Background
Robert Barnwell Rhett was born on December 21, 1800, in aristocratic Beaufort, South Carolina, United States. His family had enjoyed a notable reputation in South Carolina history.
(Some people called Robert Barnwell Rhett the Father of Se...)
Some people called Robert Barnwell Rhett the Father of Secession. This book illuminates Rhett's role in secession's time and passage. It tells of Rhett's interest in secession doctrine as early as 1828 and his outspoken support of disunion fully a quarter-century before 1861.
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Robert Barnwell Rhett was born on December 21, 1800, in aristocratic Beaufort, South Carolina, United States. His family had enjoyed a notable reputation in South Carolina history.
Although Rhett's schooling was irregular, at the age of 21 he was admitted to the South Carolina bar.
He lived in the manner of the Carolina aristocracy throughout his life, owning two plantations and a succession of town residences.
In 1826 Rhett was elected to the state legislature, where he quickly became prominent in the protective tariff controversy. Initially he argued passionately for resistance, but he came to accept John C. Calhoun's theory of peaceful, constitutional nullification.
From 1837 to 1849 Rhett served in the U. S. House of Representatives. He worked closely with Calhoun, then senator from South Carolina, in propagating the notion that the Constitution, "rightly interpreted, " protected the South. He also promoted Calhoun's plans for controlling the Democratic party. In 1844, when Calhoun failed to secure the presidential nomination, the Democrats deserted the South on the tariff issue; Rhett, defying Calhoun, led a movement for separate state action on the tariff.
When Calhoun died in 1850, Rhett was elected U. S. senator. By this time he had begun a campaign to promote South Carolina's secession from the Union. He was convinced that its withdrawal would encourage other Southern states to secede. The next year, however, South Carolina rejected Rhett's leadership by accepting the Compromise of 1850.
Although in political retirement, Rhett remained in contact with Southerners of secessionist persuasion. In the aftermath of the critical 1860 election, he was so influential in spreading secession ideas in South Carolina that he was called the father of secession. His most effective forum was the Charleston Mercury, a newspaper owned by his son after 1857. In early 1861 Rhett attended the Southern Convention at Montgomery. While not a member of the convention, he did lobby to defeat measures he deemed too conciliatory toward the North, and he was chosen by the convention to compose an address to the people of the slaveholding states. He failed, however, to secure the presidency of the Confederacy and was ignored in the Cabinet appointments.
Rhett attacked the Confederate administration for its attempts at centralization. He was twice defeated for a seat in the Confederate lower house and spent his last energies defending Southern civilization against the Confederate proposals to arm, and free, the slaves.
(Some people called Robert Barnwell Rhett the Father of Se...)
Quotations: "A people, owning slaves, are mad, or worse than mad, who do not hold their destinies in their own hands. "