Smith in written records of his era, was an American lawyer, plantation owner, and politician.
Lincolnton was connected to Yorkville (present-day York, South Carolina) by what was called the King's Mountain Road.
According to his granddaughter, "Judge Smith's father was, at one time, a man of considerable property, but his fortune was greatly impaired by the depreciation of the continental money.
"[3] He first attended a school in the neighborhood of Bullock's Creek, where he befriended classmates and fellow future national politicians Andrew Jackson and William H.
[3]: 106 The school at Bullock's Creek was located in the "District between Broad and Catawba Rivers," and taught by Rev.
"[3]: 107 To that same friend he also credited all of his success to a promise he once made to his wife, Margaret Duff, to forego alcohol.
The man, known to Smith by the surname "Elchinor", now went by the name John Alexander and was a Representative for the state of Ohio.
[4] The South Carolina local historian "Septugenarian" described Smith as an angry, violent man, widely feared as a controlling power within the community:[4] His resentments were strong, and sometimes he allowed his irascible temper to get the better of him, and he would use his cane as well as the biting sarcasm for which he was famous.
Fisticuffs, too, were rather more dignified then than now; but though I have seen the Judge several times attempt to take things high-handed in a dispute, some one always interfered, after one or two blows, and stopped the combatants...From his early residence, high position and dogmatical character, Judge Smith was long the autocrat of York.
Early in life she bestowed on him her honors; later he showed the wisdom of her trust, winning high places for himself and from them reflecting hack on her his fame.
[12]: 98 In response to Calhoun's growing popularity, Smith formed a coalition of States' Rights allies which included Thomas Cooper, Stephen Decatur Miller, Josiah J. Evans, and David Rogerson Williams.
"[3] Thirty years later he was remembered as "one of the earliest and most able opponents of the Northern abolition movement in the Senate of the United States.
[6] During the 1830s, Smith paid a reported US$75,000 (equivalent to $2,145,938 in 2023) for the construction of a mansion in central Huntsville that came to be known as Calhoun House; the grounds covered the entire city block bounded by Randolph, Eustis, Greene, and Lincoln streets.
By one account the property, split into four sub-plantations, covered 14,000 acres and was worked by 1,000 enslaved men, women and children.
On March 3, 1837, outgoing President Andrew Jackson nominated Smith to the Supreme Court.
Five days later, the newly seated Senate of the 25th Congress confirmed Smith's nomination by a vote of 23–18.
[7] Bennett Smith's daughter Mary became the wife of John Hutchings, Andrew Jackson's nephew and one of his slave-and-horse-trading business partners.
[24] Mary Smith died young but her only child, another daughter, was raised and educated by her grandparents.
[6] Judge Smith reportedly kept the bones of his daughter in a box and carried them with him wherever he went; they were buried with him when he died.