Benjamin Smith
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Benjamin Smith (10 January 1756 -- January 1826) was the Democratic-Republican governor of the U.S. state of North Carolina from 1810 to 1811.
Smith was born in Brunswick County, North Carolina into a socially prominent family. During the American Revolutionary War, Smith served an aide-de-camp to General George Washington and rose to the rank of colonel in the Continental Army.
In 1784, Smith was elected to the Continental Congress, although it is unclear whether he actually served. He was active in the North Carolina Constitutional Conventions of 1788 and 1789, and served a number of terms in the North Carolina, in 1784 (Senate), 1789-1792 (House of Commons), 1792-1800 (Senate), 1801 (House of Commons) 1804-1805 (House of Commons) and 1806-1810 (Senate). In 1804, he was defeated in a bid for the United States Senate by Samuel Ashe. During his political career, Smtih also sat on the Board of Trustees of the University of North Carolina and donated 20,000 acres (81 km²) of land for the university's endowment; he chaired the trustees during his term as governor.
In 1810, aligned with the Democratic-Republican Party (he had earlier had Federalist leanings), Smith was elected governor by the North Carolina General Assembly. He served only a single one-year term, and emphasized reform of the state's criminal code and penitentiary system. Although Smith did seek re-election to the governor's seat in 1811, he polled behind William Hawkins on the first ballot and withdrew himself from consideration. He later returned to the North Carolina Senate in 1816.
Smith died in Smithville, North Carolina in 1826 and is buried in Wilmington.
Sources
- Biographical Directory of the Governors of the United States, 1789-1978, Robert Sobel and John Raimo, eds. Westport, CT: Meckler Books, 1978. (ISBN 0-930466-00-4)
| Preceded by: David Stone | Governor of North Carolina 1810-1811 | Succeeded by: William Hawkins |