Marcus A. Smith - Wham Robbery Trial

Wham Robbery Trial

While waiting to return for the next session of Congress, Smith's new legal firm became defense counsel for the Wham Paymaster Robbery trial. The case involved the May 1889 ambush of a U.S. Army detachment transporting roughly US$26,000 in gold coins between Fort Grant and Fort Thomas. Based largely upon reports the black soldiers assigned as guards for the payroll that the robbers had fled toward the Mormon town of Solomonville, eight men had been arrested for the crime. After taking the case, Smith and his partner, Ben Goodrich, preformed extensive prep work.

The trial began in November 1889 with Judge Richard E. Sloan running a strict courtroom. Smith used his preparatory work to attack the prosecution's case. During his testimony, Major Joseph Washington Wham, who had been in command of the payroll detachment, identified newly minted coins in one of the defendant's safe deposit box as coming from the coins stolen during the robbery. During cross examination, Smith asked Wham to separate the identified coins from similar ones borrowed from a local bank. Wham was unable to do so. Smith followed this by pointing out that U.S. Marshall William F. Meade had not gone to the site of the attack to check a claim that following the robbery the robbers had fled directly to Mexico. During closing arguments, Smith played upon the jurors biases and criticized the court. When Judge Sloan rebuked Smith over the criticisms, Smith feigned ignorance about what the judge was referring. It was not until Smith was threatened with a US$500 fine that the defense council backed down. At the end of the trial the defense won an acquittal.

The effect of the trial to Smith's reputation lasted for years. Even though none of the defendants were Mormon, attitude of the day blamed Mormons for the robbery. Smith refused to play upon this attitude by suggesting Mormon involvement as part of his defense. As a result, the Territorial Delegate was able to count on a large portion of the "Mormon vote" for the remainder of his political career. At the same time, Smith was accused of receiving some of the stolen gold as part of his legal fees. An example of this is a Tucson Citizen cartoon depicting the defendants and defense attorneys with the caption "The Wham Robbers — Which is Mark Smith?"

Due to time demands of the Wham case, Smith arrived in Washington after the start of the 51st United States Congress. His second term saw the Territorial Delegate introduce 46 bills, two of which were enacted into law. Smith introduced bills to reduce the size of the White Mountain Indian Reservation, allowing stray cattle which crossed into Mexico to be returned without payment of a tariff, allowing foreign ownership of mining operations, and dealing with squatters on railroad land. Among the relief bills he introduced was a request to reimburse Solomon Warner US$2227.50 for hardware and gunpowder that had been taken from him during the American Civil War. On January 6, 1890, Smith introduced his first Arizona statehood bill. While it had no realistic hope for passage at that time, the introduction was timed to occur during a flurry of activity that saw six new states admitted to the Union between November 2, 1889 and July 10, 1890. By the end of his second term, only 4 of the 87 resolutions and bills Smith had introduced in Congress had been passed. Despite the lack of measurable results the Territorial Delegate had been building a reserve of congressional goodwill, particularly among Democratic members of the House.

As Congress was preparing to adjourn before the elections of 1890, Smith contracted malaria and his return to Arizona was delayed till mid-October. As a result the campaign was already in progress upon his return to Arizona. The Democratic territorial platform was similar to previous years but called for statehood, abolishing certain territorial offices, and opposition to creating of a special court dealing with land claims. The Republicans in turn had been forced to settle on George W. Cheyney, Superintendent of Public Instruction and mine owner from Tombstone, for their nominee when Nathan O. Murphy and several other potential candidates declined the nomination. These circumstances allowed Smith to win a third term but with a small margin of victory.

During the second session of the 51st United States Congress, Smith attacked the growing Indian rights movement. He called the movement "sickening in the sight of dead friends in Arizona". The Arizona Delegate then used the actions of the Apache Kid to label all Apache Scouts as untrustworthy and worthless. To this Smith called for removal of the Papago people. Furthermore, he opposed providing funds for Indian schools. When it was proposed slaughterhouses be built, Smith called for clarification on whether they were for "the slaughter of beeves, the slaughter of Indians, or the slaughter of white people." He then requested the funding bill explicitly exclude "beeves and white people."