Jeremiah Smith (politician)

Jeremiah Smith

Jeremiah Smith (born November 29, 1759 in Peterborough , New Hampshire Colony , †  September 21, 1842 in Dover , New Hampshire ) was an American politician and governor of New Hampshire from 1809 to 1810 . Between 1791 and 1797 he represented this state as a member of the US House of Representatives .

Early years and political advancement

After a private education Smith attended Harvard University and until 1780 the Rutgers College in New Jersey . After a subsequent law degree, he was admitted to the bar in 1786, whereupon he worked in his native Peterborough in this profession. Smith took part in the Revolutionary War and was wounded in the Battle of Bennington .

Smith was a member of the New Hampshire House of Representatives between 1788 and 1791 . In 1791 and 1792 he was a member of a commission for the revision of the New Hampshire Constitution, before he was elected as a candidate for the Federalist Party in the US House of Representatives. There he represented the interests of his state between March 4, 1791 and July 26, 1797. In Congress , he chaired the Committee on Revisal and Unfinished Business .

On his return to New Hampshire he was between 1797 and 1800 as the successor of Edward St. Loe Livermore federal prosecutor in that state. Between 1800 and 1802 he was a probate judge in Rockingham County . After a brief interlude as a federal judge on the United States Circuit Court , he was between 1802 and 1809 Chief Justice ( Chief Justice ) of the Supreme Court of New Hampshire . He was to exercise this office again between 1813 and 1816.

Governor of New Hampshire and another résumé

In 1809, Jeremiah Smith was elected governor of his state by a slim majority against incumbent John Langdon . Smith took office on June 8, 1809. During his one-year term of office, which ended on June 5, 1810, he mainly campaigned for judicial reform. In the next election he was defeated by Langdon, who also became his successor. After the end of his brief governorship, Smith returned to practice as a lawyer. From 1813 to 1816 he was again presiding judge of the Supreme Court of his state. After that he was a private lawyer until 1820. Smith also became known when he and Daniel Webster and two other lawyers represented Dartmouth College in a lawsuit before the US Supreme Court under presiding judge John Marshall . He was then president of a bank and treasurer of the Phillips Exeter Academy .

Jeremiah Smith died in 1842. He was married twice with a total of two children. He was the brother of Samuel Smith (1765-1842), who was between 1813 and 1815 Congressman from New Hampshire. His nephew Robert Smith (1802-1867) was later also a member of the US House of Representatives, but for the state of Illinois .

Web links

• Jeremiah Smith at the National Governors Association (English)
• Biography of New Hampshire (English)
• Jeremiah Smith (politician) in the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress (English)

• Jeremiah Smith in the database of Find a Grave (English)