( This work has been selected by scholars as being cultur...)
This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore, you will see the original copyright references, library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world), and other notations in the work. This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. As a reproduction of a historical artifact, this work may contain missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.
https://www.amazon.com/Lectures-Philosophy-Practice-Exhibited-Institution/dp/1374202479?SubscriptionId=AKIAJRRWTH346WSPOAFQ&tag=prabook-20&linkCode=sp1&camp=2025&creative=165953&creativeASIN=1374202479
William was born on November 29, 1802 in Fredericksburg, Virginia, United States, the son of William Smith, English immigrant, and Mary (Porter) Smith. He was left motherless at two and fatherless at eleven years of age, his father losing both his fortune and his life at the hands of faithless trustees. After his father's death the boy was befriended by Mr. Russell Hill, a merchant of Petersburg, Virginia.
He was given a limited education.
After teaching in Madison County several years Smith was admitted on trial as preacher in the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1825 and in full connection in the Virginia Conference in 1827. Thereafter he served churches in Petersburg, Lynchburg, Richmond, and Norfolk, acting also as jointeditor of the Virginia Conference Sentinel.
A delegate to every general conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church from 1832 to 1844, at the conference of 1844 he acted as counsel in the appeal case of the Rev. F. A. Harding, who had become a slave-holder by marriage and who had been suspended from ministerial work. He was a leading participant in the more important extra-judicial trial of Bishop James Osgood Andrew, which led to the division of the church.
In 1846 he was elected president of Randolph-Macon College, Ashland, Virginia, then in the darkest period of its history. He had been one of its trustees from the beginning, 1830, and in 1833, while acting as its agent, had been crippled for life by the overturning of a carriage. As professor of "Moral and Intellectual Philosophy" he delivered to his students a series of lectures published in 1856 under the title Lectures on the Philosophy and Practice of Slavery as Exhibited in the Institution of Domestic Slavery in the United States, with the Duties of Masters to Slaves, which had considerable influence in the South.
Resigning the presidency of Randolph-Macon in 1866, he became pastor of Centenary Church, St. Louis, Missouri. Two years later he was elected president of Central College, Fayette, Missouri, for which he raised an endowment of nearly $100, 000. Ill health prevented his continuing this work, and he returned to Virginia.
He died in Richmond, March 1, 1870, and was buried there in Hollywood Cemetery.
William Andrew Smith was one of the great preachers of his day. Few had more sons in the gospel, many eminent ministers among them and in various denominations. He was a member of the Louisville convention which organized the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and was a delegate to all its general conferences until his death. Under his able administration as the president of Randolph-Macon College, the enrollment was increased, the quality of work was improved, and an endowment fund of $100, 000 was secured.
( This work has been selected by scholars as being cultur...)
He undertook to show that philosophy, natural rights, and Holy Scripture all sustained the system of domestic slavery, which was intended to be perpetual.
Quotations: Smith took the position that "slavery is a great evil, but beyond our control; yet not necessarily a sin"; at the same time he argued that "it is no part of the work of a minister to meddle with politics. "
He was married three times: first to Mahala Miller of Delaware, second to Laura Brooking of Richmond, and third to Mrs. Eliza V. Williams of Lynchburg. He had two children by his first wife and two by his second.
