The Attorney General of South Carolina is the state's chief legal officer and prosecutor.

History

Alexander Moultrie, half-brother of Revolutionary War figure and future governor

William Moultrie William Moultrie (; November 23, 1730 – September 27, 1805) was an American planter and politician who became a general in the American Revolutionary War. As colonel leading a state militia, in 1776 he prevented the British from taking Charle ...

, was named the state's first Attorney General under its first state "President", John Rutledge, in 1776. Rutledge had been provincial Attorney General himself for 10 months before independence. Moultrie was impeached and resigned in 1792 for diverting state funds into the Yazoo land company fraud. After the

1876 South Carolina gubernatorial election The 1876 South Carolina gubernatorial election was held on November 7, 1876 to select the governor of the state of South Carolina. The election campaign was a referendum on the Radical Republican-led state government and their Reconstruction poli ...

, the state was left with a contested election and a dual government, from the election in November through April 1877. Republican Robert B. Elliott served briefly in this situation under Republican governor Daniel Henry Chamberlain, while James Conner held office under fellow Confederate officer and Democrat

Wade Hampton III Wade Hampton III (March 28, 1818April 11, 1902) was an American military officer who served the Confederate States of America during the American Civil War and later a politician from South Carolina. He came from a wealthy planter family, and ...

. Hampton and Conner prevailed.

His Majesty's attorneys-general of South Carolina

The colonial

province of South Carolina Province of South Carolina, originally known as Clarendon Province, was a province of Great Britain that existed in North America from 1712 to 1776. It was one of the five Southern colonies and one of the thirteen American colonies. The monar ...

was first organized under a royal governor in 1720. * Benjamin Whitaker (1721–1731) * James Abercrombie (1731–1732) *

Charles Pinckney Charles Pinckney may refer to: * Charles Pinckney (South Carolina chief justice) (died 1758), father of Charles Cotesworth Pinckney * Colonel Charles Pinckney (1731–1782), South Carolina politician, loyal to British during Revolutionary War, fa ...

(1732–1733) * James Abercrombie (1733–1742) * Sir James Wright (1742–1757) * David Graeme (1757–1764) * James Moultrie (1764) * John Rutledge (1764) * Sir Egerton Leigh, 1st Baronet (1765–1774) * James Simpson (1774–1775)

U.S. state of South Carolina Attorneys General

* Alexander Moultrie (1776–1792) * John Julius Pringle (1792–1808) * Langdon Cheves (1808–1810) * John Smythe Richardson (Sr.) (1810–1818) *

Robert Young Hayne Robert Young Hayne (November 10, 1791 – September 24, 1839) was an American lawyer, planter and politician. He served in the United States Senate from 1823 to 1832, as Governor of South Carolina 1832–1834, and as Mayor of Charleston 1836–1 ...

(1818–1822) * James L. Petigru (1822–1830) * Hugh S. Legaré (1830–1832) *

Robert Rhett Robert Barnwell Rhett (born Robert Barnwell Smith; December 21, 1800September 14, 1876) was an American politician who served as a deputy from South Carolina to the Provisional Confederate States Congress from 1861 to 1862, a member of the US H ...

(1832–1836) * Henry Bailey (1836–1848) * Isaac W. Hayne (1848–1868) * Daniel Henry Chamberlain (1868–1872) * Samuel Wickliff Melton (1872–1876) * William Stone (1876) * Robert Brown Elliott (1876–1877) (disputed) * James Conner (1876–1877) (disputed) * Leroy Youmans (1877–1882) * Charles R. Miles (1882–1886) *

Joseph H. Earle Joseph Haynsworth Earle (April 30, 1847May 20, 1897) was a United States Senator from South Carolina. Biography Born in Greenville, he attended private schools in Sumter. He was a first year cadet at the South Carolina Military Academy (now T ...

(1886–1890) * Young J. Pope (1890–1891) * John L. McLaurin (1891–1892) * Daniel A. Townsend (1892–1894) * William A. Barber (1894–1898) * G. Duncan Bellinger (Sr.) (1898–1902) * U. X. Gunter, Jr. (1902–1905) * Leroy Youmans (1905–1906) * D.C. Ray (1906–1907) * J. Fraser Lyon (1907–1912) * Thomas H. Peeples (1913–1918) * Samuel Wolfe (1918–1924) * John M. Daniel (1924–1950) * Tolliver Cleveland Callison Sr. (1951–1958) * Daniel R. McLeod (1959–1983) * Thomas T. Medlock (1983–1995) * Charlie Condon (1995–2003) *

Henry McMaster Henry Dargan McMaster (born May 27, 1947) is an American politician and attorney serving as the 117th governor of South Carolina since January 24, 2017. He is a member of the Republican Party. McMaster worked for U.S. senator Strom Thurmond, in ...

(2003–2011) * Alan Wilson (2011 – )

References

{{South Carolina statewide elected officials