Background
Joshua Reuben Clark, Jr., was born on September 1, 1871, near Grantsville, Utah, United States, the eldest of the ten children of Joshua Reuben Clark, Sr., and Mary Louisa Woolley, Mormon farmers.
201 Presidents Cir, Salt Lake City, UT 84112, USA
Clark graduated first in his class from the University of Utah with a bachelor of science degree in 1898.
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Clark then went on to receive a law degree from Columbia University law school in New York City in 1903. He was granted a Bachelor of Laws degree in 1906.
J. Reuben Clark, George Albert Smith, Mormon First Presidency, David O. McKay
J. Reuben Clark at Law School
J. Reuben Clark during his childhood
J. Reuben Clark the University of Utah Graduates, 1898
(Man, God's Greatest Miracle: Address given at the summer ...)
Man, God's Greatest Miracle: Address given at the summer religious course for seminary and institute teachers at the Brigham Young University Monday, June 21, 1954.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0007F7KLK/?tag=2022091-20
1954
(This harmony of the Gospels by President J. Reuben Clark,...)
This harmony of the Gospels by President J. Reuben Clark, Jr. is a correlation of the Master's teachings. Within the covers of this book, lies the greatest story of all times, a story of life and salvation for all mankind.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0742PJ7N2/?tag=2022091-20
1957
(This work will add faith and testimony to every reader. I...)
This work will add faith and testimony to every reader. It is one more evidence of the divinity of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of the Eternal Father.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002O1DBKO/?tag=2022091-20
1979
(This book is a powerful sampling of Clark's writings and ...)
This book is a powerful sampling of Clark's writings and speeches about America, a sampling that well demonstrates both his fervor and his scholarship.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0875791093/?tag=2022091-20
1987
Diplomat educator government official attorney author religious figure
Joshua Reuben Clark, Jr., was born on September 1, 1871, near Grantsville, Utah, United States, the eldest of the ten children of Joshua Reuben Clark, Sr., and Mary Louisa Woolley, Mormon farmers.
As a break from farm work, Clark participated in dramatic productions from his youth. He displayed a talent for public speaking, comedy, and humour at a young age. Clark also participated in the childhood diversions available on the frontier, sledding in the winter and swimming in the summer.
Though Clark had little formal education and was unable to attend high school, his mother had tutored him, and he loved learning. He graduated first in his class from the University of Utah with a bachelor of science degree in 1898 and while at the university he served as student body president and as managing editor of the student newspaper.
Clark then went on to receive a law degree from Columbia University law school in New York City in 1903. He was granted a Bachelor of Laws degree in 1906.
From 1898 until 1903, Clark worked as a teacher and administrator at both the high school and college levels. He first signed on as a teacher at Latter-day Saints' University, but he resigned in February 1899 to teach at Salt Lake Business College. In the fall of 1900, Clark went to Cedar City, Utah, to become the principal of the Branch Normal School. The following year, he became an instructor in Commercial Law, Principal of the Shorthand Department, and Secretary of the Faculty at Salt Lake Business College.
In 1905, at the end of his second year of law school, Clark was admitted to the New York bar and his legal and diplomatic career began the next year, when his Columbia University Law School professor, James Brown Scott, became solicitor of the Department of State and appointed Clark assistant solicitor. In his position as an assistant solicitor and then as a solicitor in the State Department, Clark was often confronted with critical issues of international consequence. Clark also wrote the monograph Judicial Determination of Questions of Citizenship, which was used as an authoritative document for deciding immigration cases. From 1907 to 1908, Clark also served as an assistant professor of law at George Washington University in Washington, D.C.
In 1910, President Taft appointed Clark solicitor of the Department of State, where he documented the American side of an arbitration between the United States and Chile, helping the United States to win an award of 905,000 dollars from Chile, one of the largest awards won up that time.
After resigning from the State Department in 1913, after the election of Woodrow Wilson, Clark turned his attention to the practice of law. He opened his own law office in Washington D.C., with branches in Salt Lake City and New York. When the United States entered World War I, Clark was commissioned as a major in the Judge Advocate General Officer Reserve Corps (Army) and later asked to become Special Counsel to the Judge Advocate General.
In June 1925, Clark was appointed to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints board of the Young Men's Mutual Improvement Association, and the next year, Clark was called back into government service as tensions with Mexico flared. His past experience in Mexican affairs as a solicitor and his experience in diplomacy were called upon as the US President appointed him to the Mexican and American Mixed Claims Commission.
In 1928, Clark became undersecretary of state and drew up the “Clark Memorandum” on the Monroe Doctrine, which stated his belief that the Monroe Doctrine did not apply to relations between nations in the Americas. The memorandum was not officially accepted by the Department of State but has been recognized as an important legal document by scholars in several fields, including international law and diplomatic history.
Clark became a consultant to Dwight Morrow, the U.S. ambassador to Mexico, in 1929, and in 1930 succeeded Morrow as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the United States to Mexico; popular among Mexicans, he was regarded as a successful diplomat. His popularity may ave been a result of his acceptance of Mexican culture.
In 1933, Clark began a new career as a high official in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, becoming the church president’s first counselor in the following year. He served in this position until his death in 1961. He had been active in business throughout his life and encouraged his new second counselor to continue to take advantage of business and governmental opportunities whenever possible.
(Man, God's Greatest Miracle: Address given at the summer ...)
1954(This book is a powerful sampling of Clark's writings and ...)
1987(Selections from the Sermons and Writings, Published and U...)
1954(This work will add faith and testimony to every reader. I...)
1979(This harmony of the Gospels by President J. Reuben Clark,...)
1957Joshua Clark Jr. was a prominent leader of Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.
In summarizing the political views of J. Reuben Clark, Jr., it was necessary to recognize him both as an individual involved directly with the civil governing process and as an ecclesiastical authority in the hierarchy of the Mormon Church. Practically all of Clark's political concepts were directly related to his interpretation of those scriptures used by the Church.
According to Clark, the most perfect form of government was that created by the United States Constitution. He felt that this document had been written by men who were inspired by God and that a stamp of approval had been placed upon it by the Almighty. Therefore, Clark believed that any changes made in the governing processes outlined in the Constitution, except as were therein allowed, were completely out of harmony with the wishes of God and would be disastrous to the American government.
To Clark, certain policies which seemed to fit into this "unconstitutional area" were: the breakdown of traditional American isolationism; the entering of America into entangling alliances with foreign nations; and the inauguration of excessive governmental controls in the United States.
Clark, shared his church’s belief that the United States, a land of great moral power, had a divine mission to lead the world. While he opposed U.S. membership in international organizations, such as the League of Nations, and, later, the United Nations, arguing that, as part of a global political organization, the country would see its sovereignty diminished, he approved of the United States’ active political and military role as a world leader in both world wars.
As noted in D. Michael Quinn's 2002 biography, as a young man, Clark possessed "the full endowment of racism characteristic of late nineteenth-century America." Clark's nativist views were evident in his 1898 valedictory speech at the University of Utah in which he declared, "America must cease to be the cesspool into which shall drain the foul sewage of Europe." Clark eventually changed some of his racial and ethnic views but maintained others to the end of his life.
During Clark's lifetime, Utah had de facto segregation policies, and males of African descent were excluded from the LDS priesthood. As a church leader, Clark resisted the social integration of whites and blacks and strongly opposed interracial marriage, explaining in a 1949 letter: "Since they are not entitled to the Priesthood, the Church discourages social intercourse with the negro race, because such intercourse leads to marriage, and the offspring possess negro blood and is therefore subject to the inhibition set out in our Scripture."
Quinn also notes that "there was one ethnic group, however, for whom Reuben expressed lifelong dislike and distrust—the Jewish people." He expressed anti-Semitic attitudes in "code words publicly and in specifics privately" and used his church position to obstruct what he perceived as "Jewish influence." After Nazi Germany's annexation of Austria, Clark denied desperate pleas by Austrian Mormon converts from Judaism who sought the church's help in emigrating to safety.
Clark's anti-Semitism seems to have derived at least in part from his ardent anti-Communism. Quinn notes that "although not all American anti-Communists were anti-Semitic, the more intense tended to be. Reuben's own fusion of anti-Communism and anti-Semitism was representative of this tendency."
It also must be mentioned that Clark's views put him at odds with Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints president David O. McKay, whose "positive attitudes toward the Jews, Zionism, and the State of Israel were more representative of Mormons generally than were President Clark's anti-Semitic attitudes and administrative actions," according to Clark.
Quotations: "There has not been another such group of men in all our history that even challenged the supremacy of this group. It is the union of independence and dependence of these branches—legislative, executive and judicial—and of the governmental functions possessed by each of them, that constitutes the marvelous genius of this unrivaled document. ... It was here that divine inspiration came. It was truly a miracle."
Clark was a member of the Phi Delta Phi.
Physical Characteristics: Clark died on October 6, 1961, at his residence, 80 D Street, Salt Lake City, Utah, at ninety years of age.
Clark married Luacine Annetta Savage in the Salt Lake Temple on September 14, 1898, and they became the parents of four children: three daughters, Louise, Luacine, and Marianne, and one son, Joshua Reuben Clark III.