Marcus A. Smith - Breaks in Service

Breaks in Service

With the Arizona Democratic party in relative disarray and fighting to prevent a split, Smith decided not to run for reelection in 1894. Smith's wife began suffering from severe health problems in 1893 and the official reason for not running was concerns for her well-being. Critics countered by claiming he was afraid of losing if he stood for reelection. Smith's inability to gain statehood for Arizona or to block creation of the Court of Private Land Claims both diminishing the Territorial Delegate's popularity.

After his term expired, Smith returned to Tombstone and resumed in private legal practice. In July 1895, Smith paid a visit to Governor Hughes in Phoenix. The visit had the effect of easing tensions and restoring unity within the Arizona Democratic party. The easing proved to be short lived and soon after the Arizona Daily Star, which was published by Governor Hughes, was accused of insufficient support of the Democratic nominee for Territorial Delegate during the 1894 election and being overly sympathetic to Republican Oakes Murphy. Smith was appointed Assistant United States Attorney in October 1895. Consequentially, he moved to Tucson in early 1896.

At the beginning of 1896, efforts to replace Governor Hughes had intensified with Territorial Secretary Charles M. Bruce, Territorial Attorney General Francis J. Heney, and U.S. Marshal William K Meade working for the governor's removal. Smith supported the new effort and while in Washington D.C. on official business during March 1896 visited the White House. When the governor was removed at the end of March 1896, Smith was credited as being a key part of the removal effort. Shortly thereafter Hughes' newspapers began an attack on Smith, accusing him of having improperly backing Republican rancher Colin Cameron for a seat on the Arizona Cattle Sanitary Commission and of having agreed to support the Gold standard in exchange for the governor's removal.

Smith announced his candidacy for Territorial delegate on August 29, 1896. After Governor Franklin declined to run for the office the other candidate for the Democratic nomination was Winthorp A. Rowe, the President of the 1891 constitutional convention. Smith won the nomination on the first round by a vote of 65–30. With the nomination secured, Smith resigned as Assistant United States Attorney so he could run for office. During the general election the Republicans suffered divisions over currency issues when their party platform supported the Gold Standard. At the same time, newspapers controlled by Hughes began running stories attacking Smith. The attacks backfired and many voters still unhappy with the former governor decided to support the Democratic nominee. When election day arrived, Smith won a plurality over Republican Andrew J. Doran and Populist Buckey O'Neill.

When the 55th United States Congress convened, Smith was returned to the Committees for Indian Affairs, Public Lands, and Territories. To this was added an assignment on the Military Affairs panel. This unusually favorable set of assignments was due to the friendships Smith had made during his previous terms in Congress. As a Democrat, Smith had minimal impact in the Republican controlled Congress. His attempt to introduce legislation supportive of bimetallism was blocked and he argued unsuccessful against the Dingley Tariff. Smith repeatedly spoke out against the Annexation of Hawaii but supported President McKinley in the build up to the Spanish–American War. During the course of his fifth term Smith introduced 22 bills. While his usual statehood bill failed to be passed, Smith was successful in gaining authorization to build a permanent capital building in Phoenix and in gaining a railroad right-of-way to the south rim of the Grand Canyon.

Smith had been to seek reelection during most of 1898. This changed days before the September nominating convention when Smith received word that his wife had become severely ill while in Los Angeles. He immediately took a train to be with her and was accompanied by his primary challenger for the nomination, John F. Wilson, who did not wish to "appear as though he were taking advantage of Mark." When the convention began, Smith returned and withdrew his name from consideration. After Wilson was selected as the Democratic nominee, Smith stumped for him throughout Southern Arizona.

When his term ended, Smith returned to private legal practice in Tucson. He arranged for a minimal work load and spent most of his time tending to his wife. Elizabeth Smith's health continued to decline and she died on October 16, 1899. She was buried in Evergreen Cemetery.

By the end of 1899, Smith began showing interest in returning to Washington D.C. as Arizona's Territorial Delegate. Wilson was proving to be a popular delegate and calls were made for Smith not to run. Nevertheless, in early 1900 Smith announced his intention to challenge for his old position. As each candidate tried to obtain delegates for the territorial convention, Maricopa county became the key battleground. The county held an election to select delegates to the territorial convention on September 1 with a county level convention held four days later. The results of the election were quickly contested, with one newspaper hostile to Smith claiming the number of votes in Phoenix's 4th wards exceeded the total number of voters in the ward. A ruling by Albert C. Baker allowed delegates from the contested precincts to be included in the election results, giving Smith effective control of the territorial convention.

Wilson supporters, unhappy with the election results, selected their own set of delegates to send to the convention. The September 12 convention began with two individuals, one a Smith supporter and the other a Wilson supporter, claiming the role of temporary chairman. When the convention secretary refused to allow the Maricopa county Wilson supporters to be recognized by the convention, a fight broke out and police were called in to breakup the resulting riot. Negotiations between the two camps failed to find a resolution and on the second day of the convention the two groups split with Smith supporters congregating on the east side of the convention hall and Wilson supporters on the west. At one point, Wilson decided to withdraw from the race at the convention but the candidate was convinced not to do so by his wife.. By the end of the convention, each group had selected their own set of convention officers and nominees. As the campaign began, several proposals were made to correct the split by Wilson but were rejected by Smith as either unworkable or unfairly favoring the Wilson campaign. It was not until Wilson withdrew from the race on October 12 that the split in the Democratic party ended. Despite the unusual campaign, Smith still won his sixth term as Territorial Delegate.