1816.128: Campaign Circular of Alexander Smyth.
Published: 1816
Full Title: Fellow citizens, electors of Wythe County. When I retired from your immediate service in the House of Delegates, it was with a view to be still more useful in the Senate of the State … Your fellow citizen, Alexander Smyth. March, 1816.
Author: Smyth, Alexander (1765-1830).
Place Issued: Virginia
Issuing Press: Uncertain
Description: 1 sheet [1 pg.]; 23 cm. x 19 cm. (broadside).
Notes
Smyth was a long-standing member of the House of Delegates representing Wythe County who had resigned that office to serve in the U.S. Army during the War of 1812; he returned to the House for the 1815-16 session and had intended to run for the Virginia Senate in the 1816 elections; but the retirement of Federalist congressman Daniel Sheffey (1770-1830), Smyth decided to seek that open seat instead, as he explained in this letter to his Wythe County neighbors; he defeated Federalist Benjamin Estill (1780-1853) by a 2-1 margin and represented the 6th Virginia Congressional District (then Lee, Grayson, Russell, Tazewell Washington, and Wythe counties) until 1825, then again from 1827 until his death. Sheet lacks colophon; the press then closest to Wythe was at Abingdon, Estill's home base, so this item was likely not printed there; previously, Smyth had employed printers in both Staunton and Richmond to issue earlier political publications; hence, assigning any press to this particular circular would be purely speculative, so the indeterminacy here.