HENRY K. SMITH.

General Characteristics.-Born on the Island of Santa Cruz.-Rank of his Father.Painful Accident to Him.-His Mother, Her High Intellectual Qualities.-Her Influence over Henry.-He Leaves Home.-His Father's Advice.-Laconic Reply.-Placed under the Care of Dr. Berry, at Baltimore.-Progress in his Studies. His Mental Powers.-Engages as a Clerk in a Dry Goods House in the City of New York.-Singular Circumstance whirh caused him to Leave his Employers.-Listens to a Trial in which Daniel Cady and Ogden Hoffman are Opposed. Decides to be a Lawyer.-Seeks Mr. Cady, at Johnstown.-Character of Mr. Cady.-Smith Enters his Office.-Marcus T. Reynolds.-The Debating Club.-Smith Admitted to Practice.-A Delegate to the Young Men's Democratic Convention.-Makes the Acquaintance of Silas Wright in a Singular Manner.Smith's Speech in the Convention. Meets with Israel T. Hatch, who Invites him to Buffalo.-Invitation Accepted.-Commences his Practice in that City.His Success. His Partnership.-His Capacity as a Lawyer.-Incident in a Trial. -Appointed District-Attorney.-Recorder of Buffalo.-Mayor.-Incident While Mayor.-Smith as a Politician.-His First Marriage.-Loses his Wife.-Second Marriage.-Loses his Second Wife.-Effect on his Mind.-Sickness.-Death.

THE life of Henry K. Smith demonstrates the truth of the old poet's creed, that the mind of man is his true kingdom, in which he can adopt the imperious language of Louis XVI., "the state is myself." As a lawyer, he was imbued with the spirit of legal science, instinctively perceiving and observing all its limitations, its harmonies, its modulations, and discords, just as a cultivated musician can perceive, without an effort, what is congruous or incongruous in the harmony of sound. He possessed much ability for legal disquisition and polemics. His legal speeches and arguments manifest the distinction between a lawyer possessing a philosophic mind, enlarged by extensive reading, disciplined by thought and reflection, and the mere legal martinet-the case lawyer or empiric, who uses legal precedent as the mason does a brick or stone, the carpenter a stick of timber, without under

standing the philosophy, the logic, or lesson by which it was established.

As an orator, in the popular assembly, he was dignified, easy, natural. As a politician, he was keen and discriminating, a close observer of men. In conducting party measures, he moved with facility and success, perfectly understanding how to catch "the tunes of the times." There was nothing of the trimmer about him, for he was ever bold, and spoke "straight out," a Democrat, never furling the banner of his party for the sake of policy, but always carrying it aloft, or like Bruce at Bannockburn, planting its standard in the hard rock. He wielded a strong and polished pen, which was the true emblem of his mind. Either in speaking or writing, there was a beautiful concord between his thoughts and his language. He read with perfect selection, not with the voracity of an intellectual dyspeptic. He thought with accuracy and consistency. He had a fine imagination, which made him a poet, so far as to enable him to appreciate what is most excellent in poetry. His profundity and metaphysical acuteness, his delicacy of taste, caused him to turn away from much which passes under the name of poetry. Not that he wrote poetry, for he did not. Yet in his hours of relaxation from professional labor, he read the productions of those great poets which bear the impress and the seal of genius, learning, and taste; for one of the tests of genius is, that it calls forth power in the minds of others. He believed that the fictions of a great intellect "are often the vehicles of the sublimest verities," that its flashes often open new regions of thought, and throw new light on the mysteries of our being, "that often when the letter is falsehood, the spirit is the profoundest wisdom." There are those who believe, or affect to believe, that a lawyer, to be successful, must be as emotionless as stone, as imperturbable as Diagones. At an early period in the career of Edmund Burke, it was said of him that his writings and his

speeches, while they evinced much imagination, even poetic inspiration, they exhibited little of the stern, cold logic of the law. Time, however, demonstrated the fact, that with his poetic taste and imagination, he united the highest legal abilities. The schoolmaster who taught his pupils that laughter, under any circumstances, indicated a weak intellect, maintained a theory equally as plausible as those who ignore imagination or poetic taste in the legal profession.

Henry Kendall Smith was born on the island of Santa Cruz, April 2nd, 1811. His parents were Jeremiah Smith and Jane Cooper. They were of English origin. At the time of Henry's birth, the island was in the possession of the English, but in the year 1815 it was restored to the Danes, its original possessors. Mr. Smith was an architect and builder. Eminent and distinguished in his calling, he derived a large income from it. He was a man of energy, ability and perseverance. During the occupation of the island by the English, his pecuniary affairs were greatly enhanced, but the change of government resulted disastrously to him, reducing him nearly to poverty. Yet such was his social standing and respectability, that he was promoted to the rank of major in the Danish provincial army, a position which offered him a small income.

One day, however, while passing through a corridor leading to some casemates in a fort, a quantity of quicklime was, by some accident, thrown into his face. The effect was terrible. In dreadful agony he was conveyed to his room, where he suffered for many weeks. At length his confinement ended; but he was blind for life. At this time his family consisted of two sons and two daughters. One of the sons is the subject of this sketch.

Mrs. Smith, the mother of Henry, was a woman of uncommon endowment in person and mind. She was one of those who are not easily discouraged by mis

fortune

one of those who ever look on the bright side of life, and fight its battles bravely. Like the mother of the great Corsican, she directed the attention of her children to the future. She held up before them the great, the gifted and the good, as models for them to follow. All sentiments of honor, of courage, of largeheartedness, of generosity, of kindness, she nursed and cherished in the hearts of her children. She taught them that success is conquest, and that no man holds it so fast as he who wins it by conflict. In short, she was one of those women who rule society by that invisible but mighty power, that tenderness, that potency of persuasion, which molds, guides and controls the intellect of her children. What princess, what sovereign can do more than this? Nay, where is the ruler that can do as much? It has been truthfully said, "that great men are ever much more the sons of their mothers than of their fathers, while seldom have great men seen their own greatness survive in their sons." Henry was, indeed, the son of his talented and noble mother. Many years after her death he beautifully said of her, "that the great rules of the gospel were so settled in her mind that she scarcely deliberated between degrees of virtue." Hence, the early home influences which surrounded Mr. Smith were of the purest and most elevated character.

With the first development of his nature he indicated a love of study, and at an early age he was placed in school, where he remained until he was eight years of age, when he was sent to Baltimore, and placed under the tuition of Rev. Dr. Berry, a distinguished minister of the Church of England, an accomplished and elegant scholar. At this time the elder Smith held heavy claims against the Danish government, incurred by its action in taking possession of Santa Cruz. But such was his anxiety to aid in the education of Henry, that he settled the whole in consideration of receiving at once, the small sum of fifteen hundred dollars.

In this settlement, he gave the following receipt: "I accept the sum of fifteen hundred dollars, in discharge of my claim against the Danish government, for the sole purpose of educating my son Henry, because I cannot delay until all that is justly my due can be collected by law."

As the boy was leaving home, his father said to him, "Henry, young as you are, you must know that you have now mainly to take care of yourself. According to your conduct, you will either sink or swim."

"I'll swim, father," was the laconic and earnest reply of the boy.

Actuated and inspired with this idea, he left the home of his father forever.

Guided by his accomplished and amiable preceptor, he made rapid progress in his studies, and perfected himself in the natural sciences, in the ancient and English classics, developing those intellectual powers which distinguished him in after life. The bright mind, the studious habits, and genial nature of the young man, soon won the confidence and warm esteem of Dr. Berry, and he labored to advance his pupil with unremitting zeal. He even aided him in his pecuniary matters. The young student's culture, both æsthetic and scientific, was in harmony with his fine physical and mental organization.

After attaining his thirteenth year, he received the rite of confirmation in the Church of England; and though but a boy of tender years, yet he formed his views of Christianity with caution, without asperity, and uninfected by bigotry. Through life he loved and revered the lofty ethics, the sublime teachings, the beautiful and consoling precepts of the Bible; and in the deep earnestness of his nature, he ever believed that "prayer ardent opens Heaven." Amid the most engrossing scenes of his life, such prayers touched the fountain of his feelings, and wherever he listened to them, whether in the great congregation, in