William C. Preston
William Campbell Preston (* December 27, 1794 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, † May 22 1860 in Columbia, South Carolina ) was an American politician (Democratic Party), who represented the state of South Carolina in the U.S. Senate.
William Preston was born in Philadelphia, where at that time the House of Representatives of the United States convened in which his father Francis sat as representative of Virginia. During his childhood, he received private lessons; afterwards he attended Washington University in Lexington. He graduated finally in 1812 at South Carolina College in Columbia.
After he had spent some time in Europe and studied at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland, among others, Preston returned in 1819 in the United States back; the following year he was admitted to the Bar Association of Virginia. There he worked until 1822 as a lawyer, before he settled in South Carolina's capital, Columbia. After an unsuccessful candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives in 1824, he was from 1828 to 1834 deputy in the House of Representatives from South Carolina.
During this time, Preston joined the short-lived Nullifier Party, the John C. Calhoun had been established in 1828 in the wake of the Nullifikationskrise. As their representative, he was in 1833 elected to the U.S. Senate, where he succeeded the retiring Stephen Decatur Miller on November 26th of this year; 1837 was the re-election after he had moved in the meantime to the Whigs. On November 29, 1842 he finally resigned. During his time in the Senate Preston was, among other things the Committee on the Library and the Committee on Military Affairs. After his resignation, Preston worked as a lawyer again and also served from 1845 as president of the South Carolina College. In 1851 he gave up this post from for health reasons.
William Preston died in 1860 in Columbia. His cousin William B. Preston was from 1849 to 1850 U.S. Secretary of the Navy under President Zachary Taylor; Another cousin, who was also named William Preston, sat from 1852 to 1855 for Kentucky in the U.S. House of Representatives.