Reed Smoot

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Reed Smoot

Reed Owen Smoot (born January 10, 1862 in Salt Lake City , Utah , † February 9, 1941 in Saint Petersburg , Florida ) was an American politician and a senior member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints . He was a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles from April 8, 1900 until his death. Smoot was a member of the United States Senate for Utah from 1903 to 1933 . Since 1884 he was married to Alpha M. Eldredge of Salt Lake City, with whom he had seven children.

Life

Smoot was born in Salt Lake City on January 10, 1862, to Abraham Owen Smoot and Anne Kerstin Morrison. In 1874 he moved to Provo with his parents and attended local schools. He graduated from Brigham Young Academy (now Brigham Young University ) in 1879 . He then served as a missionary in his church in England and was then involved in various business ventures. On April 8, 1900, President Lorenzo Snow called him to the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles to fill the void left by the death of Franklin D. Richards . With the approval of the First Presidency, he was nominated by the Republicans for the Senate in 1902 and won the election with re-elections in 1908, 1914, 1920 and 1926. When he ran again in 1932, he lost to the Democrat Elbert D. Thomas . As a result, he only held his apostle office until his death.

controversy

Since Smoot was a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, immediately after his election there was a heated debate lasting four years as to whether he was morally qualified to sit in the US Senate. The argument was that membership in a religious group representing polygamy made someone unworthy of the US Senate. The allegation was that although the Church had officially ended the practice of polygamy in Official Declaration No. 1 in 1890, it was still secretly entering into polygamous marriages. The most prominent witness heard was the President of the Church, Joseph F. Smith . Eventually, Smoot was admitted after the Church made another official statement unequivocally stating that there would be no more polygamous marriages.

Political activity

Smoot has served on, and presided over, various Senate committees. Together with Senator Willis C. Hawley from Oregon he drafted the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act of 1930 as chairman of the finance committee . This protectionist tariff law led to the imposition of very high import tariffs on agricultural products with the aim of alleviating the economic crisis for US farmers. In addition, Smoot was active in the Republican Party.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Church Almanac 2007, p. 63, Deseret Morning News, Salt Lake City 2006
  2. ^ Doctrine and Covenants, Official Declaration 1
  3. ↑ Smoot-Hawley Tariff, US: Department of State ( Memento of the original from March 12, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / future.state.gov

Web links

Commons : Reed Smoot  - collection of images, videos and audio files
  • Reed Smoot in the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress (English)
personal data
SURNAME Smoot, Reed
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Smoot, Reed Owen (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American politician
DATE OF BIRTH January 10, 1862
PLACE OF BIRTH Salt Lake City , Utah
DATE OF DEATH February 9, 1941
Place of death Saint Petersburg , Florida