Education
Swarthmore College.
politician representative senator
Swarthmore College.
McLaurin was elected as a Democrat to the Fifty-second Congress to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Eli T. Stackhouse. He was reelected to the Fifty-third, Fifty-fourth, and Fifty-fifth Congresses and served from December 5, 1892, until May 31, 1897, when he resigned. He was appointed and subsequently elected as a Democrat to the United States. Senate to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Joseph H. Earle and served from June 1, 1897, to March 4, 1903.
He was not a candidate for reelection.
He was censured along with Senator Benjamin Tillman for an altercation between the two on the Senate floor on February 22, 1902. He was author of the State warehouse system for storing and financing cotton, and served as State warehouse commissioner from 1915 until his resignation in 1917.
He died at his estate near Bennettsville in 1934. Interment was in McCall Cemetery.
His home, the Robertson-Easterling-McLaurin House, was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1984.
He was a member of the South Carolina House of Representatives in 1890-1891 and was attorney general of the State from 1891 to 1897. McLaurin moved to New York City and resumed the practice of law. He returned to Bennettsville and engaged in agricultural pursuits, and was a member of the South Carolina Senate, 1914-1915.