Samuel Stanhope Smith

Senator

• Born: March 16, 1751
• Birthplace: Pequea, Pennsylvania
• Died: August 19, 1819

Biography

Samuel Stanhope Smith was born in the mid-eighteenth century in Pennsylvania. His father, a pastor, operated an exclusive and prestigious school, which Smith attended as a child. When he was sixteen, he enrolled at what is now Princeton University in New Jersey, starting at a third-year level. He graduated in 1769 as valedictorian after showing remarkable talent in mathematics. Smith married Ann Witherspoon, the daughter of the president of Princeton, with whom he would have nine children. Smith returned to teach at his father’s school for a time.

Following that, he served as a missionary in Virginia, where he founded the Price Edward Academy, later known as the Academy of Hampden-Sydney and now known as Washington and Lee University. In 1779, Smith joined the faculty of Princeton University as professor of moral philosophy. He would eventually rise to the position of president of the university. Smith was also politically liberal, advocating separation of church and state, and he made curriculum changes at Princeton that brought greater focus to the study of modern languages and science.

While still a student at Princeton, Smith wrote what is considered to be his most significant work, An Essay on the Causes of the Variety of Complexion and Figure in the Human Species, to Which Are Added Strictures on Lord Kaim’s Discourse, on the Original Diversity of Mankind, which argued that all of mankind was the same, instead of the races being created separately. What was particularly influential about Smith’s essay was that he did not rely on the Bible to sustain his argument, as was often the case in philosophy at the time.

Smith produced sixteen works of moral and religious writing with liberal leanings during his lifetime. Notable titles of Smith’s include An Oration, Upon the Death of General George Washington, Delivered in the State-House at Trenton, on the 14th of January, 1800, The Lectures Corrected and Improved, Which Have Been Delivered for a Series of Years in the College of New Jersey; on the Subjects of Moral and Political Philosophy, and A Comprehensive View of the Leading and Most Important Principles of Natural and Revealed Religion: Digested in Such Order as to Present to the Pious and Reflecting Mind, a Basis for the Superstructure of the Entire System of the Doctrines of the Gospel.

Smith resigned his post as president of Princeton University after a student riot that resulted in poor enrollment and professors taking leave of their positions. Some felt that Smith had attempted to go too far in his scholastic reforms and that Princeton’s reputation was being damaged. After serving Princeton for thirty-three years, Smith died in 1819.