Background
Caleb Blood Smith, lawyer, congressman, and Secretary of the Interior. Smith was elected to the Indiana House of Representatives
and was reelected in 1834, 1835, and 1836. He represented Indiana in the Twenty-eighth, Twenty-ninth, and Thirtieth Congress
serving on the Committee of Foreign Affairs and chairing the Committee on Territories. Known for his staunch opposition to
the Mexican War, he refused another nomination and left Congress in 1849. He practiced law in Cincinnati, Ohio, and was president
of Cincinnati & Chicago Railroad. In 1859, he moved to Indianapolis where he became one of the most active Republicans, campaigning
for Lincoln during the presidential elections. When President Lincoln formed his cabinet, he appointed Smith as Secretary
of the Interior. In December 1862, he resigned the position, and was then appointed U.S. Judge for the Indiana District. He
died in office in 1864. His son Walton John Smith served as Chief Clerk of the Department of the Interior, and then Clerk
of the U.S. District Court in Indianapolis. In 1866, he was with the U.S. Legation in Lima, Peru. Charles William Spooner
was the son of William L. Spooner (1818-1889), a Cincinnati lawyer, judge, and civic leader who had studied law in Caleb Blood
Smith's office. From 1863 to 1865, Charles William Spooner served as acting Ensign aboard the U.S.S. Reindeer No. 35, which
was part of the Mississippi Squadron. After the war, he studied at Cincinnati College and was partner in his father's law
firm. From 1870 to 1873, he traveled in Germany, Scandinavia, France, and Switzerland, with the purpose of studying foreign
languages. He then lived in New York.
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