.
Now here is another servant of the Most High and a friend of God. I
refer to President Cannon, whose birthday we are celebrating. He has
twenty-one sons; and if it shall be the will of the Lord that he must
sacrifice one of them he ought to be as willing as Abraham was, for he
will have twenty left. And the son should be as willing as Isaac. We can
all safely trust in the Lord. He will require no sacrifice at our hands
without purpose."

I remarked to a relative beside me that the altar was evidently ready
for me, but that I feared I should have to "get out and rustle my own
ram in the thicket." I received no reply. I heard no word of comment
from anyone upon the President's speech. It was accepted devoutly,
with no feeling that he had abused the privileges of a guest. Everyone
understood (as I did) that President Woodruff was the gentlest of men;
that he had often professed and always shown a kindly affection for me;
but that the will of the Lord being now known, he thought I should be
proud to be sacrificed to it!

Among the legislators pledged to me were Mormon Bishops and other
ecclesiasts who had promised their constituents to vote for me and who
now stood between a betrayal of their people and a rebellion against the
power of the hierarchy. I released one of them from his pledge, because
of his pathetic fear that he would be eternally damned if he did not
obey "the will of the Lord." The others went to the Presidency to admit
that if they betrayed their people they would have to confess what
pressure had been put upon them to force them to the betrayal. I went to
notify my father (as I had notified the representatives of every
other candidate) that we were going to call a caucus of the Republican
majority of the legislature, and later I was advised that President
Woodruff and his Councillor's had appointed a committee to investigate
and report to them how many members could be counted upon to support
my father's candidacy. The committee (composed of my uncle Angus, my
brother Abraham, and Apostle John Henry Smith) brought back word that
even among the men who had professed a willingness to vote for my father
there was great reluctance and apprehension, and that in all probability
his election could not be carried. With President Woodruff's consent,
my father then announced that he was not a candidate. I was nominated by
acclamation.

When I called upon my father at the President's offices after the
election,