SMITH, GERRIT (1797-1874). An American philanthropist. son of Peter Smith. of Utica, N. Y.. who, associated in the fur trade w ith John Jacob Astor, accumulated a great fortune which the son greatly increased. Gerrit graduated frUin Hamilton College in ISIS, and. without regularly studying law, lie entered upon that pro fession and practiced with distinction iu both the State and Federal courts, lle made his home in Peterboro, :Madison County. N. Y. Entering Con gress in 1853, lie found public life distasteful. and abandoned it after the long session of 1854. At this time. one of the largest landowners in the United States, Smith developed radical views in opposition to land monopoly. Putting theory into practice. lie began and during many years continued to distribute hold ings to poor families—in his later years showing a preference for negroes—in parcels of fifty acres each. In religious matters also he was a radical,
and attempted to build up an independent church both by money gifts and his own preaching. Plunging at length into the anti-slavery move ment. lie became by his generosity and earnest ness one of its most effective agitators. A stanch and lifelong friend of John Brown, lie loyally supported him in his Kansas raids and through his subsequent tribulations. The signing of Jefferson Davis's bail bond when the Civil War was over, by Gerrit Smith and Horace Greeley, was one of the most characteristic acts of each of those unusual men. Besides numerous speeches and pamphlets, chiefly on the slavery issue, Smith wrote The Religion of Reason (1864). and Nature the Base of a Free Theology (1867). There is a biography by Frothingham (New York. 1878) which the family attempted to suppress.