Litchfield enquirer., 1879-12-25
From the Hartford Times The Late John Cotton Smith.

friend, the Hon. Gideon Il. Hollister, of Litch
 feld.-Times.
 The death of the Hon. John Cotton Smith
 of Sharon, on Tuesday, the 20th of November
 was so sudden that no analysis of his characte
 and no extended account of the facts connected
 with his personal history could at first be gly
 en to the public IF F4 Ts
 He was born at the house of his materna
 grandfather, Gilbert R. Livingston, at Tivoli
 on the Hudson river, on the 21st of November;
 1910, and spent his early days at the house o
 his paternal grandfather, John Cotton Smith
 of Sharon, the last of the Governors of Conne(
 ticut unde: the charter of Charles II. Tn,
 childs personal beauty, sprightllness and af
 fectionate disposition made him the pride and darling of Governor Smith, who took great pains in his early training, and made him 6 companion in his drives through the country to Litchfeld, Hartford, New Haven and other places on his visits to the distinguished men ol the stateA A child could hardly have had "a more accomplished instructor and the subject of this narrative was often heard to say that he was largely indebted to his grandfather fol his early culture, and especially for that love of his native state and the old order of society then existing, which constituted permanent element of his character
 Mir. Smith was graduated at Yale college in the class of 1880, and was elected member of the Connecticut House of Representatives from Sharon in the years 1883, 1884, and 1842 In 1885 he was delegate to the first democratic convention that ever met for the nomination of presidential candidate and was chosen it's secretary. In 1889 he was the democratic nominee for Congress in the Sixth district. In 1844 he was one of the six delegates from Con. necticut in the convention at Baltimore which resulted in the nomination of James K Polk for President. His colleagues were Isaac Tou- cey, Ralph 1. 1ngersoll, Moves Billings, Viii liam Field and Vernon Stiles. None of these men are now living. In -1845 MT. Smith was the democratic nominee for Congress in the Fourth district. The contest was sharp one and resulted in the election of ais whig oppo- nent, the Hon. Truman Smith. In 1846 the subject of this sketch went to Europe, travel Ing in England, France, Italy and Germany until 1851. In 1853 and 1854 he was again a member of the House of Representatives from Sharon, and in 1856 was delegate to the Gin cinnati convention which resulted in the nom- ination and election of James Buchanan as President. In 1858 MT. Smith was appointed Minister Resident of the United States to the Republic of Bolivia in South America, in which service he remained until 1861 In 1870 and in 1876 he was again member of the House of Representatives from Sharon, and at both sessions called the House to order and presided over it's organization as it's oldest member. At the last named session he offered an amendment to the constitution of the state providing that every town shall send one rep resentative to the popular branch of the Gen. eral Assembly without regard to it's popula- tion. This provision for an equality of corpo- rations always favorite measure of his as a partial relief from the evils of the ''rotten bor- Ough system of the state, he advocated with such vlgor that 1t passed the House by ma jority of 40 votes
 The most shining pubic quality exhibited by MT. Smith was his method of addressing legislative or other popular assembly without any apparent selection of phrase, finding in tultlveiy the most opposite word to express his thought. His manner was SO natural and his voice so modulated that his speeches had the effect of spontaneous utterances. He sell dom spoke more than twenty minutes. Sena- tor Dixon listening to speech of Mir. Smith in 1854, turned to bystander and said: 'It is as fresh as a rose, and as perfect" There can be little doubt that had he devoted him. self exclusively to public debate, in any form he would have had few equals.
 His industry was shown chiefly in the liter ary studies which he pursued to the day of his death: Poetry, philosophy, history, philology and civil polity were sources of unfading de- light to him. He had great facility in memo IiZiuS pdoodScS lTOul DlIlIOn ana OGlor writers, and recited them with enthusiasm. His ear for the rhythm of verse was infalli- ble. .L .0'
 His memory, 30 far from being enfeebled by age, appeared to grow stronger,with advancing years. One who knew him well, and was qualified to judge of him. has gracefully said: ''In his every day life nothing was so striking as the perfect freshness of his mind. There was nothing senile in it; but always new store of observation and wit He read much, both of the new and the old, and remembered with equal accuracy the poem of day and that of forty years ago. His mental digestion was like his physical, simplp perfect and there was nothing from which he could not extract vital noifishment." r.
 His love of nature amounted to a passion. Sharon valley, withs it's framework of hills which he used to liken to the Vosges moun- tains and to which clung the associations of his childhood, was a paradise to him. He would point to them with rapture. "This is the Happy Valley, and these are the Delec- table Mountains" he would say. fsf
 Coming from the oldest scholastic stocks of New England-the Rev. Henry Smith of Wethersfeld, Increase Mathec and John Cotton of Boston, the Rev. Cotton Mather Smith of Sharon and the federal governor, John Cotton Smith-he felt just pride in time-horored ancestry that had long filled high places and had left stainless name.
 Aside from this sentiment the affection that he felt for the individual members of his fath- CTS household was noteworthy. His mother was Livingstone of Red Hook a lady we'll worthy of his affection; and it is hardly too much to say that his love for her was a kind of worship. His estimation of her was an embodiment of the sentiment expressed in a maxim of the British constitution. s'The Queen can do no wrong" Whoever at any time may have spent few days with this mother and son under the same roof and ob- served their demeanor toward each other, must retain in his memory lively picture of this maternal and fiial regard The late Henry c. Deming used to say that he had never witnessed such devotion.
 This manner prompted by similar affec- tion was extended by Mir. Smith to his brother and sister-in-l law, his nephew and nieces, and the otl CT members of his family.
 ''Thls, enthusiasm of social affinity also reached out to his personal friends In his eye they were ideal personages to whom a certain difference is to be paid Whatever went wrong with them was chargable to evil fortune or fate, or some demon, and was not the fault of the, individual. It is noticeable too that when once MT. Smith had entered a man on his list of friends, he never gave hun up, but fought it out for hin against all evi. dence, and kept his faith unshaken to the last. friend once said tQ him that he used to lie awake at night to contrive how he might do a good turn to somebody. Three of the last let ters he ever wrote were inspired by wish to to procure an unsolicited political compliment for one whom he had always loved. - -~
 Mir. Smiths social manner was confding and attractive. He had that aversion to broad an- ecdote and free jest which is lnherent in the true gentleman, and the rare tact to put every one at his ease and never to wound the sensi- bilities of the humblest person.
 ''His convictions were the outcome of his own reflection, and no one could be more fear. less in asserting them. He was SO preeminent- ly the gentleman that friend once said to hin; 1t is ho credit to you and you are not to blame for it. Nature took care of that
 Mr. Smiths physical and intellectual organ nations were counterparts, and from these ''that abiding good temper which results both from perfect health and from mental cons,itu- ton" AS a resultant of these we should not forget that exuberance of nature, the overflow of a stream that could not always be restrain ed the source, in part, of his virtues, and his imperfections Of these last it is hardly nee