The Smoot Hearings (1904-1907): Church vs. State in the Senate

LDS Perspective

The Reed Smoot hearings were a series of United States Senate investigations conducted between 1904 and 1907 to determine whether Reed Smoot, a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles elected to the Senate in 1903, should be permitted to retain his seat. The hearings were initiated following protests by the Salt Lake Ministerial Association and various Protestant groups who alleged that Smoot’s position as an Apostle and the Church’s history with plural marriage rendered him unfit for office. Despite the 1890 Manifesto officially ending the practice of plural marriage, many Americans remained suspicious that Church leaders continued to sanction it, and they questioned whether Latter-day Saints could maintain loyalty to the United States while holding religious offices. Over the course

Historical Perspective

The Reed Smoot Hearings were a series of Congressional investigations conducted between 1904 and 1907 to determine whether Reed Smoot, an apostle of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints who had been elected to the United States Senate from Utah in 1903, should be permitted to take his seat. While Smoot himself was not a polygamist—unlike B.H. Roberts, who had been denied his congressional seat several years earlier—his position as a high-ranking church leader triggered intense scrutiny. The hearings became a national spectacle that placed Mormon theology and private practices under unprecedented public examination, with dozens of witnesses including Mormon leaders, ex-Mormons, and Protestant critics testifying before the committee. The most significant testimony came from Josep