Everything about Robert Rhett totally explained
Robert Barnwell Rhett, Sr. (
October 21,
1800 –
September 14,
1876), was a
United States secessionist
politician from
South Carolina.
Born
Robert Barnwell Smith in
Beaufort. His name was originally Smith, but after entering public life he changed it for that of a prominent
colonial ancestor Colonel
William Rhett. He studied
law and became a member of the South Carolina legislature in
1826.
His great-uncle was Congressman
Robert Barnwell the father of Congressman
Robert Woodward Barnwell. A cousin of the Barnwells was the wife of
Alexander Garden (soldier).
After his state legislative service, Rhett was the South Carolina
attorney general (1832),
U.S. representative (
1837-
1849), and
U.S. senator (
1850-
1852). Extremely pro-Southern in his views, he split (
1844) with
John C. Calhoun to lead the
Bluffton Movement for separate state action on the
Tariff of 1842. Rhett was one of the leading
fire-eaters at the
Nashville Convention of 1850, which failed to endorse his aim of secession for the whole South.
Secessionist
When South Carolina passed (1852) an
ordinance that merely declared a state's right to secede, Rhett resigned his U.S. Senate seat. He continued to express his fiery secessionist sentiments through the
Charleston Mercury, edited by his son, Robert Barnwell Rhett, Jr. Rhett was a member of the
South Carolina Secession Convention in
1860. In the
Montgomery Convention which met to organize a provisional government for the seceding states, he was one of the most active delegates and was chairman of the committee which reported the
Confederate Constitution.
He was also considered to be
President of the Confederate States, having somewhat ironically being the one responsible for persons elected to that office serving a single, six-year term. Subsequently he was elected a member of the lower house of the
Confederate Congress. He received no higher office in the Confederate government and returned to South Carolina, where he sharply criticized the policies of Confederate President
Jefferson Davis of
Mississippi.
After the end of the
War, he settled in
Louisiana. While it was rumored that he was a delegate to the
Democratic National Convention in 1868, that was in fact his son, Robert Rhett, Jr., who had shared his father's editorship responsibilities.
Rhett died in
St. James Parish near
New Orleans. He is buried in Magnolia Cemetery in Charleston, South Carolina.
The
Robert Barnwell Rhett House was declared to be a
National Historic Landmark in 1973.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Robert Rhett'.
|
External Link Exchanges
Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:
<a href="http://robert_rhett.totallyexplained.com">Robert Rhett Totally Explained</a>
Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned. |
