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William H. H. Miller
Overview
William Henry Harrison Miller (1840–1917) was an American lawyer who served as US Attorney General under President Benjamin Harrison from 1889 to 1893. A Hamilton College alumnus of the Class of 1861, Miller was a close personal friend of Harrison and one of the most prominent figures in his administration. He is one of only two Hamilton alumni known to have served in a presidential Cabinet, a distinction that gave him lasting prominence in Hamilton’s institutional memory.
Relevance to Research
Miller appears in the Hamilton Life corpus retrospectively, cited as one of Hamilton’s most distinguished alumni in multiple survey articles. A 1915 Hamilton Life article listing distinguished Hamilton alumni names “Henry Harrison Miller, ‘61, Attorney General of U. S.” A 1929 Hamilton Life article by Jefferson F. Meagher (‘30) on Hamilton alumni in the International Encyclopedia names “William H. Miller, ‘61” as one of two Hamilton alumni who “served in the Cabinet,” noting his service “as Attorney General under President Harrison.” These appearances establish Miller alongside John Jay Knox as the pre-eminent examples of Hamilton alumni achieving national office, and they appear together repeatedly in the institutional literature surveying Hamilton’s distinguished graduates.
Notes
Role: US Attorney General (1889–1893); lawyer; close associate of President Benjamin Harrison Key events: - Born September 6, 1840; died May 25, 1917 - Hamilton College, Class of 1861 - Practiced law in Fort Wayne, Indiana; became law partner of Benjamin Harrison - Served as US Attorney General under President Benjamin Harrison, 1889–1893 - One of two Hamilton alumni identified in the 1929 Hamilton Life as having “served in the Cabinet” (the other being Elihu Root) - Named in Hamilton Life (1915) in a comprehensive list of distinguished Hamilton alumni as “Henry Harrison Miller, ‘61, Attorney General of U. S.” - Named in Hamilton Life (March 20, 1929) as a Cabinet-level alumnus - Note: “William Miller Collier, ‘89” (Hamilton Class of 1889) was a separate alumnus appointed Assistant Attorney General in 1903 and later minister to Spain; he is not the same person as W. H. H. Miller