Jeremiah Smith (lawyer)

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

Early years and political rise

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, after which he was active in his new profession in his native Peterborough. Smith took part in the Revolutionary War and was wounded at the Battle of Bennington.

Between 1788 and 1791, Smith was a deputy in the House of Representatives from New Hampshire. In the years 1791 and 1792, he was member of a commission to revise the constitution of New Hampshire before he was elected as a candidate of the Federalist Party in the U.S. House of Representatives. There he represented between 4 March, 1791 and 26 July 1797, the interests of his state. In Congress, he was chairman of the Committee on Revisal and Unfinished Business.

After his return to New Hampshire, he was 1797-1800 federal prosecutor in that State. Between 1800 and 1802, he was then judge in a probate court in Rockingham County. After a brief stint as a federal judge on the United States Circuit Court, he was 1802-1809 Presiding Judge ( Chief Justice ) of the Supreme Court of New Hampshire. This office he should exercise again 1813-1816.

Governor of New Hampshire and other CV

In 1809 Jeremiah Smith was elected against incumbent John Langdon with very narrow majority for governor of his state. Smith took up his new post on June 8, 1809. In his one-year term, which ended on June 5, 1810, he campaigned especially for a judicial reform. In the next elections, he was defeated by Langdon, who thus became his successor. After his brief governorship Smith was working as a lawyer again. From 1813 to 1816 he was again presiding judge of the Supreme Court of his State. After that, he was until 1820 a private lawyer. Smith was also known as the Dartmouth College he took along with Daniel Webster and two other lawyers in proceedings before the U.S. Supreme Federal Court Chief Judge John Marshall. After that, he was still president of a bank and treasurer of the Phillips Exeter Academy.

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