William Porcher Miles William Porcher Miles ( July 4 , 1822 – May 11 , 1899 ) was among the ardent States ' Rights advocates , supporters of slavery , and Southern secessionists who came to be known as the " Fire - Eaters . " Born in South Carolina , he showed little early interest in politics and his early career included the study of law and a tenure as a mathematics professor at the College of Charleston from 1843 to 1855 . In the late 1840s as sectional issues roiled South Carolina politics , Miles began to speak up on sectional issues . He opposed both the Wilmot Proviso and the Compromise of 1850 . Miles would , from this point on , look at any northern efforts to restrict slavery as justification for secession . Miles was elected as mayor of Charleston in 1855 and served in the United States House of Representatives from 1857 until South Carolina seceded in December 1860 . He was a member of the state secession convention and a representative from South Carolina at the Confederate Convention in Montgomery , Alabama that established the provisional government and constitution for the Confederate States of America . He represented his state in the Confederate House of Representatives during the American Civil War . Early life . Miles was born in Walterboro , South Carolina to James Saunders Miles and Sarah Bond Worley Miles . His ancestors were French Huguenots and his grandfather , Major Felix Warley , fought in the American Revolution . His primary education came at Southworth School and he later attended Willington Academy where John C . Calhoun had matriculated a generation earlier . Miles enrolled at the College of Charleston in 1838 where he met future secession advocates James De Bow and William Henry Trescot . Miles graduated in 1842 and in 1843 he briefly studied law with a local attorney before returning to his alma mater as a mathematics professor . Throughout the 1840s Miles showed little interest in active politics . He did not participate in the Bluffton Movement in 1844 , although he did recognize that the 1846 Wilmot Proviso threatened his concepts of " southern rights , the equality of the states under the Constitution , and the honor of a slaveholding people . " In 1849 Miles was invited to speak at a Fourth of July celebration in Charleston . In this speech , Miles attacked the principles behind the Wilmot Proviso . While he believed that slavery was a " Divine institution , " he was willing to accept differences of opinion as long as antislavery advocates returned the favor by admitting that slavery was " recognized and countenanced " by the Constitution . To Miles , Northerners , in their efforts to legislate restrictions on slavery , were not simply raising an issue of constitutional interpretation . Miles argued : Miles rejected any compromise on slavery and supported Calhoun in opposition to the Compromise of 1850 . However while activists within the state in 1850 and 1851 mobilized , Miles remained on the sidelines as Southern Rights associations and rallies dominated South Carolina politics . In 1852 Miles delivered an address to the Alumni Society of the College of Charleston that included one of the frequent arguments of the Fire - Eaters . Addressing himself to the Declaration of Independence , Miles denied the concept of inalienable rights and maintained that liberty was an " Acquired Privilege . " He argued that " Men are born neither Free nor Equal " and some men were born with the innate ability to earn liberty while others were not . Government should not attempt to either " make a Statesman of him who God intended should be a Ploughman " or " bind down forever to the plough him to whom God has given a mind capable of shaping the destinies of a People . " From this point on in his career , Miles rejected the political legitimacy of abolitionists and free - soilers and responded to any attempts to restrict slavery with a call for secession . Mayor of Charleston . In the summer of 1855 a yellow fever epidemic hit the coast of Virginia . Eventually 2 , 000 people would die as well as half of the doctors who attempted to treat it . Virginia called for volunteers from the lower South where the disease was more common and residents had developed some natural immunity . Miles responded by serving for several weeks in Norfolk as a nurse . His heroic activities were reported back to Charleston , and his friends used the popularity generated by his activities to draft him as a candidate for mayor . Upon his return to Charleston he made only one public speech but was still elected mayor by a vote of 1 , 260 to 837 . Interested in reform , the new mayor first tackled police reform . After sending out fact finding missions to other cities , he implemented a plan that addressed the problem of excessive partisanship within the city council . Appointment responsibility was reassigned to the police chief for lower ranks and to the mayor , with city council approval , for higher ranks . He expanded patrols , cracked down on habitual offenders . In the area of social reform , Miles created a house of corrections for juveniles , an almshouse , an orphanage and an asylum . He provided aid for transient poor and free black paupers and implemented a sewage system as a health measure . Having inherited a large public debt , he increased property taxes in an effort to retire the debt in 35 years . At the end of his two - year term he was widely judged to have been successful , leading him to consider further public office . United States House of Representatives . In 1856 Miles ran for the seat being vacated by Congressman William Aiken , Jr . . The national issues of slavery in Kansas and the rise of the Republican Party dominated the election . Miles argued that the election of the Republican candidate for president , John C . Fremont , would require a joint southern response that could include boycotting the new Congress and calling a southern convention to determine further action . In a three way election Miles was victorious by a vote of 1 , 852 to 1 , 844 for his two opponents . When he took office in 1857 he found that the Kansas issues dominated Congressional debate , threatened the unity of the Democratic Party and increased the growth of the Republicans . His first speech on the House floor came in 1858 and argued the southern position on Kansas . Despite his acknowledgement that the Kansas climate was not conducive to slavery , he stated : Miles was re - elected in 1858 . In January 1859 he spoke in support of fellow fire - eater William Lowndes Yancey in advocating the repeal of federal laws banning the African slave trade . Miles felt that the regulation of the trade should be a state function and that the national ban was an insult to southern honor . This stance was considered too radical even by his friends , such as Trescott , who felt , since it could never be supported by the majority of the nation , that Miles ' stance was simply a guise to force disunion . John Brown ' s Raid on Harpers Ferry sent a shock wave across the South . When the Thirty - sixth Congress met in December 1859 the first order of business was the selection of a speaker . Already in turmoil over the Brown raid , southerners were further aggravated by the nomination of Ohio Republican John Sherman for the post . Sherman was one of 68 Republicans who had endorsed Hinton Helper ’ s book , " The Impending Crisis and How to Meet It " , which southerners believed would ignite class warfare between slaveholders and non - slaveholders in the South . Republicans proposed buying 100 , 000 copies of the book and distributing it throughout the country . Miles conspired with South Carolina ' s governor to send a regiment of militia to Washington to break up the Congress in the event of Sherman ' s election , but the withdrawal of Sherman ' s nomination prevented action . In South Carolina the state legislature was unable to determine an appropriate response , but finally , reacting to a proposal by pro - secession Governor William Henry Gist decided to propose a southern convention . As a first step Christopher G . Memminger was dispatched to Virginia in order to solicit their support . Miles advised Memminger to “ urge our Carolina view in such a manner as to imbue Virginia with it . . . [ and ] we may soon hope to see the fruit of your addresses in the sturdy and healthy offspring of whose birth we would be so greatly proud — a Southern confederacy . South Carolina Secession . Election of 1860 . By 1860 Miles was one of the leading secessionists in South Carolina . His position in Washington , D . C . , allowed him to serve as a conduit in the flow of information between Washington and Charleston . State politicians focused on the upcoming Democratic Convention scheduled in Charleston beginning on April 23 . Miles was concerned about the candidacy of Stephen A . Douglas , especially rumors that there might even be a pro - Douglas faction in South Carolina . Miles and other radicals were convinced that only a strictly Southern party could properly address the state ’ s needs . The convention deadlocked over the party platform . Southerners opposed Douglas ' support for popular sovereignty - a concept which would have allowed new territories to decide for themselves whether or not to allow slavery . Southerners preferred federal guarantees that slavery would be allowed in all United States territories . Thirteen of the 16 South Carolina delegates walked out of the convention . In May Miles returned to Charleston and declared that the next election would pit " power against principle - the majority against the minority , regardless of all constitutional barriers . " Support for secession was strong in South Carolina even before Lincoln ’ s election . Miles pressed the issue , urging action as opposed to simply more discussion . Miles stated , according to a July 24 newspaper account : Miles argued that South Carolina should " break up things generally , which any state can at any time do . " He believed that the South had " all the elements of wealth , prosperity and strength , to make her a first - class power among the nations of the world " and would " lose so little and gain so much ” with secession . " In August Miles was struck with typhoid fever and went to New England to recover , not returning to the state until the November elections . Secession winter . As secession loomed , President James Buchanan was concerned about the safety of United States property in South Carolina . Miles , returning to Washington for the upcoming session of Congress , was one of the South Carolina delegates who met with Buchanan to discuss this problem . On December 10 Miles and the others presented a letter to the President that assured him that the forts in Charleston would not be molested " provided that no reinforcement should be sent into those forts , and their relative military status " maintained . Buchanan questioned the word “ provided ” since it appeared to bind him , but the delegates assured him that they were only communicating their understanding based on the status quo . According to both Miles and fellow South Carolina fire - eater Laurence M . Keitt , Buchanan said , " After all , this is a matter of honor among gentlemen . I do not know that any paper or writing is necessary . We understand each other . " Returning to South Carolina , Miles was elected as a delegate to the South Carolina secession convention . Miles was for immediate action . On December 17 , fearing that even a few days of delay could be critical , he opposed the relocation of the convention from Columbia to Charleston due to a smallpox outbreak . Miles ' last communications with southerners in Washington told him that they were all looking to South Carolina for leadership . Miles attitude was reflected in his statement , “ Let us act if we mean to act without talking . Let it be ‘ a word and a blow - but the blow first . ” The convention adopted an ordinance of secession on December 20 . Miles , along with other South Carolinians , immediately resigned his seat in Congress . In the months ahead , Miles , believing in the possibility of peaceful secession , opposed precipitate action over either Fort Sumter or the Star of the West incident . In February 1861 Miles was one of eight South Carolina delegates to the Confederate Convention in Montgomery , Alabama , that established the Confederacy . Confederate Congress . Miles was selected for both the provisional and regular Confederate Congress . He was chairman of the House Military Affairs Committee while also serving as an aide - de - camp for General P . G . T . Beauregard at both Charleston , in the buildup to the attack on Fort Sumter , and the First Battle of Bull Run . Recognizing , however , his own lack of military training , Miles focused most of his attention on his congressional duties . Historian Eric H . Walther describes Miles tenure in the Confederate Congress : While serving in the Confederate Provisional Congress , Miles chaired the " Committee on the Flag and Seal , " which adopted the " Stars and Bars " flag as the national flag of the Confederacy . Miles opposed this selection because , he felt , it too much resembled , as supporters of it admitted , the old Stars and Stripes . Miles argued : Miles favored his own design , which , although rejected by the committee , eventually became the Confederate Battle Flag today known simply as " the Confederate flag . " Post war . As late as January 1865 Miles offered a resolution in Congress stating , " That we , the representatives of the people of the Confederate States , are firmly determined to continue the struggle in which we are involved until the United States shall acknowledge our independence . " Describing Miles feelings shortly after the war ended and quoting from a September 25 , 1865 letter , Walther writes : Miles had married Bettie Beirne in 1863 , the daughter of a wealthy Virginia planter . For a few years after the war he worked for his father - in - law as a factor in New Orleans and in 1867 took over management of Oak Ridge plantation in Nelson County , Virginia . He encountered serious financial problems as a tobacco and wheat farmer , and in 1874 he unsuccessfully applied for the position of president at the new Hopkins University of Baltimore . Miles remained on the farm and helped friends like Beauregard and former fire - eater Robert Rhett gather materials for their own histories of the Confederacy . In 1880 Miles was appointed president of the newly reopened South Carolina College . After his father - in - law ' s death in 1882 , Miles took over the family business interests and relocated to Houmas House in Ascension Parish , Louisiana where he managed a dozen plantations . In 1892 with his son he formed Miles Planting and Manufacturing Company of Louisiana . Miles died on May 13 , 1899 at age 76 and he was interred at Union Cemetery in Union , Monroe County , West Virginia .