Episode Details

Reed Smoot was born in Salt Lake City in 1862, a son of mayor and Latter-day Saint leader Abraham O. Smoot, who had six wives and 27 children; Reed's mother, Anne, was the fifth wife. Reed graduated from Brigham Young Academy in 1879, served a mission in England, married Alpha Eldredge in a monogamous marriage in 1884, and built interests in banking, mining, railroads, retail, lumber, livestock and woolens. In April 1900 he was ordained an apostle in the Quorum of the Twelve, and in 1903 the Utah legislature elected him to the U.S. Senate. His arrival set off the Smoot hearings of 1904 to 1907, which examined his church's doctrines and practices and whether an apostle could serve.

The committee recommended his removal, but in February 1907 the full Senate fell short of the two thirds needed to expel him. He stayed until 1933, became dean of the Senate and chaired the Finance Committee from 1923 to 1933. In 1916 he sponsored the Senate bill, alongside Representative William Kent, that created the National Park Service. In 1930 Herbert Hoover signed the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act, which raised duties on more than 20,000 items to record levels; trading partners retaliated, and Smoot lost his seat in 1932 to Democrat Elbert D. Thomas. He died in 1941 while visiting Florida, third in line to lead the church.

• The church had ended plural marriage with the 1890 Manifesto, but rumors of secretly approved new plural marriages persisted.
• Utah's B. H. Roberts had earlier been denied his House seat for practicing polygamy.
• Opponents cited a rumored oath of vengeance against the United States, which Smoot flatly denied.
• Contemporaries described his "dry, holy passion for financial soundness."
• More than a thousand economists petitioned Hoover to veto the tariff bill.