View source for Stephen Decatur Miller

{{Short description|American politician}}
{{Infobox officeholder
|name                = Stephen Decatur Miller
|image                = Stephen Decatur Miller.jpg
|jr/sr              = United States Senator
|state               = [[South Carolina]]
|term_start          = March 4, 1831
|term_end            = March 2, 1833
|predecessor         = [[William Smith (South Carolina senator)|William Smith]]
|successor           = [[William C. Preston]]
|order2 = 52nd
|office2 = Governor of South Carolina
|term_start2 = December 10, 1828
|term_end2 = December 9, 1830
|predecessor2 = [[John Taylor (1770-1832)|John Taylor]]
|successor2 = [[James Hamilton, Jr.]]
|lieutenant2 = Thomas Williams
|office3 = Member of the [[South Carolina Senate]] from [[Claremont County, South Carolina|Claremont District]]
|term3 = November 25, 1822 &ndash; December 10, 1828
|predecessor3 = [[Robert Witherspoon]]
|successor3 = John Isham Moore
|state4 = [[South Carolina]]
|district4 = [[South Carolina's 9th congressional district|9th]]
|predecessor4 = [[William Mayrant]]
|successor4 = [[Joseph Brevard]]
|term_start4 = January 2, 1817
|term_end4 = March 3, 1819
|birth_date         = {{birth date|1787|5|8}}
|birth_place        = [[Waxhaws]], [[South Carolina]]
|death_date         = {{death date and age|1838|3|8|1787|5|8}}
|death_place        = [[Raymond, Mississippi|Raymond]], [[Mississippi]]
|party               = [[Nullifier Party|Nullifier]]
}}
'''Stephen Decatur Miller''' (May 8, 1787{{spaced ndash}}March 8, 1838) was an American politician, who served as the [[List of Governors of South Carolina|52nd Governor of South Carolina]] from 1828 to 1830. He represented [[South Carolina]] as a [[United States House of Representatives|U.S. Representative]] from 1817 to 1819, and as a [[United States Senate|U.S. Senator]] from 1831 to 1833.

==Life and career==
He was born in [[Waxhaws|Waxhaw settlement, South Carolina]] and graduated from [[South Carolina College]] in 1808. After he studied law, he practiced in [[Sumter, South Carolina|Sumterville]].<ref>[http://www.nga.org/portal/site/nga/menuitem.29fab9fb4add37305ddcbeeb501010a0/?vgnextoid=1a161b968514a010VgnVCM1000001a01010aRCRD&vgnextchannel=e449a0ca9e3f1010VgnVCM1000001a01010aRCRD NGA Biography of Stephen Decatur Miller] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070930035825/http://www.nga.org/portal/site/nga/menuitem.29fab9fb4add37305ddcbeeb501010a0/?vgnextoid=1a161b968514a010VgnVCM1000001a01010aRCRD&vgnextchannel=e449a0ca9e3f1010VgnVCM1000001a01010aRCRD |date=2007-09-30 }}</ref>
Stephen Decatur Miller was married twice. His first wife, Elizabeth Dick, died in 1819. None of their three children lived to adulthood. Miller remarried in 1821; his second wife was a girl sixteen years his junior, Mary Boykin (1804−1885). They had four children together. Despite the age difference, their marriage was happy and passionate.<ref>Muhlenfeld, ''Mary Boykin Chesnut'', chapter 2.</ref>

During his successful campaign for the [[United States Senate|Senate]] on a platform of abolishing tariffs, he made a speech at [[Stateburg, South Carolina]] in September 1830 where he said, "There are three and only three ways, to reform our congressional legislation. The representative, judicial and belligerent principle alone can be relied on; or as they are more familiarly called, the ballot box, the jury box and the [[cartouche box]]."<ref>{{cite web | url=https://quoteinvestigator.com/2018/04/09/ballot/ | title=Ballot Box, Jury Box, Cartridge Box – Quote Investigator | date=9 April 2018 }}</ref>
Stephen Miller renounced his political career in 1833 and ventured into farming in Mississippi. He died in [[Raymond, Mississippi]], in 1838, leaving his wife and children in debt.<ref>Muhlenfeld, ''Mary Boykin Chesnut'', chapter 2.</ref>

Their daughter [[Mary Boykin Chesnut|Mary Boykin Miller]] (1823&ndash;86) married [[James Chesnut, Jr.]] (1815&ndash;85), who later became a U.S. Senator and a [[Confederate States of America|Confederate]] general. Mary Chesnut became famous for her diary documenting life in South Carolina during the [[American Civil War|Civil War]].<ref>[http://www.sciway.net/hist/governors/miller.html SCIway Biography of Stephen Decatur Miller]</ref><ref>[http://www.nga.org/portal/site/nga/menuitem.29fab9fb4add37305ddcbeeb501010a0/?vgnextoid=1a161b968514a010VgnVCM1000001a01010aRCRD&vgnextchannel=e449a0ca9e3f1010VgnVCM1000001a01010aRCRD NGA Biography of Stephen Decatur Miller] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070930035825/http://www.nga.org/portal/site/nga/menuitem.29fab9fb4add37305ddcbeeb501010a0/?vgnextoid=1a161b968514a010VgnVCM1000001a01010aRCRD&vgnextchannel=e449a0ca9e3f1010VgnVCM1000001a01010aRCRD |date=2007-09-30 }}</ref>

==Notes==
{{reflist}}

==References==
Muhlenfeld, Elisabeth, ''Mary Boykin Chesnut: A Biography'' (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press 1992).

==External links==
*[http://www.sciway.net/hist/governors/miller.html SCIway Biography of Stephen Decatur Miller]
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20070930035825/http://www.nga.org/portal/site/nga/menuitem.29fab9fb4add37305ddcbeeb501010a0/?vgnextoid=1a161b968514a010VgnVCM1000001a01010aRCRD&vgnextchannel=e449a0ca9e3f1010VgnVCM1000001a01010aRCRD NGA Biography of Stephen Decatur Miller]
*{{Find a Grave|20756356}}
{{CongBio|M000755}}

{{s-start}}
{{s-par|us-hs}}
{{US House succession box
|state=South Carolina
|district=9
|before=[[William Mayrant]]
|years=1817–1819
|after=[[Joseph Brevard]]}}
{{s-off}}
{{succession box
|before=[[John Taylor (South Carolina governor)|John Taylor]]
|title=[[Governor of South Carolina]]
|years=1828–1830
|after=[[James Hamilton, Jr.]]}}
{{s-par|us-sen}}
{{U.S. Senator box
|state=South Carolina
|class=3
|before=[[William Smith (South Carolina senator)|William Smith]]
|after=[[William C. Preston]]
|alongside=[[Robert Young Hayne]], [[John C. Calhoun]]
|years=1831–1833}}
{{s-end}}

{{Governors of South Carolina}}
{{USSenSC}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Miller, Stephen Decatur}}
[[Category:1787 births]]
[[Category:1838 deaths]]
[[Category:University of South Carolina alumni]]
[[Category:South Carolina lawyers]]
[[Category:Democratic Party South Carolina state senators]]
[[Category:Democratic Party governors of South Carolina]]
[[Category:University of South Carolina trustees]]
[[Category:United States senators from South Carolina]]
[[Category:High Hills of Santee]]
[[Category:Nullifier Party politicians]]
[[Category:Nullifier Party United States senators]]
[[Category:Democratic-Republican Party members of the United States House of Representatives from South Carolina]]
[[Category:Nullifier Party state governors of the United States]]
[[Category:19th-century American lawyers]]
[[Category:19th-century United States representatives]]
[[Category:19th-century United States senators]]
[[Category:19th-century members of the South Carolina General Assembly]]