At the onset of the American Civil War, Smith was elected to represent the State of Alabama in the Provisional Confederate Congress from 1861 to 1862.

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 Constitution for its un-euphemistic protections of the right to own slaves: We have dissolved the late Union chiefly because of the negro quarrel.

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.

We have called our negroes "slaves", and we have recognized and protected them as persons and our rights to them as property.Smith died in Mobile, Alabama on March 13, 1878, and was buried at the Magnolia Cemetery.