Background
Smith was born on April 6, 1759 in Suffield, Connecticut, United States, the son of Daniel and Anna (Kent) Smith, and during his childhood moved with his parents to Rupert, Vermont.
Smith was born on April 6, 1759 in Suffield, Connecticut, United States, the son of Daniel and Anna (Kent) Smith, and during his childhood moved with his parents to Rupert, Vermont.
Israel graduated in 1781 at Yale, where an older brother, Noah, also to be prominent in the early politics of Vermont, had graduated three years before. He read law with this brother in Bennington.
Israel was admitted to the Vermont bar in 1783, and began practice in Rupert. Between 1785 and 1790 he served four terms in the legislature, its journals showing that he was active in the routine work of that body but throwing little light on his character or interests. In 1789 he served on a joint commission for adjusting boundary and title disputes with New York.
In 1791 he was elected to the federal House of Representatives, having removed to the larger and more prosperous town of Rutland in the same year. His term of service, extending from October 17, 1791, to March 3, 1797, was not characterized by any notable achievements.
Defeated for Congress in 1797, he returned to Rutland, resumed practice, reentered the legislature, and became chief justice, being ousted as a result of the Federalist victory of 1798. With the growth of Republican sentiment in Vermont he was elected to the Seventh Congress, serving from March 4, 1801, to March 3, 1803, when he entered the United States Senate, serving until October 1, 1807.
He resigned from the Senate in 1807 upon being elected governor, but held this office for one term only. A year later his strength, mental and physical, having begun to deteriorate, he retired from public life.
Her died in 1810.
He moved into the Jeffersonian ranks, supporting the opponents of the administration in their effort to block the Jay Treaty by withholding the necessary appropriation. Throughout the remainder of his career he was identified with the Republican party.
Smith was married in his twenties and had two sons: William (1785-1822) and Horace (1787-1790). His widow, Abiah, was married in 1811 to Col. William C. Harrington.