Jefferson Smith

Jefferson Smith is the main protagonist of the 1939 American film Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. He is a naive and idealistic nature lover who was suddenly propelled into the political world and more particularly into the Senate as a result of manipulation.
He was portrayed by James Stewart, who also played George Bailey in It's a Wonderful Life, and John "Scottie" Ferguson in Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo.
==History==
Hupert "Happy" Hopper, governor of a U.S. state, but whose name is never mentioned in the film, must choose a new senator to replace Sam Foley, then recently deceased. Jim Taylor, pressured Hopper to choose a hand-picked stooge, while the People's Committees wanted a reformer, in this case Henry Hill. The governor's children would like him to choose Jefferson Smith, then head of the Boy Rangers, a scout movement. Unable to choose between Taylor's proposed stooge and Hill's reformer, Hupert Hopper decided to flip a coin. The piece falls vertically from the edge of a newspaper, with an article on the front page praising Smith's merits and achievements. Hopper therefore chose Smith, thinking that his popularity would give people confidence, while his naivety would make him easily manipulable on the political scene.
The young Senator Smith is under the wing of Joseph Paine, a senator for more than twenty years and highly esteemed, but secretly shady and dishonest, Smith's father's oldest and best friend. When Smith arrived at Washington Station with Joseph Paine, he met the senator's daughter, Susan, a woman of the world who did not leave him indifferent, and the small welcoming committee. But instead of following them, he failed them, attracted by the view of the Capitol. He took a tourist bus to visit the city and got off at West Potomac Park, where he was particularly fascinated by the Lincoln Memorial and the texts on the walls. After this visit, he went to his office where he met his secretary, Clarissa Saunders, who had a long experience in Washington's political life. On his first day in the Senate, where he held out before going there, to visit Mount Vernon, Smith's naive and honest nature lets Washington's ruthless press take advantage of his weakness: it will not hesitate to quickly tarnish Smith's reputation, with ridiculous cover firsts, which will make headlines and mark his image as a "hillbilly". Humiliated, he went to the National Press Club to fight journalists and demand that they set the truth straight. But far from being dismantled, the journalists will show him the truth about himself, namely that he is just an incompetent clown who arrived in the Senate to strut around on an honourable salary. That he will decorate a chair and be honoured, and vote like his colleagues will tell him to vote like a "puppet".
Smith, who was made aware by journalists of the importance of the role of senator, told Joseph Paine that he would scrupulously study the functioning of the Senate and the laws and vote according to his conscience. He proposes that he pass a well-consensual law for children, to keep him occupied. With the help of his secretary Clarissa Saunders, Smith therefore proposed a new law, which provided for the establishment of a loan from the federal government to purchase land and then create a national camp for urban boys. This loan would then be repaid by the voluntary subscriptions of all young Americans. Donations are flowing in immediately. However, the proposed camp is on the land where a dam is planned. This project, hidden in the middle of a series of articles of the budget law, is supported by Senator Paine and is intended to enrich businessman Taylor. It was during this collaboration that Clarissa Saunders, who at first had little respect for him and was no stranger to the way the press treated him, began to show respect for his deeply honest nature.
As Smith's project would bring down the dam, Taylor pressured Paine, reminding him that he had been re-elected for twenty years because of his influence. Paine instructed her daughter, Susan, to seduce Smith and remove him from the Senate on the day of the vote on the law, including the dam project. Subsequently informed by Clarissa Saunders of this scheme and noticing that he had been manipulated, Smith questioned the dam project at the next session in the Senate. Pushed by Taylor, Paine decided to break Smith by making false evidence accusing him of wanting to profit from his project. According to false certificates, Smith already owns the land that he is asking the Senate to purchase. Smith was too shocked by Paine's betrayal to defend himself and, mute, left the commission that accused him.
Claude Rains and James Stewart in the film.
Smith, before returning home, went back to the Lincoln Memorial, and as he was shot down by what happened to him, Saunders approached him, touched by Smith's despair and urged him to resume his fight to have the finance bill postponed and prove his innocence in the Senate. In response, Paine asked senators to vote Smith's forfeiture and exclusion from the Senate. Saunders suggests that Smith react and defend himself by speaking constantly in front of the assembly, causing parliamentary obstruction (or filibustering), because a parliamentarian has the right, legally speaking, to speak without time limit. Encouraged by Saunders, present in the stands, Smith spoke for nearly 24 hours, standing up and unceasingly, to reaffirm the American ideals of freedom, reveal the real reasons for the dam project and denounce Paine's corruption. Despite everything, none of the senators are convinced of his innocence.
While Smith talks without stopping, Taylor uses his control over the media to prevent them from transmitting Smith's statements to the public. Newspapers and radio stations in Smith State, funded by Taylor, refuse to publish Smith's statement, denigrate him in their headlines and go so far as to mount popular demonstrations and petitions against him. Only the Boy Rangers newspaper, outside Taylor's influence, proclaims that Smith is telling the truth. Taylor brutally intervenes his men to prevent children from distributing their newspapers, even throwing a truck at the car they were using for their distribution.
Although all hopes seem to have been lost, senators are beginning to be shaken by Smith's stubbornness, pushed to the point of exhaustion. But Paine plays his last card: he brings in baskets full of letters and telegrams from Smith's state, from middle-class people manipulated by the media, wishing to be expelled from the Senate. Almost devastated by these petitions, Smith found a leap of hope in the friendly smile of the Senate Speaker. Smith then made the promise not to go out until no one believed him; he begged Paine to remember the ideals of his beginnings, then immediately collapsed from exhaustion. Feeling guilty, probably believing in Smith's death, Paine left the Senate Chamber, tried to commit suicide with a firearm but was prevented from doing so. While Smith - who is only unconscious - is evacuated, Paine returns to the Chamber and confesses the whole truth about his manipulations. He asks to be expelled himself and affirms Smith's innocence, still unconscious but ultimately victorious.
==Personality==
Jefferson Smith is incredibly naive but also idealistic, completely honest and in love with nature. He is also endowed with immense determination and incredible endurance.
==External Links==
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