Rhett: The Turbulent Life and Times of a Fire-eaterWilliam C. Davis's biography of Robert Barnwell Rhett provides a definitive picture of South Carolina's most prominent secessionist and arguably the best known in the nation during the two decades leading up to the Civil War. Dubbed the Father of Secession, Rhett attached himself to South Carolina statesman John C. Calhoun, but grew more zealous than his mentor on the secession issue. Rhett first raised the possibility of secession in 1826, well before Calhoun adopted the notion, and would ever after hold fast to his one great idea. In this examination of Rhett's personal and political endeavors, Davis draws upon many newly found sources to reveal the extremism that would make and mar Rhett's adult life. Davis traces the statesman's obsession with a separation from the union, which he initially associated with a protective tariff and internal improvements but by the 1840s had unabashedly connected with slavery. Davis details Rhett's seven terms in Congress, his short-lived stint as a United States Senator, and his leading role in the South's newly energized movement toward secession after the 1860 election. Davis reveals Rhett's ambition to be rewarded with the presidency of the |
Contents
ONE Madam Modesty 16661819 | 1 |
TWO All Passion Excitement and Fire 18191828 | 22 |
Am a Disunionist 18281832 | 45 |
FOUR Perseverance Will Ensure Success 18321834 | 66 |
SEVEN A Compound of Wild Democracy 18381840 | 127 |
EIGHT We Are Something of Lucifers 18401843 | 148 |
Would Rather Talk Treason than | 214 |
THIRTEEN Into a Circle of Fire 18491850 | 262 |
Have Already Passed Out of the World | 354 |
EIGHTEEN The Tea Has Been Thrown Overboard | 375 |
NINETEEN The Fist of South Carolina 18601861 | 398 |
TWENTYTHREE There Is Something Wrong Somewhere | 488 |
TWENTYFOUR Cast Out of Public Life 18621864 | 508 |
TWENTYSEVEN Do You See Yonder Star? 18761939 | 574 |
Notes | 591 |
Bibliography | 671 |
Common terms and phrases
Aiken Rhett Collection Alfred Armistead L August Barnwell Rhett Heyward Barnwell Rhett Jr Barnwell Smith Beaufort bill Buren Calhoun called Carolinians Charleston Mercury Chesnut Cheves Cobb Columbia committee Confederacy Confederate Congress Congressional Globe Constitution convention course Davis Davis's debate December declared delegation Democrats Edmund election Elmore father feared February February 9 friends Georgia Henry Hammond Papers House Ibid issue James H James Henry Hammond January July legislature Mary Chesnut Memminger Memoir nation never North November nullification October Papers of John party Petigru Pickens plantations political Polk president resolution Rhett Heyward Papers Rhett Papers Rhett to Robert Richmond Robert Barnwell Rhett Robert M. T. Hunter SCHS secede secession secessionist Senate September session Simms slave slavery South Carolina Southern sovereignty speech tariff Thomas R. R. Cobb tion told took Union vote wanted Washington Whigs William Porcher Miles Yancey Yankees
Popular passages
Page 681 - Declaration of the immediate causes which induce and justify the secession of South Carolina from the Federal Union.