Joseph L. Rawlin: Father of Utah Statehood

Utah Historical Quarterly

Vol. 44, 1976, No. 1

Joseph L. Rawlins, Father of Utah Statehood

BY JOAN RAY HARROW

FIFTY YEARS AGO the many achievements of Joseph L. Rawlins as an educator, lawyer, politician, and statesman were well remembered. He had taught at the University of Utah and served as a city attorney. As a young man he had organized the Democratic Club of Utah and acted as its first president. In 1892 he was named Utah's delegate to Congress and while there introduced the Enabling Act that provided for Utah's admission into the Union. Four years later he became Utah's first Democratic senator and the first Utah senator to serve a full six-year term. His endeavors won him this tribute from the Salt Lake Tribune on the day after his death on May 24, 1926:

Another giant has fallen in the front rank of Utah's Old Guard. In the legal and political battles of the past no native son wore brighter armor, wielded a keener sword or fought more valiantly than did Joseph L. Rawlins. He became a party leader at home and a leader in the highest legislative assembly in the nation. When the motives and good faith of his constituents were assailed and questioned, he stood as their champion. His place in the esteem and gratitude of the people of Utah is secure.

However, with the passage of time, Rawlins's efforts on behalf of statehood have been largely forgotten. It is the purpose of this paper to revive interest in a man who was so much a part of Utah history in the late nineteenth century.

Among those following Brigham Young on the trek to Utah in 1849 were Joseph Sharp Rawlins and Mary Frost Rawlins. They were directed to take up farming and to settle fifteen miles southeast of the small handful of houses that then constituted Salt Lake City at a place near the mountains in Millcreek. It was there in a small adobe house adjoining the larger two-story house of his grandfather that Joseph L. Rawlins was born March 28, 1850. Later the family moved to Draper.

Helping on the farm was a part of growing up for most boys in those days, but it was even more so for Rawlins whose father was gone much of the time. When Joseph was only four his father was called to be a counselor for the Elk Mountain Mission, leaving his wife Mary in Salt Lake Valley with three small children. The dislike Rawlins was to have for the Mormon church apparently began at that time. With survival itself at stake on the new frontier, it was not easy to have a father so far away.

Young Joseph was the envy of other boys during mellow autumn days when he was allowed to stay out of school and help on the farm. Ironically, he longed to be in school. He recalled with fondness his days in the adobe schoolhouse. While he had little aptitude for spelling and went down early in the matches, he liked arithmetic and envied the bigger boys who could do sums. Extracurricular activity was fun, too; there was a choir and band of fife and drums. Joseph labored hard learning to play the fife. Band members were provided with uniforms and wooden guns and were brought out for review when noted visitors came to Draper. From the beginning, going to school meant more to Joseph than anything else.

All was well in the Rawlins household until his father was sent out on another church assignment. Then the "same lonely, difficult things were to be endured all over again." Longing to be at school, Joseph would have to take over more chores. The older he grew the more he resented his father's absences that left his mother with such heavy farm work. He did not blame his father but the religious system that sent men off to bring more converts to Zion instead of taking care of the ones who were already there. Due to his father's travels the actual time Rawlins attended school between the ages of fourteen and eighteen did not exceed sixteen months. However, those sixteen months were a time of intense intellectual activity.

John R. Park was one of his teachers and Joseph adored him. When Park was named president of the University of Deseret in 1868, Rawlins was determined to follow him. After working to save some money, the young scholar left in March 1869 for the university where he enrolled in history, rhetoric, Latin, mathematics, and physical geography. He excelled in math and was asked by Orson Pratt to teach classes in it during the next school year. Lack of funds prevented his return to the university that fall. Instead he taught school at North Mill Creek and was paid in wheat collected from the families whose children attended. This teaching enabled him to return to the university in the spring of 1870, and at that time he was placed in charge of math classes as Professor Pratt had suggested. Although his salary was small it helped with expenses.

Despite his success at the University of Deseret, Rawlins longed for the broader educational opportunities available outside the territory. He chose Indiana University, for he had relatives near there and could spend vacations with them. In June 1871 he set out for that distant place. The move represented Rawlins's first conscious break with the Mormon church. He felt that church policy required his consulting with church leaders before making this important change in his life, and his failure to do so was intentional. He studied hard at Indiana, although he did allow himself some outside activities. He joined Beta Theta Pi and a debating society of which he later became president. According to Ralph V. Chamberlin, Rawlins's record at Indiana was brilliant. However, he was beset with financial troubles and in 1873 had to return to Utah.

In the fall of 1873 he again entered the University of Deseret, having arranged with Dr. Park to teach higher math and Latin each day until noon. The remainder of his time was devoted to studying law in the offices of Williams, Young, and Sheek and to thoughts of reforming Utah. He felt that the eradication of polygamy was of prime importance. Politics—especially church involvement in politics—needed a new orientation. The only parties in Utah were drawn along religious lines; Rawlins hoped to bring about a division along national party lines. He knew obstacles lay in the path of such reforms, but that did not lessen his determination to work toward his goals. His first object, however, was to establish himself as a lawyer.

From the beginning he seemed suited for the legal profession and was recognized as having marked aptitude for it. "Careful and thorough in preparation, logical in argument and fervid in oratory he won with his maiden speech his first case in court, a speech commended by members of the bar." When Ben Sheeks withdrew from his former firm, he and Rawlins formed a partnership and opened for business July 25, 1875, in a one-story adobe house on the north side of First South east of Main Street. Despite high hopes, business was slow, and when Rawlins learned that a new occupant was being considered for the office of city attorney, he sent a brief note to Brigham Young suggesting himself for the position. He did not expect to receive it because of his changed religious views and was astonished when told of his appointment. He was overjoyed that the additional funds would enable him to marry Julia E. Davis.

In his new position Rawlins gained the friendship not only of Brigham Young but of others in city government. He was reappointed in 1878. Although succeeded in 1880 by Aurelius Miner, Rawlins continued to be consulted on city business: the minutes of the city council meeting for September 26, 1882, reveal that the firm of Sheeks and Rawlins was employed to defend the city and its officers in the courts of the territory for a fee of $100 a month. Church leaders also sought his assistance on many occasions during the months and years that followed. Rawlins liked the Mormon people; his main objection to the church was that it interfered unduly, he believed, in the private lives of its members. But apparently his views did not hinder his ability to represent the church legally. Between 1882 and 1884 thousands of Mormons in Utah and Idaho were disqualified from voting because they were polygamists. Rawlins was employed to defend them and to test the constitutionality of the law. And when George Q. Cannon was charged with unlawful cohabitation and had his bond set at $45,000 Rawlins was one of the lawyers he hired to represent him.

Although Sheeks and Rawlins had gotten along well, Rawlins did a disproportionate amount of the work while the income was divided equally. Early in 1889 he notified Sheeks of his desire to dissolve the firm. Sheeks moved to Tacoma, Washington, where he became a judge. Rawlins practiced alone from 1889 to 1891 and then entered into a partnership with E.B. Critchlow. Later he formed a partnership with his son Athol and son-in-law William W. Ray.'

Rawlins was a colorful attorney, and his mild manner could turn fiery in the courtroom. On one occasion his integrity was questioned by the opposing attorney. He demanded an apology, and when it was not forthcoming he dealt his accuser a blow on the cheek. The latter hurled a large glass water pitcher at Rawlins, missing his head for which it was intended but cutting him on the neck. "Confusion reigned for several minutes and everyone was excited to the highest pitch." The judge was pained by the incident and fined each lawyer fifty dollars.

Prominent figures in political life are more often than not lawyers. The preparation that qualifies a person for the practice of law also prepares one in large measure for an understanding of different political situations and the solution of important public problems. But Rawlins had had an interest in politics long before he became a lawyer. In college he was an active Democrat and was drafted as a speaker in the campaign of 1872 at the age of twenty-two. He also attended Democratic national conventions and heard many of the leading public speakers of the country.

In 1884 Rawlins and others organized the Democratic Club of Utah, the objective of which was to furnish a rallying point for the young men of the territory who did not wish to affiliate with either the anti- Mormon Liberal party or the pro-Mormon People's party. Rawlins was elected club president. Many joined initially, although strong opposition from the church doomed it. The Democratic Club of Utah continued its work during 1885 then dwindled and died; the People's party was still paramount.

The issuance of the Manifesto in 1890 greatly affected Utah's party system. Mormon surrender to the demand of the federal government to end polygamy merited a change in attitude from their opponents. Many withdrew from the Liberal party in protest against its continuing resistance. Leaders in the two opposing political camps came to recognize that local parties stood in the way of the territory's progress toward statehood. After a final contest in which the People's party returned John T. Caine to Congress in 1890, the party voted itself out of existence the following year. Both the Democratic and Republican parties were organized in Utah in 1891. Rawlins actively campaigned for members of the Democratic cause.

Elections for delegate to Congress were held in the fall of 1892. Frank J. Cannon was the Republican choice, Rawlins the Democratic. It was a spirited campaign, and when it was over Rawlins had won by a plurality of some twenty-eight hundred votes. He assumed his duties March 4, 1893. His first speech in Congress, delivered August 12, dealt with the silver question, an important issue of the day. It was of special interest to his constituents since Utah, a silver-producing territory, inclined toward the restoration of that metal to its function as standard money along with gold.

Rawlins introduced a number of bills in the fall of 1893. One bill granted the University of Utah sixty acres of the Fort Douglas military reservation. One related to the opening of the Uintah and Uncompaghrc Indian reservations. Another provided for the return to the Mormon church of its personal property seized under the Edmunds-Tucker Act during 1888-90. This personal property, unlike the real estate of the church, had not been confiscated by the government, there being no warrant in law for such a proceeding, but had been taken possession of by the federal receiver. The Supreme Court had decided in May 1891 that all church property then in the hands of the receiver should remain there pending further action by the Utah courts. The Utah Supreme Court had in November 1892 ruled that the Mormon people were entitled to the return of the property. However, the territorial court was helpless; it did not have the power to return the property in opposition to an act of Congress. The only move open was for Congress to repeal that section of the Edmunds-Tucker Act, thus restoring the property to the church.

Accordingly, Rawlins introduced on September 9, 1893, the following resolution:

Resolved, That the personal property and money now in the hands of the Receiver be, and the same is hereby, restored to the said Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, to be applied under the direction and control of the First Presidency of said Church to the charitable uses and purposes thereof. And the said receiver, after deducting the expenses of his receivership, under the direction of the said Supreme Court of the Territory of Utah, is hereby required to deliver the said property and money to the persons now constituting the Presidency of the Church to be held and applied generally to the charitable uses and purposes of the Church.

The measure passed the House on October 5 and the Senate on October 20 with an amendment detailing the "charitable uses." The House accepted the Senate's amendments, and on October 25 the bill was signed by President Cleveland. Personal property valued at more than four hundred thirty-eight thousand dollars was turned over to the First Presidency in January 1894. Rawlins had engineered the bill's passage from beginning to end and was praised in the Deseret News: "The energy and skill of Delegate Rawlins in securing the passage of his resolution is to be highly commended. ... It is an act of justice—tardy though it may be—and the triumph should give genuine pleasure to every true patriot and every honest person everywhere."

But the most important piece of legislation Rawlins introduced was the Enabling Act that provided for Utah's admission into the Union. This bill, known as House Resolution 352, was introduced on September 6, 1893. The Enabling Act contained twenty sections setting forth the conditions under which Utah might be admitted to the Union and allowing the people of that territory to draw up a constitution and to form a state government. The bill was reported back with an amendment from the Committee on Territories on November 2 and was made the special order of business for December 8. In the meantime, Rawlins returned to Salt Lake for a short stay in mid-November when the special session of Congress adjourned. "Rawlins has done splendid work for the territory," he was pleased to read in the Salt Lake Herald. "He has fulfilled the highest expectations of his friends and has been successful in promoting the interests of the people he was chosen to represent."

The statehood bill was called up as scheduled in December, but owing to the filibustering tactics of the Republicans its consideration was delayed for four days. Evidently some would rather have had Utah remain out of the Union than to go in under Democratic auspices. But Rawlins forced the bill's consideration, and discussion began December 12 with a reading of the bill that took twenty minutes. Rep. Constantine B. Kilgore of Texas, of the Committee on Territories, took the floor in behalf of the bill, setting forth the material, financial, and industrial resources of Utah. He also discussed polygamy and the fact that it had been abandoned by the Manifesto. Following Kilgore's hour-long speech, Elijah Adams Morse of Massachusetts began a tirade against Mormonism. He reiterated the old charges of polygamy and the Mountain Meadows Massacre, denouncing the people of Utah as murderers, polygamists, and thieves. His remarks were so bitter and virulent that several Republicans around him chafed until he took his seat a half-hour later.

Rawlins was the next to speak. In the course of his speech he made his noted reply to Congressman Morse. After reminding him that conditions had changed in Utah and that the present generation could not justly be held responsible for the acts of some of their ancestors, he said:

Who was responsible for the education of the men who established polygamy in Utah? I tell you Mr. Chairman, the men who are responsible for it originally were born, bred and educated under the system and civilization of New England. (Applause) I tell the gentleman now that the moral sentiment which led to its adoption in Utah was the outgrowth of that Puritanical sentiment which in some of its excrescences burned witches, persecuted Quakers, drove out Roger Williams, and later produced the gentleman from Massachusetts. (Laughter and applause) . . . There is less polygamy, as shown by the records of the last ten years in Utah, made known and which has come to light, in proportion to population than there has been in the same time in the State of Massachusetts. (Great laughter and applause) When an entire people is arraigned by any gentleman he certainly ought to be prepared with some evidence to justify what he says. And when a gentleman rises upon this floor, as the gentleman from Massachusetts did, and makes the assertion with respect to the people of Utah, that they are murderers, polygamists, thieves, and is not able to produce one syllable of evidence to justify his statements he ought to hang his head in shame. He is not worthy to represent a civilized people (applause).

Having thus dispensed with Morse, he continued with reasons why Utah should be admitted. He said the people of the East were misinformed as to the character, education, and intelligence of the people of Utah. "By the admission of the Territory of Utah I believe her people— 240,000 in number today, and probably in three or four years with statehood, 500,000—will send to these halls men who will not only do credit to the people they represent, but who will be of service in the affairs of the Nation." He concluded saying:

We have beautiful towns and cities; we have schools, school buildings, we have cultivated school teachers. If there is any reason on earth why Utah should longer be kept out of the Union, I am unable to conceive it. I ask the vote of this House that Utah may be speedily admitted. (Loud applause)

The following day the House resumed consideration of the Utah bill. One of the main points at issue was whether the Enabling Act should contain a proviso imposing penalties for polygamous marriage, the contention on the one hand being that the state should come in on an equal footing with other states, unhandicapped by such a provision, and on the other that as polygamy had been stamped out by federal statutes and as the admission of the territory would repeal that statute, Congress should make it part of the act. Several spoke for the bill. Francis G. Newlands of Nevada advocated its passage as did Jerry Simpson of Kansas who accused the opposition of being in collusion with the monometalists to keep down western representation in Congress in order to maintain the gold standard. Joseph E. Washington of Tennessee eulogized Utahns for their intelligence and progressive spirit and the territory for its wealth of mineral resources. The House galleries were well filled during the debate, demonstrating the public's interest in the Utah question.

In the late afternoon of December 13 the vote was taken. Only tw^o negative votes were cast, one from each side. Morse, the Republican, voted no as did Michael D. Harter, a Democrat from Ohio. Harter felt there were too many small western states and that no more should be admitted for years. This objection was expected to be potent in the Senate.

Rawlins was ardently praised. The Deseret News said too much praise could not be given Rawlins for his able, manly, and discreet management of the bill from the start. His speech overhauling Morse brought down the House. The Herald carried these headlines: "House Passes Statehood Bill—Untiring Work of Delegate from Utah Rewarded —Proudest Moment in the History of the Territory." The article claimed that the record made by Rawlins was unprecedented: "Never before has the bill for the admission of a state been passed wdth such unanimity and to go through without a roll call beats the record." The Tribune also praised Rawlins:

Delegate Rawlins covered himself with glory in his magnificant speech. He caught the attention of the House in his opening sentences and before he had been speaking ten minutes the lobbies and cloak room were deserted and a large audience was gathered around the speaker. He conducted his debate so as to win many friends on both sides of the Chamber. His speech was brilliant, impassioned, candid, argumentative and delivered with telling effect.

The University Chronicle began mentioning him for senator. The eastern press devoted considerable attention to his speech. The New York Times suggested him for senator in case of the admission of the territory. Even the Patriot of Jackson, Michigan, spoke of him, saying his speech had elicited wide commendation and mentioning that his name was being suggested for senator.

The next hurdle was to obtain Senate approval of the Enabling Act. Rawlins spent a good deal of time conferring with leading senators in hopes of getting action before the Christmas recess. He was not successful. Despite this temporary setback, Rawlins continued to make frequent visits to the Senate. He watched for a favorable opportunity to have the bill called up and finally suggested to Charles J. Faulkner of West Virginia, a personal friend and chairman of the Senate Committee on Territories, that he ask for immediate consideration of the bill. Faulkner complied. Instantly, Sen. Orville H. Piatt, a Connecticut Republican and one of the chief opponents of the bill, rose to object. But after a whispered interview with Sen. Henry Clay Hansborough, a Republican from North Dakota, he resumed his seat and no objection was made. Rawlins learned later that Mormon leaders had conveyed assurances to Senator Hansborough that if Utah were admitted into the Union, she would line up as a Republican state. This message was relayed to Piatt. The persistent lobbying efforts of Republican Isaac Trumbo for Utah statehood and the growing Republicanism of church leaders such as Joseph F. Smith probably served as a basis for Hansborough's political assessment of the forces at work in Utah.

On May 17, 1894, the Senate Committee on Territories reported the bill favorably. One of the few amendments provided that delegates to the constitutional convention should be chosen at the regular election to be held in November 1894, the convention to meet in March 1895.

On July 10 the bill was passed by the Senate without division. The next day it was returned to the House for concurrence in Senate amendments. On July 13 the House concurred in the amendments, and the bill was sent to the president for his approval. On July 16, 1894, Cleveland signed the Enabling Act providing for Utah's admission. For the occasion Rawlins had purchased a special pen. At first it was to have been solid gold, but since Utah was a bimetallic state, silver was allowed to share the honors. Rawlins purchased a gold pen with a silver holder that was carved and engraved. The president's private secretary received it with the understanding that Cleveland would use it. But either the secretary forgot that the Utah bill was among a batch of bills the president was signing or he forgot his promise, for Cleveland signed the Utah bill, as he did the others, with a small steel stub pen blunted with use. The only remedy was to give the pen actually used to Rawlins as a souvenir. The gold pen was removed from the silver holder and the steel pen was put there instead. The pen, in a plush case, was presented to Rawlins and is now at the Utah State Historical Society.

Utahns were jubilant at the final approval. All the Utah papers carried headlines, but the Herald was perhaps most exuberant. Headlines read: "Utah Day Has Dawned—Thanks to 'Joe' Rawlins Patience— Cinderella of the Territory Will Outstrip Her Sister States." In Provo a forty-five gun salute was fired, and in the evening citizens staged a torchlight parade that included a shotgun brigade and a drum corps. Not to be overlooked as cause for celebration were the liberal appropriations of public lands secured for Utah, the largest ever made for state purposes. Four sections out of each township were set aside as public lands to be devoted to hospitals, asylums, and public schools. Prior to that time no new state had been granted more than two sections out of each township.

Cleveland's signing of the act did not make Utah a state but merely set in motion the process by which she became one. The Enabling Act provided that the territorial government issue a proclamation August 1 calling for an election of delegates to a Constitutional Convention. Accordingly, two nominating conventions were held in September. The Republicans met September 11 in Provo and nominated Frank J. Cannon as candidate for delegate to Congress. On September 15 the Democrats held their territorial convention at the Salt Lake Theatre and Rawlins was nominated unanimously. The Herald reported that his renomination was a source of satisfaction in Washington. Both Democrats and Republicans seemed to realize the difficulty a new person encounters when trying to gain recognition on the floor of the House. "A delegate having no vote must bring some superior personal influence to obtain anything at all," the Herald commented.

The campaign was hotly contested. The Democrats claimed that a bold attempt to steal the election from Rawlins had been discovered just in time, while the Republicans accused the Democrats of fraud in registration. Rawlins lost by some nineteen hundred votes, and a Republican majority was elected to the Constitutional Convention to be held in March 1895. Although his fellow Democrats stood loyally by him, circumstances had conspired against Rawlins's reelection as delegate. It was a Republican year. The panic of 1893 was effectively used against the party in power, the Democrats. Another very important factor was the dissolution of the old Liberal party. Many had anticipated that ex-members of that party would divide themselves about equally between the two national parties. Had that been done, it would have ensured a Democratic victory. Instead, most joined with the Republicans. Rawlins accepted his defeat gracefully, and if he had any regrets he kept them to himself.

Rawlins's term expired in March 1895, and he returned to Salt Lake. However, within six months he was involved in another campaign. The Democratic state convention was held in September 1895, and a resolution was passed that in the event there was a Democratic majority in the legislature Rawlins and Moses Thatcher would be elected to the Senate. The Republican choices for senators were Frank Cannon and Arthur Brown. The Republicans won control of the state legislature and the privilege of naming Cannon and Brown as the newstate's first United States senators.

Rawlins was a delegate to the Democratic National Convention held in Chicago July 6-10, 1896. He also raised funds for the national campaign and at his own expense went east to take part in the campaign for William Jennings Bryan in Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio. The Rawlinses entertained the Bryans lavishly in Utah. Rawlins's daughter, Alta Jensen, recalled playing with Bryan's children and thinking they were very brave because they rode their bicycles along a narrow wall at the Rawlins home.

By the end of July 1896 Rawlins was again under consideration for election as senator by the next legislature. While November 4, 1896, saw a Republican landslide nationally, Utah went Democratic. The election of a Democratic legislature meant the election of a Democratic senator to represent Utah for the next six years. Rawlins was one of the three strong contenders for the Senate position, the others being Apostle Moses Thatcher and Judge Henry Henderson. It was a strange race. In the April 1896 conference of the Mormon church a policy statement was issued that no officer of the church, especially one in a high position, should accept another job without consulting with the leaders. Thatcher refused to agree and was thus dropped from the roll of apostles. The race became more than just one of Republicans versus Democrats or Democrats versus Democrats. And it was a long race; it took the legislature fifty-three ballots before it decided on someone—Rawlins.

Rawlins took his seat in the upper house of Congress on March 4, 1897. Keenly interested in foreign policy, he called for Cuban independence and introduced the first joint resolution making war on Spain. He was also active in the debate over whether to retain the Philippines and made an important speech on the Nicaragua Canal bill.

From 1899 to 1901 Rawlins was Utah's sole senator, for the legislature failed to agree on a candidate and adjourned without making a choice. Rawlins ran for reelection in 1903, but when the election was held Republicans swept the state as they did the nation. The Utah legislature consisted of fifty-three Republicans and ten Democrats. Rawlins's fate was sealed and he was succeeded by Mormon Apostle Reed Smoot.

Rawlins was content. Partly because of his efforts the people of Utah were no longer subservient to the dictates of the church hierarchy, polygamy was officially dead, independent political parties had been set up, and statehood had been won. With these things accomplished Rawlins was not unhappy to retire from public life.

For the remaining twenty-three years of his life, Joseph Rawlins maintained his interest in politics, his legal practice, civic affairs, and affairs at the University of Utah. In 1904 he was one of six delegates to the Democratic National Convention held in Saint Louis where Alton Parker was nominated for president. He practiced law alone from 1903 to 1907, then invited his son and son-in-law to join him in the partnership of Rawlins, Ray, and Rawlins. A Department of Law-, organized under the School of Arts and Sciences, was announced in 1907 at the University of Utah, and Rawlins was listed as special lecturer.

At the forty-first annual commencement of the University of Utah, June 8, 1910, Rawlins was honored with the degree of doctor of laws, the first of its kind ever conferred by the school. Joseph T. Kingsbury, university president, spoke highly of Rawlins as a statesman and scholar:

As professor in the University, as delegate to Congress, as United States Senator, and as an attorney before the bar of Utah, Mr. Rawlins has distinguished himself as a man of genuine character and unusual ability. In these various positions of life he has always been a warm friend of education and has rendered eminent services to the State and especially the University. To him is due this magnificent site, upon which is now situated this University. Through his far-sightedness, the State School of Mines has been made a part of the University of Utah, and large tracts of land have been appropriated by Congress for the elementary schools, the Agricultural College and the University.

Rawlins made a short acknowledgment in which he said that the degree meant more to him than any office he had held. Of the honor the Deseret News said the decision of the regents was eminently proper.

The university honored him again in June 1919, selecting him to deliver a commencement address. His theme provides a key to much of his life's work:

Where there is ignorance there may also be superstition, and where there is superstition there is always intolerance. ... In the progress of education as the truths of science are brought into view necessarily preconceived opinion and notions resulting from ignorance are eradicated. Minds may take a new, more tolerant and broader view of things. Such changes were the natural result of the work of education. . . .

Rawlins, the public figure, was also a very private person who enjoyed solitary pursuits. A quiet man, he read prodigiously, especially Greek philosophy and other weighty matters. In an era when many lawyers and judges did not work in the summers, Rawlins and his family spent their long holiday in Brighton where he would tramp the hills all day long prospecting for gold and silver. The private man did not enjoy entertaining and had few close friends, although he was generous with the ones he had. On a social level Rawlins met with his peers at the Alta Club once a week, played cards and golf, and liked all outdoor recreation. One of his daughters, Alta Jensen, remembered her father as very easy to get along with, "except when his meals were late—then his teeth would grit." A sincere man, Rawlins had the ability to convince others, a quality that proved immensely useful in Utah's struggle for statehood.

During his years in politics Joseph Rawlins was often criticized in the newspapers, but when he died on May 24, 1926, the local papers assessed his contributions to the state in glowing terms, The Deseret News said:

A career which has greatly influenced public life in Utah and the nation is closed with the death of Senator Rawlins. He is the author of many measures of distinct national importance which passed through Congress while he was seated there. As a foremost advocate of statehood, Utah owes much to him for his untiring work and his constructive measures in building up the state and its government. In legal circles he was recognized as one of the leading minds of the state. He was recognized as a diligent student all his life. He delved deeply into classical learning as well as mathematics and law. He was the first to receive an honorary doctor of law from the University, and he was the oldest member of Beta Theta Pi in Utah, being instrumental in securing a charter for the local organization.

Editorially the News praised him for maintaining the principles for which he stood and characterized him as a fair-minded man who won the esteem of his opponents as well as those who fought by his side.

The Tribune editors went even further, calling him the "father of Utah":

Faultless in honor, fearless in conduct and stainless in reputation characterizes a career closed yesterday afternoon when Joseph L. Rawlins, known as the "father of Utah" died. Senator Rawlins, one of the foremost members of the bar, one of the Democratic leaders of Utah, instrumental in obtaining statehood for Utah, and serving as senator from 1897-1904 has left his impress on the state and nation. . . . His passing comes as a distinct loss.

While many individuals worked for statehood, few labored as diligently and long as Rawlins to reorient Utah politics, ease church-federal tensions, and shepherd the statehood bill through Congress. As Utah's delegate he was motivated less by political ambition than by compassion for his fellow Utahns and a desire to see them freed from both federal and church domination. In the struggle for statehood Rawlins was the people's advocate and a true father to them.

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