Green Clay Smith

Green Clay Smith (July 4, 1826 – June 29, 1895) was a U.S. soldier and politician. He served as a major general during the Civil War, was a congressman from Kentucky and was the Territorial Governor of Montana from 1866 to 1869.

Biography
Smith was born in Richmond, Kentucky to John Speed Smith. Smith pursued academic studies as a young man. During the U.S.-Mexican War, he enlisted in the Army and was commissioned a second lieutenant in the First Regiment of the Kentucky Volunteer Infantry on June 9, 1846. He graduated from Transylvania University in 1849, studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1852, commencing practice in Covington, Kentucky. From 1853 to 1857, Smith worked as a school commissioner.

Congressman
Smith was a member of the Kentucky House of Representatives from 1861 to 1863. On April 4, 1862, he was commissioned colonel of the Fourth Regiment of the Kentucky Volunteer Cavalry. He later advanced to brigadier general of volunteers on July 2, 1862. In 1862, Smith was elected an Unconditional Unionist to the thirty-eighth congress, resigning from his military post on December 1, 1863. He served as chairman of the Committee on Militia from 1865 to 1866. He was brevetted major general of volunteers on March 13, 1865.

Governor
Smith resigned from Congress in July 1866 when President Andrew Johnson appointed him Territorial Governor of Montana, which he served as from 1866 to 1869. After he resigned, he moved to Washington, D.C. where he was ordained to the Baptist ministry and supported the temperance movement.

Presidential nomination
In 1876, the National Prohibition Party nominated Smith for President of the United States. With his running mate, Gideon T. Stewart, the two received 9,737 popular votes in the election. He continued his work in religion and temperance and in 1890 became pastor of the Metropolitan Baptist Church in Washington, D.C. which he served as until his death in 1895.

Death
Smith was interned in Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia.