The Reed Smoot hearings, also called Smoot hearings or the Smoot Case, were a series of Congressional hearings on whether the United States Senate should seat U.S. Senator Reed Smoot, who was elected by the Utah legislature in 1903. Smoot was an apostle in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, one of the top 15 leaders of the church. The hearings began in 1904 and continued until 1907, when the Senate voted. The vote fell short of a two-thirds majority needed to expel a member so he retained his seat.
Senator Reed Smoot, the center of the hearings
Illustration of Joseph F. Smith giving testimony to Senator George Frisbie Hoar
"The Real Objection to Smoot." 1904 political cartoon from Puck Magazine depicting Senator Smoot in the hands of the "Mormon Hierarchy."
Reed Smoot was an American politician, businessman, and apostle of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. A Republican who was first elected to the U.S. Senate by the Utah State Legislature in 1902, he served from 1903 to 1933. Smoot is primarily remembered as the co-sponsor of the 1930 Smoot–Hawley Tariff Act, which increased almost 900 American import duties. Criticized at the time as having "intensified nationalism all over the world" by Thomas Lamont of J.P. Morgan & Co., Smoot–Hawley is widely regarded as one of the catalysts for the worsening Great Depression.
Reed Smoot
Willis C. Hawley (left) and Smoot in April 1929, shortly before the Smoot–Hawley Tariff Act passed the House