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“E” is for Elmore, Franklin Harper (1799-1850)

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“E” is for Elmore, Franklin Harper (1799-1850). Congressman, banker, U.S. senator. A native of Laurens, Elmore graduated from the South Carolina College. After studying law, he was admitted to the bar and practiced in Colleton District. In 1836 he was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives and was a faithful ally of Calhoun. In 1839 he was elected president of the Bank of the State of South Carolina. During his tenure the bank prospered and proved itself a vital institution of economic development in the state. Elmore and Robert Barnwell Rhett led a clique of lowcountry Calhoun supporters that wielded power in the state for twenty years. When Calhoun died in 1850, Elmore was appointed to fill the vacancy April 11, 1850. Franklin Harper Elmore died in Washington six weeks later on May 29, 1850.

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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.