David Allen Smalley

David Allen Smalley (April 6, 1809 – March 10, 1877) was a United States federal judge.

Born in Middlebury, Vermont, Smalley read law in 1831 and practiced in Jericho, Vermont where he was postmaster from 1831 to 1836. Moving first to Lowell, Vermont he settled in Burlington, Vermont in 1836, and was a member of the Vermont State Senate from 1843 to 1844.

At the 1852 Democratic National Convention he was Vermont's Vice President of the Convention as well as member of the platform committee and choice to serve on the Democratic National Committee. President Franklin Pierce appointed him Collector of Customs for the District of Vermont in April 1853. Again a delegate at the Democratic Convention held at Cincinnati in 1856, he was reappointed to the National Committee where he served as Chairman (1856–1860).

On February 2, 1857, Smalley was nominated by President Franklin Pierce to a seat on the United States District Court for the District of Vermont vacated by the death of Samuel Prentiss the month before. Smalley was confirmed by the United States Senate on February 3, 1857, and received his commission the same day. As Chair of the Democratic National Committee it was Smalley's task to open the ill-fated Charleston Convention on April 23, 1860. He continued to serve as District Judge until his death, in Burlington, in 1877.

References

• David Allen Smalley at the Biographical Directory of Federal Judges, a public domain publication of the Federal Judicial Center.