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 House of Representatives from South Carolina from 1837 to 1849, and US Senator from South Carolina from 1850 to 1852. As a staunch supporter of slavery and an early advocate of secession, he was a " Fire-Eater".

Rhett published his views through his newspaper, the ''Charleston Mercury''.

Early life

He was born Robert Barnwell Smith in Beaufort, South Carolina, United States. He later studied law.

Early career

He was a member of the South Carolina legislature in 1826 until 1832. He was extremely pro-slavery in his views. At the end of the Nullification Crisis in 1833, he told the South Carolina Nullification Convention:

In 1832, Rhett became South Carolina attorney general and served until 1837. He was then elected US Representative and served until 1849. In 1838, he changed his last name from Smith to that of a prominent colonial ancestor, Colonel William Rhett. He objected vehemently to the protectionist Tariff of 1842.

Support for secession

On July 31, 1844, he launched the Bluffton Movement, which called for South Carolina to return to nullification or else declare secession. It was soon repudiated by more moderate South Carolina Democrats, including even Senator John C. Calhoun, who feared it would endanger the presidential candidacy of James K. Polk.

Rhett opposed the Compromise of 1850 as against the interests of the slave-holding South. He joined fellow Fire-Eaters at the Nashville Convention of 1850, which failed to endorse his aim of secession for the whole South. After the Nashville Convention, Rhett, William Lowndes Yancey, and a few others met in Macon, Georgia on August 21, 1850, and formed the short-lived Southern National Party. In December 1850, he became U.S. Senator to complete the term left by the death of Calhoun. He continued to advocate secession in response to the Compromise, but in 1852, South Carolina refrained from declaring secession and merely passed an ordinance declaring a state's right to secede. Disappointed, he resigned his Senate seat.

He continued to express his fiery secessionist sentiments through the ''Charleston Mercury'', now edited by his son, Robert Jr.

The 1860 Democratic National Convention met in Charleston, South Carolina and a large bloc of Southern delegates walked out when the platform was insufficiently pro-slavery. That led to the division of the party and separate Northern and Southern nominees for President, which practically guaranteed the election of an anti-slavery Republican, which in turn triggered declarations of secession in seven states. During the 1860 presidential campaign, a widely credited report in the ''Nashville Patriot'' said that the outcome was the intended result of a conspiracy by Rhett, Yancey, and William Porcher Miles hatched at the Southern Convention in Montgomery, Alabama, in May 1858.

Confederate States

After the election of the Republican Party's Abraham Lincoln, Rhett was elected to the South Carolina Secession Convention, which declared secession in December. He was chosen as deputy from South Carolina to the Provisional Confederate States Congress in Montgomery. He was one of the most active deputies and was the chairman of the committee that reported the Confederate States Constitution. He was then elected to the Confederate House of Representatives. He received no higher office in the Confederate government and returned to South Carolina. During the rest of the American Civil War, he sharply criticized the policies of President Jefferson Davis.

Death

After the war, Rhett settled in Louisiana. Rhett died in St. James Parish, Louisiana, and is interred at Magnolia Cemetery in Charleston.

Ancestry

Rhett was of English ancestry. On his mother's side, he was related to U.S. Representative Robert Barnwell (his great-uncle) and Senator Robert Woodward Barnwell (son of Robert). A cousin of the Barnwells was the wife of Alexander Garden.

Legacy

The Robert Barnwell Rhett House was declared to be a National Historic Landmark in 1973. and  (32 KB)

See also

* List of slave owners
* List of United States representatives from South Carolina
* List of United States senators from South Carolina

References

Further reading

*
*Scarborough, William K., "Propagandists for Secession: Edmund Ruffin of Virginia and Robert Barnwell Rhett of South Carolina", ''South Carolina Historical Magazine'' 112 (July–Oct. 2011), 126–38.
*White, Laura A. ''Robert Barnwell Rhett: Father of Secession'' (1931)

External links

*
Robert Rhett
at ''The Political Graveyard''

*

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rhett, Robert
1800 births
1876 deaths
19th-century American newspaper publishers (people)
19th-century American politicians
American planters
American proslavery activists
American slave owners
Burials in South Carolina
Democratic Party members of the United States House of Representatives from South Carolina
Democratic Party United States senators from South Carolina
Deputies and delegates to the Provisional Congress of the Confederate States</