Robert Barnwell Rhett (born Robert Barnwell Smith; December 21, 1800September 14, 1876) was an American

politician A politician is a person who participates in Public policy, policy-making processes, usually holding an elective position in government. Politicians represent the people, make decisions, and influence the formulation of public policy. The roles ...

who served as a deputy from

South Carolina South Carolina ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders North Carolina to the north and northeast, the Atlantic Ocean to the southeast, and Georgia (U.S. state), Georg ...

to the

Provisional Confederate States Congress The Provisional Congress of the Confederate States, fully the Provisional Congress of the Confederate States of America, was a unicameral congress of deputies and delegates called together from the Southern States which became the governin ...

from 1861 to 1862, a member of the

US House of Representatives The United States House of Representatives is a chamber of the bicameral United States Congress; it is the lower house, with the U.S. Senate being the upper house. Together, the House and Senate have the authority under Article One of th ...

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 Secession is the formal withdrawal of a group from a Polity, political entity. The process begins once a group proclaims an act of secession (such as a declaration of independence). A secession attempt might be violent or peaceful, but the goal i ...

, he was a " Fire-Eater", nicknamed the "father of secession". Rhett published his views through his newspaper, the '' Charleston Mercury''. His son Alfred M. Rhett commanded a battery at Fort Moultrie at the time of the bombardment of Fort Sumter.

Early life

Rhett was born Robert Barnwell Smith in Beaufort, South Carolina, United States. He later studied law. Rhett was of English ancestry. On his mother's side, he was related to U.S. Representative

Robert Barnwell Robert Gibbes Barnwell (December 21, 1761October 24, 1814) was a South Carolina slave owner, revolutionary and statesman who was a delegate to the Confederation Congress and a United States United States House of Representatives, Congressman ...

(his great-uncle) and Senator Robert Woodward Barnwell (son of Robert). A cousin of the Barnwells was the wife of Alexander Garden.

Early career

Rhett was a member of the South Carolina legislature from 1826 until 1832, and 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's Attorney General, serving until 1837. He was then elected a 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 Colonel William Rhett (4 September 1666 – 12 January 1723) was an English-born planter, politician and military officer who moved to the Carolinas, where he spent the majority of his life. Born in London, Rhett emigrated to North America in 1 ...

. Rhett objected vehemently to the protectionist Tariff of 1842.

Support for secession

On July 31, 1844, Rhett 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 James Knox Polk (; November 2, 1795 – June 15, 1849) was the 11th president of the United States, serving from 1845 to 1849. A protégé of Andrew Jackson and a member of the Democratic Party, he was an advocate of Jacksonian democracy and ...

. Rhett opposed the

Compromise of 1850 The Compromise of 1850 was a package of five separate bills passed by the United States Congress in September 1850 that temporarily defused tensions between slave and free states during the years leading up to the American Civil War. Designe ...

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 Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the South Caucasus * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the southeastern United States Georgia may also refer to: People and fictional characters * Georgia (name), a list of pe ...

on August 21, 1850, and formed the short-lived Southern National Party. In December 1850, he was appointed to be a 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 Barnwell Rhett Jr. The 1860 Democratic National Convention met in Charleston,

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 Montgomery is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Alabama. Named for Continental Army major general Richard Montgomery, it stands beside the Alabama River on the Gulf Coastal Plain. The population was 2 ...

in May 1858. One 20th-century historian called the scheme the work of "Rhett–Yancey– Keitt extremists."

Confederate States

Map_of_Charleston_and_its_Defences_-_NARA_-_131043685

After the election of the Republican Party's candidate,

Abraham Lincoln Abraham Lincoln (February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) was the 16th president of the United States, serving from 1861 until Assassination of Abraham Lincoln, his assassination in 1865. He led the United States through the American Civil War ...

, 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

Civil War A civil war is a war between organized groups within the same Sovereign state, state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies.J ...

, he sharply criticized the policies of Confederate President

Jefferson Davis Jefferson F. Davis (June 3, 1808December 6, 1889) was an American politician who served as the only President of the Confederate States of America, president of the Confederate States from 1861 to 1865. He represented Mississippi in the Unite ...

. In October 1865, Confederate military officer P.G.T. Beauregard wrote to Rhett encouraging him to resume publication of the ''Charleston Mercury'' "to help in re-establishing the truths of History. It will be difficult, even for many of our own people, to believe that so glorious a cause as the one we fought for should have been sacrificed by the prejudices & want of judgment & foresight of one man efferson Davis Yet such was the fact, according to my most deliberate opinion."

Death

Rhett struggled with skin cancer for many years, including a "cancerous growth on his nose which terribly disfigured him and also affected his general health in the years after the war." After the war, Rhett settled in

Louisiana Louisiana ( ; ; ) is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It borders Texas to the west, Arkansas to the north, and Mississippi to the east. Of the 50 U.S. states, it ranks 31st in area and 25 ...

. He died in St. James Parish,

, and is interred at Magnolia Cemetery in Charleston, South Carolina.

Legacy

The Robert Barnwell Rhett House in Charleston was declared a

National Historic Landmark A National Historic Landmark (NHL) is a National Register of Historic Places property types, building, district, object, site, or structure that is officially recognized by the Federal government of the United States, United States government f ...

in 1973. and (32 KB)

References

Notes 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. (1931) ''Robert Barnwell Rhett: Father of Secession''

External links

*
Robert Rhett
at ''

The Political Graveyard The Political Graveyard is a website and database that catalogues information on more than 277,000 Politics of the United States, American political figures and List of United States political families, political families, along with other informa ...

'' * {{DEFAULTSORT:Rhett, Robert 1800 births 1876 deaths 19th-century American newspaper publishers (people) 19th-century American planters 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 Members of the Confederate House of Representatives from South Carolina Democratic Party members of the South Carolina House of Representatives Nullification crisis People from Beaufort, South Carolina Signers of the Confederate States Constitution Signers of the Provisional Constitution of the Confederate States South Carolina attorneys general South Carolina lawyers Fire-Eaters Burials at Magnolia Cemetery (Charleston, South Carolina) United States senators who owned slaves Members of the United States House of Representatives who owned slaves University of South Carolina Beaufort alumni 19th-century United States senators 19th-century members of the South Carolina General Assembly 19th-century members of the United States House of Representatives