Reminiscences of public men, with speeches and addresses
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Biographical Sketches of Eminent American Statesmen, with Speeches, Addresses and Letters
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Benjamin Franklin Perry was an American politician, governor of South Carolina.
Background
He was born on November 20, 1805 in Pendleton District, South Carolina, United States. His father, Benjamin Perry, was a native of Massachusetts and a Revolutionary soldier, who had gone South in 1784 and married Anne Foster of Virginia. The boy's early life was spent on the farm.
Education
When he was sixteen he went to Asheville, and was prepared to enter college. He began to study law at Greenville, South Carolina.
Career
He was admitted to the bar in 1827 and continued there in practice. In 1832 he was a delegate to the Union party convention and the same year began to edit the Greenville Mountaineer, a Union newspaper. During this period, he very unwillingly accepted a challenge from Turner Bynum, editor of the Greenville Sentinel, resulting from a political disagreement, and mortally wounded him. In 1834, 1835, and 1846, he was a candidate for Congress but in each election was defeated.
From 1836 to 1862 he was frequently elected to the legislature, serving in both the House of Representatives and the Senate. In these bodies he was a strong friend of internal improvements and particularly active in behalf of the Louisville, Cincinnati & Charleston and the Greenville & Columbia railroads. He also favored divorcing the banks from the state.
In 1848 he was a Democratic elector. He secured the establishment of the Southern Patriot in 1850, the only Union paper in the state, and edited it in spite of bitter opposition. In the legislature of 1850 he was a strong advocate of a Southern convention, but he opposed secession as "merely revolution, " and voted against the calling of a convention. He was elected to the convention of 1852, which was called to secede but refused to do so, and he was a member of the committee which considered the whole question of secession. The report of the committee, affirming the right and justification of secession, declared that South Carolina forebore for expediency only. Perry voted against the report.
He was a delegate to the Charleston convention of 1860, and, perfectly frank in his Union views, refused to withdraw with the South Carolina delegation. He became Confederate commissioner in 1862, district attorney in 1863, and district judge in 1864. In 1865 Andrew Johnson made him provisional governor. He quickly excited criticism in the North by his reappointment of all who held office at the time of the downfall of the state government. He declined to run for governor, but was elected United States senator. He was denied his seat, however, and continued in the practice of his profession.
His activity in politics continued and he was an enthusiastic delegate to the National Union Convention of 1866, and was a bitter and unrelenting opponent of congressional reconstruction. He was a delegate to the National Democratic Convention of 1868 and of 1876, and, in 1872, as a forlorn hope, he ran for Congress.
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Politics
A nationalist in belief, he opposed vehemently the policy of nullification. As a Unionist, he was elected to the nullification convention in 1832 and voted against the nullification ordinance. In the second session, 1833, which repealed the ordinance, he was active in support of compromise. He also opposed an ordinance granting the legislature the power to secede by a two-thirds vote.
While to him secession was not only "madness and folly" but rebellion.
Views
Quotations:
He said, "You are all now going to the devil and I will go with you. Honor and patriotism require me to stand by my State, right or wrong. "
Benjamin Franklin Perry said in 1865, "The African, " "has been in all ages, a savage or a slave. God created him inferior to the white man in form, color, and intellect, and no legislation or culture can make him his equal. .. His hair, his form and features will not compete with the caucasian race, and it is in vain to think of elevating him to the dignity of the white man. God created differences between the two races, and nothing can make him equal".
Personality
Perry was not a brilliant man, but he had good abilities, judgment, and poise. In spite of his independence, he made many friends and few enemies. He was an excellent and very successful lawyer, a wide reader, and a prolific writer of journalistic sketches of men and events.
Connections
He was married in 1837 to Elizabeth Frances, daughter of Hext McCall of Greenville.