{{short description|Former President of Liberia}} {{More citations needed|date=August 2007}} {{Infobox officeholder | name = James Skivring Smith | office = Superintendent of Grand Bassa County | image = SkivringSmith.jpg | term_end = 1884 | term_start = 1874 | office2 = 8th Vice President of Liberia | predecessor2 = Joseph Gibson | president2 = Edward James Roye | party = True Whig | office1 = 6th President of Liberia | vice_president1 = ''Vacant'' | predecessor1 = Edward James Roye | successor1 = Joseph Jenkins Roberts | term_end1 = January 1, 1872 | term_start1 = November 4, 1871 | term_end2 = October 26, 1871 | term_start2 = January 3, 1870 | successor2 = Anthony W. Gardiner | birth_date = February 26, 1825 | birth_place = Charleston, South Carolina, United States | death_date = 1892 (aged 66-67) | death_place = Buchanan, Liberia | children = James Skivring Smith Jr. | parents = Carlos & Catharine Smith | profession = Physician | office3 = | term_start3 = | term_end3 = | office4 = 4th and 14th Secretary of State of Liberia | predecessor4 = Daniel Bashiel Warner | president4 = Stephen Allen Benson | successor4 = Edward Wilmot Blyden | term_start4 = 1856 | term_end4 = 1860 | predecessor5 = James Elijah Moore | president5 = James Spriggs Payne | successor5 = John W. Blackledge | term_start5 = 1876 | term_end5 = 1877 | office6 = Member of the Senate of Liberia<br />from Grand Bassa County | term_start6 = 1855 | term_end6 = 1860 | term_start7 = 1868 | term_end7 = 1869 | education = University of Vermont College of Medicine <small>(transferred)</small><br />Berkshire Medical College <small>(MD)</small> }} '''James Skivring Smith''' (February 26, 1825 – 1892) was a Liberian politician who served as the sixth president of Liberia from 1871 to 1872. Prior to this, he served as the eighth vice president of Liberia from 1870 to 1871 under President Edward James Roye and as Secretary of State from 1856 to 1860 in the cabinet of President Stephen Allen Benson. He was a member of the True Whig Party.

Smith was born in Charleston, South Carolina in 1825 to a family of free blacks. He arrived with his family in Liberia in 1833, and his parents died of malaria within a year. As a young man, he trained under Dr. James W. Lugenbeel, a medical doctor of the American Colonization Society. He then returned to the United States to study medicine at the University of Vermont College of Medicine. He transferred to Berkshire Medical College in Massachusetts, graduating with his medical degree in 1848. He was the second African American to receive a Doctor of Medicine from an American medical school, after David J. Peck a year earlier. After graduating, he returned to the newly independent Liberia to work as a physician.

In 1855, Smith was elected to the Senate, representing Grand Bassa County. From 1856 to 1860, he was Secretary of State under President Stephen Allen Benson. In the 1869 presidential election, Smith was elected vice president alongside President Edward James Roye. He and Roye were the first True Whig politicians to hold their respective offices. After Roye was deposed in the 1871 Liberian coup d'état, Smith served as president for the remainder of Roye's term. His two-month presidency remains the shortest in Liberian history. At the end of his presidential term, Smith returned home to Buchanan, and served as Superintendent of Grand Bassa County from 1874 to 1884. His son James Skivring Smith Jr. went on to serve as vice president from 1930 to 1944.

== Early life and education == Smith was born in Charleston, South Carolina, on February 26, 1825, the fourth of seven children of free blacks Carlos and Catharine Smith. He and his family arrived in Liberia in 1833, and his parents died of malaria within one year of their arrival.

After working with a white doctor of the American Colonization Society, Smith returned to the United States to study medicine at the University of Vermont College of Medicine. He transferred to the Berkshire Medical College in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, from which he received his medical degree in 1848.<ref name="Charleston" /> He was the second African American to graduate from a medical school in the United States, after David J. Peck, who graduated from Rush Medical College in 1847.<ref name="Ward2003">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QoMDMGoyXqsC&pg=PA47|title=Black physicians in the Jim Crow South|last=Ward|first=Thomas J.|publisher=University of Arkansas Press|year=2003|isbn=978-1-61075-072-1|page=47|access-date=28 May 2013}}</ref> He then returned to the newly independent Liberia, working for the ACS as a doctor.<ref name="Charleston">{{cite book | first=Alphonso | last=Brown | title=A Gullah Guide to Charleston: Walking Through Black History | pages=96 | publisher=The History Press | year=2008 | isbn=978-1-59629-392-2 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AI8SdCmP42oC&q=%22James+Skivring+Smith%2C+Jr.%22&pg=PA96}}</ref>

== Politics == Smith served as Secretary of State from 1856 to 1860 and was later elected as a senator from Grand Bassa County from 1868 to 1869. In the 1869 presidential election, Smith was elected vice president under President Edward James Roye. The two were the first True Whig politicians to hold their respective offices. On October 26, 1871, President Roye was forcibly removed from office after unconstitutionally extending his term, leading Smith to serve the remaining two months of Roye's term as president. Smith's tenure as president remains the shortest in Liberian history. After leaving office, Smith returned to Buchanan and served as Superintendent of Grand Bassa County from 1874 to 1884.<ref>[http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/h?pp/PPALL:@field(NUMBER+@1(cph+3g06775)) Library of Congress website]</ref>

==Personal life== Smith's son, James Skivring Smith Jr., later became a successful politician in Liberia, also serving as Superintendent of Grand Bassa County and as vice president from 1930 to 1944.<ref name=Charleston/>

==References== {{Reflist}}

{{s-start}} {{s-off}} {{succession box|title=Vice President of Liberia|before=James M. Priest|after=Anthony W. Gardiner|years=1870&ndash;1871}} {{succession box|title=President of Liberia|before=Edward James Roye|after=Joseph Jenkins Roberts|years=1871&ndash;1872}} {{s-end}}

{{LiberianForeignMinisters}} {{Vice Presidents of Liberia}} {{Presidents of Liberia}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Smith, James Skivring}} Category:Year of death uncertain Category:1825 births Category:1892 deaths Category:19th-century African-American politicians Category:19th-century American medical doctors Category:19th-century Liberian medical doctors Category:19th-century Liberian politicians Category:African-American medical doctors Category:American emigrants to Liberia Category:Americo-Liberian people Category:Berkshire Medical College alumni Category:Ministers of foreign affairs of Liberia Category:Members of the Senate of Liberia Category:People from Buchanan, Liberia Category:Medical doctors from Charleston, South Carolina Category:Politicians from Charleston, South Carolina Category:Presidents of Liberia Category:True Whig Party politicians Category:Vice presidents of Liberia