Ephraim K. Smart

Ephraim Knight Smart (born September 3, 1813 in Prospect , Waldo County , Massachusetts , † September 29, 1872 in Camden , Maine ) was an American politician . Between 1847 and 1849 and again from 1851 to 1853 he represented the state of Maine in the US House of Representatives .

Career

Ephraim Smart was born in 1813 in what was then Prospect, which is now a district of Searsport. At that time this place was still part of Massachusetts; since 1820 it has been part of the then founded state of Maine. Smart attended public schools in his home country. He also received private lessons. He then attended Maine Wesleyan Seminary in Readfield . After a subsequent law degree and his admission as a lawyer in 1838, he began to practice in Camden in his new profession. In the same year he also became a postman in this city.

Smart was a member of the Democratic Party . He served in the Maine Senate between 1841 and 1842 . In 1842 he was the military advisor to Governor John Fairfield . Smart served briefly as a lawyer in Missouri from 1843 to 1844 , then returned to Maine. In 1845 he was again a postman in Camden.

In 1846 he was elected to the US House of Representatives in Washington, DC in the fifth constituency of Maine , where he succeeded Cullen Sawtelle on March 4, 1847 . Until March 3, 1849, he could initially only complete one legislative period in Congress . Then his mandate fell back to Sawtelle. At that time the Mexican-American War ended with large territorial gains for the United States in the west and southwest of the continent. In the elections of 1850, Ephraim Smart was able to win back his mandate in Congress and between March 4, 1851 and March 3, 1853, another legislative term in Congress. This was determined by the heated discussions about slavery .

After his tenure in the House of Representatives, Smart ran Customs in Belfast, Maine, between 1853 and 1858 . He also got into the newspaper business. In 1854 he founded the newspaper "Maine Free Press", which he published for three years as editor-in-chief. In 1858, Smart was also a member of the Maine House of Representatives . In 1860 he ran unsuccessfully for the office of governor. Instead, he was re-elected to the State Senate in 1862. Since 1869 he was based in Biddeford . There he founded the newspaper "Maine Democrat".

Web links

• Ephraim K. Smart in the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress (English)

• Ephraim K. Smart in the database of Find a Grave (English)