James Smith Jr.

{{Infobox officeholder |name = James Smith Jr. |image = James Smith Jr.jpg |jr/sr = United States Senator |state = New Jersey |term_start = March 4, 1893 |term_end = March 3, 1899 |predecessor = Rufus Blodgett |successor = John Kean |birth_date = {{birth date|1851|6|12}} |birth_place = Newark, New Jersey, U.S. |death_date = {{death date and age|1927|4|1|1851|6|12}} |death_place = Newark, New Jersey, U.S. |party = Democratic }} '''James Smith Jr.''' (June 12, 1851{{spaced ndash}}April 1, 1927) was a newspaper publisher and U.S. Senator from New Jersey. A leader of the Irish Catholic community, he was the Democratic party boss who sponsored Woodrow Wilson to the governorship in 1910. <ref>John Milton Cooper, ''Woodrow Wilson'' (2009) pp 120–121.</ref>

== Biography == Born in Newark, New Jersey, Smith attended private schools and St. Mary's College, in Wilmington, Delaware. He was engaged in the dry-goods and importing business, and later became a manufacturer of leather in Newark. He owned two Newark newspapers, the Northern Star and the Evening Star (predecessors to The Star-Ledger), from 1895 to 1915.<ref name=obit>"James Smith, Ex-Senator of New Jersey, Dead," Syracuse Herald, 1927-04-02.</ref>

He was a member of the Newark Common Council from 1883 to 1887. He declined the nomination for mayor of Newark in 1884. He also served as president of Newark's first works board.

Smith was elected as a Democrat to the United States Senate and served from March 4, 1893 to March 3, 1899, but did not seek re-election when his term ended. He had been the Chairman of the Committee on the Organization, Conduct and Expenditures of Executive Departments (in the Fifty-third United States Congress). After his political career, Smith returned to running his businesses, including banking, and raised his son. He served as receiver of the short-lived United States Shipbuilding Company following its collapse.

Smith was credited with giving Woodrow Wilson his political start.<ref name=obit/> In 1910, he engineered the nomination of Wilson (then President of Princeton University) as Governor of New Jersey, the position Wilson held when elected President of the United States in 1912.<ref name=obit/> However, Smith broke with Wilson in late 1910, when Wilson did not support Smith's Senate bid, but instead supported James Edgar Martine. Martine had won the Democratic preference primary, but Smith and his supporters refused to abide by the outcome of the primary, where few men voted.<ref name=obit/> After failing to persuade Smith to withdraw, Wilson threw his support to Martine, who was in 1911 chosen by the New Jersey Legislature. Thereafter, The ''Star's'' newspaper editorials were consistently critical of Wilson.<ref name=obit/><ref>John Milton Cooper, ''Woodrow Wilson'' (2009) pp 126–129.</ref>

In 1915, Smith's financial interests collapsed, and he became insolvent, leaving his creditors only six cents for each dollar of debt.<ref name=obit/> He sold his newspapers that year, leaving Paul Block as their President.

He died in Newark, aged 75, and was interred in Holy Sepulchre Cemetery, East Orange. He was survived by four sons and two daughters.<ref name=obit/>

== References == {{reflist}} ==Further reading== * Link, Arthur S. ''Wilson: The Road to the White House'' (1947).

{{s-start}} {{s-par|us-sen}} {{U.S. Senator box |state=New Jersey |class=1 |before=Rufus Blodgett |after=John Kean |alongside=John R. McPherson, William J. Sewell |years=1893–1899}} {{s-end}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Smith, James, Jr.}} Category:1851 births Category:1927 deaths Category:St. Mary's College (Delaware) alumni Category:Politicians from Newark, New Jersey Category:New Jersey Democrats Category:Democratic Party United States senators from New Jersey Category:Burials at Holy Sepulchre Cemetery (East Orange, New Jersey) Category:Businesspeople from Newark, New Jersey Category:19th-century United States senators