Marcus A. Smith

Submitted by Jean Walker, 2018

Arizona A Review of its Resources H.C. Stinson and W.N. Carter Compliers 1891

Marcus A. Smith, Arizona's able delegate to Congress, is one of the best known men in the Territory.

Mr. Smith was born in Kentucky in 1852, and having received a fine education, he entered the law office of a prominent attorney at Lexington, and soon became one of the leading lawyers of that city. The year following his admission to the bar he was elected prosecuting attorney for Lexington, a city of some 20,000 people.

At the end of his term he refused to accept a re-nomination for the office and turned his face toward the West, arriving in San Francisco in 1879, where he practiced law for one year, and left for Tombstone, Arizona. On account of his pre-eminent abilities as a lawyer, he soon established for himself a lucrative practice. He was elected prosecuting attorney of Cochise County and served one term. He administered the affairs of his office with such ability that he soon rid the community of the large criminal element that at that time infested the then prosperous mining city of Tombstone.

In 1886 he received the Democratic nomination for delegate to Congress, and was elected by a majority of nearly 2,000. In 1888 he was again nominated for Congress, and was elected by the handsome majority of nearly 4,000, Maricopa County giving him more than 1,000 majority. He has served his constituency in the halls of Congress with as much distinction as he did Cochise County as prosecuting attorney. To his individual efforts was due in a great measure the defeat of the McGreary land court bill.

During his four years' Congressional career, he proved himself a fearless and unrelenting enemy of every land-grab measure. He also has been the steady friend of every bill that sought to aid the reclaiming of the arid lands of the country by the adoption of a wise and judicious water storage system, and in 1890 he was nominated by the Democracy of Arizona for Congress for the third term, without a dissenting vote—an honor rarely ever accorded to a candidate in Arizona. Mr. Smith was opposed by every corporation and land-grab claimant in the Territory—but, after one of the hardest fought campaigns ever witnessed in Arizona, he was elected by an overwhelming majority, having carried eight out of the ten counties in the Territory.

Marcus A. Smith is, without question, one of the ablest young men in the nation, and he is as fearless and incorruptible as he is able—a man in whom the people repose the utmost confidence, and, when Arizona shall have attained her place in the union of States, Marcus A. Smith will be her unanimous choice for Senator.

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