NEW YORK REPORTS COURT OF APPEALS STATE OF NY 1857- 1863 SMITH - 13 books

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Erasmus Peshine Smith
STATE REPORTER: 1857 - 1863
Born in New York City on March 2, 1814, Smith moved to Rochester as
a child and graduated from Columbia College in 1832 and Harvard Law
School in 1833. After law school, he returned to Rochester, where he
engaged in private practice and briefly served as City Attorney. In 1850
he was selected as chair of mathematics and instructor in political
economy at the newly established University of Rochester. In 1853
Smith wrote A Manual of Political Economy, a popular treatise that
promoted the “American System” of economic thought. He was
appointed State Reporter in 1857, publishing 13 volumes of the New
York Reports. During Smith’s tenure, the practice of numbering the
reports consecutively through the entire series and only secondarily by
the reporter’s name was instituted, a custom which has been followed
since. He was appointed Commissioner of Immigration in Washington,
D.C., in 1864 but left this position shortly thereafter to become Examiner
of Claims at the Department of State where, under William H. Seward
and Hamilton Fish, he helped shape department policy. In 1871, at the
behest of the Japanese government, Secretary Fish appointed Smith to
serve as legal advisor to the Japanese Minister of Foreign Affairs, the
first American chosen to assist the Japanese government in an official
capacity. The treaties and reforms initiated by Smith were instrumental
in bringing about the industrial revolution that occurred in Japan during
the period of 1876 through 1886. Smith returned in 1876 to Rochester,
where he remained active in the city’s affairs and helped rear his
grandchildren, among whom were Wolcott and Caroline Balestier, friend
and wife, respectively, of Rudyard Kipling. Smith died in Rochester on
October 21, 1882.
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