Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 07.djvu/404

 MILLER

MILLER

after serving in a drug store as clerk for some time, he entered Transylvania university, and was graduated M.D., 1838. He practised first at Richmond, and afterward at Barboursville, Ky., but his profession becoming distasteful to him he

studied law privately while practising med- icine, was admitted to the Kentucky bar in 1847, and engaged in successful practice at Richmond. He supported Taylor for the Presidency in 18- 48, and in the state constitutional con- vention of 1848 he fa- vored emancipation. When the conven- tion pledged Ken- tucky more firmly than ever to slavery he removed to Keokuk, Iowa, in 1850, where he was immediately recognized as a leader in his profession and of the Republican party. He was married in 1858 to the widow of Mr. Reeve, his law partner. He declined all public offices until 18<$1, when the death of Peter V. Daniel and John McLean and the resignation of John A. Campbell, had left three vacancies on the bench of the U.S. supreme court, and he was appointed associate justice to succeed Mr. Justice Daniel, July 16, 1862. He was for many years senior associate justice, and he wrote the opinion of the court confirming the decision of the supreme court of Louisiana in three slaughter-house cases in 1872, in which the scope of the fourteenth amendment was limiteil for the first time. Another important case in which he pronounced the decision was that of Ki I bourn vs. Thompson, 1880, where the constitutional authority of either the senate or the house of representatives to punish non-mem- bers guilty of contempt was denied. He was one of the five associate justices appointed on the electoral commission in 1877, and his motion in the first case presented established the rule that was adopted as the final judgment of the com- mission, to the effect that congress had no right to go l)ehind the returns of the legal officers of a state. Justice Miller was regarded by many as the leading member of the court. He was the principal orator at the centennial celebration of the adoption of the Federal constitution in Phila- delphia, Sept. 15, 1887. He received the degree of LL.D. from the State University of Iowa, 1862, Iowa college, 1876, the University of Michigan, 1887, and the National university, 1890, and that of D.C.L. from Georgetown university in 1870. He died in Washington, D.C., Oct. 13, 1890.

MILLER, Stephen, governor of Minnesota, was born in Carroll, Pa., Jan. 7, 1816 ; grandson of Melchoir Miller, who came from Germany, about 1785, and settled in Pennsylvania. He received a fair education and engaged in business in Harrisburg, where he edited the Telegraph, a Whig journal, 1853-55. He removed to St. Cloud. Minn., in 1858 ; was a delegate to the Republican national convention, and a presidential elector on the Lincoln and Hamlin ticket, 1860. He was commissioned lieutenant-colonel, 1st Minnesota volunteers, April 29, 1861 ; took part in the bat- tles of Bull Run and Ball's Bluff, the Valley cam- paign and the Peninsula campaign of 1862, and was promoted colonel, 7th Minnesota volunteers,. Aug. 24, 1862, and on Nov. 17, 1862, succeeded General Sibley in command at Mankato, Minn. He assisted in quelling the Indian outbreak, and had charge of the execution of thirty-eight disloyal Indians, Dec. 26, 1862. He command- ed the district of Minnesota, during General Sibley's ab- sence in June, 1863, and was promoted brigadier-general of volunteers, Oct. 26, 1863. He commanded Fort Snelling, Minn., 1863-64, and resigned, Jan. 18, 1864, having been elected governor of Minnesota. He served as governor, 1864-65, and was field-agent of the St. Paul and Sioux City railroad, 1871-81. He died at Worthington, Minn., Aug. 18, 1881.

MILLER, Stephen Decatur, senator, was born in the Waxhaw settlement, Lancaster district, S.C, in May, 1787 ; son of William and Margaret (White) Miller. His father died when he whs a child and he was afterward in charge of his mother's relatives. He was prepared for college under the Rev. Mr. Conser, and was graduated at South Carolina college in 1808. He studied law in the office of John S. Richardson of Sumter, S.C, and succeeded to the practice of Mr. Rich- ardson, when the latter was elected attorney- general of the state in 1810. He maintained office* in Sumterville and Statesburg until 1816, when he was appointed a representative in the 14th congress, as an anti-Calhoun Democrat, to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of William Mayrant in 1816, and in place of John S. Richard- son, who refused to serve. He was re-elected to the 15th congress, serving 1816-19 ; was state senator, 1822-28, and governor, 1828-30. As a del- egate to the state conventions of 1830 and 1832, he supported nullification. He was a U.S. senator, 1831-33, in 1833 resigned on account of ill health and in 1835 removed to Mississippi. He was mar- ried, first, in 1815, to Miss Dick of Sumter district, secondly, in May, 1821, to Mary Boykin of Ker- shaw. He died in Raymond, Miss., March 8. 183'^.