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SAMUEL F. MILLER
was born in Richmond, Kentucky, on April 5, 1816. He studied
medicine at Transylvania University and received a degree
in 1838. He became a physician and practiced for twelve
years in Knox County. Miller developed an interest in
legal and political matters and became a Justice of the
Peace and member of the Knox County Court, an administrative
body; in the 1840s. Miller shared an office with an attorney
and began reading law. He was admitted to the bar in 1847
and established a law practice. Miller was opposed to
slavery. When the Kentucky Constitutional Convention of
1849 proved inflexible on the question of eventual modification
and abolition of slavery, Miller chose to move to a free
state. He freed his slaves and settled in Keokuk, Iowa,
where he joined a law firm and specialized in land-title,
steamboat, and commercial law. Miller also became active
politically and campaigned unsuccessfully for nomination
as Governor in 1861. On July 16, 1862, President Abraham
Lincoln nominated Miller to the Supreme Court of the United
States as the first Justice from wets of the Mississippi
River. The Senate confirmed the appointment the same day.
Miller served on the Supreme Court for twenty-eight years.
He died on October 13, 1890, at the age of seventy-four.
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