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The 'Reed Smoot hearings' ('Smoot hearings' or 'Smoot Case') were a series of Congressional hearings on whether the United States Senate should seat U.S. Senator Reed Smoot, who was elected by the Utah legislature in 1903. In addition to being a senator, Smoot was also an apostle for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church, commonly known as Mormons), one of the highest positions in that church. The hearings began in 1904 and continued until 1907, when the Senate voted to seat him. During the hearings, Smoot was given a provisional seat on the Senate and was allowed to vote.
The controversy surrounding Smoot's seating in the Senate was largely about the church's practice of polygamy, which the church officially abandoned in 1890; as the hearings revealed, though, the practice was continuing unofficially to a small degree into the 20th century. Polygamy was largely responsible for a history of deep animosity and sometimes violence between LDS and the United States. Much of the American Protestant establishment viewed the LDS Church with distrust. The establishment was also skeptical of Utah politics, which before gaining statehood in 1896 had at times been a theocracy (theodemocracy) and in the early 20th century was still heavily dominated and influenced by the LDS Church.

Contents

Election

Controversy

Aftereffects

See also

References

Election

Previous to being called as an apostle of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Smoot had run for a Senate position, but withdrew before the election. After becoming an apostle in 1900, he received the approval of church president Joseph F. Smith to run again in 1902 as a Republican. In January 1903, the Utah legislature chose him with 46 votes, compared to his Democratic competitor, who won 16.

Controversy

Within days of his election, controversy brewed as he was charged with being "one of a self-perpetuating body of fifteen men who, constituting the ruling authorities of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, or 'Mormon' Church, claim, and by their followers are accorded the right to claim, supreme authority, divinely sanctioned, to shape the belief and control the conduct of those under them in all matters whatsoever, civil and religious, temporal and spiritual."
When Senator Smoot arrived in Washington, D.C., in late February 1903, he was met with protests and charges that he was a polygamist. This he could easily prove he was not. Unlike B. H. Roberts, who upon election to the House of Representatives was not allowed to sit while hearings took place, Smoot was allowed to be seated.
Among the public, old charges of Danites, the Mountain Meadows Massacre, and Brigham Young's plural wives were discussed. The ''New York Commercial Advertiser'' charged that "missionaries were paid by the head for their converts, a meager $4.00 for a male, but up to $60 for a girl over 16 whom they could and did place in polygamy."
In January 1904, Senator Smoot prepared a rebuttal to these criticisms with the help of several non-Mormon lawyers. The actual hearings began in March. Mormon President Joseph F. Smith took the witness stand and was interrogated for three days. Apostles Matthias F. Cowley and John W. Taylor did not show up after being subpoenaed. Taylor fled to Canada. Other witnesses included James E. Talmage; Francis M. Lyman, president of the Quorum of the Twelve at the time; Andrew Jensen, church historian; B. H. Roberts; and Moses Thatcher, who was dropped from the quorum in 1896.
According to historian Kathleen Flake:

The four-year Senate proceeding created a 3,500-page record of testimony by 100 witnesses on every peculiarity of Mormonism, especially its polygamous family structure, ritual worship practices, "secret oaths," open canon, economic communalism, and theocratic politics.[10] The public participated actively in the proceedings. In the Capitol, spectators lined the halls, waiting for limited seats in the committee room, and filled the galleries to hear floor debates. For those who could not see for themselves, journalists and cartoonists depicted each day's admission and outrage. At the height of the hearing, some senators were receiving a thousand letters a day from angry constituents. What remains of these public petitions fills 11 feet of shelf space, the largest such collection in the National Archives. [1]

After years of hearings, the remaining charges of the opposition included:

★ That church leaders were still practicing plural marriage. Elder John W. Taylor and Elder Matthias F. Cowley were still performing plural marriages.[2]

★ That the church was exerting too much influence on Utah politics.

★ That members were required to take oaths in the temples to seek revenge on the United States.

★ That members believed revelation was higher than the laws of the land.
The defense included:^[1]

★ "Reed Smoot possesses all the qualifications prescribed by the Constitution to make him eligible to a seat in the Senate, and the regularity of his election by the legislature of the State of Utah is not questioned in any manner."

★ "Aside from his connection with the Mormon Church, so far as his private character is concerned, it is, according to all witnesses, irreproachable, for all who testify on the subject agree or concede that he has led and is leading an upright life..."

★ "So far as mere belief and membership in the Mormon Church are concerned, he is fully within his rights and privileges under the guaranty of religious freedom given by the Constitution of the United States..."

★ In relation to the oath, the testimony is "thereby shown to be limited in amount, vague and indefinite in character, and utterly unreliable, because of the disreputable and untrustworthy character of the witnesses."
Of note, Senator Fred Dubois of Idaho fought viciously against Smoot. His intensity caused some to believe that Smoot was as powerful as Dubois claimed.
On February 20, 1907, the issue came to a conclusion as a vote was held in the senate. Smoot won, and he remained a senator for 26 more years.

Aftereffects

President Joseph F. Smith on April 6, 1904, issued a "Second Manifesto," which reaffirmed the first regarding polygamy. He also declared any church officer who performed a plural marriage, as well as the offending couple, would be excommunicated. He clarified that the policy applied worldwide, not just in North America. Two members of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, John W. Taylor and Matthias F. Cowley, resigned in 1905 following the manifesto.
The allegations didn't end with Smoot. Many popular magazines and newspapers continued to publish false reports against the church. The fervor was most intense in Great Britain, where the Latter-Day Saints were threatened with expulsion. A young Winston Churchill rose to defend freedom of religion and prevented the expulsions. Despite this, there were scenes of violence and mobocracy in several cities.

See also

★ Mormon War (1838 Missouri) ★ Extermination Order (1838 Missouri) ★ Illinois Mormon War (1844-1845) ★ Mormon Exodus (1846-1857) ★ Utah War (1857-1858) ★ Morrill Anti-Bigamy Act (1862) ★ Poland Act (1874)

★ Reynolds v. United States (1879) ★ Edmunds Act (1882) ★ Edmunds-Tucker Act (1887) ★ The Late Corporation of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints v. United States (1890) ★ 1890 Manifesto ★ History of civil marriage in the U.S.

References

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