Birmingham state herald., 1896-02-27
THE LATE WILLIAM R. SMITH.
Something of the Public and Political Career
 of the Distinguished AIabamian.

LII tHo DiSlihS SulSheu Hidueniian'
 William Russell Smith, lawyer, states man and literateur, was born at Russell vile, Ky, on March 27, 1915. His parents were Virginians, and were both of reVo- lutionary stock, and his father was cap tain in the war of 1872. His parents moved to Alabama in 1919, and in 1922 he was left an orphan. His early educatlon was obtained in private schools of Tus- kaloosa and in 1881 he entered the Uni versity of Alabama on it's opening day. He left the university shortly pe1ore graduation and studied law, commencing practice in 1885. He began to edit the Tuskaloosa Monitor in 1888, and in 1889 WAS elected mayor of Tuskaloosa. From this time his political advancement was rapid He was elected twice to the Ala bama house of representatlNes,tn then pils- adier-general of state militia, then Judge of the Seventh judicial circuit reslgning this position to take his seat in the nation al congress in 1851, where he represent ed the Tuskaloosa district in the Thirty second, Thirty-third and Thirty-rourtn congresses. He was elected to the two latter congresses as an independent dem- ocrat on the platform of the American party. Almost immediately after taking his seat in congress in 1851 he attalned national reputation by his speech against Kossuth, and to him principally has been given the credit of preventing the foreign entanglement into which this govern ment was being led by an espousal or Kossuth's cause. From this time Judge Smith was the leader of the American party in congress. aitt
 At the Philadelphia convention or lSoo, which nominated Willard Fillmore and Andrew J. Donelson, Judge Smith was at first the most prominent candidate TOT the nomination for vice-president, Fercy Walker also of Alabama, A. Il. Il. stew art of Virginia and Kenneth Raynor or lifao hair dates. Denelson of Tennessee was mai ly nominated as a compromise eandlpate. At this convention he delivered a speech which prevented a threatened disruption of the convention, and which the Phlia, delphia North American of the day sald was electrical in it's effect, completely changing the current of feeling among the southern members" In this speech he combatted the already growing seces- sion sentiment, and declared that ne pc lieved that the union is politlcal lnoe- structibility' s.5.555a.
 Judge Smith was elected to the Ala bama convention of 1861 as co-opera- tionist, and with large minority op- posed immediate secession, but Ill the prophetic speech against the adoption of the ordinance of secession he closed by saying: Tt but remains for me 10 add that when your ordinance passes through the solemn forms of legislative deliberation and receives the sanctioh of this body shall recognize It as the supreme law of the. land. My ScrupleS will fall to the ground, and that devotion which I have heretofore, through the whole course of my public llfe given 10 the union of the states, shall be concen. trated in my allegiance to the state or Alabama
 Immediately after the formation of the Confederate government he raised a reg iment and was commissioned colonei or the Twenty-seventh Alabama, but re- linquished his command to take his seat in the Confederate congress, to which he was elected in 1861 and.re-elected in 1863. Tn this congress, with small but en- frightened minority, foreseeing the inev- itable termination of the unequal con test his leading and persistent policy was to press for the earliest honorable accommodation with, the United States.
 Tn 1865 Judge Smith resumed the prac- tice of law, having withdrawn from the race for congress upon learning tnat ne would be refused his seat if elected. He aftefwards sInade the race for governor as an independent democrat upon plat form recognizing the status quo and de- manding a reorganization of the state in conformity therewith-a course the W1s- dom of which is now universally ac- knowledged-and was defeated by mar row majority.
 In 1870 he was lected president of the University of Alabama, which position he resigned for political reasons in 1871.
 He then returned to the practice of law, from which he retired in 1884, He has since resided in Washington.
 Judge Smith has published several le- gal works, and was commissioned by the Alabama legislature to condense the first forty-five volumes of Alabama re- ports.
 Tn addition to his professional and po- litical work Judge Smith has done much literary work both in prose and verse. He has published translation in be- roic couplets of several books of the Had, several dramas and volumes of po- ems. besides three or four novels. which; while not published for general circulation. have earned for him fame throughout the south
 JOHN M. MARTIN.