Election As Governor
In 1898 Smith received the Republican nomination for Governor. As the Republican nominee in a state that elected only Republicans to statewide office from the 1850s to the 1960s, Smith easily won the general election and served the one two year term available to Governors under the "Mountain Rule".
(Under the Mountain Rule, the Republican party alternated candidates for Governor and Lieutenant Governor between the east and west side of the Green Mountains, identified nominees years in advance, and restricted governors to two years in office.
Smith was from the west side of the Green Mountains, and his predecessor, Josiah Grout and successor, William Wallace Stickney were from the east. Republicans also apportioned the state's two U.S. Senate seats between each side of the Green Mountains.
The Republican party maintained this rule, with few exceptions, for more than 100 years, winning every election for Governor from the 1850s until 1960, and every U.S. Senate election from the 1850s until 1974.)
As Governor from 1898 to 1900 Smith was a strong opponent of all efforts to regulate or tax corporations.
In 1899 he officiated at the welcome home ceremony in Bennington for Admiral George Dewey, hero of the Spanish American War. Smith was also the organizer of Old Home Week, the fair and festival designed to celebrate rural life and the Vermont roots of Americans living in other states.
Read more about this topic: Edward Curtis Smith
Famous quotes containing the words election and/or governor:
“What a glorious time they must have in that wilderness, far from mankind and election day!”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Ah, Governor [Murphy, of New Jersey], don’t try to deceive me as to the sentiment of the dear people. I have been hearing from the West and the East, and the South seems to be the only section which approves of me at all, and that comes from merely a generous impulse, for even that section would deny me its votes.”
—William Howard Taft (1857–1930)