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Sen. Reed Smoot

Reed Smoot (January 10, 1862 – February 9, 1941) was the first Latter Day Saint to serve in the United States Senate. Smoot was also a prominent leader of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, serving as an apostle and as a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles from 1900 until his death.

Born in Salt Lake City, Utah Territory, Smoot — the son of Mormon pioneer and former mayor of Salt Lake City, Abraham O. Smoot — was elected to the United States Senate as a Republican Senator from Utah to the 58th Congress in 1902. While serving as the Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, he co-authored the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act, which raised U.S. tariffs on over 20,000 dutiable items to record levels and secured his legacy as one of the unwitting architects of the Great Depression. Also, the trade spheres the tariffs reinforced further isolated Japan, the desperation of which would lead to Japan's invasion of China and eventually Pearl Harbor.^{[citation needed]} U.S. President Herbert Hoover signed the act into law on June 17, 1930. Smoot served five terms before being defeated in the 1932 election by Democrat Elbert D. Thomas.

On April 8, 1900, Smoot became an apostle of the LDS Church and a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. 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 Mormon, B.H. Roberts, had been elected to the House of Representatives but was denied his seat on the basis that he practiced plural marriage.

Smoot did not practice plural marriage, and the LDS Church had officially renounced the practice of plural marriage in an 1890 Manifesto before Utah became a state. However, church leaders had continued to secretly approve of New or Post-Manifesto plural marriages.^[1] Rumors of these marriages were published by the anti-Mormon Salt Lake Tribune. As a result of these charges of continued plural marriages, the Senate began an investigation into Smoot's eligibility.^[2] Smoot was sworn into office on March 5, 1903, and the Smoot Hearings began on January 16, 1904. The hearings included exhaustive questioning into the continuation of plural marriage within the state of Utah and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, as well as 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 Constitution of the United States while serving in the highest echelons of an organization they believed sanctioned law breaking.

At the time, some temple-attending Latter-day Saints took an "oath of vengeance" against America for past grievances; (see Anti-Mormonism, History of the Latter Day Saint movement, Mormon War)^{[citation needed]}. As a leader of the LDS Church, Senator Smoot was accused of taking this oath, which Smoot denied. Five of the U.S. Senators who participated in the investigation agreed, writing, "As to the 'endowment oath,' it is sufficient in this summary to say that the testimony is collated and analyzed in the annexed statement, and 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."^[3] Although the majority of the committee recommended that Smoot be removed from office, on February 20, 1907 the Senate defeated the proposal and Smoot retained his seat. Smoot continued to serve in the Senate until his defeat in 1933. Smoot was a co-sponsor of the Smoot-Hawley Tariff in 1930, which raised import tariffs to record levels, and, as many historians claim, contributed to the circumstances which resulted in the Great Depression.

Smoot was married to Alpha M. Eldredge; the couple had six children. Smoot died in St. Petersburg, Florida and was buried in Provo, Utah.

• Smoot-Rowlett family

1. ^ B. Carmon Hardy, Solemn Covenant: The Mormon Polygamous Passage (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1994) extensively documents Mormon-sanctioned post-Manifesto polygamy.
2. ^ Kathleen Flake, The Politics of American Religious Identity: The Seating of Senator Reed Smoot, Mormon Apostle (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2004).
3. ^ Senate Resolution 205, Fifty-seventh Congress, second session.

• Grampa Bill's G.A. Pages: Reed Smoot
• Smoot, Reed biography