Life span: 03/06/1797 to 12/28/1874TabsLife SummaryFull name: Gerrit SmithPlace of Birth: Utica, NYBurial Place: Peterboro, NYBirth Date Certainty: ExactDeath Date Certainty: ExactGender: MaleRace: WhiteSectional choice: NorthOrigins: Free StateNo. of Spouses: 2No. of Children: 4Family: Peter Smith (father), Elizabeth Livingston (mother), Weltha Ann Backus (first wife, 1819), Ann Carroll Fitzhugh (second wife, 1822), Elizabeth Smith Miller (daughter)Education: OtherOther Education: Hamilton College, NYOccupation: PoliticianBusinessmanJournalistOtherOther Occupation: PhilanthropistPolitical Parties: LibertyFree SoilRepublicanOther Affiliations: Abolitionists (Anti-Slavery Society)Government: US House of Representatives Note Cards Gerrit Smith (Congressional Biographical Directory) ReferenceSMITH, Gerrit, a Representative from New York; born in Utica, N.Y., March 6, 1797; moved to Peterboro in 1806; attended an academy in Clinton, N.Y.; was graduated from Hamilton College, Clinton, N.Y., in 1818; studied law; engaged in the management of a large estate which he inherited; delegate to the State conventions in 1824 and 1828; unsuccessful Liberty Party candidate for governor in 1840; unsuccessful presidential candidate in 1848; was admitted to the bar in 1853 and commenced practice in Peterboro, N.Y.; elected as a Free-Soil candidate to the Thirty-third Congress and served from March 4, 1853, until August 7, 1854, when he resigned; resumed the practice of his profession, and was a publicist and philanthropist; he revived the Anti-Dramshop Party, but was a delegate to the Republican National Convention in 1872 and supported Grant; died in New York City December 28, 1874; interment in Peterboro Cemetery, Peterboro, Madison County, N.Y. “Smith, Gerrit,” Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1774 to Present, http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=S000542. Gerrit Smith (Stauffer, 2002) ScholarshipWhen [Gerrit] Smith read the news of the raid and the actual results of his prophecy, he suffered a blow from which he never recovered. Seventeen men had been killed in battle, and [John] Brown and four surviving comrades had been captured and were almost certain to hang. And Smith’s own name was intimately linked to these deaths. He was far more sensitive and uncomfortable about the use (and sight) of bloodshed than were his co-conspirators, and more self-critical and introspective. To be sure, he had advocated violence in Kansas and had helped to fund it. But in that instance his violent means had yielded noble ends, for in his mind Kansas had been “saved” from slavery. Now violent action had brought failure, destruction, and death. And as he looked at what he had wrought, something snapped within him. The break affected him both outwardly and inwardly. The outward signs of the blow were noticeable immediately but subsided over time. The internal effects accrued slowly, almost without Gerrit’s knowing it; they did not show themselves for some time, but when they did, the change was profound. John Stauffer, The Black Hearts of Men: Radical Abolitionists and the Transformation of Race (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2002), 242-243. Gerrit Smith, Philanthropy (American National Biography) ScholarshipThe Smith family fortune was threatened by the nationwide financial depression of the late 1830s, but Gerrit ultimately survived the crisis richer than ever. In the 1840s and 1850s his annual income from his landholdings and investments in banking and railroads typically exceeded $60,000. Smith's great fortune allowed him to become one of the leading philanthropists of the early nineteenth century. Although he was antisectarian in his personal religious beliefs, Smith gave generously to the American Bible Society, the American Tract Society, and the American Sunday School Union….Smith became a leader and major financial sponsor of state and national organizations promoting temperance, prison reform, international peace, and land reform. He also supported his wife's and his daughter Elizabeth Smith Miller's active participation in the women's rights movement. The cause that captured the greatest portion of Smith's attention was the campaign to end slavery. At first Smith supported efforts to colonize slaves in Africa, but in 1835 he joined the more militant abolitionist movement that demanded immediate emancipation of the slaves. He also supported self-improvement efforts of northern free blacks as a means of combating pervasive racial prejudice. He distributed thousands of acres of unimproved land in upstate New York to poor black families to help them become economically independent. Smith initially believed that the abolitionist mission was exclusively one of moral suasion: to "publish the truth about slavery."John R. McKivigan, "Smith, Gerrit," American National Biography Online, February 2000, http://www.anb.org/articles/15/15-00627.html. Events Date span begin Life span End Event 06/26/1855 06/29/1855 The Radical Abolition Party holds their first convention in New York 11/07/1859 11/07/1859 Gerrit Smith, one of the "Secret Six," confined in mental institution at Utica, New York 05/13/1867 05/13/1867 In Richmond, former Confederate president Jefferson Davis appears in federal court under a writ of habeas corpus and is released on bail. Major TopicsHarpers Ferry Raid Documents Subject Docs Date Title 10/05/1856 Jermain Wesley Loguen to William Still, October 5, 1856 07/22/1858 New York Times, "The Gerrit Smith Manifesto," July 22, 1858 08/14/1858 Chicago (IL) Press and Tribune, “Gerrit Smith,” August 14, 1858 10/22/1859 New Orleans (LA) Picayune, "The Harper's Ferry Outbreak," October 22, 1859 10/25/1859 Richmond (VA) Dispatch, “The Madness of Brown,” October 25, 1859 10/27/1859 Carlisle (PA) American Volunteer, "Bleeding Kansas," October 27, 1859 10/27/1859 Carlisle (PA) American Volunteer, "Governor Wise on the Harper's Ferry Insurrection," October 27, 1859 10/27/1859 Fayetteville (NC) Observer, "Good Out of Evil," October 27, 1859 10/28/1859 Baltimore (MD) Sun, "More Harper's Ferry Disclosures," October 28, 1859 10/29/1859 Lawrence (KS) Herald of Freedom, “Old John Brown,” October 29, 1859 11/01/1859 New York Herald, "Runaway Slaves in Canada," November 1, 1859 11/03/1859 Carlisle (PA) American Volunteer, "Trial of Brown, the Insurgent," November 3, 1859 11/10/1859 Charleston (SC) Mercuy, "Insanity of Gerrit Smith," November 10, 1859 11/11/1859 Boston (MA) Liberator, "Bad News for the Abolitionists," November 11, 1859 12/10/1859 New York Herald, "The Slavery Agitation," December 10, 1859 12/25/1859 New York Herald, “Seward Nominated for the Presidency by the Abolitionists,” December 25, 1859 03/26/1860 William Wilkins to James Watson Webb, March 26, 1860 07/22/1860 New York Herald, “Lincoln or Breckinridge,” July 22, 1860 Addressee Docs Date Title 04/20/1857 Frederick Douglass to Gerrit Smith, April 20, 1857 10/29/1857 James Gillespie Birney to Gerrit Smith, October 29, 1857 Images Gerrit Smith, circa 1845, engraving Gerrit Smith, circa 1845, engraving, detail Gerrit Smith Gerrit Smith, detail Bibliography Chicago Style Entry Link Huch, Ronald K. “Patriotism Versus Philanthropy: A Letter From Gerrit Smith to Frederick Douglass.” New York History 49 (July 1968): 327-335. View Record Rossbach, Jeffery S. Ambivalent Conspirators: John Brown, the Secret Six, and a Theory of Slave Violence. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1982. View Record Stauffer, John. The Black Hearts of Men: Radical Abolitionists and the Transformation of Race. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2002. View Record Harlow, Ralph Volney. Gerrit Smith: Philanthropist and Reformer. New York: H. Holt and Company, 1939. View Record
Gerrit Smith (Congressional Biographical Directory) ReferenceSMITH, Gerrit, a Representative from New York; born in Utica, N.Y., March 6, 1797; moved to Peterboro in 1806; attended an academy in Clinton, N.Y.; was graduated from Hamilton College, Clinton, N.Y., in 1818; studied law; engaged in the management of a large estate which he inherited; delegate to the State conventions in 1824 and 1828; unsuccessful Liberty Party candidate for governor in 1840; unsuccessful presidential candidate in 1848; was admitted to the bar in 1853 and commenced practice in Peterboro, N.Y.; elected as a Free-Soil candidate to the Thirty-third Congress and served from March 4, 1853, until August 7, 1854, when he resigned; resumed the practice of his profession, and was a publicist and philanthropist; he revived the Anti-Dramshop Party, but was a delegate to the Republican National Convention in 1872 and supported Grant; died in New York City December 28, 1874; interment in Peterboro Cemetery, Peterboro, Madison County, N.Y. “Smith, Gerrit,” Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1774 to Present, http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=S000542.
Gerrit Smith (Stauffer, 2002) ScholarshipWhen [Gerrit] Smith read the news of the raid and the actual results of his prophecy, he suffered a blow from which he never recovered. Seventeen men had been killed in battle, and [John] Brown and four surviving comrades had been captured and were almost certain to hang. And Smith’s own name was intimately linked to these deaths. He was far more sensitive and uncomfortable about the use (and sight) of bloodshed than were his co-conspirators, and more self-critical and introspective. To be sure, he had advocated violence in Kansas and had helped to fund it. But in that instance his violent means had yielded noble ends, for in his mind Kansas had been “saved” from slavery. Now violent action had brought failure, destruction, and death. And as he looked at what he had wrought, something snapped within him. The break affected him both outwardly and inwardly. The outward signs of the blow were noticeable immediately but subsided over time. The internal effects accrued slowly, almost without Gerrit’s knowing it; they did not show themselves for some time, but when they did, the change was profound. John Stauffer, The Black Hearts of Men: Radical Abolitionists and the Transformation of Race (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2002), 242-243.
Gerrit Smith, Philanthropy (American National Biography) ScholarshipThe Smith family fortune was threatened by the nationwide financial depression of the late 1830s, but Gerrit ultimately survived the crisis richer than ever. In the 1840s and 1850s his annual income from his landholdings and investments in banking and railroads typically exceeded $60,000. Smith's great fortune allowed him to become one of the leading philanthropists of the early nineteenth century. Although he was antisectarian in his personal religious beliefs, Smith gave generously to the American Bible Society, the American Tract Society, and the American Sunday School Union….Smith became a leader and major financial sponsor of state and national organizations promoting temperance, prison reform, international peace, and land reform. He also supported his wife's and his daughter Elizabeth Smith Miller's active participation in the women's rights movement. The cause that captured the greatest portion of Smith's attention was the campaign to end slavery. At first Smith supported efforts to colonize slaves in Africa, but in 1835 he joined the more militant abolitionist movement that demanded immediate emancipation of the slaves. He also supported self-improvement efforts of northern free blacks as a means of combating pervasive racial prejudice. He distributed thousands of acres of unimproved land in upstate New York to poor black families to help them become economically independent. Smith initially believed that the abolitionist mission was exclusively one of moral suasion: to "publish the truth about slavery."John R. McKivigan, "Smith, Gerrit," American National Biography Online, February 2000, http://www.anb.org/articles/15/15-00627.html.
