ons. After an interval of a month, Senator
Albert J. Hopkins, of Illinois, undertook to reply with a defense
of Smoot that reduced the Apostle's excuses to the absurd. Smoot, he
declared, had opposed polygamy, "even from his infancy;" there was
"nothing in the constitution" prohibiting "a State from having an
established Church;" the old practices of Mormonism were dying out; and
Smoot, as an exponent of the newer Mormonism, was largely responsible
for the improvement.

This bold falsehood was received with laughter by the members who had
heard the testimony before the Senate committee or read the record of
its sittings; but it was wired to all newspapers; and the contradictions
that followed it failed (for reasons) to get the same publicity. It
was repeated by Senator Sutherland (January 22, 1907); and he had the
audacity to add that the Mormon Church, as well as Smoot, was opposed to
polygamy; that the "sporadic cases" of new polygamy were "reprehended
by Mormon and Gentile alike;" that polygamous marriages in Utah had been
forbidden by the Enabling Act, but that polygamous cohabitation had
been left to the state; and that the latter was rapidly dying out. And
Sutherland knew, as every public man in Utah knew, that almost every
word of this statement was untrue.

Senator Philander C. Knox, of Pennsylvania (February 14, 1907) took up
the lie that Smoot had been "from his youth against polygamy," and he
added to it a legal argument that the Senate could only expel a member,
by a two-thirds vote, if he were guilty of crime, offensive immorality,
disloyalty or gross impropriety during his term of service. Senator
Tillman (February 15) accused President Roosevelt of protecting Smoot
in return for a pledge of Mormon support given previous to the last
campaign. Apostle Smoot (February 19) declared that cases of "new"
polygamy were rare; that they were not sanctioned by the Church; that
every case since 1890 "has the express condemnation of the Church;"
and that he himself had always opposed polygamy. On February 20,
the question was forced to a vote after a debate that repeated these
falsehoods, in spite of all disproof's of them. And Apostle Smoot was
retained in his seat by a vote of fifty-one to thirty-seven, counting
pairs.

After this event, no growth of organization was immediately possible to
the American party. Having gained political control of Salt Lake City
and given it good municipal government, we were able t