29 of 56 · Pennsylvania
SMITH
An Irishman's Guide
28 lessons. 4 chapters. In his own words.
Ulster-born, loud in committee, useful in a fight. A country can use a man who is not polished.
James Smith · 1719–1806 · Lawyer · militia colonel
01
Bring Ulster
1 of 4
Pack the accent. Unpack it in the useful county.
“He was born in the province of Ulster, second son of a well-to-do farmer, and was brought as a boy to Chester County.”
Biographical account of James Smith · 1719
1727, a farm family, a new inland line. The frontier needed lawyers more than it needed more gentlemen from the river. Bring the stubbornness. Leave the parish fight.
Read law on the edge, not in the capital's mirror.
“He read law under his brother George and in the office of Thomas Cookson at Lancaster, and was admitted to the Pennsylvania bar in 1745.”
Admission and training of James Smith · 1745
Shippensburg, then York. Not Philadelphia polish. A country practice is a civics course with mud on it. Take the mud. It votes.
Know a knave from a fool. Avoid the partnership of both.
“He went into an iron foundry in the early sixties with two partners, one of whom was a knave, and the other a fool.”
James Smith's later account of his foundry · 1765
He said it himself. The works failed. Humor is a postmortem that keeps you from repeating the firm. Classify the room. Exit.
A country can use a man who is not polished.
“If the British administration should determine by force to effect a submission to the late arbitrary acts of the British parliament, in such a situation we hold it our indispensable duty to resist such force, and at every hazard to defend the rights and liberties of America.”
York / Pennsylvania provincial convention language Smith supported · 1775
Ulster had heard empire before. He did not need a pamphlet to recognize the sound. Import that ear. It is worth a finishing school.
Bring Ulster. A country can use a man who is not polished.
“He was an Irishman, and had the humor and the heat of that people.”
Sanderson, Biography of the Signers · 1823
Humor and heat. Import both. A polished room needs a man who will say the ugly number.
An immigrant's loyalty is a chosen loyalty. Spend it hard.
“He had come young from Ireland, and chose this country twice.”
Sanderson, Biography of the Signers · 1823
Twice: arrival and signature. Chosen twice beats inherited once. Act like it.
Do not sand the accent off to sit with Pennsylvanians.
“He was rough in speech, and honest in it.”
Sanderson, Biography of the Signers · 1823
Rough and honest. The pair travels. Sanded and sly does too, and founds less.
02
Raise a Battalion
2 of 4
Raise it before Congress asks nicely.
“In 1774 James Smith organized a volunteer company of militia in York County. The volunteers elected him captain, and the company grew to a battalion.”
York County militia record · 1774
A year before Lexington, a lawyer drilling farmers. Battalions do not grow out of resolutions. They grow out of a man who sends the notice and buys the powder.
At fifty-five, hand the line to a younger pair of legs.
“The battalion would have kept him in command. He declined in favor of a younger man, and kept his usefulness in the council and the Congress.”
Account of Smith's militia command · 1775
Ego wants the horse. The job wants the man who can still ride it. He was fifty-five. He chose Congress and the levy. Rank is a tool. Put it down when the tool is heavier than the work.
Send two regiments. Then go argue.
“He caused two regiments of Pennsylvania militia to repair to the Flying Camp near Perth Amboy.”
Militia dispositions, 1776 · 1776
Talk after the men are on the road. The Flying Camp was a hungry, real thing. Paper colonels are a peacetime luxury.
Take the brigadier's commission when the state is still in the field.
“In 1781 he was elected brigadier general of the state militia.”
Pennsylvania militia appointment · 1781
Late in the war, still useful. Titles after Yorktown are souvenirs. Titles during the hunting of Cornwallis are jobs. Know which year you are in.
Raise a battalion. Humor does not hold a line.
“He raised a company, and served in the field.”
Sanderson, Biography of the Signers · 1823
Raised, served. The joke stops at the drum. After the drum, be dull and present.
A lawyer-colonel must still march.
“He was more useful in the field than he looked.”
Sanderson, Biography of the Signers · 1823
Than he looked. Looks are a Tory metric. Miles are not.
Do not let the battalion become a dining club.
“He insisted on discipline.”
Sanderson, Biography of the Signers · 1823
Discipline. Irish heat without it is a riot. Apply the gavel to the company.
03
Keep the Joke
3 of 4
A knave and a fool: say it once, accurately.
“One of whom was a knave, and the other a fool.”
James Smith on his foundry partners · 1765
Wit that classifies is a public service. Wit that only sparkles is a tavern. Keep the first. It will save you a second foundry.
When the papers burn, joke, then go back to court.
“His office and papers were destroyed by fire. He said it was no great loss, for they consisted chiefly of notes of speeches he had intended to make in Congress and never delivered.”
Anecdote recorded in early signer biographies · 1805
Maybe embroidered. Still the right instinct. Unspoken speeches are a blessing to the republic. Mourn the dockets, not the oratory.
Facetiousness is a field ration.
“He was a man of great hilarity and good humor, and his company was sought by the bar of York as much for his stories as for his law.”
Sanderson, Biography of the Signers · 1823
A long war in a small town will curdle you if you let it. Keep the joke. Not as a mask. As a way of carrying weight that does not spill on the junior counsel.
Laugh, then resist at every hazard.
“We hold it our indispensable duty to resist such force, and at every hazard to defend the rights and liberties of America.”
Pennsylvania provincial convention, 1775 · 1775
Humor without the second sentence is a jester. The second sentence without humor is a man who will break by February. Carry both.
Keep the joke. A grim cause still has to eat.
“He was famous for his wit in company.”
Sanderson, Biography of the Signers · 1823
In company. Wit that cannot sit a siege is still a mercy in a winter camp. Keep it on a leash, not in a grave.
A joke that lands on the powerful is a vote.
“He did not spare great names when they were wrong.”
Sanderson, Biography of the Signers · 1823
Did not spare. Humor as sandpaper. Use it on the high, not on the enlisted.
Do not become a clown. Become a man who can still laugh.
“His humor did not prevent his being a hard worker in committee.”
Sanderson, Biography of the Signers · 1823
Did not prevent. That is the test. If the joke eats the work, kill the joke.
04
York Town
4 of 4
Read it in your own square the same week.
“On the evening of the sixth of July he rode to York with a printed broadside of the Declaration and read it in the town square.”
York Town tradition of the reading · 1776
Philadelphia adopted. York had to hear. He did not wait for a courier's convenience. Take the ink home. The square is the other half of the signature.
When Congress flees, they flee to you.
“In September of 1777 the Congress sat at York, and the town became the capital of the United States for nine months.”
Journals of Congress at York, Pennsylvania · 1777
His town. His streets. The Articles were adopted there. Being from a small place is an asset when the large place is on fire. Keep a table and a spare bed.
Practice until you are eighty-one, then stop.
“He resumed the law at York after the war and did not retire until 1800, in the eighty-first year of his age.”
The war ends. The docket does not. A signer who goes back to wills and fences is the point of the parchment, not a footnote to it.
Die in the churchyard you already knew.
“He died at York on the eleventh of July, 1806, and was buried in the Presbyterian churchyard there.”
Burial record of James Smith · 1806
Not Philadelphia. Not a national shrine. The town he armed, the square he read to, the bar he amused. That is a completed circuit. Do not require a larger grave to prove the life.
York Town is a borrowed capital. Make it work.
“Congress sat at York when Philadelphia was occupied, and he was useful there.”
Sanderson, Biography of the Signers · 1823
Useful there. A capital is a habit of sitting, not a set of buildings. Sit.
When the city falls, the country is a room in York. Fill it.
“He remained with Congress in its wanderings.”
Sanderson, Biography of the Signers · 1823
Wanderings. A government that can wander has not fallen. Pack the minute-book.
Die having been useful in the ugly town, not only the pretty one.
“He died in 1806, long after the ugly towns had become stories.”
Sanderson, Biography of the Signers · 1823
Stories. You were there when they were merely ugly. That is the better credit.