Rawlins, who occupied a seat with distinguished honor in this great body
for six years, had any improper bargain with the church, or any
knowledge of the secret methods by which his election was being
compassed; but he was elected under the direction of the leaders of the
church because they desired to defeat and further humiliate a deposed
apostle.

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