{{Short description|American politician}} {{Use American English|date=March 2017}} {{Use mdy dates|date=March 2017}} {{Infobox officeholder | name = Robert Hardy Smith | image = Robert Hardy Smith (1813–1878).png | alt = | caption = | birth_name = | birth_date = {{Birth date|1813|03|21}} | birth_place = [[Camden County, North Carolina|Camden County]], North Carolina | death_date = {{Death date and age|1878|03|13|1813|03|21}} | death_place = [[Mobile, Alabama|Mobile]], Alabama | resting_place = [[Magnolia Cemetery (Mobile, Alabama)|Magnolia Cemetery]] | other_names = | occupation = Politician, military officer | spouse = | children = | awards = | education = | party = | signature = | office1 = Member of the [[Provisional Confederate Congress]] | term_start1 = 1861 | term_end1 = 1862 | office2 = Member of the [[Alabama Senate]] | term2 = 1851 | office3 = Member of the [[Alabama House of Representatives]] | term3 = 1849 }}
'''Robert Hardy Smith''' (March 21, 1813 – March 13, 1878) was an American [[politician]] who served as a senior [[Officer (armed forces)|officer]] of the [[Confederate States Army]] during the [[American Civil War]]. He served in the [[Alabama House of Representatives]] and the [[Alabama Senate]]. He served in the Confederate Congress, was a Confederate officer, and advocated for slavery.
== Early life and career == Smith was born in [[Camden County, North Carolina]] on March 21, 1813, and later moved to Alabama. In Alabama, Smith served in the state's House of Representatives in 1849 and the [[Alabama Senate]] in 1851. At the onset of the American Civil War, Smith was elected to represent the [[Alabama in the American Civil War|State of Alabama]] in the [[Provisional Confederate Congress]] from 1861 to 1862. He later served as a Colonel of the 36th Alabama Infantry Regiment. In an 1861 speech, Smith stated that Alabama declared its secession from the Union over the issue of slavery, which he referred to as "the negro quarrel". In the speech, he praised the [[Confederate States Constitution|Confederate Constitution]] for its un-euphemistic protections of the right to own slaves:
{{Blockquote|text=We have dissolved the late Union chiefly because of the negro quarrel. Now, is there any man who wished to reproduce that strife among ourselves? And yet does not he, who wished the slave trade left for the action of Congress, see that he proposed to open a Pandora's box among us and to cause our political arena again to resound with this discussion. Had we left the question unsettled, we should, in my opinion, have sown broadcast the seeds of discord and death in our Constitution. I congratulate the country that the strife has been put to rest forever, and that American slavery is to stand before the world as it is, and on its own merits. We have now placed our domestic institution, and secured its rights unmistakably, in the Constitution. We have sought by no euphony to hide its name. We have called our negroes "slaves", and we have recognized and protected them as persons and our rights to them as property.|author=Robert Hardy Smith|source=1861<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.openthought.org/summa/confederate.html |title=An Address to the Citizens of Alabama on the Constitution and Laws of the Confederate States of America |date=1861 |last=Smith |first=Robert Hardy |location=Mobile |page=19 |accessdate=May 3, 2001 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20010503021334/http://www.openthought.org/summa/confederate.html |archivedate=May 3, 2001 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.openthought.org/summa/confederate.html |title=The Confederate Constitution of 1861: An Inquiry into American Constitutionalism |date=1991 |first=Marshall L. |last=DeRosa |location=Columbia, Missouri |publisher=[[University of Missouri Press]] |page=66 |accessdate=May 3, 2001 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20010503021334/http://www.openthought.org/summa/confederate.html |archivedate=May 3, 2001 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.openthought.org/summa/confederate.html |title=Some Doubts About the Confederate Case |last=Shedenhelm |first=Richard |date=2001 |work=Open Thought |accessdate=May 3, 2001 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20010503021334/http://www.openthought.org/summa/confederate.html |archivedate=May 3, 2001}}</ref>}}
== Death == Smith died in [[Mobile, Alabama]] on March 13, 1878, and was buried at the [[Magnolia Cemetery (Mobile, Alabama)|Magnolia Cemetery]].<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/68915323/robert-h-smith/ |title=Robert H. Smith |newspaper=Selma Dollar Times |page=2 |date=1878-03-20 |access-date=2021-01-30 |via=Newspapers.com}}</ref>
== References == {{reflist}}
== External links == <!--===============================================================================--> <!--| WIKIPEDIA IS NOT A COLLECTION OF LINKS. Only a limited number of new links |--> <!--| should be added to this article. Consider adding links to the appropriate |--> <!--| category at the Open Directory Project (www.dmoz.org) and link back to that |--> <!--| category using the {{dmoz}} template. |--> <!--| See [[Wikipedia:External links]] and [[Wikipedia:Spam]] for further details |--> <!--===============================================================================--> * {{Find a Grave|6406711}} * [http://politicalgraveyard.com/bio/smith7.html#607.26.26 Robert Hardy Smith] at [[The Political Graveyard]] <!-- EDITORS NOTE: Please follow the [[WP:EL]] guideline where possible and consider discussing on the talk page. Thank you. -->
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Smith, Robert Hardy}} [[Category:1813 births]] [[Category:1878 deaths]] [[Category:Alabama state senators]] [[Category:Deputies and delegates to the Provisional Congress of the Confederate States]] [[Category:Members of the Alabama House of Representatives]] [[Category:Signatories of the Constitution of the Confederate States]] [[Category:Signatories of the Provisional Constitution of the Confederate States]] [[Category:19th-century members of the Alabama Legislature]]
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