{{Short description|American politician}} {{Use mdy dates|date=November 2020}} '''John Smilie''' (1741{{spnd}}December 30, 1812) was an Irish-American politician from Newtownards, County Down, Ireland. He served in both houses of the Pennsylvania state legislature and represented the commonwealth in the U.S. House from 1793 until 1795 and from 1799 to 1812. thumb|John Smilie Signature
== Biography == Smilie was born in Ireland and immigrated on May 24, 1762, settling first in Lancaster County. He moved to Fayette in 1780. He was a prominent Jeffersonian and was identified with the "'Quid" branch of the party. In 1806–07, during the debates over the abolition of the slave trade, Smilie was among the most outspoken against the evils of the slave trade. He argued that slaves illegally imported after 1808 should be freed, and that slave smugglers deserved the death penalty. Neither provision was adopted.{{citation needed | date=November 2025}}
In 1791, Smilie was elected a member of the American Philosophical Society.<ref>{{Cite web|title=APS Member History|url=https://search.amphilsoc.org/memhist/search?creator=John+Smilie&title=&subject=&subdiv=&mem=&year=&year-max=&dead=&keyword=&smode=advanced|access-date=2021-04-05|website=search.amphilsoc.org}}</ref>
=== Congress === He served in the U.S. House from 1793 until 1795, then again from 1799 to 1812. He was reelected in 1812 to serve in the Thirteenth Congress but died before it opened.
=== Death === He died in Washington, D.C., aged 71, and is buried in the Congressional Cemetery there.
==See also== *List of members of the United States Congress who died in office (1790–1899)
==References== {{Reflist}}
==Further reading== *Everett, Edward. "John Smilie, Forgotten Champion of Early Western Pennsylvania." ''Western Pennsylvania Historical Magazine'' 33 (September–December 1950), 77–89.
==External links== *[http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=S000508 Biographic sketch at U.S. Congress website] *[https://web.archive.org/web/20110725200056/http://www.congressionalcemetery.org/site-r3010 Grave Location in the Congressional Cemetery] {{s-start}} {{s-off}} {{succession box | before= John Woods | title= Member, Supreme Executive Council of Pennsylvania, <br>representing Fayette County | years= November 2, 1786 – November 19, 1789 | after=Nathaniel Breading }} {{s-par|us-hs}} {{US House succession box | state=Pennsylvania | district=AL | before=None | after=None | years=1793-1795 }} {{US House succession box | state=Pennsylvania | district=11 | before=William Findley | after=John Baptiste Charles Lucas | years=1799–1803 }} {{US House succession box | state=Pennsylvania | district=9 | before=Andrew Gregg | after=Isaac Griffin | years=1803–1812 }} {{s-end}} {{Whiskey Rebellion}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Smilie, John}} Category:1741 births Category:1812 deaths Category:American people of Scotch-Irish descent Category:Burials at the Congressional Cemetery Category:Irish emigrants to the Thirteen Colonies Category:Members of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives Category:Pennsylvania state senators Category:Politicians from Fayette County, Pennsylvania Category:People of the Whiskey Rebellion Category:Democratic-Republican Party United States representatives from Pennsylvania Category:19th-century United States representatives Category:18th-century United States representatives Category:Members of the American Philosophical Society
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