Gerrit Smith (March 6, 1797 – December 28, 1874), also spelled Gerritt Smith, was an American social reformer, abolitionist, businessman, public intellectual, and philanthropist. Married to Ann Carroll Fitzhugh, Smith was a candidate for President of the United States in 1848, 1856, and 1860. He served a single term in the House of Representatives from 1853 to 1854.

First valedictorian of the new Hamilton College (1818), and married to the daughter of the college president, he had "a fine mind", with "a strong literary bent and a marked gift for public speaking". Peterboro was, because of Smith, the capital of the abolition movement. The only assembly of escaped slaves (as opposed to free Blacks) ever to meet in the United States—the Fugitive Slave Convention of 1850—took place in neighboring Cazenovia because Peterboro was too small for the meeting.

Smith was also, and less successfully, a temperance activist, and a women's rights suffrage advocate. He was a significant financial contributor to the Liberty Party and the Republican Party throughout his life. Besides making substantial donations of both land and money to create Timbuctoo, an African-American community in North Elba, New York, he was involved in the temperance movement and the colonization movement, before abandoning colonization in favor of abolitionism, the immediate freeing of all the slaves. He was a member of the Secret Six who financially supported John Brown's raid at Harpers Ferry, in 1859. Brown's farm, in North Elba, was on land he bought from Smith.

Early life

Forebears

Smith was born in Utica, New York, when it was still an unincorporated village. He was one of four children of Peter Gerrit Smith (1768–1837), whose ancestors were from Holland (Gerrit is a Dutch name), the first judge in Madison County, "In partnership with John Jacob Astor in the fur trade and alone in real estate, Peter Smith [had] managed to amass a considerable fortune. Peter was the county judge of Madison County, New York, and has been described as 'easily its leading citizen'."

Peter spent his last years in a religious fanaticism that led him to give up all his worldly goods. Another source says that he inherited from his father over one million acres in Virginia, Pennsylvania, and New York. An 1846 listing of lands he was offering for sale fills 45 pages.

Gerrit had an older brother, Peter Smith Jr., who was a problem drinker that died young, and a younger brother Adolph, who was "clinically insane and confined to a nearby institution." 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. Another source says that Peter Smith moved to Whitesboro "about 1803" and that he removed to Peterboro in 1806. Gerrit came there when he was 9.

Gerrit as a young man

thumb|[[Edmonia Lewis, hands of Gerrit Smith (right) and his wife Ann Carroll Fitzhugh (left)]]

Gerrit was described as "tall, magnificently built and magnificently proportioned, his large head superbly set on his shoulders;" he "might have served as a model for a Greek god in the days when man deified beauty and worshipped it.") In January 1819, he married Wealtha Ann Backus (1800–1819), daughter of Hamilton College's first President, Azel Backus D.D. (1765–1817), and sister of Frederick F. Backus (1794–1858). Wealtha died in August of the same year. In 1822, he married 16-year-old Ann Carroll Fitzhugh (1805–1879), sister of Henry Fitzhugh (1801–1866) and of Wealtha's brother's wife. Their relationship "appeared to be loving"; although Ann was a religious, church-going person who worried that Gerrit was not.

In the year of his graduation, the death of his mother plunged his father, Peter, into severe depression. He withdrew from all business and vested in his second son Gerrit, who had to abandon plans for a law career, the entire charge of his estate, described as "monumental". Previously a supporter of the American Colonization Society, he became an abolitionist in 1835 after a mob in Utica, including New York congressman and future Attorney General Samuel Beardsley, broke up the initial meeting of the New York Anti-Slavery Society, which he attended at the urging of his friends Beriah Green and Alvan Stewart. He resigned as a trustee of Hamilton College "on the grounds that the school was insufficiently anti-slavery", and joined the board of and financially assisted the Oneida Institute, "a hotbed of anti-slavery activity".

Birney, but not Smith, is recorded in the commemorative painting of the event. In 1848, Smith 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 Governor of New York on an anti-slavery platform.

thumb|left|upright|Smith made [[women's suffrage a plank in the Liberty Party platform on June 14–15, 1848.]]

On June 2, 1848, in Rochester, New York, Smith was nominated as the Liberty Party's presidential candidate. At the 1848 Liberty National Convention, held June 14–15 in Buffalo, New York, Smith gave a major address, including in his speech a demand for "universal suffrage in its broadest sense, females as well as males being entitled to vote."

At the request of friends, Smith had 3,000 copies printed of an 1851 speech in Troy in which he set forth his views of government. Smith laments the people's universal dependence on government. As a consequence of that dependence, government occupies itself "for the most part, in doing that it belongs to the people to do". He opposed tariffs, internal improvements, such as the Erie Canal, at public expense, and publicly-supported schools, which could not teach religion, which Smith thought the main function of schools. The remedy was less government, and the less, the better.

The only political office to which Smith was ever elected, and that by a very large majority, was Representative in the U.S. Congress. Smith served a single term in Congress, on the Free Soil ticket, from March 4, 1853, until the end of the session on August 7, 1854, although he said that because of his business activities he had sought neither the nomination nor his election. He was well liked, even by Southern members, who found him "one of the best fellows in the Capitol, as one, although well known as an abolitionist, still as one to be tolerated".

By 1855, the Liberty Party had dwindled to a small remnant of its former strength. Most of its supporters had joined the Free Soil Party in 1848, and these were absorbed into the new Republican Party during the crisis which followed the repeal of the Missouri Compromise by the Kansas–Nebraska Act. Political abolitionists who still wished to maintain a separate organization met at Syracuse, New York, in June and formed the Radical Abolitionist Party as an alternative to the Republicans and the Garrisonian American Anti-Slavery Society. Smith was nominated as the presidential candidate of the new party in 1856. The Radical Abolitionists ran electors in New York and Ohio, where Smith polled 321 votes, finishing far behind the Republican candidate John C. Fremont and the successful Democratic nominee, James Buchanan.

Smith was again the presidential candidate of the Radical Abolitionists in 1860. A convention of one hundred delegates was held in Convention Hall, Syracuse, New York, on August 29, 1860. Delegates were in attendance from New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Michigan, Illinois, Ohio, Kentucky, and Massachusetts. Several of the delegates were women. Smith, despite his poor health, fought William Goodell in regard to the nomination for the presidency. In the end, Smith was nominated for president and Samuel McFarland from Pennsylvania was nominated for vice president. Radical Abolitionist electors polled 176 votes in Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio.

thumb|upright=.8|Gerrit Smith

Smith, along with his friend and ally Lysander Spooner, was a leading advocate of the United States Constitution as an antislavery document, as opposed to abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison, who believed it was to be condemned as a pro-slavery document, and was in favor of secession by the North. In 1852, Smith was elected to the United States House of Representatives as a Free-Soiler. 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. Horace Greeley attributed to Smith the view that the state "has no other legitimate business than to keep one man's fingers off another man's throat and out of any pocket but his own." Unhappy with his separation from his home and business, Smith resigned his seat at the end of the first session, ostensibly to allow voters sufficient time to select his successor.

In 1869, Smith served as a delegate to the founding convention of the Prohibition Party. During the 1872 presidential election Smith was considered for the Prohibition Party's presidential nomination.

Support for Black people

According to Black Rev. Henry Highland Garnet, who moved there at Smith's invitation, "There are yet two places where slave holders cannot come—Heaven and Peterboro."

The failed land redistribution project (Timbuctoo)

thumb|left|A historic marker notes the approximate location of the Timbuctoo settlement.

After becoming an opponent of land monopoly, he gave numerous farms of each to 1,000 "worthy" New York state Blacks. In 1846, hoping to help black families become self-sufficient, to isolate and thus protect them from escaped slave-hunters, and to provide them with the property ownership that was needed for Blacks to vote in New York, Smith attempted to help free blacks settle approximately of land he owned in the remote Adirondacks. Abolitionist John Brown joined his project, purchasing land and moving his family there. However, the land Smith gave away was "of but moderate fertility", "heavily timbered, and in no respect remarkably inviting".

Most grantees never saw the remote land Smith had given them; many of those who did visit it soon left, and in 1857, it was estimated that less than 10% of the grantees were actually living on their land.

The Fugitive Slave Convention

The Fugitive Slave Convention was held in Cazenovia, New York, on August 21 and 22, 1850. It was a fugitive slave meeting, the biggest ever held in the United States. Madison County, New York, was the abolition headquarters of the country, because of philanthropist and activist Gerrit Smith, who lived in neighboring Peterboro, New York, and called the meeting "in behalf of the New York State Vigilance Committee."

Defending Fugitive Slave Law violators

Smith paid the legal expenses of several persons charged with infractions of the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850. It was during this movement that he first met and financially supported John Brown. but residents of Peterboro said publicly that they would use guns to protect him.

Upset by the raid, its outcome, and its aftermath, expecting to be indicted, Smith suffered a mental breakdown; he was described in the press as "a raving lunatic", who became "very violent". For several weeks he was confined to the Utica Psychiatric Center, at the time called the State Lunatic Asylum.

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."

While in the New York Lunatic Asylum, now the Utica Psychiatric Center, he was treated with cannabis and morphine.

Other social activism

Smith was a major benefactor of New-York Central College, a co-educational and racially integrated college in Cortland County.

Smith supported the American 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. In 1867, Smith, together with Horace Greeley and Cornelius Vanderbilt, helped to underwrite the $100,000 (~$ in ) bond needed to free Jefferson Davis, who had, at that time, been imprisoned for nearly two years without being charged with any crime.

thumb|Dedication page of [[Frederick Douglass, My Bondage and My Freedom, 1855]]

Tribute

Frederick Douglass dedicated to Smith My Bondage and My Freedom (1855):

Years before, a student at his Peterboro Manual Labor School, where "Mr. Smith liberally supplies us with stationery, books, board and lodging", stated that "if the man of color has a sincere friend, that friend is Gerrit Smith".

A visitor to Smith's house in 1870 described it as follows:

<blockquote>I have visited many houses...but never before one like this. One breathing the affluence of wealth without a touch of its insolence, characterized by refinement and the highest culture, yet free from all the impertinance of display. Plainness of attire, simplicity of manner, absolute sincerity, and an all-pervading spirit of love characterize the family and give tone to the home—a home free from press and hurry and confusion, where differences of opinion are expressed without irritation, where the individual is respected, where the younger members of the family are reverent and the older ones considerate, where all are mindful of the interests of each, and each is thoughtful for all.

  • Built and ran unsuccessful temperance hotel on his property in Peterboro, 1827–1833. It reopened in 1845 but was no more successful. He also established an unsuccessful temperance hotel in Oswego.
  • Supporter of American Colonization Society, 1820s–early 1830s.
  • Support for the Oneida Institute, the first school at which both Blacks and whites were welcomed, 1830s.
  • Manual labor school for "colored boys" in Peterboro, 1834–1836 (two years). Benjamin Quarles suggests that Smith may have ended the project because it was duplicating what was available at the nearby Oneida Institute, headed by his friend Beriah Green. Another scholar suggests that the school closed because of Smith's disillusionment with the American Colonization Society, as the school had set upon preparing students to Christianize Africa.
  • Major benefactor of New-York Central College, 1850s.
  • Helped with legal expenses of Fugitive Slave Law violators, 1850s. Primary sponsor of the Fugitive Slave Convention, held in neighboring Cazenovia.
  • In 1851, he funded the establishment of an educational academy in Peterboro.
  • Supported William G. Allen and family financially during their poverty in London, 1870s and 1880s.

After his death, a newspaper reported his philanthropic activities as follows:

Honors

In 2005 Smith was inducted into the National Abolition Hall of Fame, in Peterboro, New York.

Writings

Smith paid for the printing of hundreds of broadsides, with his views on a variety of subjects. His own collection of his pamphlets is in the Syracuse University Library. A number of recipients bound those they received into volumes, different contents for each collector.

  • Probably written by Smith. Includes (pp.&nbsp;16–23) an "Extract from a letter by Gerrit Smith to Rev. Wm. H. Brisbane".

Archival material

Smith's grandson, Gerrit Smith Miller, was the final resident of the Smith mansion. In 1928, before it burned, he donated Smith's enormous collection of letters, documents, diaries, and daybooks to the Syracuse University Library, along with a pamphlet and broadside collection of over 700 items. There is nothing like it for any other businessman of his day.

  • Gerrit Smith Papers, Syracuse University Special Collections Research Center. 10,000 letters, 74 boxes. Library description of holdings: "Business, family and general correspondence; business and land records; writings; and maps. Notable correspondents include Susan B. Anthony, John Jacob Astor, Henry Ward Beecher, Antoinette Blackwell, Caleb Calkins, Lydia Maria Child, Cassius Clay, Alfred Conkling, Roscoe Conkling, Charles A. Dana, Paulina W. Davis, Edward C. Delavan, Frederick Douglass, Albert G. Finney, Sarah Grimké, Elizabeth Cady and Henry B. Stanton, Louis Tappan, Sojourner Truth, and Theodore Weld." The collection has been microfilmed, and together with materials of his father Peter Smith, fills 89 reels. A partial calendar of the general correspondence was published in 1941. The Special Collections Research Center of Syracuse University also holds Smith's pamphlet collection, "700+ items", which has also been microfilmed, and over half digitized and available online.
  • Additional documents are in the collections of the Peterboro and the Madison County Historical Societies.