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

politician A politician is a person active in party politics, or a person holding or seeking an elected office in government. Politicians propose, support, reject and create laws that govern the land and by an extension of its people. Broadly speaking, a ...

who served as a deputy from

South Carolina )''Animis opibusque parati'' ( for, , Latin, Prepared in mind and resources, links=no) , anthem = " Carolina";" South Carolina On My Mind" , Former = Province of South Carolina , seat = Columbia , LargestCity = Charleston , LargestMetro = ...

to the

Provisional Confederate States Congress The Provisional Congress of the Confederate States, also known as the Provisional Congress of the Confederate States of America, was a congress of deputies and delegates called together from the Southern States which became the governing body ...

from 1861 to 1862, a member of the

US House of Representatives The United States House of Representatives, often referred to as the House of Representatives, the U.S. House, or simply the House, is the lower chamber of the United States Congress, with the Senate being the upper chamber. Together they c ...

from South Carolina from 1837 to 1849, and

US Senator The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States. The composition and powe ...

from South Carolina from 1850 to 1852. As a staunch supporter of slavery and an early advocate of

secession Secession is the withdrawal of a group from a larger entity, especially a political entity, but also from any organization, union or military alliance. Some of the most famous and significant secessions have been: the former Soviet republics le ...

, he was a "

Fire-Eater Fire eating is the act of putting a flaming object into the mouth and extinguishing it. A fire eater can be an entertainer, a street performance, street performer, part of a sideshow or a circus act but has also been part of spiritual traditi ...

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

Early life

He was born Robert Barnwell Smith in

Beaufort Beaufort may refer to: People and titles * Beaufort (surname) * House of Beaufort, English nobility * Duke of Beaufort (England), a title in the peerage of England * Duke of Beaufort (France), a title in the French nobility Places Polar regions ...

, 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 In most common law jurisdictions, the attorney general or attorney-general (sometimes abbreviated AG or Atty.-Gen) is the main legal advisor to the government. The plural is attorneys general. In some jurisdictions, attorneys general also have exec ...

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 Colonel William Rhett (4 September 1666 – 12 January 1723) was a British-born plantation owner in the Province of Carolina in the late 17th and early 18th centuries. He arrived in America in 1694, accompanied by his wife Sarah. Rhett quickly b ...

. He objected vehemently to the protectionist

Tariff of 1842 The Tariff of 1842, or Black Tariff as it became known, was a protectionist tariff schedule adopted in the United States. It reversed the effects of the Compromise Tariff of 1833, which contained a provision that successively lowered the tariff ...

Support for secession

On July 31, 1844, he launched the

Bluffton Movement The Bluffton Movement was spawned during a political rally held under the "Secession Oak" in the village of Bluffton, South Carolina, on July 31, 1844.Jeff Fulgham, ''The Bluffton Expedition: The Burning of Bluffton, South Carolina, During th ...

, 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. He previously was the 13th speaker of the House of Representatives (1835–1839) and ninth governor of Tennessee (183 ...

. 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 defused a political confrontation between slave and free states on the status of territories acquired in the Mexican–Ame ...

as against the interests of the slave-holding South. He joined fellow Fire-Eaters at the

Nashville Convention {{Events leading to US Civil War The Nashville Convention was a political meeting held in Nashville, Tennessee, on June 3–11, 1850. Delegates from nine slave states met to consider secession, if the United States Congress decided to ban slavery ...

of 1850, which failed to endorse his aim of secession for the whole South. After the Nashville Convention, Rhett,

William Lowndes Yancey William Lowndes Yancey (August 10, 1814July 27, 1863) was an American journalist, politician, orator, diplomat and an American leader of the Southern secession movement. A member of the group known as the Fire-Eaters, Yancey was one of the m ...

, and a few others met in Macon,

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to the ...

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 The 1860 Democratic National Conventions were a series of presidential nominating conventions held to nominate the Democratic Party's candidates for president and vice president in the 1860 election. The first convention, held from April 23 t ...

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 Republican can refer to: Political ideology * An advocate of a republic, a type of government that is not a monarchy or dictatorship, and is usually associated with the rule of law. ** Republicanism, the ideology in support of republics or agains ...

, 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 William Porcher Miles (July 4, 1822 – May 11, 1899) was an American politician who was among the ardent states' rights advocates, supporters of slavery, and Southern secessionists who came to be known as the " Fire-Eaters." He is notable for h ...

hatched at the Southern Convention in Montgomery,

Alabama (We dare defend our rights) , anthem = "Alabama (state song), Alabama" , image_map = Alabama in United States.svg , seat = Montgomery, Alabama, Montgomery , LargestCity = Huntsville, Alabama, Huntsville , LargestCounty = Baldwin County, Al ...

, in May 1858.

Confederate States

After the election of the Republican Party's

Abraham Lincoln Abraham Lincoln ( ; February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) was an American lawyer, politician, and statesman who served as the 16th president of the United States from 1861 until his assassination in 1865. Lincoln led the nation thro ...

, 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 The Constitution of the Confederate States was the supreme law of the Confederate States of America. It was adopted on March 11, 1861, and was in effect from February 22, 1862, to the conclusion of the American Civil War (May 1865). The Confede ...

. 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 The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...

, he sharply criticized the policies of

President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) *President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ful ...

Jefferson Davis Jefferson F. Davis (June 3, 1808December 6, 1889) was an American politician who served as the president of the Confederate States from 1861 to 1865. He represented Mississippi in the United States Senate and the House of Representatives as a ...

Death

After the war, Rhett settled in

Louisiana Louisiana , group=pronunciation (French: ''La Louisiane'') is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It is the 20th-smallest by area and the 25th most populous of the 50 U.S. states. Louisiana is borde ...

. Rhett died in St. James Parish,

, 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 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 Congressman. Barnwell was born in Beaufort in the ...

(his great-uncle) and Senator

Robert Woodward Barnwell Robert Woodward Barnwell (August 10, 1801 – November 5, 1882) was an American slave owner, planter, lawyer, and educator from South Carolina who served as a Senator in both the United States Senate and that of the Confederate States of Amer ...

(son of Robert). A cousin of the Barnwells was the wife of

Alexander Garden Alexander Gardens (russian: Александровский сад) was one of the first urban public parks in Moscow, Russia. The park comprises three separate gardens, which stretch along all the length of the western Kremlin wall for between ...

Legacy

The Robert Barnwell Rhett House was declared to be a

National Historic Landmark A National Historic Landmark (NHL) is a building, district, object, site, or structure that is officially recognized by the United States government for its outstanding historical significance. Only some 2,500 (~3%) of over 90,000 places listed ...

in 1973. and (32 KB)

References

External links

*
Robert Rhett
at ''

The Political Graveyard The Political Graveyard is a website and database that catalogues information on more than 277,000 American political figures and political families, along with other information. The name comes from the website's inclusion of burial locations of ...

'' * {{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 Members of the Confederate House of Representatives from South Carolina 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 American Fire-Eaters American white supremacists Burials at Magnolia Cemetery (Charleston, South Carolina) United States senators who owned slaves