Theodore Roosevelt and Reed Smoot

• DOI: 10.1177/106591295100400304
• Published date: 01 September 1951
• Date: 01 September 1951
• Author: M.R. Merrill
• Subject Matter: Articles

440

THEODORE

ROOSEVELT

AND

REED

SMOOT

M.

R. MERRILL

Utah

State

Agricultural

College

URING

AN

INTERVIEW

with

Apostle

Reed

Smoot

in

September,

1939,

this

writer

asked

the

distinguished

churchman-politician:

&dquo;Who

was

the

greatest

statesman

whom

you

met

in

your

thirty-year

career

as

Utah’s

Senator?&dquo;

&dquo;Theodore

Roosevelt,&dquo;

Smoot

replied

without

hesitation

or

equivocation.

To

an

interviewer

who

had

some

knowledge

of

Smoot’s

political

orthodoxy

and

of

his

strenuous

efforts

to

defeat

the

rebel

Roosevelt

in

the

1912

Republican

national

convention,

as

well

as

his

intransigent

attitude

toward

the

Rough

Rider

in

1916,

the

answer

was

startling.

Coolidge,

Hoover,

Root,

or

Aldrich

would

have

seemed

natural

choices,

but

one

did

not

expect

the

ebullient

political

gladiator

of

Oyster

Bay

to

be

named

by

a

standpatter

of

Smoot’s

caliber.

The

Apostle-Senator

was,

as

always,

entirely

serious.

In

Smcot’s

eyes,

Roosevelt

had

largely

redeemed

the

heresy

of

1912

by

his

support

of

Hughes

in

1916,

his

bitter

denunciation

of

Wilson,

his

consistent

support

of

the

&dquo;party

of

righteousness&dquo;

thereafter,

and

his

apparent

willingness

to

lead

the

Republicans

to

victory

in

1920.

But

it

was

not

this

record

of

repentance

and

atonement

that

accounted

for

the

judgment.

It

was

the

period

of

Roosevelt’s

presidency

that

won

the

tribute.

These

were

the

years

of

Smoot’s

personal

travail.

By

1940,

even

the

resplendent

era

when

Smoot

held

the

chairmanship

of

the

mighty

Finance

Committee,

even

the

stern

struggle

to

achieve

the

Smoot-Hawley

tariff,

were

definitely

less

significant

for

Smoot

than

the

memory

of

his

first

term,

when

he

fought

to

hold

his

place

in

the

United

States

Senate.

After

four

harrowing

years,

1903-1907,

victory

had

finally

come.

Reed

Smoot

was

vindicated.

Theo-

dore

Roosevelt

was

the

man

who

made

that

result

possible.

One

may

doubt

that

the

preservation

of

Smoot

was

an

act

of

high

statesmanship;

but,

to

the

Senator,

it

was

not

only

Smoot

who

was

saved,

but

also

the

Mormon

Church.

He

always

regarded

the

attempt

to

unseat

him

as

an

attack

on

the

Church.

Consequently

his

personal

victory,

while

important,

was

secondary

to

the

defeat

of

the

Church’s

enemies.

In

his

opinion,

when

Smoot

won,

the

Mormon

Church

also

won.

Any

politician

who

aided

and

protected

the

Church

was,

ipso

facto,

a

statesman.

Smoot

proceeded

to

elaborate

upon

his

debt

to

Roosevelt.

The

President

had

stood

like

a

Gibraltar

against

the

expulsion

or

exclusion

of

Smoot.

His

influence

had

been

decisive

in

persuading

certain

Repub-

lican

members

of

the

Committee

on

Privileges

and

Elections,

which

heard

the

case

for

and

against

the

fledgling

Senator,

to

speak

and

vote

for

his