Reed Smoot

For the cinematographer, seeReed Smoot (cinematographer).

Reed Smoot
Quorum of the Twelve Apostles
April 8, 1900 – February 9, 1941
Called by	Lorenzo Snow
LDS ChurchApostle
April 8, 1900 – February 9, 1941
Called by	Lorenzo Snow
Reason	Death ofFranklin D. Richards
Reorganization at end of term	Harold B. Leeordained
United States SenatorfromUtah
In office
March 4, 1903 – March 3, 1933
Predecessor	Joseph L. Rawlins
Successor	Elbert D. Thomas
Political party	Republican
Personal details
Born	(1862-01-10)January 10, 1862 Salt Lake City,Utah Territory,U.S.
Died	February 9, 1941(1941-02-09)(aged 79) St. Petersburg,Florida,U.S.
Education	University of Utah Brigham Young Academy
Spouse(s)	Alpha Eldredge Alice Taylor Sheets
Children	7
Relatives	Abraham O. Smoot(father)
Signature

Reed Smoot(January 10, 1862 – February 9, 1941) was an American politician, businessman, andapostleofthe Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints(LDS Church). ARepublicanwho was first elected to theU.S. Senateby theUtah State Legislaturein 1902, he served from 1903 to 1933.Smoot is primarily remembered as the co-sponsor of the 1930Smoot–Hawley Tariff Act,which increased almost 900 American import duties. Criticized at the time as having "intensified nationalism all over the world" byThomas LamontofJ.P. Morgan & Co.,Smoot–Hawley is widely regarded as one of the catalysts for the worseningGreat Depression.

Smoot was a prominent leader of the LDS Church,calledto serve as an apostle and member of theQuorum of the Twelvein 1900. His role in the church (together with rumors of a secret church policy continuingpolygamyand asecret oathagainst the United States)led to a controversy of four years after he was elected to the Senate. A Senate committee investigated his eligibility to serve, known as theReed Smoot hearings,and recommended against him, but the full Senate voted to seat him.Smoot continued to be reelected to successive terms until he lost his seat in the 1932 elections. Smoot returned to Utah in 1933. Retiring from politics and business, he devoted himself to the church. At the time of his death, he was third in the line of succession to lead the church.

Early life, family, and religious activity

Smoot was born inSalt Lake City,Utah Territoryon January 10, 1862, the son ofAbraham O. Smoot,who served as mayor of the city from 1856 to 1862 and Anne Kristina Morrison Smoot, also known as Anne Kirstine Mauritzen before her marriage. Anne was Abraham Smoot's fifth wife of six plural marriages, and he was the father of 27 children, three of whom he adopted.The family moved toProvo, Utah,when Abraham Smoot was called byBrigham Youngas thestake president.Smoot attended theUniversity of Utahand graduated from Brigham Young Academy (nowBrigham Young University) in 1879. After completing his education, Smoot served as amissionaryfor the church in England. After returning to Utah, he married Alpha M. Eldredge of Salt Lake City on September 17, 1884. They were the parents of six children.Thereafter, Smoot became a successful businessman in the Provo and Salt Lake City areas, with interests including dry goods stores, mining, banking, railroads, lumberyards, raising livestock, coal sales, and manufacturing woolens. Beginning in 1895, he became increasingly involved in the hierarchy of the LDS Church. On April 8, 1900, he was ordained an apostle and member of the church's Quorum of the Twelve Apostles.

Smoot (right) withHeber J. Grant,president of the LDS Church, c. 1918–1920

United States Senate

Smoot joined the Republican Party and took part in several campaigns beginning in the late 1880s.In February 1892, he was the unsuccessful Republican nominee for mayor of Provo.Beginning in 1892, he was a delegate to several Utah County Republican conventions.He began serving as a member of the state Republican executive committee in the mid-1890s.

After becoming an apostle in 1900, Smoot received the approval ofLDS Church presidentJoseph F. Smithto run for office. In 1901, he ran for the U.S. Senate, and was defeated in the state legislative election byThomas Kearns.Smoot was elected by the Utah legislature to the United States Senate (58th Congress) on January 20, 1903.When he took his oath of office, Kearns provided his formal introduction to the senate.

Controversy over religious affiliation

Smoot's election sparked a bitter four-year battle in the Senate on whether Smoot was eligible and should be allowed to serve. Many Americans were suspicious of the LDS Church because of its earlier polygamous practices. In addition, some senators thought Smoot's position as an apostle would disqualify him from representing all his constituents. Many were convinced that his association with the church disqualified him from serving in the United States Senate. Only a few years earlier, another prominent Utah Latter-day Saint,B. H. Roberts,had been elected to theHouse of Representatives.He was denied his seat on the basis that he practicedplural marriage(polygamy), which was illegal in Utah as well as all other states of the Union.

The LDS Church had officially renounced future plural marriages in an1890 Manifesto,before Utah was admitted as a state. However, theSalt Lake Tribunereported that church leaders continued to approve secretly of new, post-Manifesto plural marriages.Because of the controversy, the Senate began an investigation into Smoot's eligibility.TheSmoot Hearingsbegan on January 16, 1904. The hearings included exhaustive questioning into the continuation of plural marriage within the state of Utah and the LDS Church, and questions on church teachings, doctrines, and history. Although Smoot was not a polygamist, the charge by those opposed to his election to the Senate was that he could not swear to uphold the United States Constitution while serving in the highest echelons of an organization that sanctioned law breaking.

Reed Smoot is shown fleeing two volumes of theJournal of Discourses.Protestants used quotes from the volumes of teachings of the prophets when asking Smoot questions about his religion.

Some opponents claimed thattemple-attending Latter-day Saints took an "oath of vengeance"against the United States for past grievances. As a leader of the LDS Church, Smoot was accused of taking this oath, which he denied. Although the majority of the investigative committee recommended that Smoot be removed from office, on February 20, 1907, the two-thirds majority required to expel Smoot failed and he was allowed to keep his seat.

Willis C. Hawley(left) and Smoot in April 1929, shortly before the Smoot–Hawley Tariff Act passed the House

Political career

Senator Smoot (Republican, Ut.)
Is planning a ban on smut.
Oh rooti-ti-toot for Smoot of Ut.
And his reverend occiput.
Smite, Smoot, smite for Ut.,
Grit your molars and do your dut.,
Gird up your l__ns,
Smite h_p and th_gh,
We'll all be Kansas
By and by....

Nash, Ogden(January 11, 1930), "Invocation",The New Yorker,p. 30.

Smoot was reelected in 1908 and continued to be reelected to successive terms until 1932, serving in the Senate until March 1933. A constitutional amendment mandated the popular election of U.S. senators after 1913. He was defeated in the 1932 election.

In 1916,William Kentwas the lead sponsor in the House of Representatives of legislation to establish theNational Park Service.Smoot sponsored the similar Senate bill. The legislation passed the House of Representatives on July 1, 1916, passed the Senate on August 5, and was signed byU.S. PresidentWoodrow Wilsonon August 25, 1916. The agency was placed within the cabinet Department of Interior.

Timemagazine in December 1926 describedCharles Curtisand Smoot as the two leading senators, stating that the Chairman of theSenate Finance Committeespoke "with a dry holy passion for financial soundness".Smoot led the committee from 1923 to 1933, and served on the Senate Appropriations Committee.He became active in the national Republican Party and served as a delegate to the Republican national convention every four years between 1908 and 1924. He was Chairman of the 1928 Resolutions Committee at the 1928 Republican National Convention and Chairman of the Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee.

Smoot was a co-sponsor of theSmoot–Hawley Tariff Actin 1930, which raised U.S. import tariffs on over 20,000 dutiable items to record levels. Many historians believe that it exacerbated theGreat Depression.U.S. PresidentHerbert Hooversigned the act into law on June 17, 1930.

Smoot served five terms before being defeated in the 1932 election byDemocratElbert D. Thomas.After his unsuccessful reelection campaign, Smoot moved back to Salt Lake City. He retired from active business and political pursuits to dedicate his remaining years as an apostle for the LDS Church. Smoot died on February 9, 1941, during a visit toSt. Petersburg, Florida.He was buried inProvo.

See also

• List of United States senators expelled or censured
• Reed Smoot hearings
• Smoot–Hawley Tariff Act
• Reed O. Smoot House
• Smoot–Rowlett family

Further reading

• Flake, Kathleen.The Politics of American Religious Identity: The Seating of Senator Reed Smoot, Mormon Apostle.The University of North Carolina Press, 2003.excerpt and text search
• Paulos, Michael Harold.The Mormon Church on Trial: Transcripts of the Reed Smoot Hearings.Signature Books, Salt Lake City, Utah, 2008.
• Heath, Harvard S.In the World: The Diaries of Reed Smoot.Signature Books, Salt Lake City, Utah, 1997.
• Merrill, Milton R.Reed Smoot: Apostle in Politics.Utah State University Press, 1990.
• Smith, Konden R. "The Reed Smoot Hearings and the Theology of Politics: Perceiving an 'American' Identity,"Journal of Mormon History,35 (Summer 2009), pp. 118–62.

Archival materials

• Reed Smoot collectionsat theL. Tom Perry Special Collections,Harold B. Lee Library,Brigham Young University
• Correspondence between Senator Reed Smoot and N. V. Jones

External links

• United States Congress."Reed Smoot (id: S000644)".Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.
• Grampa Bill's G.A. Pages: Reed Smoot
• "Smoot, Reed".Encyclopædia Britannica(12th ed.). 1922.
• United States Senate's Senate Historical Office
• Who Was the First Mormon Senator?