he said to me before his colleagues: "I wish to congratulate
you on having acted honorably and fearlessly. You have my blessing." He
turned to the President. "You see, President Woodruff," he added, "it
was not the will of the Lord, after all, since the people did not desire
my election!"

I have dwelt so largely upon the religious aspects of this affair
because they are as true of the Prophet in politics today as they were
then. At the time, the personal complication of the situation most
distressed me--the fact that I was opposing my father in order to
fulfill the word of honor that we had given on behalf of the Mormon
leaders. But there was another view of the matter; and it is the one
that is most important to the purposes of this narrative. In the course
of the various discussions and conferences upon the Senatorship, I
learned that the inspiration of the whole attempted betrayal had come
from certain Republican politicians and lobbyists (like Colonel Isaac
Trumbo), who claimed to represent a political combination of business
interests in Washington. Joseph F. Smith admitted as much to me in more
than one conversation. (I had offended these interests by opposing a
monetary and a tariff bill during my service as delegate in Congress--a
matter which I have still to recount). They had chosen my father and
Colonel Trumbo as Utah's two Senators. I made it my particular business
to see that Trumbo's name was not even mentioned in the caucus. The
man selected as the other senator was Arthur Brown, a prominent Gentile
lawyer who was known as a "jack-Mormon" (meaning a Gentile adherent to
Church power), although I then believed, and do now, that Judge Chas.
C. Goodwin was the Gentile most entitled to the place, because of his
ability and the love of his people.

I was, however, content with the victory we had won by resisting the
influence of the business interests that had been willing to sell
our honor for their profit, and I set out for Washington with a
determination to continue the resistance. I was in a good position to
continue it. The election of two Republican Senators from Utah had given
the Republicans a scant majority of the members of the Upper House,
and the bills that I had fought in the Lower House were now before the
Senate.

These bills had been introduced in the House of Representatives,
immediately upon its convening in December, 1895, by the committee on
rules, before Speaker Reed had even appointed