The Lost President: A. D. Smith and the Hidden History of Radical Democracy in Civil War America

"Smith followed a journey to restore republican values and justice: first as the man who wanted to be the President of Canada in the late 1830s, next as the judge who touched off a legal firestorm by declaring the Fugitive Slave Act unconstitutional in the 1850s, and finally as the tax commissioner who demanded that former slaves have an opportunity to preempt land in South Carolina during the Civil War."

"A detective story set against the backdrop of the volatile antebellum era, this socio-cultural biography pieces together methodological inquiry with a jigsaw puzzle composed of secret documents, probate records, court testimony, speeches, correspondence, newspaper coverage and genealogical research in order to tell the story of a man named Smith, of his vision for the United States, and, more generally, of the value of remembering secondary historical characters."--Provided by publishers