Alexander C. "Aleck" Smith (c. 1838 – May 9, 1875) was a justice of the Idaho Territorial Supreme Court from 1863 to 1866. Born in

Jacksonville, Illinois Jacksonville is a city and the county seat of Morgan County, Illinois, United States. The population was 17,616 at the 2020 census, down from 19,446 in 2010. It is home to Illinois College, Illinois School for the Deaf, and the Illinois Sc ...

,Debora K. Kristensen,
The First 50 Men In Idaho Law
''The Advocate'' (October 2010), p. 54. Smith reportedly "

read law Reading law was the primary method used in common law countries, particularly the United States, for people to prepare for and enter the legal profession before the advent of law schools. It consisted of an extended internship or apprenticeship un ...

somewhere in the West", and "traveled to the Washington Territory in the 1850's where he served for a short time as a prosecuting attorney". He married the daughter of Anson G. Henry, who was then surveyor-general of the Washington Territory, and a close friend of President

Abraham Lincoln Abraham Lincoln (February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) was the 16th president of the United States, serving from 1861 until Assassination of Abraham Lincoln, his assassination in 1865. He led the United States through the American Civil War ...

. Henry visited

Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

, in the spring of 1863 where Lincoln insisted that he stay and accompany him in a visit of the

Army of the Potomac The Army of the Potomac was the primary field army of the Union army in the Eastern Theater of the American Civil War. It was created in July 1861 shortly after the First Battle of Bull Run and was disbanded in June 1865 following the Battle of ...

. Henry secured Smith's appointment to the territorial supreme court at this time. Smith was appointed to the seat on March 10, 1863,Weldon Brinton Heyburn, ''Idaho Laws and Decisions, Annotated and Digested'' (1900)
p. vii
and the appointment was confirmed by the

United States Senate The United States Senate is a chamber of the Bicameralism, bicameral United States Congress; it is the upper house, with the United States House of Representatives, U.S. House of Representatives being the lower house. Together, the Senate and ...

the following day. Smith "was only twenty-five at the time of his appointment and was assigned to cover the First District by Governor William H. Wallace". However, Smith's "inexperience and reputation for hard-drinking raised the ire of many in the territory, so much so that he was removed from office in 1866". Following his ouster from the court, it was reported that Smith had moved to Vancouver, Washington Territory, to practice law. He died of

consumption Consumption may refer to: * Eating *Resource consumption *Tuberculosis, an infectious disease, historically known as consumption * Consumer (food chain), receipt of energy by consuming other organisms * Consumption (economics), the purchasing of n ...

in Kalama, Washington Territory, on May 9, 1875.

References

1830s births 1875 deaths People from Jacksonville, Illinois U.S. state supreme court judges admitted to the practice of law by reading law Associate justices of the Idaho Territorial Supreme Court {{Idaho-state-judge-stub