Francis Ormond Jonathan Smith, who would become one of the most dynamic and controversial figures in Maine political history, was born in Brentwood, New Hampshire on November 26, 1806.
Educated at Phillips Exeter Academy he undertook the study of law in Portsmouth before transferring to the office of Samuel Fessenden and Thomas Amory Deblois when his father purchased an inn in the Woodfords section of present day Portland.
In 1827, as editor of Portland’s Eastern Argus, the State’s most influential Democratic newspaper, Smith ignored the views of the party’s leading men and supported Andrew Jackson for President. When the old party leadership of William King, William Pit Preble, Ashur Ware and John Chandler proved unresponsive, Smith shouldered them aside gaining a reputation for ruthlessness and a legion of enemies.
Smith served in the Maine House in 1830, but lost his bid for reelection. He began publication of the Augusta Age at the State’s new capital in 1831 and in September was elected to the Senate.
Serving as President of the Senate in 1832, Smith was elected to Congress in 1833 and reelected in 1834 and 1836. Smith devoted most of the 1840’s and 1850’s to the promotion of Samual F.B. Morse’s magnetic telegraph, an enterprise in which he made a fortune.
He did, however, act during the 1840’s as Daniel Webster’s secret agent in the adjustment of the Northeast Boundary controversy. The successful negotiation of the Webster-Ashburton Treaty of 1842 was, in part, made possible by his skillful manipulation of public opinion in Maine.
During the Civil War he served two terms in the Maine House. Having broken with the Lincoln administration over the issuance of the Emancipation Proclamation, he became notorious as a southern sympathizer and "copperhead."
Smith died bankrupt in Deering at his beloved "Forest Home" on the evening of October 14, 1876. His passing went unlamented, and he was soon forgotten by contemporaries and historians alike.