RARE cdv CALEB B. SMITH civil war ABRAHAM LINCOLN Brady

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Very RARE Mathew B. Brady Original Carte de Visite Caleb Blood Smith(1808-1864) Beautiful original albumen photograph !Size: 2 1/2 x 4 inches Condition: Photo - Very Good(please note that the back of the cdv has been "skinned" off,but it is identified in the image - on the chair leg - as "BRADY") Handwritten in pencil below photo:"Caleb B. Smith" Buyer pays $2 shipping Online Research: "SMITH, Caleb Blood, a Representative from Indiana; born in Boston, Mass., April 16, 1808; moved with his parents to Ohio in 1814; attended Miami University, Oxford, Ohio, 1825-1826; studied law; was admitted to the bar in 1828 and commenced practice in Connersville, Fayette County, Ind.; founded and edited the Indiana Sentinel in 1832; member of the State house of representatives 1833-1837, 1840, and 1841, and served as speaker in 1836; unsuccessful candidate for the Twenty-seventh Congress in 1841; elected as a Whig to the Twenty-eighth, Twenty-ninth, and Thirtieth Congresses (March 4, 1843-March 3, 1849); chairman, Committee on Territories (Thirtieth Congress); appointed by President Zachary Taylor a member of the board to investigate claims of American citizens against Mexico; moved to Cincinnati, Ohio, and practiced his profession; member of the peace convention of 1861 held in Washington, D.C., in an effort to devise means to prevent the impending war; appointed Secretary of the Interior in the Cabinet of President Lincoln and served from March 5, 1861, to January 1, 1863, when he resigned to become judge of the United States District Court for the District of Indiana, in which capacity he served until his death in Indianapolis, Marion County, Ind., January 7, 1864; interment in the City Cemetery, Connersville, Ind. " " Caleb B. Smith (1808-1864) Secretary of the Interior (1861-63). Chairman of Indiana Republican delegation at Chicago Republican National Convention in 1860 who seconded Mr. Lincoln's nomination. His selection fulfilled an obligation unfortunately incurred by Lincoln's managers in Chicago but provided little else to recommend it. Mrs. Lincoln opposed Illinois politician Norman Judd for the post and Mr. Lincoln told Indiana's Schuyler Colfax that he would rather have Colfax in Congress. Smith's capabilities were pedestrian and he was easily recruited for the cabinet intrigues of Salmon Chase and Edwin Stanton. Congressman James G. Blaine later observed that Smith "had no aptitude for serious a task as the administration of a great department." Even David Davis, who pressed for Smith's nomination, later wrote that he had made a "great mistake" in pushing Smith for a cabinet post: "Smith repels me very much. T can be neither heart nor sincerity about him & he cannot be a man of any convictions." Smith was a less easy mark for Mary Todd Lincoln, questioning her bills for White House redecoration. She, however, prevailed on Smith through John Watt to approve questionable purchases and ease her anxiety. "Smith did so by covering up the scandal," wrote historian Michael Burlingame, but first Smith interviewed several of those involved in Mrs. Lincoln's fiscal shenanigans, which apparently involved payments for non-existent work and materials. "According to Thurlow Weed, the Interior Department and Congress 'measurably suppressed' the story out of 'respect for Mr. Lincoln.' Congressman Benjamin Boyer of Pennsylvania confirmed Weed's story, adding that the president paid the bill himself and withdrew the government check," wrote Burlingame. Mary Todd Lincoln told her friend Orville Browning in December 1862 that Mr. Lincoln wanted to replace Smith--perhaps with Browning. Smith himself shared with Browning a different ambition--appointment to the Supreme Court. "Essentially a spellbinding party orator and jobbing politician, always indolent and now actually in poor health, Smith had little taste for his Cabinet job," wrote Lincoln biographer Reinhold Luthin. "He hoped that Lincoln would elevate him to the United States Supreme Court, since geographically h... read more

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