Gerrit Smith (March 6, 1797 – December 28, 1874) was a leading United
States social reformer, abolitionist, politician, and philanthropist. He was an unsuccessful candidate for
President of the United States in 1848, 1852, and 1856
Smith spent significant time and money during his life working towards social progress in the nineteenth century United
States. Besides making significant donations of both land and money to the African American community in North Elba, New York, he was involved in the Temperance Movement, the colonization movement, and
abolitionism. He was also a significant financial contributor to the Liberty Party and the Republican Party throughout his
life.
Early life
Smith was born in Utica, Oneida County,
New York, to Peter Gerrit Smith (1768–1837) and Elizabeth Livingston (1773–1818), daughter of
Col. James Livingston (1747–1832) of Schuylerville, Saratoga County,
New York, and Elizabeth Simpson (1750–1800). His grandfather, James Livingston, fought at the
battles of Quebec and Saratoga
during the American Revolution and is credited with thwarting Benedict Arnold's attempted treason by firing on the Vulture, the boat intended to carry Arnold
and his British contact, Maj. John André, to safety. [1] Smith's maternal aunt, Margaret Livingston, married
Daniel Cady of Johnstown, New York.
Their daughter, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, a founder and leader of the women's
suffrage movement, was Smith's first cousin. In fact, Elizabeth Cady met her future husband, Henry Stanton, himself an active
abolitionist, at the Smith family home in Peterboro, New York.[2] Established in 1795, the town had been founded by and named for Gerrit
Smith's father, Peter Smith, who built the family homestead there in 1804.[3]
After graduating from Hamilton College in 1818, Smith took on the management of the
vast estate of his father, a long-standing partner of John Jacob Astor, and greatly
increased the family fortune.
About 1828 Smith became an active temperance campaigner, and in his hometown of
Peterboro, he built one of the first temperance hotels in the country. He became an abolitionist in 1835, after attending an
anti-slavery meeting in Utica, New York, which had been
broken up by a mob.
Political career
In 1840 Smith played a leading part in the organization of the Liberty
Party, and in 1848 and 1852 he was nominated for the Presidency by
the remnant of this organization that had not been absorbed by the Free Soil Party. An
"Industrial Congress" at Philadelphia also nominated him for the
presidency in 1848, and the "Land Reformers" in 1856. In 1840 and again in 1858, he ran for the governorship of New York on an anti-slavery platform.
Smith, along with his friend and ally Lysander Spooner, was one of the leading
advocates of the United States Constitution as an antislavery document, as
opposed to William Lloyd Garrison who believed it was proslavery. In 1853 Smith
was elected to the United States House of Representatives as a
Free-Soiler, and in his address he declared that all men have an equal right to the
soil; that wars are brutal and unnecessary; that slavery could be sanctioned by no constitution, state or federal; that free
trade is essential to human brotherhood; that women should have full political rights; that the Federal government and the states
should prohibit the liquor traffic within their respective jurisdictions; and that government officers, so far as practicable,
should be elected by direct vote of the people. At the end of the first session he resigned his seat.
Social activism
After becoming an opponent of land monopoly, he gave numerous farms of 50 acres (200,000 m²)
each to indigent families. In 1846, hoping to help black families become self-sufficient and to provide them with the property
ownership needed to vote in New York, Smith attempted to colonize approximately 120,000 acres of land in North Elba, New York,
near Lake Placid in Essex County
with free blacks. The difficulty of farming in the Adirondack region, coupled with
the settlers lack of experience in homebuilding and the bigotry of white neighbors, caused the experiment to fail.[4]
Peterboro became a station on the Underground Railroad, and, after 1850, Smith
furnished money for the legal expenses of persons charged with infractions of the Fugitive Slave Law. He became closely acquainted with John Brown, to whom he sold a farm in North Elba, and from time to time supplied him with
funds. He was a member of the Secret Six, a group of wealthy northern abolitionists, who
supported Brown in his efforts to arm the slaves. After the failed raid on Harpers
Ferry, Secretary of War Jefferson Davis unsuccessfully attempted to have Smith accused, tried, and hung along with
Brown.[5] Upset by the raid and its outcome, Smith suffered
a mental breakdown, and for several weeks was confined to the state asylum in
Utica.
When the Chicago Tribune later claimed Smith had full knowledge of Brown's plan at Harper's Ferry, Smith sued the paper
for libel, claiming that he lacked any such knowledge and thought only that Brown wanted guns
so that slaves who ran away to join him might defend themselves against attackers. Smith's claim was countered by the
Tribune, which produced an affidavit, signed by Brown's son, swearing that Smith had full knowledge of all the particulars
of the plan, including the plan to instigate a slave uprising. In writing later of these events, Smith said, "That affair excited
and shocked me, and a few weeks after I was taken to a lunatic asylum. From that day to this I have had but a hazy view of dear
John Brown's great work. Indeed, some of my impressions of it have, as others have told me, been quite erroneous and even
wild."[6]
Smith was in favor of the Civil War, but at its close he advocated a mild policy
toward the late Confederate states, declaring that part of the guilt of
slavery lay upon the North. Smith, together with Horace Greeley and Cornelius Vanderbilt, was prepared to underwrite the $1,000,000 bond needed to free Jefferson
Davis, who had, at that time, been imprisoned for nearly two years without being charged with any crime. [7] In doing this, Smith incurred the resentment of Northern Radical Republican leaders.
Smith's passions extended to religion as well as politics. Believing that sectarianism
was sinful, he separated from the Presbyterian Church in 1843, and was one of the
founders of the Church at Peterboro, a non-sectarian institution open to all Christians of whatever denomination.
His private benefactions were boundless; of his gifts he kept no record, but their value is said to have exceeded $8,000,000.
Though a man of great wealth, his life was one of marked simplicity. He died in 1874 while visiting relatives in New York City.
References
Notes
- ^ Griffith, p.4
- ^ Griffith, p.26
- ^ Renehan, p.16; Historic Petersboro
- ^ Renehan, pp 17-18
- ^ Renehan, p.12
- ^ Renehan, pp.13-14
- ^ Renehan, p.11
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