James Smith was one of many signers of the Declaration of Independence. Earlier than this, he was a lawyer and a household man who turned taken with, after which satisfied of the need of the reason for independence for the American colonies. As soon as satisfied, James turned dedicated to independence. That is his story.
James Smith was born in about 1719 in Eire, then moved to Cheshire County, Pennsylvania along with his household when he was between ten and twelve years previous. James’s father was a farmer of some success, and this success enabled James to profit from a very good, stable, however easy classical training with the minister of the household’s native church. After this good basis of training, James studied legislation on the workplace of his older brother, George, who saved his personal legislation workplace in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.
When he was twenty-six years previous, James was admitted to the Pennsylvania Bar, whereupon he opened his personal legislation workplace close to Shippensburg in Cumberland County, Pennsylvania. As a result of this was primarily a frontier space on the time, there was not a lot legislation to apply, and James spent a lot of his time there surveying land as an alternative. Whereas he did apply legislation sparsely in Cumberland County, he ultimately moved to York, Pennsylvania after 4 or 5 years within the relative wilderness, in order that he would be capable to completely apply legislation.
When James was forty-one years previous, he married Eleanor Armor, who was the daughter of John Armor of New Fort, Delaware. She was ten years James’s junior. Collectively, they’d 5 kids, solely certainly one of whom made it previous childhood, married, and had kids of her personal. Different kids of James and Eleanor made it previous childhood, however they both didn’t marry or did marry and didn’t have kids. This little one, Mary, had two kids who lived previous childhood, solely certainly one of whom had kids of their very own, and neither of these kids had their very own kids, so James’s direct line of descent ended after his great-grandchildren.
Within the early 1760s, James began an iron foundry, but it surely was not profitable. The marketplace for iron was there, however James put the enterprise within the fingers of two overseers who weren’t good at managing the enterprise. In James’s personal phrases, “certainly one of whom was a knave, and the opposite a idiot.” James misplaced a considerable sum on this enterprise, but it surely allowed him to grow to be extra recognized by the general public within the space wherein he lived. This was essential in his political profession, which was one thing he started to take curiosity in when he turned involved within the early 1770s concerning the apparent rift between the colonies and Nice Britain.
James attended a provincial meeting in 1774, the place he submitted a paper he had written that was known as Essay on the Constitutional Energy of Nice Britain over the Colonies in America. Within the paper, James advocated for the colonies boycotting all items from Britain. James believed that this method would harm British retailers in a monetary manner, which might push them to demand that Parliament again away from some or all the oppressive legal guidelines they’d handed towards the colonies. Coincidentally, that is precisely what the First Continental Congress did within the fall of that 12 months.
Additionally in 1774, James put collectively an organization of volunteer militiamen in York County, Pennsylvania. The volunteers elected him as their Captain. Due to the British stress on American commerce and common freedom, the militia quickly grew to sufficient males to be a battalion, and the battalion selected James as its Commander. As a result of James was fifty-five years previous presently, he deferred his Commander place to a youthful man.
In 1775, James was elected as a delegate to the colonial meeting in Philadelphia. On the meeting, he stated that
“if the British administration ought to decide by power to impact a submission to the late arbitrary acts of the British parliament, in such a state of affairs, we maintain it our indispensable responsibility to withstand such power, and at each hazard, to defend the rights and liberties of America.”
These had been thought of sturdy phrases on the time, as many colonists at the moment in historical past had been hoping for a reconciliation with Nice Britain. This was very true in Pennsylvania, the place most of the residents had been Quakers, and subsequently hoping for peace as an alternative of battle.
James made a reputation for himself as a voice in favor of American independence whereas within the colonial meeting. After the proposal for independence by Richard Henry Lee on the Second Continental Congress, and particularly after the preliminary skirmish battles at Lexington and Harmony, it turned clearer that independence was the one reply. This allowed Pennsylvania to nominate a brand new slate of delegates to the Continental Congress. Among the many new ones was James.
As a part of the Second Continental Congress, James was capable of grow to be a signer of the Declaration of Independence. After the Declaration was signed, James went with Captain Francis Wade and Dr. Younger to York with a printed broadside copy of the Declaration to learn to the general public within the city sq.. James served for 2 years on the Continental Congress, and for the reason that Congress was assembly in Philadelphia, which was close to James’s workplace, he provided his workplace as a spot for the Congress’s Board of Battle to satisfy.
On the similar time, he was serving in Congress, James additionally continued to serve on Pennsylvania’s colonial meeting. In 1781, James was elected to be a Brigadier Basic of the Pennsylvania Militia. Right now, he additionally went again to working towards legislation at his personal legislation workplace. James practiced legislation till 1800 when he retired at age eighty-one.
Along with his work on the Continental Congress and the Pennsylvania colonial meeting, James additionally did a brief stint as a decide of the state Excessive Courtroom of Appeals, and did one time period within the Pennsylvania State Meeting, after it turned a state as an alternative of a colony. In 1785, James was elected to the brand new United States Congress, however declined to serve due to his age, believing he was too previous to take part in such issues anymore.
Shortly earlier than James crossed over to the opposite facet, a hearth destroyed his workplace and most of his papers with it, so little is thought about his precise life at this time, in addition to what was recorded by others. James crossed to the opposite facet in July of 1806 in York, Pennsylvania, and is buried within the First Presbyterian Churchyard there.
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