The great bulk of the fourteen boxes of papers of George B. Smith belongs to the years 1868-1878, and is to a certain extent of a technical legal nature. There are numerous letters and telegrams, varying in number from two or three to dozens, from railroad officials and attorneys, both in Wisconsin and in New York and other eastern cities. There are a number of Matthew H. Carpenter letters; other persons who figure prominently as writers of letters include Thomas A. Scott, vice president of the Pennsylvania railroad company, R. Wilder, George Burnham, Luther S. Dixon, James H. Howe, N.S. Murphy (law partner of Carpenter), William Ruger, B.C. Cook, Elisha W. Keyes, Henry L. Palmer, George Goodwin, Charles A. Gray, Francis J. Lamb (Smith's law partner from 1874 on), and A.R. Barrows.
These letters and telegrams advise concerning the progress, development, and methods of presentation of court cases. A good many have to do with claims against the railroads. Among the cases are some that went to the United States Supreme Court, as for example, that of the Milwaukee and Minnesota Railroad Company vs. James T. Soulter, survivor, etc., Russell Sage, et al., decided in December, 1871 against the parties which Smith and Carpenter represented. There are a few letters pertaining to and a draft of an argument against Potter law prosecutions. Scattered legal papers relate to various other railroad cases, such as the Wisconsin Central Railroad vs. C.C. Washburn, governor of Wisconsin (1874), and the McSpaden bankruptcy case at Boscobel in 1876 (not a railroad case). Some of these papers are likely in print.
In politics, Smith was a Democrat, and there are letters concerning state Democratic affairs, campaign speaking engagements, his candidacy for the United States Senate in 1869, and a number of letters in regard to the national elections of 1876. There are several letters in the early 1860s in regard to the Barstow claim, and numerous letters beginning in 1872 have to do with the efforts of N. B. Latta and A. H. Adams, convicted of counterfeiting and forgery respectively, to obtain gubernatorial pardons, and with pardon efforts of other individuals.
Individual letters of note scattered through the collection include one informing a certain U. H. Peak in 1861 on the state banking crisis; several letters from Horace Rublee in Berne, Switzerland in 1870; two letters of Matthew Carpenter in 1872 and 1873 concerning his efforts to have the court district of Judge Andrew G. Miller abolished and he area contained in it combined with the district of Judge James C. Hopkins; several letters in 1875 in regard to the dispute between Superior and Duluth over harbor facilities and construction of the Duluth canal; several very detailed and interesting letters of Lucius Fairchild, written from Liverpool in 1876, descriptive of life there and one of them describing a meeting at which John Bright spoke; a letter or two of Smith written from Louisiana in 1876 while he was a member of the Democratic committee to investigate alleged vote fraud; and a letter of Perry H. Smith, Jr., (1877) in regard to the Chicago mayoral election.
Other letter writers of political connection include T. E. Ewing of Ohio, James R. Doolittle, M. Wesenberg (editor of Minnesota), C. P. Utley, Wendell A. Anderson, and Levi Hubbell. There is also in the papers a lengthy article on the authorship of Shakespeare which Smith, a great admirer of Shakespeare, delivered on various occasions, and several other articles of literary nature. There are likewise the usual personal papers--receipts, deeds, notes, contracts, invitations and programs, commissions, and certifications of election to various offices; A memorandum of settlement with Elisha W. Keyes at the time the two men dissolved partnership in 1863 is here.
The six volumes of letter books, 1853-1870, are not continuous, there being a two-year gap beginning in the summer of 1854, and a three-year gap beginning in the summer of 1859. The handwriting is at times faded into almost complete illegibility.
The letterbooks include several letters in regard to the Democratic state campaign of 1853, with information about political figures of the day, the progress of the campaign, and the party situation, including the political situation in Milwaukee. Other letters concern the Maine temperance law, Judge Levi Hubbell whose impeachment trial took place in 1853, the candidacy of A. L. Collins for circuit court judge of the Madison district, and appointments. Two or three letters in 1856 to John Sharpstein discuss state finances under “shanghaism”, and school and swamp land speculation. In 1856 Smith was chairman of the state Democratic committee and a few letters in that connection are here.
In the 1860s letterbooks are some spirited letters giving expression to views on the Lincoln administration and the conduct of the war, illustrative of Democratic feeling on the subject, several letters to former Governor Barstow, a small amount of correspondence with Horatio Seymour about national party policy, and correspondence having to do with efforts to aid needy soldier friends in the army. But while political and personal letters continue after the war closes, most of the letters concern Smith's law practice. Apparently about 1866 he turned to railroads.
The diaries in twenty-nine volumes are very brief in their record, and as a rule record only happenings in the every-day life of the household or, in winter months, what the legislature is doing. They are valuable, however, for checking events, because of their continuity and at times contain information probably not available elsewhere.
There is occasional reference to epidemics, such as to cholera in 1850 and 1854, or trips about Wisconsin, such as a trip made to Willow River in 1851, one to Washington for Buchanan's inaugural, or trips to Philadelphia and New York or about the state for various reasons. There is record of the men Smith meets, political figures, railroad officials, notes on the Barstow-Bashford controversy, shanghaism, James R. Doolittle's election as senator, occasional rather pointed remarks about individuals, the Booth case, and information about Madison people and Madison home, social, and religious life. In the 1860s the party was in eclipse, and Smith's notes are less informative.
In the 1870s he makes brief notes on the Dells [of the Chippewa] bills; state election of 1871; visit of Russian Grand Duke Alexis to Milwaukee in 1872, at a banquet in whose honor Smith spoke; railroad land grants in 1873; the Bank of Madison crisis of 1873; the Taylor campaign and state administration following; a trip to the Philadelphia exposition in 1876, and his trip in November of that year to New Orleans as one of the Democratic representatives in the Louisiana presidential vote canvass deadlock; in 1877 a trip to Medina, Ohio, his boyhood home; and in 1879 the United States senatorial election.
Added later to the collection were programs of the Monthly Musical Club of Madison and other items related to social activities.
