712

169

154

Book

English

Flake, Kathleen

The Politics of American Religious Identity : The Seating of Senator Reed Smoot, Mormon Apostle

Chapel Hill

University of North Carolina Press

2004

238

[2005 Mormon Historical Association Winner for Best Book]

Between 1901 and 1907, a broad coalition of Protestant churches sought to expel newly elected Reed Smoot from the Senate, arguing that as an apostle in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Smoot was a lawbreaker and therefore unfit to be a lawmaker. The resulting Senate investigative hearing featured testimony on every peculiarity of Mormonism, especially its polygamous family structure. The Smoot hearing ultimately mediated a compromise between Progressive Era Protestantism and Mormonism and resolved the nation’s long-standing "Mormon Problem." On a broader scale, Kathleen Flake shows how this landmark hearing provided the occasion for the country–through its elected representatives, the daily press, citizen petitions, and social reform activism–to reconsider the scope of religious free exercise in the new century.

Flake contends that the Smoot hearing was the forge in which the Latter-day Saints, the Protestants, and the Senate hammered out a model for church-state relations, shaping for a new generation of non-Protestant and non-Christian Americans what it meant to be free and religious. In addition, she discusses the Latter-day Saints' use of narrative and collective memory to retain their religious identity even as they changed to meet the nation's demands. [Publisher's description]

Smith, Joseph F. (1838-1918)
Politics, U.S., 20th century
Smoot, Reed, hearings
Award Winner
Plural marriage, legislative history

All "Mormon Elder-Berry's" Children : Race, Whiteness, and the Attack on Mormon "Anglo-Saxon Triumphalism"
American Universities and the Birth of Modern Mormonism, 1867-1940
“A More Universal Sisterhood” : Latter-day Saints in the National Council of Women, 1888–1987
"And Now It Is the Mormons" : The Magazine Crusade against the Mormon Church, 1910-1911
A Peculiar People : Anti-Mormonism and the Making of Religion in Nineteenth-Century America
A Politically Peculiar People : How Mormons Moved into and Then out of the Political Mainstream
"Archives of the Better World": The Nineteenth-Century Historian's Office and Mormonism's Archival Flexibility
A Seething Cauldron of Controversy : The First Trial of John D. Lee, 1875
A Society of Like-Minded Men : American Localism and the Mormon Expulsion from Jackson County
Authority and Priesthood in the LDS Church, Part 1 : Definitions and Development
Avard T. Fairbanks's World War I Memorials
Baring witness : 36 Mormon women talk candidly about love, sex, and marriage
Bernard DeVoto’s Utah
Between Pulpit and Pew : The Supernatural World in Mormon History and Folklore
B. H. Roberts: A Life in the Public Arena
Brigham Young : Pioneer Prophet
Buried Swords : The Shifting Interpretive Ground of a Beloved Book of Mormon Narrative
Celestial Marriage (Eternal and Plural)
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) (Mormonism)
Clyde Forsberg's Equal Rites and the Exoticizing of Mormonism
Conflict of Church and State: Two Latter-day Saint Poets’ Perspectives on the Utah War of 1857–58
Contesting the LDS Image : The North American Review and the Mormons, 1881-1907
Contingent Citizens: Shifting Perceptions of Latter-day Saints in American Political Culture
Converting the Saints : A Study of Religious Rivalry in America
Convicting the Mormons: The Mountain Meadows Massacre in American Culture
Courtship, Marriage, and Romantic Monogamy : Young Mormon Women's Diaries at the Turn of the Twentieth Century
Danish, But Not Lutheran : The Impact of Mormonism on Danish Cultural Identity, 1850-1920
David O. McKay and the Rise of Modern Mormonism
Doing the Works of Abraham : Mormon Polygamy―Its Origin, Practice, and Demise
Dorian : A Peculiar Edition with Annotated Text and Scholarship
Dream Mines and Religious Identity in Twentieth-Century Utah : Insights from the Norman C. Pierce Papers
Early Mormonism's Expansive Family and the Browett women
Emmeline B. Wells : An Intimate History
"Epoch in Musical History" : "The Mormon Tabernacle Choir's First Recordings
Excavating Early Mormon History : The 1878 History Fact-Finding Mission of Apostles Joseph F. Smith and Orson Pratt
Exceptionally Queer : Mormon Peculiarity and US Exceptionalism
Exceptionally Queer: Mormon Peculiarity and U.S. Nationalism
Exhibiting Theology : James E. Talmage and Mormon Public Relations, 1915-20
Faith and Politics in the Public Sphere : The Gülen Movement and the Mormon Church
Fashioning a Newer Mormon History
Female Ritual Healing in Mormonism
First Vision : Memory and Mormon Origins
From Near-Nation to New World Religion
From the Outside Looking In : Essays on Mormon History, Theology, and Culture
Frontier Religion : Mormons and America, 1857–1907
Frontier Religion : Mormons and America, 1857-1907
Gettysburg to Great Salt Lake : George R. Maxwell, Civil War Hero and Federal Marshal among the Mormons
God and the People : Theodemocracy in Nineteenth-Century Mormonism
"I am not and never have been a polygamist" : Reed Smoot's Speech before the United States Senate
Isaac Russell : Mormon Muckraker and Secret Defender of the Church
Jan Shipps : A Social and Intellectual Portrait
Joseph B. Keeler, Print Culture, and the Modernization of Mormonism, 1885-1918
Joseph F. Smith and the Reshaping of Church Education
Joseph F. Smith: Reflections on the Man and His Times
Joseph Smith Jr. : Reappraisals After Two Centuries
Joseph Smith's Gold Plates: A Cultural History
Latter-Day Prophets : Their Lives, Teachings, and Testimonies
Latter-day Saints in Washington, D.C. : History, People, and Places
Let's Talk About Polygamy
Like a Fiery Meteor: The Life of Joseph F. Smith
Machines for Making Gods: Mormonism, Transhumanism, and Worlds Without End
Make Yourselves Gods : Mormons and the Unfinished Business of American Secularism
Manifestos, Mixed Messages and Mexico : The Demise of Mainstream Mormon Polygamy
Marianne Meets the Mormons: Representations of Mormonism in Nineteenth-Century France
Marking Mormon Difference : How Western Perceptions of Islam Defined the 'Mormon Menace'
Media as compromise : a cultural history of Mormonism and new communication technology in twentieth-century America
Monogamy Underground : The Burial of Mormon Plural Marriage in the Graves of Joseph and Emma Smith
Mormonism
Mormonism and American Politics (Religion, Culture, and Public Life)
Mormonism and Violence : The Battles of Zion
Mormonism and White Supremacy : American Religion and the Problem of Racial Innocence
Mormonism in America: Itinerary to Allegiance from Joseph Smith to Mitt Romney
Mormonism in the American Political Domain
Mormon Studies as an Academic Discipline
Mormontown : Collective Memories of a Cutlerite Colony in Iowa
Mormon Women's History : Beyond Biography
Moroni and the Swastika : Mormons in Nazi Germany
New Perspectives in Mormon Studies : Creating and Crossing Boundaries
New Scholarship on Latter-Day Saint Women in the Twentieth Century : Selections From the Women's History Initiative Seminars, 2003-2004
Ogden's Forgotten City Hospital
On the Trail of the Twentieth-Century Mormon Outmigration
On the Way to Somewhere Else : European Sojourners in the Mormon West, 1834-1930
Opposing the 'High Ecclesiasts at Washington' : Frank J. Cannon's Editorial Fusillades during the Reed Smoot Hearings, 1903-07
Ordering Antinomy : An Analysis of Early Mormonism's Priestly Offices, Councils, and Kinship
"Our Religion Is Not Hostile to Real Science" : Evolution, Eugenics, and Race/Religion-Making in Mormonism's First Century
Out of Obscurity : Mormonism Since 1945
"Out of the Mists of Memory" : Remembering Joseph Smith in Vermont
Parallel Paths : LDS General Conference and Mormon History
Peculiar Portrayals : Mormons on the Page, Stage, and Screen
Pioneers in the Attic : Place and Memory Along the Mormon Trail
Polygamy : An Early American History
Polygamy in the Nation's Capitol : Protestant Women and the 1899 Campaign against B.H. Roberts
Post New Mormon History : A Manifesto
Prairie School in the Prairie : An Architectural Journey through Mormon History in Southern Alberta, 1888-1923
Producing Ancient Scripture: Joseph Smith's Translation Projects in the Development of Mormon Christianity
Protecting the Wilderness : Comments on Howe's The Garden in the Wilderness
Pulling Toward Zion : Mormonism in Its Global Dimensions
Race and the Making of the Mormon People
Railroading Religion : Mormons, Tourists, and the Corporate Spirit of the West
Raising the Stakes : How Joseph Smith’s First Vision Became All or Nothing
Reconstruction, Religion, and the West: The Great Impeacher Meets the Mormons
Reexamining the Radical : Stephen Holbrook and the Utah Strategy for Protesting the Vietnam War
Religion of a Different Color : Race and the Mormon Struggle for Whiteness
Religion, Politics, and Sugar : The Mormon Church, the Federal Government, and the Utah-Idaho Sugar Company, 1907-1921
Religious Identification and Legislative Voting : The Mormon Case
Remembering the Pioneer Legacy
Respecting the LDS/Mormon Minority on
Campus : College Students’ Attitudes Toward
Latter-Day Saints
Restless Pilgrim : Andrew Jenson's Quest for Latter-day Saint History
Revisiting Thomas F. O'Dea's The Mormons : Contemporary Perspectives
Robert Newton Baskin and the Making of Modern Utah
Sacralizing the Secular in Latter-day Saint Salvation Histories
Saints : The Story of the Church of Jesus Christ in the Latter Days. No Unhallowed Hand 1846–1893.
Salt, Smurthwaite, and Smith: The Origins of the Modern Legal Identity of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
Seeing Things: Technologies of Vision and the Making of Mormonism
Separation of Prophet and State? The 1914 Reelection of Senator Reed Smoot
Shaping BYU : The Presidential Administration and Legacy of Benjamin Cluff Jr.
Sincerity, Imagination, and Mythmaking : Fawn Brodie and the First Vision
"Smoot Smites Smut" : Apostle-Senator Reed Smoot's 1930 Campaign against Obscene Books
Standing Apart : Mormon Historical Consciousness And The Concept Of Apostasy
Storming the Nation : The Unknown Contributions of Joseph Smith’s Political Missionaries
Susa Young Gates: Daughter of Mormonism
Tabernacles of Clay : Sexuality and Gender in Modern Mormonism
Terrible Revolution : Latter-day Saints and the American Apocalypse
That "Same Old Question of Polygamy and Polygamous Living" : Some Recent Findings Regarding Nineteenth and Twentieth Century Mormon Polygamy
The Awkward State of Utah : Coming of Age in the Nation 1896-1945
The Crisis of Mormon Christology : History, Progress, and Protestantism, 1880-1930
The First Vision as a Prehistory of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
"The Highest Class of Adulterers and Whoremongers" : Plural Marriage, the Church of Jesus Christ (Cutlerite), and the Construction of Memory
The Last Called Mormon Colonization: Polygamy, Kinship, and Wealth in Wyoming’s Bighorn Basin
The LDS Gospel Topics Series : A Scholarly Engagement
The Long Honeymoon : Jan Shipps Among the Mormons
The Manifesto and the End of Plural Marriage
The Modern Mormon Church
The Mormon Church in Utah
The Mormon Image in the American Mind : Fifty Years of Public Perception
The Mormon Jesus : A Biography
The Mormon Menace : Violence and Anti-Mormonism in the Postbellum South
The Mormons and America's Empires
Theory and Interpretation in Mormon Studies
The Oxford Handbook of Mormonism
The Power of Godliness : Mormon Liturgy and Cosmology
The Reed Smoot Hearings and the Theology of Politics : Perceiving an "American" Identity
The Sanctification of Mormonism's Historical Geography
The Site of Mormon Political Theology
The Spiritual Evolution of Margarito Bautista : Mexican Mormon Evangelizer, Polygamist Dissident, and Utopian Founder, 1878-1961
The Spirituality of Sport : Los Mormones in Argentina, 1938–1943
The Virtue of Tolerance : The Lion of Idaho and the Mormons
True and Faithful : Joseph Fielding Smith as Mormon Historian and Theologian
Under the Gun at the Smoot Hearings : Joseph F. Smith's Testimony
Unpopular Sovereignty : Brigham Young and the U.S. Government, 1847-1877
Utah in the Twentieth Century
Utopia, Family, and Authority : The Major Rhetorical Themes of LDS General Conference
Vernacular Mormonism : The Development of Latter-Day Saint Apocalyptic (1830-1930)
Visualizing the Vision : The History and Future of First Vision Art
"We believe in the gift of tongues" : The 1906 Pentecostal Revolution and Its Effects on the LDS Use of the Gift of Tongues in the Twentieth Century
"We do not love war, but ..." : Mormons, the Great War, and the crucible of nationalism
"We Do Not Love War, But ..." : Mormons, the Great War, and the Crucible of Nationalism
"We, The People of the Kingdom of God" : Constitution Writing in the Council of Fifty
What is Mormonism? A Student’s Introduction
What Jane James Saw
What We Will Do Now That New Mormon History is Old : A Roundtable
When Buffalo Bill Came to Utah
Wives and Other Women : Love, Sex, and Marriage in the Lives of John Q. Cannon, Frank J. Cannon, and Abraham H. Cannon
Women in Utah History : Paradigm or Paradox?
Women of Faith in the Latter Days : Volume 4, 1871-1900
Yet to Be Revealed: Open Questions in Latter-day Saint Theology
Your Sister in the Gospel : The Life of Jane Manning James, a Nineteenth-Century Black Mormon
Zion as Fiction : Gender, Early RLDS Novels, and the Politics of Place
Zion : The Progressive Roots of Mormon Correlation

Abraham Owen Smoot : A Testament of His Life
A Comprehensive History of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
After the Manifesto : Mormon Polygamy 1890-1906
A Kingdom Transformed : Themes in the Development of Mormonism
Ambassador to the Saints
America : Religions and Religion
A Ministry of Meetings : The Apostolic Diaries of Rudger Clawson
A Motley Vision
An Analysis of Changes in the Interpretation and Utilization of Revelation on The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1830-1918
Another Side of Early Mormonism
A Study of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as an Administrative System, Its Structure and Maintenance
A Symbol of New Directions : George Franklin Richards and the Mormon Church, 1861-1950
Belief, Metaphor, and Rhetoric : The Mormon Practice of Testimony Bearing
Biographical Record of Salt Lake City and Vicinity, Containing Biographies of Well Known Citizens of the Past and Present
Blasphemy and the Law of Religious Liberty in Nineteenth-Century America
By the Hand of Mormon : The American Scripture that Launched a New World Religion
Celebrating Cultural Identity : Pioneer Day in Nineteenth-Century Mormonism
Church Chronology
Circumstantial Confirmation of the First Vision Through Reminiscences
Community Celebrations and Mormon Ideology of Place
Contesting the LDS Image : The North American Review and the Mormons, 1881-1907
Crisis in Identity : Mormon Responses in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries
Culture Clash and Accommodation : Public Schooling in Salt Lake City, 1890-1994
Defense of the Faith and the Saints
Deseret
Divergent Paths of the Restoration : A History of the Latter-day Saint Movement
Doctrinal Development of the Church during the Nauvoo Sojourn 1839-1846
Documents, Volume 4: April 1834-September 1835
Emergence of a Fundamental : The Expanding Role of Joseph Smith's First Vision in Mormon Religious Thought
First Vision
For God and the American Home : The Attempt to Unseat Senator Reed Smoot, 1903-1907
Fred T. Dubois, Foe of the Mormons : A Study of the Role of Fred T. Dubois in the Senate Investigation of the Hon. Reed Smoot and the Mormon Church, 1903-1907
Great Basin Kingdom : An Economic History of the Latter-day Saints, 1830-1900
Hearts Turned to the Fathers : A History of the Genealogical Society of Utah, 1894-1994
In Sacred Loneliness : The Plural Wives of Joseph Smith
In the World : The Diaries of Reed Smoot
Intolerable Zion : The Image of Mormonism in Nineteenth Century American Literature
'It Seems Like Heaven Began on Earth' : Joseph Smith and the Constitution of the Kingdom of God
John A. Widtsoe : A Biography
Joseph F. Smith
Joseph F. Smith : Patriarch and Preacher, Prophet of God
Joseph Smith and the Beginnings of Mormonism
Joseph Smith and the Structure of Mormon Identity
Judicial Prosecution of Prisoners For LDS Plural Marriage : Prison Sentences, 1884-1895
Kidnapped from that Land : The Government Raids on the Short Creek Polygamists
Latter-day Saint Biographical Encyclopedia
LDS Church Authority and New Plural Marriages, 1890-1904
Life behind Bars : Mormon Cohabs of the 1880's
Lights and Shadows of Mormonism
Lives of Our Leaders
Marketing Religion Online : The LDS Church's SEO Efforts
Mary Bennion Powell : Polygamy and Silence
Messages of the First Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
More Wives than One : Transformation of the Mormon Marriage System, 1840-1910
Mormondom's Lost Generation : The Novelists of the 1940s
Mormonism and American Culture
Mormonism and the American Experience
Mormonism in Conflict : The Nauvoo Years
Mormonism in Transition : A History of the Latter-day Saints, 1890-1930
Mormonism : The Story of a New Religious Tradition
Mormonism : Views from Without and Within
Mormon Leaders in Politics : The Transition to Statehood in 1896
Mormon Poetry Now! : The State of the Art
Mormon Polygamous Families : Life in the Principle
Mormons and Mormonism in U.S. Government Documents : A Bibliography
"Mormon" Women's Protest; An Appeal for Freedom, Justice and Equal Rights. The Ladies of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Protest Against the Tyranny and Indecency of Federal Officials in Utah, and Against their own Disfranchisement without Cause. Full Account of Proceedings at the Great Mass Meeting held in the Theatre, Salt Lake City, Utah, Saturday, March 6, 1886.
Mysteries of Godliness : A History of Mormon Temple Worship
New Photographs of Joseph F. Smith's Centennial Memorial Trip to Vermont, 1905
'Not to be Riten' : The Mormon Temple Rite as Oral Canon
Once a Peculiar People : Cognitive Dissonance and the Suppression of Mormon Polygamy as a Case Study Negating the Belief-Action Distinction
'Our National Hearthstone' : Anti-Polygamy Fiction and the Sentimental Campaign Against Moral Diversity in Antebellum America
Pioneers and Recapitulation in Mormon Popular Historical Expression
Plural Marriage and Mormon Fundamentalism
Political Deliverance : The Mormon Quest for Utah Statehood
Presbyterian Missions and Cultural Interaction in the Far Southwest 1850-1950
Presbyterians and Latter-day Saints in Utah : A Century of Conflict and Compromise, 1830-1930
Punishing the Saints for Their "Peculiar Institution" : Congress on the Constitutional Dilemma
Quest for Empire : The Political Kingdom of God and the Council of Fifty in Mormon History
Quest for Refuge : The Mormon Flight from American Pluralism
Rebranding the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Chinese-Speaking Regions
Reed Smoot and Western Land Policy, 1905-1920
Reed Smoot : Apostle in Politics
Reed Smoot, Apostle in Politics
Reed Smoot's "Secret Code"
Reed Smoot : The First Modern Mormon
Reed Smoot, the LDS Church and Progressive Legislation, 1903-1933
Religion and Economics in Mormon History
Religion and Republic : The American Circumstance
Religious Outsiders and the Making of Americans
Reminiscences of President Joseph F. Smith
Roots of Modern Mormonism
Senator Reed Smoot and the Mexican Revolutions
Sojourner in the Promised Land : Forty years among the Mormons
Solemn Covenant : The Mormon Polygamous Passage
Some Ideological Functions of Prejudice in Ante-Bellum America
Some Themes of Counter-Subversion : An Analysis of Anti-Masonic, Anti-Catholic, and Anti-Mormon Literature
Some Thoughts on the Gospel and the Behavioral Sciences
Studies in Mormon History 1830-1997 : An Indexed Bibliography
The Americanization of Religious Minorities : Confronting the Constitutional Order
The 'Americanization' of Utah for Statehood
The Antipolygamy Controversy in U.S. Women's Movements, 1880-1925 : A Debate on the American Home
The Awesome Power of Sex : The Polemical Campaign against Mormon Polygamy
The Burned-Over District : The Social and Intellectual History of Enthusiastic Religion in Western New York, 1800-1850
The Cultural Dynamics of Historical Self-Fashioning : Mormon Pioneer Nostalgia, American Culture, and the International Church
The Doctrine of Divine Embodiment : Restoration, Judeo-Christian, and Philosophical Perspectives
The Early Accounts of Joseph Smith's First Vision
The First 100 Years : A History of the Salt Lake Tribune, 1871-1971
The Hill Called Cumorah
The Joseph Smith Papers : Administrative Records, Council of Fifty, Minutes, March 1844–January 1846
The Joseph Smith Papers : Documents, Volume 11 : September 1842–February 1843
The Joseph Smith Papers : Documents, Volume 2 : July 1831–January 1833
The Joseph Smith Papers : Documents, Volume 5 : October 1835–January 1838
The Joseph Smith Papers : Documents, Volume 6 : February 1838–August 1839
The Joseph Smith Papers : Documents, Volume 7 : September 1839–January 1841
The Joseph Smith Papers : Journals, Volume 3 : May 1843–June 1844
The Metamorphosis of the Kingdom of God : Toward a Reinterpretation of Mormon History
The Mormon Conflict, 1850-1859
The Mormon Experience : A History of the Latter-day Saints
The Mormon Graphic Image, 1834-1914 : Cartoons, Caricatures, and Illustrations
The Mormon Hierarchy : Extensions of Power
The Mormon Problem : An Appeal to the American People
The Mormon Question : Polygamy and Constitutional Conflict in Nineteenth-Century America
The Mormons
The Mormons and the Law : The Polygamy Cases
The Mormons' War on Poverty : A History of LDS Welfare 1830-1990
The Mountain Meadows Massacre
The New Publications of the Standard Works-1979, 1981
The Papers of Joseph Smith, Volume 1 : Autobiographical and Historical Writings
The Political Suicide of Senator Fred T. Dubois of Idaho
The Politics of Mormon History
The Presidents of the Church
The Principle Revoked : A Closer Look at the Demise of Plural Marriage
The Public Image of Sen. Reed Smoot, 1902-32
The Quest for Universal Music in the LDS Children’s Songbook
The Reconstruction of Mormon Doctrine : From Joseph Smith to Progressive Theology
There is no Law : A History of Mormon Civil Relations in the Southern States, 1865-1905
The Rhetoric of Stealing God
The Ritualization of Mormon History and Other Essays
The Senatorial Career of Fred T. Dubois, 1890-1907
The Significance of Joseph Smith's 'First Vision' In Mormon Thought
The Significance of Nauvoo for Latter-day Saints
The Story of the Church
The Taylor-Cowley Affair and the Watershed of Mormon History
The Utah Gospel Mission, 1900-1950
The Viper on the Hearth : Mormons, Myths, and the Construction of Heresy
The Vitality of Mormonism : A Study of an Irrigated Valley in Utah and Idaho
The Words of Joseph Smith : The Contemporary Accounts of the Nauvoo Discourses of the Prophet Joseph
'To Maintain Harmony' : Adjusting to External and Internal Stress, 1890-1930
Under the Prophet in Utah : The National Menace of a Political Priestcraft
Utah As It Is, with a Comprehensive Statement of Utah As It Was
Utah Pioneer : Apostle Marriner Wood Merrill and His Family
Utah : The Right Place. The Official Centennial History
Zion in the Courts : A Legal History of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1830-1900