Los Angeles herald., 1907-01-12
DEFENDS RIGHT
Of SMOOT TO
SENATE SEAT
Hopkins Says Utahan
Is No POlygamist
Asserts Senate Has No Constitutional
Right to lmpeach Member of
Body-Eulogize Nor
mon Church
BY Associated Press.

BY Associated Press.
WASHINGTON, Jan. 1.-THE first
speech in defense of the right of Reed
Smoot to a seat in the senate was de-
livered today by Senator Hopkins of
Illinois.
Mr.. Hopkins took the position that
senators were not federal officers to the
extent that the senate could pass upon
their qualifications and eligibility or
impeach them for high crimes
or misdemeanors. If senator
was to be punished it must be done by.
the state or federal courts. only the
federal officers, he maintained, were
impeachable, and this impeachment
must be for acts committed as such
federal officers.
The precedent cited was the unsuc-
cessful effort to impeach Senator
Blount of Tennessee, charged with
treasonabe correspondence with a for
eign nation more than 100 years ago.
The conclusion then, Mr.. Hopkins said,
had never been reversed and that was
that the senate had no right to try
the case, as Senator Blount was not
an officer of the United States.
Referring directly to Mr., Smoot, he
continued.
1T is conceded by the chairman of
the committee on provileges and cleo
tions that Senator Smoot. possesses all
the qualifications spoken of in the con-
stitution itself. That is not a polyg-
amist; that he has ever married a
plural wife and has never practiced
polygamy; that he is a man in his
personal relations as son, husband,
father and citizen, above reproach;
hat in oil nf he Of ni
ship he has lived singularly pure
and upright life.
why then" he asked, "should he
be expelled from this body, disgraced
and dishonored for life, a stigma
placed upon. his children, his own life
wrecked and the happiness of his wife
destroyed?
He is a Christian gentleman and
his religious belief has taken him into
the church of Jesus Christ of Latter
! Day Saints, commonly called the Nor
mon church"
Is Against PoIyeamy
Mr. Hopkins said he felt sure those
representing the protestants would not
contend that there was an apostolic
oath which had been taken by Mr..
Smoot which would prevent him from
discharging his duties as senator Mr..
Hopkins sympathized, he said with the
denunciation of pplygamy made by Mr.
Burrows in a recent speech. 1t was,
he said, a relic of a barbarous age and
destroyer of the ideal American home
and he had no sympathy with the prac-
tice.
IF members of any Christian church
were to be charged with all of the
crimes that have been committed in its
name where is a Christian gentleman
in that body who would be safe in his
seat?"
An extended history of the Mormon
church was given by Mr.. Hopkins, who
concluded that the testimony taken be-
fore the committee showed radical
change for the better and that Senator
Smoot represented the higher and bet
ter Mormonism.
Mr.. Beveridge supplemented Mr. Hop
kins' speech by the statement that the
country should be informed that Mr.
Smoot was not or never had been a
polygamist.
Senator Fulton asked Mr.. Hopkins
whether the Mormon church had recog-
nized the polygamous marriages which
the evidence showed have taken place
since the manifesto of 1890
Mr.. Hopkins said the church had not
recognized these marriages; that under
the laws of the Mormon church today
such marriages are not permitted, and
that the parties contracting them knew
that they were violating both the civil
law and the church law, and for that
reason all of these marriages had been
consummated in Canada.
Mr.. Dubois wanted to know where
and when Mr.. Smoot had ever publicly
placed himself on record as condemn
ing pOlygamy.
Mr.. Hopkins replied that Senator
Smoot had twenty or forty times stated
his position before the committee and
that his whole life and every fiber of
his being was a protest against polyg
amy.