or my part, in a sorrowful certainty that the Church had
thrown off all disguise and proposed to show the world, by the election
of an apostle to the United States Senate, that the "Kingdom of God" was
established in Utah to rule in all the affairs of men. I knew that if
Smoot were excluded from the Senate, his exclusion would be argued
a proof that the wicked and unregenerate nation was still devilishly
persecuting God's anointed servants, to its own destruction; and, if he
were permitted to take his seat, that this fact would be cited to the
faithful as proof that the Prophets had been called to save the nation
from the destruction that threatened it!

Of course, throughout the campaign that followed, the Church's
newspapers and many of its political workers kept protesting publicly
that the election of the Republican legislative ticket did not mean
the election of Apostle Smoot to the Senate. But by means of the
authoritative whisper of ecclesiasts--carried by visiting apostles to
Presidents of Stakes, from them to the bishops, and from the bishops to
the presiding officers of subsidiary organizations--the inspired order
was given to the faithful that they must vote for the legislators who
could be relied upon to do the will of the Lord by voting for the Lord's
anointed prophet, Apostle Reed Smoot. This message was delivered to the
sacred Sunday prayer circles. Even Senator Rawlins' mother received it,
from one of the ecclesiastical authorities of her ward, who instructed
her to vote against the election of her own son; and it was "at the
peril of her immortal soul" that she disobeyed the injunction. Long
before election day, every Mormon knew that he had been called upon
by the Almighty to sacrifice his individual conviction in politics to
protect his "assailed Church."

The profound effectiveness of that appeal needs no further proof than
the issue of the election. King and Rawlins, the popular leaders of
the Democracy in a state that had but recently been overwhelmingly
Democratic--after a campaign in which they studiously avoided an
attack upon the Church--were overwhelmingly defeated. The Republican
legislative ticket was carried. Apostle Smoot was elected to the United
States Senate; and on January 21, 1903, Governor Wells issued to him a
certificate of election.

Five days later, a number of prominent citizens signed a protest, to
President Roosevelt and the Senate, against allowing Apostle Smoot to
take hi