John Blair Smith was an American Presbyterian clergyman and college president.
Background
He was born on June 12, 1756 at Pequea, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, United States, the son of the Rev. Robert Smith, an emigrant from Londonderry, Ireland, and his wife, Elizabeth Blair, sister of the Rev. Samuel Blair.
Robert Smith was a prominent Presbyterian clergyman of his day, the founder of a classical and theological seminary at Pequea which had great popularity, an overseer of the College of New Jersey, and the second moderator of the Presbyterian General Assembly.
Education
John Blair Smith was prepared at the classical school conducted by his father and in 1773 was graduated from the College of New Jersey.
Career
In 1775 he accepted the position of tutor in the Academy of Hampden-Sidney, Virginia, which in 1783 was rechartered as the College of Hampden-Sidney, and in 1779, having been ordained to the ministry by the Hanover Presbytery on October 26 of that year, he succeeded his brother, Samuel Stanhope Smith, as president of that institution and pastor of the churches of Cumberland and Briery.
In 1787 his preaching was accompanied by a great religious awakening which spread from the vicinity of the college throughout Virginia south of the James River and was carried by converts into the Valley of Virginia and into North Carolina. Two years later, in order to enjoy to the fullest the delight of preaching the Presbyterian gospel, he resigned the college presidency.
In 1791 he was called to the Third Presbyterian Church of Philadelphia, usually referred to as the Pine Street Church. Here he served acceptably and in the yellow fever epidemic of 1793 was conspicuous for heroism. In 1795 he was made the first president of Union College, at Schenectady, New York. Three years later he was chosen moderator of the Presbyterian General Assembly.
When, in 1783, the new and enlarged charter for Hampden-Sidney was obtained from the legislature, Madison, Henry, and other non-Presbyterians of prominence accepted appointment as trustees. In 1784-85 Smith successfully opposed Henry's General Assessment Bill; and in 1788 opposed Henry again, this time by urging the adoption of the new federal constitution.
He returned to his Pine Street pastorate in Philadelphia in 1799, and died there of yellow fever on August 22 of that year.
Achievements
Religion
At the age of twenty-three he became the leader of Presbyterian thought in Virginia.
Politics
He had supported the American cause from the beginning of the struggle with Great Britain. His enthusiastic devotion to the Revolution won for him the confidence of the triumphant patriot politicians.
Personality
He was of medium height, slender, and delicate in appearance. Remarkably vivacious and quick in movement for a Presbyterian of the dour Scotch-Irish breed, he was an attractive and popular man, a fervid and animated preacher.
Quotes from others about the person
According to Rev. Wm. Hill, "It was one of his peculiar properties to put out his strength in everything he undertook, and to do nothing by halves".
From one of Smith's memorials to the Virginia legislature, he was the able defender of "an entire and everlasting freedom from every species of ecclesiastical domination, a full and permanent security of the inalienable rights of conscience and private judgment".
Connections
He married Elizabeth, daughter of Col. John Nash of "Templeton, " in Prince Edward County, Virginia, by whom he had five sons and one daughter.