South Carolina Fire-eater Rhett Writes to Son about Confederate Provisional Congress

Autograph Letter Signed, to Robert Barnwell Rhett Jr., February 9, 1861, Montgomery, Alabama. 3 pp., 8 1/4 x 10 in. In this letter, Robert Barnwell Rhett, known as "the father of secession" and a South Carolina delegate to the Confederate Provincial Congress in Montgomery, Alabama, writes to his son and namesake, who was the editor of the Charleston Mercury, about the convention and the provisional constitution being developed for the Confederacy. Complete Transcript Feby 9th 1861 ConfidentialMy Dear Son We are dreadfully mortified here, on receiving the Telegraph from Col Hayne, informing us, of the contempt and indignity with which he has been repulsed. It was what might have been expected. That miserable Poltroon Pickens, instead of attacking Fort Sumpter, as Hayne entreats, is telegraphing to Memminger here to push on the Provisional Government here, in order that he might have an excuse, for submitting to the indignity, put upon the State through him by the government of the United [States]. Memminger is in a state of dreadful alarm, and Keitt proposed yesterday to Robert Barnwell, that the Telegraph dispatch should be layed before the Congress, to obtain their aid and protection. Robert Barnwell communicated the proposal of Keitt to me. Our stern opposition alone prevented us being disgraced here, as we have been in the State by the [unb?]vanity of our Governor. For heavens sake, cannot a fight be got up in Charleston Bay? We are here shorn of our usefulness by the cowardly submission and inactivity of our Executive authority. If you can do nothing better, can you not burn Pickens in effigy in Charleston and serenade him with the Rogues March? Let the people drive him out of his office or into the Bay. Whilst the Governor of Georgia is voting as becomes a man and a Magistrate, can no way be found to extricate ourselves from the position of shame and dishonor, in which we are? We have adopted a Provisional Constitution. I was sick when the Committee was organized, and therefore was not on the Committee. I will doubtless be on the Committee to form the permanent Constitution. A portion of our Delegation behaved abominably. As we are under the injunction of secrecy, I cannot explain, but when I get before the Convention of the State, I will speak out. The Congress is bent on a Southern Confederacy and opposed to reconstruction, but humbly, as Alabama Louisiana and Georgia [?]to go to the People and bent on getting the Frontier States with us. Our position with respect to the Frontier States is the reason the Provisional Constitution is no better than it is. You will see that we have gained little on the Tariff in the Provisional Constitution, and on the slave-trade have a positive condemnation of the Institution of Slavery in the Constitution itself. Denounce the Constitution on both of these grounds and say that it is only excusable on the ground of the temporary nature of the Constitution. Jefferson Davis, or Howell Cobb, will be elected the first President of the Southern Confederacy. Yours Dear Son R B RhettHistorical BackgroundThe Provisional Congress of the Confederate States of America held its first session in Montgomery, Alabama, from February 4 to March 16, 1861, with representatives from Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, and Texas. The delegates from South Carolina were Robert Barnwell Rhett Sr., Robert W. Barnwell, L. M. Keitt, James Chesnut Jr., Christopher G. Memminger, W. Porcher Miles, Thomas J. Withers, and W. W. Boyce.In mid-January 1861, Colonel Isaac W. Hayne (1809-1880), the Attorney General of South Carolina, carried a demand from Governor Pickens for the surrender of Fort Sumter and all other federal property in South Carolina to President James Buchanan. Hayne met privately with Buchanan on January 14, but both sides delayed until Hayne formally delivered the letter from Pickens to Buchanan on January 31.Robert Barnwell Rh. (See website for full description).…