Gerrit Smith (March 6, 1797 – December 28, 1874) was a leading United States social reformer, abolitionist, politician, and philanthropist. Spouse to Ann Carroll Fitzhugh, Smith was a candidate for President of the United States in 1848, 1856, and 1860, but only served 18 months in the federal government—in Congress as a Free Soil Party Representative, in 1853–4.
Smith, a significant financial contributor to the Liberty Party and the Republican Party throughout his life, spent much time and money working towards social progress in the nineteenth century United States. Besides making substantial donations of both land and money to the African-American community in North Elba, New York, he was involved in the Temperance Movement and, later in life, the colonization movement. A staunch abolitionist, he was a member of the Secret Six who financially supported John Brown's raid at Harpers Ferry, West Virginia.
Read more about Gerrit Smith: Early Life, Political Career, Social Activism
Famous quotes containing the word smith:
“Every individual necessarily labours to render the annual revenue of the society as great as he can. He generally, indeed, neither intends to promote the publick interest, nor knows how much he is promoting it.... He intends only his own gain, and he is in this, as in many other cases, led by an invisible hand to promote an end which was no part of his intention.”
—Adam Smith (1723–1790)