Chief Justice
W. N. H. Smith
lie was both a Union anil Con-
federale Congressman, anil as
head of our Stale Supreme Court
he established an unusually fine
record of service.
By R. C. LAWRENCE
THE DECADE preceding the
opening of the Civil War was
truly the “golden age" in the po¬
litical annals of our stute, for no other
period saw such a galaxy of brilliant
men belonging to both political par¬
ties. The Whigs were dominant until
1852 when they were overthrown by
the Democrats upon the issue of abol¬
ishing the freehold qualifications of
voters for the office of State Senator,
and David S. Reid became the first
Democratic Governor.
During this decade the Whigs were
represented by such men as United
States Senator and Secretary of the
Xavy George E. Badger; by Gover¬
nor, Senator and Secretary of the
Xavy William A. Graham; by Con¬
federate States Senator and Attorney
General George Davis; by Governor
John M. Morehead, the father of state
aid to internal improvements; by
Supreme Court Justice Thomas S.
Ashe; by Senator Mathias E. Manly;
by General Alfred Dockery; by Chief
Justice Richmond Pearson; and last¬
ly, but by no means least, by my illus¬
trious subject, William N. II. Smith.
Outstanding Democrats
Among the Democrats the outstand¬
ing figures were Secretary of the Navy
James C. Dobbin; United States Sen¬
ator and Confederate Attorney Gen¬
eral Thomas Bragg; General and
Confederate States Senator Thomas
L. Clingman; Supreme Court Justice
William S. Ashe; Attorney General
Weigh tst ill Avery; Secretary of the
Xavy John Branch; Thomas Ruffin,
greatest of our Chief Justices; Gov¬
ernor John W. Ellis, and numerous
other distinguished men. What a gal¬
axy of eminence !
William Nathan Harrell Smith
came of distinguished ancestry, for
he was a descendant of John Alden
and Priscilla Mullin, immortalized
in the famous poem of Longfellow.
His physician father. Dr. William L.
Smith, was a native of Connecticut,
and a graduate of Yale University,
who emigrated to Hertford County in
1806, where lie married; and it was
here that his only son was born in
1812. As had his father, he also took
his academic and professional degrees
from Yale University, where, just
forty years later, he was to preside
over his class reunion; and he en¬
joyed the honor of having his attain¬
ments recognized by his alma mater,
which conferred upon him the honor¬
ary degree of Doctor of Laws, a prece¬
dent followed by the University of
North Carolina and by Wake Forest
College.
Elected to the Legislature
Upon his graduation he immediate¬
ly returned to his native state to begin
almost at once his continuous career
of constructive public service which
was to engrave his name deeply into
the life of our state. Such was the
calibre of his mentality, so pronounced
his gift for leadership, so splendid his
equipment for the public service, that
as early as
184»
he was elected a
member of the General Assembly, of
which body he remained an influential
member until 1S49 when his election
as Solicitor of the First Judicial Dis¬
trict caused his retirement from legis¬
lative service. He continued in the
office of Solicitor through 1857, earn¬
ing for himself an enviable reputation
as a brave and fearless prosecutor, and
winning for himself laurels as a trial
lawyer and as a high visioned public
servant, which was to bring him a
larger fame on wider fields in later
years.
In 1859, when the faint rumble of the
guns of Fort Sumter could be heard in
the far distance, and when political pas¬
sions between North and South were
strained almost to the breaking point,
this outstanding Southern Whig was
elected a member of Congress, anti
perhaps the greatest tribute which
ever came to him in public life on
the field of the nation took place when,
on his first appearance in that body,
he was selected as the Whig candidate
for speaker — the only instance in
American history where a Congress¬
man serving his first term was select¬
ed as a candidate for the speakership
by a major political party — an act
which of itself speaks in thunder tones
of the reputation he hud already won
as an outstanding lawyer and political
leader.
A Majority of One
When the vote was taken Smith had
a majority of one, but before the re¬
sult was announced, the Clerk noti¬
fied two members who had not voted
how the record stood. They at once
waited ujk>u Mr. Smith and offered
not to vote, or else to vote and in¬
crease his majority to three, provided
and upon condition that on his elec¬
tion he would form the Ways and
Means Committee in the interest of a
( Continued on page twenty)
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