Daniel Smith (politician)

Daniel Smith (born October 29, 1748 in Stafford County , Colony of Virginia , † June 16, 1818 in Hendersonville , Tennessee ) was an American land surveyor , colonel in the American Revolutionary War and two-time US Senator from Tennessee.

Smith attended the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia. After training as a surveyor, he moved to Augusta County , Virginia in 1773 , where he accepted a position as an assistant surveyor. At the same time he volunteered for the Virginia militia, where he was promoted to major after fighting with Indians. In 1780 he was elected sheriff of Augusta County and promoted to colonel. In the following years he took part in several battles of the War of Independence. On October 15, 1781, Smith became an assistant to Thomas Hutchins , a cartographer, geographer, and surveyor for the Continental Army .

After the war, Smith moved to what would become Sumner County , Tennessee, and took possession of the land he had been promised for his service in the Continental Army. In 1784 Smith began building Rock Castle, laying the groundwork for the city of Hendersonville.

1789 Smith member of the Assembly of North Carolina , the United States Constitution ratified. After North Carolina ceded what would later become Tennessee to the United States, the Southwest Territory was formed from the area . In 1790, President George Washington appointed Smith as Secretary of State for the Territory as Deputy to Governor William Blount . Smith later served on the Tennessee Constituent Assembly that drafted the first Tennessee Constitution, which went into effect June 1, 1796. In the same year Smith published the first official map of Tennessee. On October 6, 1798, he was appointed US Senator to replace the resigned later US President Andrew Jackson . On March 4, 1799 he was replaced by Joseph Anderson , who was elected as his successor . In September 1803 he was then elected to the other Senate seat of Tennessee and thus from March 4, 1805 as a junior senator colleague of Anderson. After his resignation on March 31, 1809, Jenkin Whiteside succeeded him for the remainder of the term until 1811.

After the end of his political career, he returned to his country estate Rock Castle in Hendersonville and devoted himself to agriculture and his business. The Smith County , Tennessee is named after Smith, Rockcastle is in National Register of Historic Places listed.

Individual evidence

1. ^ A New Nation Votes, Tennessee 1803 U.S. Senate, Special , January 11, 2012, accessed December 21, 2019
2. ^ SMITH, Daniel, (1748-1818) , Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, accessed December 21, 2019