Robert Barnwell Rhett
From Dixiepedia: The PC-Free Encyclopedia
Robert Barnwell Rhett (21 December 1800 – 14 September 1876) born in Beaufort, South Carolina. His surname was originally Smith, but after entering public life he changed it for that of a prominent Colonial ancestor. He studied law and became a member of the State Legislature in 1826.
When South Carolina passed an ordinance in 1852 merely declaring the State's right to secede, he resigned his seat. He continued to express his fiery secessionist sentiments through the Charleston Mercury, edited by his son. Rhett was a member of the South Carolina Secession Convention in 1860, and was the author of its address to the people. 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. Subsequently he was elected a member of the Lower House of the Confederate Congress. Receiving no higher office in the Confederate Government, he returned to South Carolina, where he sharply criticized the policies of President Jefferson Davis.
After the end of the War Between the States, 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 Barnwell Rhett Jr. who had shared his father's editorship responsibilities. Rhett died in St. James Parish, Louisiana and his remains were buried in Magnolia Cemetery in Charleston, South Carolina.
Selected quotes from speeches by R. Barnwell Rhett:
"If a compact is broken in one particular it may be broken in all. Its continuance, as a broken compact, is a mere matter of expediency, not of obligation. And so of the Constitution of the United States. It must be preserved in its integrity, or all its guarantees fail. The same power which thrusts it aside for one object, may thrust it aside for another. The Constitution, then, depends not on its terms for its integrity, but on the will of those whose power controls act. If the Constitution was a compact between those who had an identity of interests and institutions, it would be wrong to surrender it, to the construction or administration of one section of a country rather then another. But it is a compact between peoples having different and antagonistic interests and institutions, a living in different sections of a Union; and, when it is added, that these sections differ in power, it is clear that the weaker section cannot surrender the Constitution, without imminent danger of ruin. They must have the Constitution for their protection, were they must submit to be colonized. When, therefore, we contend for our constitutional rights in our territories, we are contending for the Constitution. We must have it – in the rights it guarantees to us in our territories, or surrender it, in all. For myself, sir, I have never contended for anything more in the union, than the Constitution of the United States, throughout my whole political life. I have asked for the Union of the Constitution. I can, and will take no less. Give me the Constitution, and I am willing to fight for it – live for it – die for it." Rhett's speech to the South Carolina Democratic Convention, May 31st, 1860 Charleston Mercury, June 7th, 1860, page 4, column 2-3.
"Why has the Constitution failed in securing liberty and protection to the South? I know the ready answer. It will be – that the Northern people have been faithless to their constitutional obligations. But was not this anticipated? Do not all constitutions imply that men will be faithless in their duty to others? What are they made for, but to restrain the strong, because the strong will be unscrupulous? Undoubtedly, it is wrong for men to aggress upon their fellow men; but this is the nature – the fallen nature of man; and constitutions are made to counteract this inevitable tendency of our nature; and by clearly defined and distinct limitations, to give the weak, the moral power, in foro conscientiae, of protecting themselves. No constitution can enforce itself. Its grants of power will always be enforced by the majority; but its limitations on power, must be enforced by the minority, for whose benefit they were created. But how can a minority enforce a constitution? In but one way – by reason, backed by a stern spirit of resistance. Since the foundation of free governments, no constitution has been ever preserved by mere faith of those who had power over it; it has been preserved by the resistance of those who are mainly interested in its limitations. Men – not inanimate parchments – living men, not dead abstractions – have enforced free governments." Rhett’s Speech at the Charleston Ratification Meeting, July 9th, 1860. Charleston Mercury, July 13th, 1860, page 4, column 1 and 2.
