of the United States would never have assented to Utah's
admission. Except for the belief on the part of Congress and the country
that the extraordinary power which abides in that State would maintain
these pledges, Utah would not have been admitted. There is every reason
to believe that the President who signed the bill would have vetoed it
if he had not been convinced that the pledges made would be kept.

THE PLEDGES.

As a citizen of the State and a witness to the events and words which
constitute those pledges, as a Senator of the United States, I give my
word of honor to you that I believed that these pledges consisted of the
following propositions:

First. That the Mormon leaders would live within the laws pertaining to
plural marriage and the continued plural marriage relation, and that
they would enforce this obligation upon all of their followers, under
penalty of disfellowship.

Second. That the leaders of the Mormon Church would no longer exercise
political sway, and that their followers would be free and would
exercise their freedom in politics, in business, and in social affairs.

As a citizen and a Senator I give my word of honor to you that I
believed