The Father of Secession!

(1800-76) Born in Beaufort, S.C., he studied law, was admitted to the bar and commenced practice in Beaufort in 1824. He served as a member of the South Carolina House of Representatives, 1826-32, and was elected Attorney General of South Carolina in 1832. From 1837-49, he served as U.S. Congressman, and from 1850-52, as U.S. Senator. Extremely pro-Southern in his views, Rhett was one of the leading fire-eaters at the 1850 Nashville Convention which failed to endorse his plan of secession for the entire South. He continued to express his fiery secessionist sentiments through the Charleston Mercury, which was edited by his son, Robert Barnwell Rhett, Jr. The elder Rhett was a member of the South Carolina Secession Convention in 1860, and was one of the most active delegates to the Confederate Provisional Congress in 1861. He was appointed chairman of the committee which reported on the Confederate States Constitution, and subsequently was elected a member of the lower house of the Confederate Congress. He sharply criticized President Jefferson Davis throughout the war.

Wet plate, albumen carte de visite photograph, mounted to 2 3/8 x 4 card. Bust view in uniform. Backmark: E. & H.T. Anthony, N.Y. Very fine. Scarce.