Reed Smoot's "Secret Code"

Reed Smoot's "Secret Code"

BY JOSEPH HEINERMAN

IN MORMON HISTORIOGRAPHY THE CONTROVERSIAL Reed Smoot case of the early twentieth century has been one of the most fascinating and interesting subjects to have been written about by both Mormons and non-Mormons. Many comments by the latter were very negative and cynical. At a gathering of the general assembly of the Presbyterian church held in Los Angeles in 1903 the Reverend Charles Thompson, referring to Mormon religious organization, stated: "It is not to be educated, not to be reformed — it must be crushed. No other organization is so perfect as the 'Mormon' Church except the German Army. . . . Its High Priest claims a senator's chair in Washington. Now is the time to strike. Perhaps to miss now is to be lost." J. M. Scanland in an article in one periodical charged: "The Mormon Church is communistic in principle, autocratic in its government, and its increasing strength is a menace to this republic because of its socialistic organization and polygamous teachings."

The primary reason for the great public outcry and growing opposition in the form of anti-Mormon sentiments was that Reed Smoot, a member of the Council of the Twelve Apostles in the Mormon church, had been elected in January 1903 as a United States senator by the Utah State Legislature. One writer felt that

to millions of evangelical Protestants, long suspicious of Mormonism, Smoot's choice was as shocking as the election of a Roman Catholic Cardinal would have been. Petitions demanding that the new Senator be denied his seat began to pour into Washington by the thousands. Mormonism, so most of the petitions alleged, was a criminal organization which practiced polygamy while corruptly dominating state political affairs throughout the West.

Although no evidence was found or presented to prove Smoot guilty of the charges against him, it had been the intention of Congress to put the Mormon religion on trial. In fact, Julius Caesar Burrows, chairman of the committee in charge of the Smoot case and a senator from Michigan, was not interested in Smoot personally but wanted to expose the abominations of Mormonism. Echoing the popular sentiments of his day. Senator Burrows concluded:

I have examined the numerous petitions which have been sent to the Senate, and I desire to say that the charges made in the petitions are not that Mr. Smoot is a polygamist but that he is a member of the hierarchy that dominates and controls the State of Utah, believes in and practices polygamy and polygamous cohabitation, and is, in fact, a criminal organization. That is the charge.

The Mormon church leadership was likewise fully aware of the growing opposition confronting it because of Reed Smoot's election as Utah's senator. Church President Joseph F. Smith wrote in an editorial for the religion's official periodical: "Just now there seems to be a general, united uprising of the religious denominations against the Latter-day Saints. The excuse for the turmoil is the election of Hon. Reed Smoot to the Senate of the United States. . . ." And in a letter to the president of the Eastern States Mission of the Mormon church in New York, John G. McQuarrie, Smoot wrote:

. . . the ministers will have to show their hand to get anywhere and then the people of the United States will know and realize that it is not a fight against Reed Smoot, but that it is a fight against the authority of God on earth and against the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I am not worried in the least as to the outcome, for personally I want it to go the way God desires it. ... If this gang wins in this fight you can depend upon it that it will be only a steppingstone to disbar every Mormon from the halls of Congress. . . .

At this Stage of events Reed Smoot needed a good defense counsel to aid him in his congressional trials. A letter to Smoot from the First Presidency of the church contained this observation:

. . . We have thought a great deal about your case, and are deeply impressed with the gravity of the situation.

In view of the momentous issues involved, and considering the fact that Mr. Carlysle has been employed to represent the Protestants, we think that some lawyer of equally high standing in the profession should be employed to represent you before the Committee. He should be a constitutional lawyer of national repute. . . . We think he should be a republican.

Our experience in the past has demonstrated that outside attorneys have but little conception of the real inwardness of our affairs. . . . For that reason we should expect to have Brother [Franklin S.] Richards go down and advise with such counsel. . . . We are not familiar with the members of the bar at Washington, and therefore do not feel justified in naming a person to fill that position. . . .

About a month later Smoot wrote to Joseph F. Smith that "the question of the employment of an attorney is worrying me considerably and I hardly know what to do. I must decide by Monday. . . ." Rejecting attorney Amasa Thornton and ex-governor Frank S. Black, both of New York state, and others, Smoot finally reached the decision along with Utah church leaders to employ Waldemar Van Cott of Salt Lake City who, "though outside the church . . . was respected and well known to the church people."

Smoot's primary opponents were prosecutor Robert W. Taylor, an Ohioan; Fred T. DuBois, a senator from Idaho and a long-time anti-Mormon advocate; and Frank J. Cannon, a former Mormon politically embittered against the church.

Despite the opposition against him. Senator Smoot always received firm and unwavering support from his colleagues in the Council of the Twelve Apostles, and during the congressional investigations he had a "Church appointed task force whose able spokesman was James E. Talmage." One result of the Smoot hearings, however, was the resignation of John W. Taylor and Matthias F. Cowley from their positions in the Council of the Twelve because they had been performing plural marriages in defiance of church policy. All in all, Smoot's apostolic colleagues supported him in his senatorial career. Another member of the Council of the Twelve recorded under the date of February 12, 1903, when church leaders convened in the Salt Lake Temple for their weekly Thursday meetings:

.... In view of Elder Smoot's early departure for Washington (namely next Monday) he knelt at the altar and received a special blessing in which the blessing and favor was sought for his success in obtaining a seat in the Senate of the United States congress. President [Joseph F.] Smith being mouth.

Six weeks later Smoot returned to Salt Lake City to attend the annual general conference of the church. In the regular Thursday meeting of the First Presidency and the Council of the Twelve in the Salt Lake Temple k was reported that "his [Smoot's] reception in Washington [was] friendly. . . . [Smoot said:] 'A number of the Senators wanted to know if I was a polygamist and when I affirmed I was not, they said they were satisfied and would stand by me.' "

The entire investigative proceedings by the senatorial committee put great mental strain and physical stress on Smoot. The first year was especially trying to him. He complained to Joseph F. Smith:

You will remember that I was suffering a little from indigestion while home during the holidays. On my return to Washington I was so crowded and so worried that it was impossible for me to eat my food and I lost flesh very rapidly. My indigestion increased till it was so bad and so painful that I could not sleep at night. Especially was this the case the last week of the hearings, and the day I went on the witness stand, I could hardly hold my head up.

E. H. Callister, a close friend of Smoot, expressed great concern for the senator's health: "The strain on you must be something terrific. . . . My fear is that you will break down in your health under the pressure. Be sure and take care of yourself. Your health is worth more to you than a thousand seats. "

In fact, the Smoot affair distressed many people. A further example of this was given in another letter from Callister to Smoot:

. . . [Orson F.] Whitney wrote a letter to Joe Eldredge [at the Deseret News office] containing about as many falsehoods as could be crowded into the News but was approved by the First Presidency and that the article complained of was placed in the News by order of President Smith. I had Joe give the letter to Dave Smith to hand to his father. Dave said he never saw his father so mad in his life. I hear that the dressing down Whitney received from Pres. Smith was terrific. He came down to Joe to make things right, and withdraw the letter. Joe said he looked pretty sick.

Because of the increased opposition from influential anti- Mormons like Frank J. Cannon and Fred T. DuBois, correspondence between the Mormon apostle-senator and his friends and acquaintances was often written in code. The "very walls have ears," observed James Clove in a letter to Smoot. "I gladly joined with them [those in the church office] in arranging a code. It is well to be on the safe side." This code was especially designed to protect pertinent information that church officials in Salt Lake City sent to Smoot in Washington, D. C. In a letter to Joseph F. Smith, Smoot wrote:

. . . The Eastern [news] papers last Saturday growled considerably because I send my letters in cipher, and to the great hierarchy at Salt Lake City. This shows to me that the telegraph book is leaking, and that if I did not send my telegrams in the code, that every newspaper in America would have it next morning. I have been very careful with my letter-book and papers, and try to keep them under lock and key. . . . Tonight I have written to E. H. Callister that if I send him any cipher telegrams, he is to take them immediately to you and he is to tell the same to James H. Anderson. The reason that I do this is, that every year the Secretary of the Senate makes a report to the Senate, which is published, containing the names of the senders, receivers and the destination of all telegrams sent at government rates, and I do not care to have it appear that most of my telegrams go to Brother George F. Gibbs.21 You may also notify F. S. Richards, that I may send him cipher messages intended for you.

In an earlier letter to Smith the Mormon senator had written:

If you should read any of my letters to the Quorum [of the Twelve], I wish that you would be sure to tell them that all that I write about must be kept to themselves. Today I sent the following telegram in cipher to George Gibbs: "Have Franklin S. Richards come here at once. Keep departure quiet. Have him bring certified copy of trial of Moore before Judge Anderson also published conferences since April 1900. Hearing will be on constitutional grounds with the object in view of disfranchising all Mormons."

And in his coded message, Smoot's telegram to Gibbs read:

Washington, November 14, 1903. George F. Gibbs, Salt Lake City, Utah. Ketch cherub consoling Talmud inherited numerally obsolute goutiness two week-hends bawled envenomed hinting calorific Richards hash handy chased panderism momentous algonquin. /s/ Reed Smoot.

Coded messages were utilized primarily when telegrams were exchanged between Senator Smoot and church leaders in Salt Lake City. One telegram, dated March 10, 1903, from James Clove to Smoot, reads: "Senator Reed Smoot, Catena actual trice chariots judicial tangalize polygraph grand justifiable solicited. Clove." And the handwritten decipherment (in which the deciphered words appear above the individual telegraphic words) says: "Perry Heath busy tribune charges. Judge Tanner polygamy — grand jury solicited. Clove. "24 And in another telegram, dated December 8, 1905, which George F. Gibbs sent to Carl A. Badger, the code reads: "Breviate begrudge feel zoanthropia and whimper olypionic sacrificed unmask melodizing welfare savoriness you puttying yahoo personally. George F. Gibbs." And the handwritten deciphered words under the typed telegram say: "Brethren beginning [to] feel [that] J, W. Taylor and [M. F.] Cowley should not be sacrificed unless required by Committee on Privileges and Elections [to] save you. This is from Geo. F. Gibbs personally. "

In the Reed Smoot collection in the Brigham Young University Library are two books containing code words and their deciphered meanings. For example, in the shorter, six-page work, "Cable & Telegraphic Code," Thomas Kearns, a former U. S. senator from Utah and an anti-Mormon mining magnate, was identified with the biblical name Uriah and also with the word taunting. James H. Anderson, a lay Mormon, was identified with the name Rollo and also with the word tensive. Members of the First Presidency and the Council of the Twelve were identified with the names of Book of Mormon prophetic personalities: Joseph F. Smith was Moroni; John R. Winder, his counselor, was Helaman; Reed Smoot was Alma; John Henry Smith, an apostle, was Lehi; Matthias F. Cowley was Mosiah; and John W. Taylor was Ammon." In the larger, twenty-four page "Code Book for Telegram" the following interesting code and words and their meanings are found: Waterproof stands for Mormon church; Watershed for the president of the church; Watersnake for church attorney; Whimperer for Committee on Privileges and Elections, majority favorable; Whimperness for Committee on Privileges and Elections, majority unfavorable; Whimper/ace for Committee on Privileges and Elections, report favorable; and Whimperneck for Committee on Privileges and Elections, report unfavorable.

The code, which had been formulated by James Clove, George F. Gibbs, and others employed in the office of the church president, was expanded and utilized by Smoot for years after the congressional investigation was over. Referring to the code, Gibbs wrote in 1916 to Smoot:

In order to simplify telegraphing by code, I would suggest that the arbitrary cipher be used as much as possible, and that the other cipher be used in connection with it, but that we use it in the same way as we use the little red book, that is, to send, count six words forward, including the word used; to receive, count six words backward, including the word used. You doubtless know which book I mean —the black covered book with the words "Cipher Book" on the outside cover. If we should have occasion to telegraph you, say, in about four days from now, I shall use it, and unless you know of any serious objection, I will continue to use it. ... I believe it will be all right, especially if we use the arbitrary cipher as much as possible. I send you a few additional names to be [added to the list of codewords.]

The following short memo was appended to the preceding letter:

Senator:—You were under the impression that your little red dictionary cipher instructed you to count five words forward and five words backward to send and receive. Please refer to it, and if you find it so, change the instructions to six words instead of five.

The letter and memo are followed by a page which says on the top: "These additional names were added to cipher July 18, 1916." Listed underneath are seventeen code words and their deciphered meanings, including: Aumic for Gov. William Spry, Zygon for Prohibition party, Zymosis for Republican party, Zywor for Prohibitionist, Zywund for Anti-Prohibitionist, and Zonitis for Democratic party. Below the seventeen words four more code words were added on March 24, 1917, including: Zygodon for Sen. William H. King and Zylow for Gov. Simon Bamberger.

The preceding examples illustrate the clever yet cautious resourcefulness Smoot and his coiieagues employed during their exchange of personal letters and telegrams. Aiihough the code was conceived and used by the Mormons in an attempt to secure privacy for Smoot, k did not, regrettably, diminish the great stress he had to endure during the congressional hearings. As the investigation of the Utah senator was nearing an end Smoot wrote to Joseph F. Smith:

No one knows what a strain I have been under for the last two years; battling every day against almost a solid wall of prejudice with virtually all the newspapers of the nation against me; surrounded by active enemies; furnished with the means to accomplish their schemes and plots; standing almost alone, trying to fight down the great powers arrayed against our people. I am thankful to God that I have been able to make some headway, and have won a great many friends, in spite of all the difficulties I have had to face. . . .

Writing to Heber J. Grant in England, Smoot mentions the viciousness of the opposition against him and the Mormon church:

I doubt that there has been a time in the history of our people when the powers of darkness and evil have been arrayed against us as they are at the present time; but there has always been a ray of hope in the fact that President [Theodore] Roosevelt has been brave enough and true enough to stand by the right. He has not allowed the clamor of priests and the pleading of misguided women to swerve him from his duty as President of all the people. He has defended me on all occasions and has spoken of our people as he has understood them to be.

In one encouraging letter to Smoot, Joseph F. Smith, writing in the third year of the congressional hearings, stated:

We wish you to know that we recognize you as the central figure in this fight, notwithstanding the fact that our enemies are warring against the Church through you. . . . We uphold you in our faith and prayers to the end and that God our Heavenly Father will guide you by his Spirit and sustain you in times of need. . . .

If you can see your way to express my most sincere regard and admiration to President Roosevelt, and to Senators Foraker, Dillingham, and Proctor, and to any other of your friends, I would be glad for you to do so. I hold President Roosevelt in the highest esteem, as the President of the United States of the whole people and not a part of them only—Broad-minded, generous, honest, and fearless. God bless him! We pray for him constantly. Senators Foraker and Dillingham were the only members of the Committee who seemed to have a particle of human sympathy for us while there in the crucial test to which I was subjected and I love them for their humanity.

For nearly four trying years Reed Smoot was constantly on a battlefield where each party used every stratagem conceivable to attain victory over the other. The "Smoot affair" struck a responsive nerve at church headquarters in Salt Lake City, starting an unparalleled change from pioneer isolation to cosmopolitan conformity that would have an impact even down to the present day. The church exerted a great effort to rid itself of the "anti-American" image with which the religion had been so uncomfortable. For thirty years Smoot served the state of Utah with honor and distinction. The many hundreds of telegrams and letters written in cipher by him and his church leaders and associates and the 3,427 pages of senatorial proceedings published in four volumes, document the importance of the whole Smoot episode to Utah and Mormon history and leave a unique legacy for future generations of Utahns to read about and ponder.

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