546 HISTORY OF THE COUNTY OF WESTCHESTER. 



wore out with various labors, 



and fell asleep in Jesus. 



Deceased February 26th, 1771, 



aged sixty-eight years, 'J months, and 22 days. 



By faith he lived, in faith he died, 



and faith foresees a rising day when Jesus comes, 



while hope assumes and boasts his joy among the tombs. 



Oh death ! Oh grave ! where is thy victory. 



"Thanks be to God that giveth us the 

 victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." 



His brother was the Hon. William Smith. Lorenzo Sabine, Esq., in 

 his very valuable work on American loyalists, says of this individual : — 

 " That he was Chief Justice and a member of the council of the colony, 

 and considered to be in office in 17S2. His father, the Honorable 

 William Smith, an eminent lawyer and Judge of the Supreme Court, 

 died in 1769. William Smith, the subject of this notice, graduated in 

 Yale College in 1745. It appears, that he was at a loss as to the side 

 which he should espouse in the controversy which preceded the Revolu- 

 tion, and that he made no choice until late in the war. It seems, also, 

 that a number of other gentlemen of wealth and influence, who had 

 wavered like himself, joined the royal cause about the same time, in 

 1 77S. It is believed that, at first, he opposed the claims of the ministry. 

 However this may be, his final decision excited the remark of both the 

 Whigs and Loyalists. The former indulging their wit in verse, and call- 

 ing him the 'weathercock,' that 'could hardly tell which way to turn;' 

 and the latter noticing his adhesion in their correspondence. He settled 

 in Canada after the war, and was Chief Justice of that colony. He 

 published a history of New York, which was continued by his son 

 William."^ 



a '-This eloquent man," alluding to Judge Smith, "having been an adherent to the royal 

 cause in the Re olution, left the city of New York in 1783, with the British troops, and was 

 afterwards rewarded by bis sovereign with a high judiciary office at Quebec. Judge Smith, 

 although thus removed from the place of his origin, always contemplated the politics of his 

 native country with peculiar solicitude. One evening, in the year 1789, when Dr.Mitchell was 

 in Quebec, and passing the evening at the chief justice's house, the leading subject of con- 

 !i was the new Federal constitution, then under the consideration of the States, on the 

 recommendation <>f the Convention which eat at Philadelphia in 1787. Mr. Smith, who had 

 imewh a indisposed for several days, retired to his chamber with Mr. Grant, oneof the 

 members of tin- Legislative council, at an early hour. In a short time Mr. Grant invited Dn. 

 Mitchell, 111 Mr Smith s name, to walk from the parlor into Mr. Smith's study, and sit with 

 them. Mr. Mitchell was conducted to a sofa, and seated beside the chief Justice, before whom 

 on a tat>! ! was a large bundle of papers. Mr. 8mith resumed the subject, of American politics, 

 and noticed his papers. After searching among them a while, he unfolded a certain one, 

 which he sii 1 w as written about thetiine the colonial commouons grew violent, in 1775; and 

 contained a plan or system of government, sketched out by himself then, and which nearly 

 i th ■ constitution afterwards proposed by the Federal convention of the United 

 states, lie then read the contents. The piece was long and elab irate, and written with much 

 beauty and spirit. 'This, sir,* said he, after finishing it, 'Is a copy of a letter, which I sent to 

 a member of < im<rrr.ss in 1775, who was an intimate friend of General Washington. You may 

 trace to this soorce th" sentiments in favor of a more energic government for your country, 

 contained m the c >mmander-in-chlef'8 circular letters ; and from this, there can be no doubt, 

 that tti I all the State-* derive their leading traits for your new form of govern- 



ment.' '— £ .-• ... Sabine'a Suprapineal Sketches of American Loyalists. 



