Background
Nathan Lewis Miller was born on October 10, 1868, on a farm at Solon, New York. He was the son of Samuel and Almera Russell Miller.
Nathan Lewis Miller was born on October 10, 1868, on a farm at Solon, New York. He was the son of Samuel and Almera Russell Miller.
The family lived near Cortland, New York, where Miller attended public and normal school.
Nathan Lewis began teaching in 1887 but found the pay too low, so three years later he entered a Cortland law firm as a clerk and began reading law. Admitted to the bar in 1893, Miller practiced in Cortland and also served as district school commissioner from 1894 to 1900, and as corporation counsel in 1900 and 1901. Miller's work as chairman of the Cortland Republican County Committee brought him to the attention of party officials, and in 1901 Governor Benjamin Odell appointed him state comptroller, an office to which he was elected in 1902. The following year he resigned to become a justice of the New York Supreme Court. In 1904, he was promoted to the Appellate Division, and eight years later Governor John Alden Dix elevated him to the Court of Appeals, the state's highest court. As a judge, Miller proved to be competent and relatively progressive in his interpretation of the law. In Dragotto v. Plunkett, 113 App. Div. 648 (1906), he sustained the enforcement provisions of the state child labor law; and in Jensen v. Southern Pacific Railway Co. , 215 New York 514 (1915), he upheld the constitutionality of the Workmen's Compensation Act. In a number of opinions, Miller argued the need for the law to adjust to the times and favored the individual over corporate rights. Miller resigned from the court on August 1, 1915, claiming that he could not maintain his large family on a salary of $13, 700. He returned to private practice, this time in Syracuse, New York, where he became counsel to a number of large corporations, including the Solvay Process Company and Crucible Steel. He helped several of them institute employee welfare programs during World War I. By 1922 the Republican tide that had carried Miller into office had receded, and he lost his bid for reelection to Al Smith by 390, 000 votes. Shortly before leaving office, Miller had been approached by Chief Justice William Howard Taft, who offered to recommend his appointment as an associate justice of the United States Supreme Court. Miller, however, had already decided to enter private practice in New York City, and he soon became one of the country's leading corporate attorneys. In 1925, he joined the board of United States Steel Corporation as a director and general counsel. He also served on the boards of large insurance, transportation, and industrial companies. In 1934 Miller, worried by the Roosevelt administration's expansion of federal powers, joined with Alfred Smith, Irénèe du Pont, and others to form the anti-New Deal American Liberty League. He died in New York City.
Miller kept up his Republican party connections, and at the party's national convention in 1920 placed Herbert Hoover's name in nomination. Shortly thereafter, the party asked him to run for governor; and in the Republican landslide, Miller defeated the Democratic incumbent, Alfred E. Smith, by 74, 000 votes.
Miller has generally been considered a conservative governor, especially when compared with Smith. In fact, he belonged to that wing of progressivism that emphasized government efficiency. Much of his energy was directed toward streamlining the state bureaucracy, including the elimination of more than 2, 000 civil service positions, and improving the management of penal and charitable institutions. His administration created the office of state budget director and the Board of Estimate and Control; it also consolidated the various tax agencies into a single department and established a central purchasing and supply department. Miller later claimed that he had saved the state more than $20 million during his two-year term. Many of his policies, however, such as the reorganization of the Public Service Commission and the Industrial Commission, were attacked by liberals as undermining progressive gains. While Miller was not antilabor, he was certainly more sympathetic to business interests than Smith had been. Objecting to what he considered growing national power, Miller rejected New York state's allotment under the Sheppard-Towner maternity benefit program, claiming it would lead to federal usurpation of state functions. On the other hand, he pushed through a bill creating the New York City Transit Commission over the objections of local officials, who protested that it would deprive the city of important home rule powers.
In 1896, Nathan Lewis married Elizabeth Davern; they had seven children.