Herringshaw's Encyclopedia of American Biography

Thousands of short American lives — soldiers, inventors, preachers, governors, novelists — each given a paragraph: born where, did what, and why anyone remembered.

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Smith, William (Lawyer jurist state legislator)

lawyer, jurist, state legislator, United States senator, was born in 1762 in North Carolina. He was a senator in congress from South Carolina from 1816 to 1823, and again from 1826 to 1831, officiating on two occasions as president pro tem. of the senate. In 1837 he received the electoral vote of Virginia for vice-president of the United States.

He served in the legislature of South Carolina; was judge of the superior court of that state; and was a distinguished supporter of the doctrine of state rights.

He died June 10, 1840, in Huntsville, Ala.

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