Abstract

In the year of 1903, the right of Reed Smoot to take his seat in the United States Senate was challenged in a protest signed by nineteen prominent citizens from Utah. The protest was submitted to the Senate Committee of Privileges and Elections, a member of which was Fred T. Dubois, Senator from Idaho. The protest charged that the Mormon Church was still practicing polygamy and exercising political domination of its members and that therefore Reed Smoot, an Apostle and leader of this church, was unfit for senatorial obligations. Dubois, believing the worst concerning these charges, took it upon himself to head the movement against Smoot. He surreptitiously organized national sentiment and caused an investigation of the charges contained in the protest by bringing public pressure to bear on the United States Senate.
The Mormon Church turned out to be more the object of the investigation than Smoot. It looked for awhile as though Dubois would be successful in unseating Smoot, but as the case wore on the opposition of the Republican Party, the press, and President Theodore Roosevelt proved to be too much for him. From the time he took up this anti-Mormon fight his lack of success in politics seems to parallel his unsuccessful efforts to get Smoot kicked out of the Senate. In 1906, just prior to the time that the Senate voted to retain Smoot, Dubois himself, was defeated in his bid to be returned to the Senate.
Dubois' anti-Mormon fight was a popular issue everywhere but in the west and particularly Idaho. He had plenty of warning that such was the case but he couldn't be reconciled to the fact that the people of Idaho wouldn't accept his anti-Mormonism. His self-deception relative to the iniquities of the Mormon Church were absolute and sincere but fatal to his political asperations.
President Roosevelt undoubtedly contributed most to Dubois' defeat. But, it wasn't just his defeat. To the very end he had the sentiment of the women's organizations throughout the country behind him. This probably contributed much to his reluctance to accept the "handwriting on the wall."
Dubois used this Smoot controversy for political purposes, but more important than this was the fact that he sincerely thought he was on the side of right and that in the end it would be victorious.

Degree

MA

College and Department

Family, Home, and Social Sciences; Political Science

Rights

http://lib.byu.edu/about/copyright/

Date Submitted

1960

Document Type

Thesis

Handle

http://hdl.lib.byu.edu/1877/etdm436

Keywords

Frederick T. Dubois, Frederick Thomas, 1851-1930, Reed Smoot, 1862-1941, Mormons, Polygamy

Language

English

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