115 years ago today - Ca. Jan 7, 1906

[Apostle/Senator Reed smoot to President Joseph F. Smith]

... it was agreed that I should see President [Theodore] Roosevelt on my return to Washington [D.C.] and tell him that the quorum of Apostles had investigated [John W.] Taylor and [Matthias F.] Cowley's case and they had admitted taking plural wives since the Manifesto but it was done not in this country and they never considered the Manifesto applied to any place outside the US. To tend their resignations and ask his advise as to making them public and tell him the reason of the delay. ... The more I studied it and followed the action taken to its logical conclusion the more I became convinced I am either wrong in my conclusions of the Brethren were at home agreeing upon the policy adopted. I could not help but think if I went to President Roosevelt and told him Taylor and Cowley had admitted their guilt, the President in his blunt, honest, and personal way would immediately ask me whether they had been excommunicated, and if not, why not; that the action agreed upon would not have the desired result, but just the opposite. A mere resignation just before the resuming of the case would be looked upon as a mere subterfuge and worthy of the severest condemnation. ... The fact that they had admitted their guilt and the church knowing it and not excommunicating them would be proof positive of our undoing. ... I decided in my own mind rather than go to President R[oosevelt] I would first talk with George Sutherland and [bind] him to secrecy. I knew if I spoke to the President [he] would have to act and perhaps he would be displeased with our action in the matter.

[Reed Smoot, Draft of letter to Joseph F. Smith, as quoted in Minutes of the Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1910-1951, Privately Published, Salt Lake City, Utah 2010]