Meet A.D. Smith, Forgotten Libertarian Abolitionist Hero and Would-Be President of Canada
RUTH DUNLEY FIRST encountered Abram D. Smith as a barely mentioned bit of trivia in Glyndon Van Deusen’s 1959 book The Jacksonian Era. “In September, 1838,” Van Deusen wrote, “some 160 Hunters from both sides of the [Canadian] border attended a convention in Cleveland, where they elected one Smith, a resident of that city, President of the Republic of Canada.”
Who was this Smith person, and how did he get elected by a bunch of carousing yahoos as president of a neighboring country? Why had she never heard of him before? Surely such a colorful figure should have made it into textbook ; surely his whole legacy was recorded in an obscure dissertation, some old journal article, or at least a beefy footnote. Something out there must explain this guy and his role in what became a major international affair.
