Cotesworth P. Smith

[2] A native of South Carolina, Smith came in his boyhood to the portion of the Mississippi Territory that would later become Wilkinson County,[3][4] and "received a meager education, but, being endowed with fine natural talents, and possessed of much energy and ambition, turned his attention to the law and made rapid progress".

[5][4] Smith's term expired in 1837, and in 1840 he was appointed by Governor Alexander G. McNutt to fill the vacancy on that bench occasioned by the death of Justice Pray, but about a month later he lost his bid for election to that seat to Edward Turner.

R., holding that the State was liable for the payment of the bonds of the Union Bank, in contradiction to the political decision on this subject.

[3][5] In July 1850, Smith was among a number of dignitaries, including Mississippi Governor John A. Quitman, indicted for "getting up an expedition against the island of Cuba, a territory belonging to a nation with which we are at peace", in violation of U.S. neutrality laws.

[7] Unlike Quitman, Smith traveled to New Orleans in November 1850, where the trial was to be held, to answer the charges in person.