Description
REV JAMES M. BUCKLEY SIGNED SLIP, "Your obedient servant, J. M. Buckley", 6 X 2.25, by editor of the Christian Advocate, New York and author of History of Methodism in the United States (1898) and many other works, who was a witness before the Reed Smoot Committee which was formed to determine the eligibility to serve in the U.S. Senate of the Mormon apostle and newly elected U.S. senator from Utah, Reed Smoot. Age toning, small chip lower left corner touching bottom of first letter of his name, mounting remnants on reverse, otherwise the writing is in good condition.
Rev James Monroe Buckley D.D. (1836-1920) was editor of the Christian Advocate of New York City who reported to the committee of a Mormon meeting he had attended the previous year at which the President Joseph F. Smith [nephew of Joseph Smith, the churches founder] in an address defended the Mormon marriage, and declared that polygamy was not adultery but was a system of marriage and that it led to eternal damnation to abandon a multiple of wives. Rev Buckley said he had made inquiries concerning Senator Smoot, and that he had found no one who said one word against him.
Reed Smoot (1862-1941) served as an apostle in the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles in the church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. There had been rumors of a secret church policy continuing polygamy after the church had officially renounced future plural marriages in an 1890 Manifesto, before Utah was admitted as a state. A Senate committee investigated his eligibility to serve and recommended against him, but the full Senate voted to seat him. He served as a Republican senator from 1903-1933.
$125 #11281
