Cotesworth Pinckney Smith Biography - Mississippi Genealogy Trails

Cotesworth Pinckney Smith

Courts, Judges, and Lawyers of Mississippi, 1798-1935, by Dunbar Rowland, BS, LLB, LLD, Printed by Press of Hederman Bros., Jackson, Miss., 1935, pgs 92-94

Cotesworth Pinckney Smith, chief justice of the Mississippi High Court of errors and Appeals, was born in the district of Natchez, son of Peter Smith, a planter who came from South Carolina in 1785, and died in 1837, leaving a large estate. In early manhood he engaged in the practice of law. In politics he was a Whig. In 1826 he was elected representative of Wilkinson county and was chairman of the committee on internal constitution went into effect he was elected one of the three judges of the high court of errors and appeals. He served until 1837 by this election; for a month in 1840, by appointment of the governor, was the successor of Judge Pray, and in 1849 was again elected to the court for a full term, and in November 1851, was chosen chief justice, a dignity which continued to be his until his death, November 11, 1862. He delivered the opinion of the court in the famous case of Johnson vs. The State, sustaining the validity of the Union Bank bonds, in contradiction o the political decision on this subject. The resolution of the bar, presented by Hon. T. J. Wharton, February 23, 1863, recite: “Born in Mississippi while yet under the territorial government of Georgia, Judge Smith grew with the growth of the State. Honored and trusted at all times by his fellow-citizens, he never held an office not conferred by them… Learned, conscientious, fearless, and upright, for nearly twelve years he presided in this court.”

Governor Clark wrote of him in a message of December 1863: “Sad as have been the inroads which death has made upon our State in the last twelve months, the demise of none of her sons has caused a wider or more heart-felt sorrow. Born upon the soil of Mississippi, devoted heart and soul to her interest, and watching with zealous care over her honor, Judge Smith spent a long and laborious life in her service. In the forum, in the senate chamber and upon the bench, he labored, with a zeal that knew no weariness, and with a purity of patriotism and loftiness of purpose that has had few parallels. In every position he occupied, his great talents, his profound erudition, his extensive legal attainments and the unquestioned purity of his character, shed unfading luster upon the annals of his native State.”

In winter of 1861 Judge Smith asked and was given a place on the staff of General Reuben Davis, in command at Corinth. “I considered this a very great honor to me,” Davis wrote, “as he was a gentleman of sixty-five years of age, of unusual dignity of character, a ripe scholar, and the ablest jurist in the State, excepting Judge Sharkey.” He was interested in the movement for the liberation of Cuba, in 1850, and while he was judge of the high court his name appeared on the bonds that were put in circulation by Lopez.