Wednesday, September 17, 2014

Called by Lorenzo Snow

Lorenzo Snow was 30 when the prophet Joseph Smith was killed. He was 34 when Brigham Young called him to be an Apostle. He was 84 when he became the 5th President of the LDS Church. He established immediate reorganization of the First Presidency upon the death of the prophet. He also emphasized tithing as a hallmark for membership. The Church was deep in debt when he took over, largely due to financial hardships from all the legal troubles over polygamy. Within a few short years after the tithing emphasis, the Church was debt-free.

Called to be Apostles by Lorenzo Snow:
Rudger Clawson, Reed Smoot

RUDGER CLAWSON
(March 12, 1857 - June 21, 1943)

Apostle - October 10, 1898
Second Counselor - October 6, 1901
President of the Q12 - March 17, 1921

Clawson was born in Salt Lake City and raised in the church. He served his mission in the Eastern US, and while he was in Georgia, an angry anti-Mormon mob surrounded him and his companion Joseph Standing. Standing was shot and killed. When the mob pointed their guns at Clawson, he folded his arms and told them to shoot, but the mob ran away instead. He accompanied Standing's body back to Utah.

Clawson was the first polygamist convicted under the Edmunds Act in 1882. Twelve non-Mormons jurors found him guilty and the non-Mormon judge gave him the maximum sentence of 42 months in prison and a $1500 fine. He appealed all the way to the Supreme Court and lost. After serving 38 months, President Grover Cleveland pardoned him. A year later, he was an Apostle.

After Anthon H. Lund died, Lorenzo Snow called Clawson to be in the First Presidency, but four days later, Snow died. The new president, Joseph F. Smith, selected different counselors, so Clawson returned to the Q12. He became the Quorum's Acting President in 1918, but the actual Q12 President in 1921. He's the longest serving President of the Q12 (21 years) to not actually go on to become prophet. He died of pneumonia at age 86.

REED SMOOT
(January 10, 1862 - February 9, 1941)

Apostle - April 8, 1900

It may be unseemly now, but since the days of Joseph Smith, the LDS church and its leaders had no problem engaging in local political affairs. Smith ran for US president while prophet; Brigham Young served as governor while prophet; and Apostles were regularly elected to the Utah legislature. Upon the death of Franklin D. Richards, Smoot became an Apostle at age 38, and a couple years later, he was elected as a US Senator, and he would serve as one for thirty years.

When he was first elected, it caused a nationwide scandal over whether a Mormon Apostle should be allowed to serve in the Senate at all. Even though Smoot wasn't a polygamist, there were still some members secretly continuing plural marriage well after the 1890 Manifesto. It was during the Smoot hearings that Pres. Joseph F. Smith re-emphasized the end of polygamy to the point that two Apostles resigned from the Quorum over the issue. Smoot was finally allowed to take his seat in the Senate in 1907.

He sponsored the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act in 1930, which raised tariffs on several goods. Pres. Hoover signed it into law, and it's largely credited for making the Great Depression worse. Smoot ran for a sixth term in 1932 and lost, so he dedicated the remainder of his days solely on his duties as an Apostle. He was third in line in seniority when he died at age 79.

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