John Witherspoon Smith (1778November 7, 1829) was an American lawyer who served as

United States Attorney United States attorneys are officials of the U.S. Department of Justice who serve as the chief federal law enforcement officers in each of the 94 U.S. federal judicial districts. Each U.S. attorney serves as the United States' chief federal ...

in New Orleans for most of the 1820s.

Biography

Smith was born in

Trenton, New Jersey Trenton is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of New Jersey and the county seat of Mercer County, New Jersey, Mercer County. It was the federal capital, capital of the United States from November 1 until D ...

in 1778, and was a graduate of the College of New Jersey (

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial ...

), class of 1795. According to the U.S. National Archives, Smith moved to New Orleans from New York shortly after the completion of the

Louisiana Purchase The Louisiana Purchase () was the acquisition of the Louisiana (New France), territory of Louisiana by the United States from the French First Republic in 1803. This consisted of most of the land in the Mississippi River#Watershed, Mississipp ...

, and "served as clerk of the superior court until Governor Claiborne removed him in 1807." Smith reportedly took part in the

Battle of New Orleans The Battle of New Orleans was fought on January 8, 1815, between the British Army under Major General Sir Edward Pakenham and the United States Army under Brevet Major General Andrew Jackson, roughly 5 miles (8 km) southeast of the Frenc ...

in 1815. As Acting U.S. Attorney, Smith took affidavits in a piracy case in 1819. Smith was initially appointed as United States Attorney for the District of Louisiana in 1821, and served for two years until 1823, at which time the district was divided. His official commission date as the first

United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Louisiana The United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana (in case citations, E.D. La.) is a United States federal court based in New Orleans. Appeals from the Eastern District of Louisiana are taken to the United States Court of Ap ...

, was January 10, 1825; he served until 1829. He is sometimes described as a federal judge, in either Louisiana or Missouri, but this appears to be erroneous. He worked at one time as clerk of Louisiana Supreme Court, which may be the source of the confusion. Circa 1824 he was involved in cases involving slave imports from Florida. In 1827 he was involved in the federal investigation of the illegal importation (from

Jamaica Jamaica is an island country in the Caribbean Sea and the West Indies. At , it is the third-largest island—after Cuba and Hispaniola—of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean. Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, west of Hispaniola (the is ...

by way of

Cuba Cuba, officially the Republic of Cuba, is an island country, comprising the island of Cuba (largest island), Isla de la Juventud, and List of islands of Cuba, 4,195 islands, islets and cays surrounding the main island. It is located where the ...

) and subsequent sale of enslaved people to Mississippi River buyers. Smith was a slave owner himself; records show that around 1829 he purchased two people from

Isaac Franklin Isaac Franklin (May 26, 1789 – April 27, 1846) was an American slave trader and plantation owner. Born to wealthy planters in what would become Sumner County, Tennessee, he assisted his brothers in trading slaves and agricultural surplus alon ...

. He was married on March 10, 1805, to Sarah Henrietta Duer, with whom he had 10 children. The family lived at one time on Melpomene street in New Orleans. His father was

Samuel Stanhope Smith Samuel Stanhope Smith (March 15, 1751 – August 21, 1819) was a Presbyterian minister, founding president of Hampden–Sydney College and the seventh president of the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University) from 1795 to 1812. His stormy ...

, a president of Princeton, and his maternal grandfather was

John Witherspoon John Witherspoon (February 5, 1723 – November 15, 1794) was a Scottish-American Presbyterian minister, educator, farmer, slaveholder, and a Founding Father of the United States. Witherspoon embraced the concepts of Scottish common sense real ...

, a president of Princeton and a signer of Declaration of Independence. He was an uncle of

John C. Breckinridge John Cabell Breckinridge (January 16, 1821 – May 17, 1875) was an American politician who served as the 14th vice president of the United States, with President James Buchanan, from 1857 to 1861. Assuming office at the age of 36, Breckinrid ...

. One of his brothers-in-law was Territory of Orleans superior court judge John B. Prevost, a stepson of

Aaron Burr Aaron Burr Jr. (February 6, 1756 – September 14, 1836) was an American politician, businessman, lawyer, and Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father who served as the third vice president of the United States from 1801 to 1805 d ...

. He died in New Orleans in 1829. His widow, Sarah Duer Smith, outlived him by almost 60 years, dying in 1887, at 101 years of age.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Smith, John Witherspoon 1778 births 1829 deaths United States attorneys for the Eastern District of Louisiana Princeton University alumni Lawyers from New Orleans American people of the War of 1812 American slave owners 19th-century American lawyers