Background
SMITH, William Russell was born on March 27, 1815 in Russellville, Kentucky, United States, United States. Son of Ezekiel and Elizabeth (Hampton) Smith.
congressman editor educator lawyer
SMITH, William Russell was born on March 27, 1815 in Russellville, Kentucky, United States, United States. Son of Ezekiel and Elizabeth (Hampton) Smith.
Attended U. Alabama, 1831-1834.
He was orphaned early in life. Smith attended the University of Alabama until 1834, later studied law, and was admitted to the bar in Greensboro, Alabama, in 1835. He was a Catholic and was married three times.
Smith had a son by his 1843 marriage to Jane Binion. Three children by his marriage to Mary Jane Murray on January 3, 1847. And two sons by his marriage to Wilhel- mine M. Easley on June 14, 1854.
In 1837 Smith fought in the Creek War. He edited a magazine in Mobile and the Whig paper Moniter in 1838. In 1839, he was mayor of Tuscaloosa.
In 1841-1842, he served as a Whig in the state legislature, but he left the Whig party the following year to write for the Democratic newspaper The Southern. He was a circuit court judge in 1850 and a member of the U.S. House from Tuscaloosa from 1851 to 1857, losing a bid for reelection in 1856. He was also a delegate to the Alabama secession convention, where he was initially a leader of the unionist group.
Yet, he became a cautious secessionist and gave his full aJlegiance to his state. He also compiled the proceedings of the convention. In 1861, he raised the 6th Alabama Regiment and was made colonel of the 26th Regiment.
He also served in the Confederate House throughout the war. Generally in opposition to the Davis administration, he served on the Printing, Flag and Seal, Foreign Affairs, and special committees. When the war ended, he practiced law in Tuscaloosa.
Smith ran unsuccessfully for governor in 1865 and for Congress in 1878. In 1870-1871, he was president of the University of Alabama. Smith moved to Washington, D.C., in 1879 and practiced law until he died there on February 26, 1896.
Author: History and Debates of the Convention of Alabama, 1861. Key to Homer’s Iliad, 1871. College Musing, or Twigs from Parnassus (volunteer of poetry), 1833.Best known poem: The Uses of Solitude, 1860.
"Peculiar institution" of slavery was not only expedient but also ordained by God and upheld in Holy Scripture.
Stands for preserving slavery, states' rights, and political liberty for whites. Every individual state is sovereign, even to the point of secession.
Member Alabama General Assembly as Whig, 1841-1843, left party, 1843. Member United States House of Representatives from Alabama, 32d-34th congresses, 1851-1857. Member Confederate House of Representatives, 1861-1865.
Married Jane Binion, 1843. Married second, Mary Jane Murray, January 3, 1847.