Born in
Beaufort, South Carolina, Elliott attended
Beaufort College and
Harvard University. He studied law at the
University of Virginia at Charlottesville, and was
admitted to the bar in
Charleston in 1861. Upon the outbreak of the
Civil War he entered the
Confederate States Army as a lieutenant. He served throughout the war, attaining the rank of lieutenant colonel. At the close of the war, he returned to Beaufort, where he developed a law practice. Elliott became involved in politics, serving as a member of the State house of representatives in 1866. He served as delegate to the Democratic National Convention in 1876. He was an unsuccessful Democratic candidate for election in 1884 to the
Forty-ninth Congress. Elliott was elected as a
Democrat to the
Fiftieth Congress (March 4, 1887 – March 3, 1889) from
South Carolina's 7th congressional district, but the election was contested by
Thomas E. Miller. An African-American Republican candidate, Miller alleged electoral fraud, which was prevalent in these years as Democrats struggled to retain control of government. Elliott presented credentials as a Member-elect to the
Fifty-first Congress and served from March 4, 1889, until September 23, 1890. Congress determined fraud had taken place, and declared the election won by Thomas E. Miller, who took his seat in late 1890. Elliott was elected to the
Fifty-second Congress (March 4, 1891 – March 3, 1893). He was not a candidate in 1892. Due to redistricting by the state legislature, Elliott ran in 1894 from
South Carolina's 1st congressional district, a black-majority district. He won, but the election was contested by the Republican candidate
George W. Murray, an African-American attorney who alleged widespread cases of fraud in the precincts. Elliott presented credentials as a Member-elect to the
Fifty-fourth Congress and served from March 4, 1895, until June 4, 1896. Murray presented extensive documentation to Congress of his complaint, and it determined the contested election in Murray's favor; he was seated at the end of the first session. Over the objections of its black voters and politicians, in 1896 South Carolina ratified a new constitution that effectively
disfranchised nearly all black citizens as voters. The Republican Party ceased to be competitive in the state. From 1890 to 1908 all states of the former Confederacy passed similar constitutions to disfranchise blacks and many poor whites; the Democrats ruled a one-party region and gained great power in the US Congress by controlling all the region's apportionment although many of its citizens had been excluded from politics. The one-party state was dominated for decades by Democrats, so the important contests took place in the primaries. Elliott was elected to the
Fifty-fifth,
Fifty-sixth and
Fifty-seventh Congresses (March 4, 1897 – March 3, 1903). He was not a candidate for renomination in 1902. He ran unsuccessfully that year to gain legislative election to the
United States Senate. In 1906 Elliott was appointed by President
Theodore Roosevelt as commissioner of the United States to identify and mark the graves of Confederate dead in the North. He directed the operations of this group until his death in
Beaufort, South Carolina, on December 7, 1907. He was interred in St. Helena Churchyard. ==Sources==