Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 5).djvu/599

where the city of Milwaukee now stands, but sold his real estate in 1836 for one quarter in <-;ish and the balance in notes, and returned to Scotland. The financial depression of 1837 made it necessary for him to return to Chicago and take back the land he had sold. In IS37 he obtained a charter for the Wis- consin marine and fire insurance company. which enabled him to receive deposits and issue certificates there- f<"' to the amount of

• 1.."><"XOOO. Alexander

Mitchell was made sec- retary of the company. with headquarters at Milwaukee. Tlie in- surance company's cer- titicates circulated free-

ly. and were for many

years the most popular currency in the northwest. In 1839 Mr. Smith, under the "firm-name of George Smith and Co., founded the first banking-house in the city of Chicago. When, in 1854, the Wisconsin legislature suppressed the circulation of the Wisconsin ma- rine and fire insurance company's certificates. Mr. Smith sold the insurance company, of which he had become sole owner, to Alexander Mitchell, and bought the charters of two banks in Georgia, which together had the right to issue notes to the extent of $3,000,000. These notes were duly issued in Georgia, sent to Chicago, and there circulated by lie, >rge Sinith and Co. Mr. Smith began to close up his business affairs in 1857, and in 1801 he returned to Great Britain, residing chiefly in London.

SMITH, George Williamson, clergyman ( 'atsldll, N. Y.. 21 Nov., 1836. He was graduated at Hobart in 1857, was principal of Bladensburg academy, Md., in 1858-'9. and served as a clerk in the U. S. navy department in 1861-'4, at the same time studying theology. He was ordained deacon in I860, and priest in 1864, in the Protestant Episcopal church, and was an assistant at various churches in Washington, D. C. He was acting professor of mathematics in the U. S. naval acad- emy at Newport, R. I., in 1864-'5, chaplain at the Annapolis academy in 1865-'8, and chaplain on the TJ.S. steamship "Franklin " in 1868-'71. He was rector of Grace church, Jamaica, L. I., in 1872-'81, of the Church of the Redeemer, Brooklyn, X. Y., in 1880-'3, and since the latter date has been president of Trin- ity college, a por- tion of which is shown in the ac- companying illus- tration. He re- ceived the degree of D - D - from Ho ~ bart in 1880, and from Columbia in

1887. Trinity

gave him the degree of LL. D. in the latter year. He has pub- lished occasional sermons, and is the author of a Memoir of Rev. John H. Van Ingen" (printed privately, Rochester, X. Y., 1878).

SMITH, Goldwin, English author, b. in Read- in-, llcrkshire, Kngland, 13 Aug.. 1823. He was educated at Eton and Oxford, where he was grad- uate,! in 1S45. In 1847 he was elected a fellow of I'niversity college. London, where he acted for some time as a tutor, and in the same year he was admitted t,, the bar at Lincoln's Inn, but he has never practised. In 1850 he was appointed assist- ant secretary of the royal commission that was charged with the duty of making an inquiry into the condition of Oxford university, and he was secretary to the second Oxford commission, which effected' many salutary changes in the constitution and government, of that institution. He was ap- pointed a member of the Popular education com- mission in 1858. and the same year was made regius professor of modern history at Oxford, which chair he held till 1866. He was an active champion of the U. S. government during the civil war, when he wrote " Does the Bible Sanction American Slavery?" (London, 1863), "On the Morality of the" Emancipation Proclamation " (1863), and other pamphlets that influenced pub- lic opinion on this subject. In 1864 he visited this country and gave a series of lectures, receiving an enthusiastic welcome and the degree of LL. I), from Brown univer- sity. He returned to the United States in 1868, was appoint- ed professor of Eng- lish and constitu- tional history in Cornell university, and resided at Itha- ca till 1871. when he exchanged his chair for that of a non- resident professor, and removed to To- ronto, where he has resided ever since. Prof. Smith was ap- pointed a member of the senate of

Toronto university,

was elected first president of the council of public instruction, and was for two years president' of the Provincial teachers' association. He edited the "Canadian Monthly" in 1872-'4. founded the "Nation" in 1874, the. " Bystander" in 1880, and the Toronto Week," the principal literary and political journal in Canada, in 1884. In his writings and lectures he has advocated annexation of that country to the United States, which he regards as the manifest destiny of the Dominion, and he has also favored the project of commercial union, or unrestricted reciprocity with this country, which was adopted as a plank in the political platform of the Canadian Liberals in 1888. He has written much for the English reviews, and, among other works, has published " Irish History and Irish Character" (London, 1861); "Lectures on Mndern History" (1861); "The Empire" (1863); "Three English Statesmen " (1867) ; "Cowper" (1880): "A Trip to England" (1888); "Jane Austen" and "Bay Leaves," translations from Latin poets(1890); " Canada and the Canadian Question " (1892) ; The United States: an Outline of Political History " and "Essays on Questions of the Day" (1893); "Specimens of Greek Tragedy," translations (1894); "Oxford and Her Colleges" (1895); "Guesses at the Riddle of Existence" (1897); "The United Kingdom," a political history of England, and "Shakespeare: the Man" (1899). svL f ^-** j ~*-*^