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Debate_301-350.indd 306 5/7/12 7:43 AM WILLIAM SMITH William Smith was born in South Carolina in 1762. He attended Mt. Zion College, studied law, and was admitted to the bar in 1784. He was elected as a Republican to the state senate from r8o3 to r8o8, and was elected judge of the South Carolina circuit court from r8o8 to r8r6. Smith was elected to the United States Senate in r8r6, serving one term. He was an ardent defender of states' rights and an opponent of banks, capitalism, internal improvements, and the protective tariff. In national politics he aligned himselfwith VVilliam H. Crawford and in South Carolina politics was a political enemy of the nationalist views ofJohn C. Calhoun. In r823 he lost his Senate seat to Hayne, the candidate of the Calhoun faction in the South Carolina Republican party. Smith served in the South Carolina House of Representatives from r823 to r825, leading the attack on Republican policies of internal improvements and a protective tariff. He was elected to fill a vacancy in the U.S. Senate in r826 and served until r83r. An ultrastrict constructionist, he played a leading role in the South Carolina protest against the tariff, but he opposed nullification and the plan to call a state convention. The Calhounite faction regarded him as too moderate and nationalistic, and he was defeated by the nullification candidate in r83o. His South Carolina political career ended in the state senate in r832. Smith moved to Mississippi and then Alabama, where he served in the state House of Representatives from r836 to r84o. In r829 and in r836, Smith declined nomination to the United States Supreme Court by President Andrew Jackson. He died in r84o. ...

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