Background
William Porcher Miles was born on July 4, 1822, at Walterboro, Colleton District, South Carolina. He was the second son of Sarah Bond (Warley) and James Saunders Miles.
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congressman politician statesman
William Porcher Miles was born on July 4, 1822, at Walterboro, Colleton District, South Carolina. He was the second son of Sarah Bond (Warley) and James Saunders Miles.
After spending a year at the noted Willington Academy in Abbeville District, Miles entered the College of Charleston, where he graduated in 1842 with highest honors. He studied law in the office of Edward McCrady but soon abandoned the law to become a teacher. He was an assistant professor of mathematics in the College of Charleston from 1843 to 1855. During this period, his elegant manners, handsome appearance, and reputation for learning won him a notable position in the polite circles of Charleston.
In 1855, an event occurred that changed the course of Miles's career. He excited the admiration of the public by his heroic services as a volunteer nurse during the yellow-fever epidemic at Norfolk, Virginia. That city presented him with a medal, and the conservative faction of Charleston, seeking an available candidate for mayor to stem the tide of Know-Nothingism, offered him the nomination. He accepted and was elected by a good majority. During his administration, the police force of the city was reorganized, and a system of tidal drains was inaugurated. In 1857, he was elected to Congress, where he served until his withdrawal in December 1860, championing slavery and secession in a series of impressive addresses. He was chairman of the committee on foreign relations of the South Carolina secession convention and signed the ordinance of secession. Beauregard made him one of the three to arrange with Anderson the terms of the surrender of Fort Sumter. He represented the Charleston district in the Confederate Congress during its entire existence. In that body, he was chairman of the committee that devised the Confederate flag and chairman of the important committee on military affairs. In 1863, the course of his career was again changed. From 1865 until his death, with one interruption, he was able to play the role most congenial to him, that of a country gentleman with the means and leisure to entertain distinguished guests, collect books, and attract attention by his polished addresses. For fifteen years, he lived at Oakridge, Nelson County, Virginia. In 1874, he was an unsuccessful candidate for the presidency of The Johns Hopkins University. In 1880, he became the first president of the University of South Carolina on its reorganization under white control. In 1882, he resigned from the university to become manager of the plantations of his father-in-law located in Ascension Parish, Louisiana. There he became one of the largest planters in the state, controlling thirteen plantations, which produced twenty million pounds of sugar annually. He became president of the Ascension branch of the Louisiana Sugar Planters' Association, and he was one of the founders of a sugar-experiment station and of The Louisiana Planter and Sugar Manufacturer, a weekly newspaper published in New Orleans. He died on July 4, 1822, at "Houmas House. "
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Miles opposed the state lottery and the tendency of the sugar planters to favor high tariffs, a sugar bounty, and other measures of the Republican party.
Quotations: “Vote early and vote often, ' the advice openly displayed on the election banners in one of our northern cities. ”
Member of the C. S. House of Representatives
"Houmas House, " Miles's home, was noted for its hospitality and for its collection of rare and beautiful books. Although he took no active part in the public life of his adopted state, he frequently delivered orations on public occasions and expressed himself positively on controverted questions.
Miles married Betty, the daughter of Oliver Beirne, a rich Virginia, and Louisiana planter.
31 December 1835 - 22 October 1874
4 August 1868 - 2 September 1943
25 November 1864 - 1946
Died on 16 March 1909.
22 November 1867 - 4 October 1936