[John Henry Smith]
Washington, D.C.
I presented the memorial of the Utah legislature to Congress to Speaker Keifer who presented them to the House. Mr. Haskell of Kansas called for Senate file 353 or more properly known as the Edmunds bill. ...
[After discussion] The Speaker made a most dastardly ruling, both cowardly and Wicked. It was a strictly party vote, the democrats standing by law and order and the Republicans by misrule and misgovernment. It was a manly fight on the part of the democrats in the face of popular clamor. The democrats have resolved not to let the bill pass in its present form. What amendments they will secure is hard to tell, for the Republicans are bent on its going through just as it is. Today has been one of the most exciting of my life. The liberties of my people hanging on a thread and I powerless to do anything only sit and look on and ask the Lord to strengthen our friends and make them equal to the task.
[Source: Jean Bickmore White (editor), Church, State, and Politics: The Diaries of John Henry Smith, Signature Books in association with Smith Research Associates, Salt Lake City, 1990, http://bit.ly/johnhenrysmith]
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