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"M" is for Miller, Stephen Decatur (1787-1838)

South Carolina From A to Z
SC Public Radio

"M" is for Miller, Stephen Decatur (1787-1838). Congressman, governor, U.S. Senator. Miller was elected to Congress in 1816. From 1822 to 1828 he was a member of the South Carolina Senate where he was an early leader in the nullification movement. In 1824 he offered resolutions setting forth the strict states’-rights constructionist argument and declared federal internal improvements and protective tariffs unconstitutional. The Senate passed the “Miller Resolutions, “ but the House did not. However the following year, the legislature adopted the “Miller Resolutions”—and they became the platform of the States’ Rights and Free Trade Party in South Carolina. Miller served as governor and a delegate to the Nullification Convention. Stephen Decatur Miller was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1830, but resigned in 1833 because of ill health and moved to Mississippi.

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Dr. Walter Edgar has two programs on South Carolina Public Radio: Walter Edgar's Journal, and South Carolina from A to Z. Dr. Edgar received his B.A. degree from Davidson College in 1965 and his Ph.D. from the University of South Carolina in 1969. After two years in the army (including a tour of duty in Vietnam), he returned to USC as a post-doctoral fellow of the National Archives, assigned to the Papers of Henry Laurens.