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Today In Charleston History: December 21

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1800 – Birth.

Robert Barnwell Smith (Rhett) was born. 

Rhett2-246x300After entering public life Robert Smith changed his last name for that of his prominent colonial ancestor Colonel William Rhett.  He studied law and became a member of the South Carolina legislature in 1826 and also served as South Carolina attorney general (1832), U.S. representative (1837–1849), and U.S. senator (1850–1852). He was pro-Southern extremist he split (1844) and one of the leading fire-eaters at the Nashville Convention of 1850, which failed to endorse his aim of secession for the whole South.

One of the original “Fire-Eaters” Rhett was was dubbed the ‘Father of Secession’ and called the ‘Lone Star of Disunion’ by his enemies in the Whig Party. In her famous diary, Mary Chesnut called Rhett “the greatest of seceders.”  During the War Rhett continued to express his radical views  through editorials in the Charleston Mercury newspaper, edited by his son. After the other Southern secession in 1861, Rhett was considered one of the leading candidates for President of the Confederate States. bit In the end, he was viewed as too radical for the position and the more conservative Jefferson Davis was selected as chief executive. 

Robert-Barnwell-Rhetts-grave-300x225Rhett was critical of the Confederate Government for many reasons, including government intervention in the economy. He had previously envisioned a Confederacy that also included the Caribbean and even Brazil, but the Confederate States didn’t live up to Rhett’s dream and criticized Jefferson Davis’ adminstration as strongly as he had once criticized Washington, DC. After the War Rhett refused to apply for a Federal pardon. He died of cancer in 1876 and is buried in Magnolia Cemetery in Charleston.

1842

The Citadel, a military college, was founded in response to the Denmark Vesey rebellion. Charleston City Council established a “municipal force of 150 men … for an arsenal, or a ‘Citadel’ to protect the preserve the public property and safety.” 

1860. Day After Secession.

     The celebrations continued through the night until the sun was rising over Charleston harbor. That evening another parade of brass bands and militia units marched through the street. They stopped in front of the Mills House, where Gov. Pickens addressed the crowd:

Allow me to say to you that I hope and trust I am in possession of information that, perhaps, there may be no appeal to force on the part of the Federal authorities. If I am mistaken in this, at least as far as I am concerned, we are prepared to meet any and every issue. 

         Christy’s Minstrels, in town from New York for a series of performances at Institute Hall, entertained the crowd with their famous blackface version of “Dixie,” followed by a rousing version of the La Marseillaise.

christy minstels

1891  – Jenkins Orphanage  

Daniel Jenkins preached a sermon at the New Tabernacle Fourth Baptist Church titled “The Harvest is Great by the Laborers Are Few.” It was an appeal to the congregation to “to help these and other unfortunate children.” The congregation was just a poor as Jenkins. The donated money did not last long; it paid for some food and clothing and the rental of a small shack at 660 King Street.

Today In Charleston History: December 20

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1752

King George II confirmed the charter of the Two-Bit Club at the Court of St. James. Soon afterward, the name was changed to the South Carolina Society and began including non-French members.

1782 – Slavery

Capt. Joseph Vesey returned to Charlestown with his wife, Kezia, their son John and Vesey’s personal servant / cabin boy, sixteen year-old Telemaque.

1783

The first theatrical performance in Charleston after the British evacuation was held in the Exchange Building.

1800 – Slavery

 A law was passed making it more difficult to emancipate slaves. Also passed was “An Act Respecting Slaves, Free Negroes, Mulattoes and Mestizoes” which permitted blacks to gather for religious worship only after the “rising of the sun and before the going down of the same … a majority [of the congregation] shall be white persons.”

Perhaps thinking that the “Christianization [sic] of the city’s black labor force would have a stabilizing effect,”  the white authorities ignored late night church meetings among all black congregations for many years.

1826

The South Carolina Jockey Club was formed.

1860 – Secession

On this day, a secession convention meeting in Charleston, South Carolina, unanimously adopted an ordinance dissolving the connection between South Carolina and the United States of America.

Click here to read the Charleston Mercury’s account of secession. 

Nina Glover, in Charleston, wrote to her daughter, Mrs. C. J. Bowen, “The Union is being dissolved in tears. The feeling exhibited was intense; each man, through the day, as he met his neighbor, anxiously asked if the Ordinance had yet passed.”

By mid-morning a large crowd of thousands had gathered on Broad Street in front of St. Andrew’s Hall. The Charleston police guard stood in front of the closed and locked doors. 

st andrews hall - ext

The ordinance, written by Christopher Memminger, was a simple but direct statement. John Ingliss claimed that it meant: “in the fewest and simplest words possible to be uses … all that is necessary to effect the end proposed and no more.”

 The call of the roll started at 1:07 P.M. and ended at 1:15, with every delegate voting “yea,” a unanimous vote – eight minutes to vote to “dissolve” the Union. From a window at St. Andrew’s a signal was flashed to the crowd. Then, according to Rev. Anthony Toomer Porter:

 A mighty shout arose. It rose higher and higher until it was the roar of a tempest. It spread from end to end of the city, for all were of one mind. No man living could have stood the excitement.

The Mercury had received a draft copy of the ordinance, by 1:20 P.M., five minutes after the vote concluded, the “extra” was on the streets. During the day, tens of thousands of copies of the “extra” were printed.  Perry O’Bryan’s telegraph office wired the news to the rest of the nation.

dissolved

Upon the signing of the Ordinance, all the church bells in the city began to ring. James Petigru asked a passerby, “Where’s the fire?” The man responded, “Mr. Petigru, there is no fire; those are the joy bells in honor of the passage of the Ordinance of Secession.”

 Petigru responded, “I tell you there is a fire. They have this day set a blazing torch to the temple of constitutional liberty, and please God, we shall have no more peace forever.”    

Across the city, celebrations continued through the day. Elderly men donned the uniforms of their volunteer units and marched, shouting the news to all the neighborhoods. A man in a golden helmet trotted a horse around the city, a copy of the ordinance held aloft. Men gathered around Calhoun’s grave and vowed to “devote their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor, to the cause of South Carolina independence.”

The text of the Ordinance:

The State of South Carolina

At a Convention of the People of the State of South Carolina, begun and holden at Columbia on the Seventeenth day of December in the year or our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty and thence continued by adjournment to Charleston, and there by divers adjournments to the Twentieth day of December in the same year –

An Ordinance To dissolve the Union between the State of South Carolina and other States united with her under the compact entitled “The Constitution of the United States of America.”

We, the People of the State of South Carolina, in Convention assembled do declare and ordain, and it is hereby declared and ordained, That the Ordinance adopted by us in Convention, on the twenty-third day of May in the year of our Lord One Thousand Seven hundred and eight-eight, whereby the Constitution of the United State of America was ratified, and also all Acts and parts of Acts of the General Assembly of this State, ratifying amendment of the said Constitution, are here by repealed; and that the union now subsisting between South Carolina and other States, under the name of “The United States of America,” is hereby dissolved.

Done at Charleston, the twentieth day of December, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty.

Jacob Shirmer, a Union man like Petigru, prophetically wrote in his diary:

This is the commencement of the dissolution of the Union that has been the pride and glory of the whole world, and after a few years, we will find the beautiful structure broke up into as many pieces as there are now States, and jealously and discord will be all over the land.

Robert Gourdin wrote to John W. Ellis, governor of North Carolina:

Before the sun sets this day, South Carolina will have assumed the powers delegated to the federal government and taken her place among the nations as an independent power. God save the State.

We may, if possible, avoid collision with the general government, while we negotiate the dissolution of our situation with the Union. I apologize for the brevity of this … It is written at the dinner table amid conversation, wine and rejoicing.     

At 6:30 p.m. the secession delegates lined up on Broad Street in front of St. Andrew’s Hall, and through the gas lamp glow, marched east to Meeting Street, turned left and marched past Hibernian Hall, the Mills House and arrived at the front doors of Institute (Secession) Hall. The delegates entered the hall, to the roar of applause and cheers from more than 3,000 Charlestonians, packed into the building.  One of the attendants was eighteen-year old Augustine Smythe, the son of Presbyterian minister, Rev. Thomas Smythe, who was crammed into the corner of the upper gallery. Also in the gallery was Virginian Edmund Ruffin and British consul Robert Bunch.

circular church - teetotal

Photo of Meeting Street with 1806 version of Circular Church steeple and portico and SC Institute Hall, c 1860.

 On the stage was a lone table, flanked by two potted palmetto trees. A banner on the stage read “Built from The Ruins.” After the delegates were seated, Rev. John Bachman offered a prayer where he asked God for “wisdom on high for the leaders … forced by fanaticism, injustice, and oppression” to secede. Then a copy of the ordinance, or, as the Mercury called it, “the consecrated parchment,” was read aloud and, as the Mercury breathlessly reported:

On the last word – “dissolved” – those assembled could contain themselves no longer, and a shout that shook the very building, reverberating, long-continued, rose to Heaven, and ceased on with the loss of breath.

Institute-hall-secession

South Carolina Institute Hall, street view, (Harper’s Weekly)

Upon the signing of the Ordinance of Secession, all the church bells in Charleston began to ring. James Petigru asked a passerby, “Where’s the fire?” The man responded, “Mr. Petigru, there is no fire; those are the joy bells in honor of the passage of the Ordinance of Secession.”

 Petigru responded, “I tell you there is a fire. They have this day set a blazing torch to the temple of constitutional liberty, and please God, we shall have no more peace forever.” Late in the day, Petigru was again asked about secession and famously remarked, “South Carolina is too small for a republic and too large for an insane asylum.”

secession

Inside South Carolina Institute (Secession) Hall. From Frank Leslie’s Newspaper. Courtesy of the Library of Congress

The ordinance was then placed on the stage table, and one-by-one, the delegates stepped forward to sign. Over the next two hours the delegates signed the Ordinance of Secession, and as politicians are apt to do, offered a few remarks on the “monumental occasion.” Ruffin wrote, “no one was weary, and no one left.”

After the last signature, Chairmen Jamison held the document above his head and exclaimed, “I proclaim the State of South Carolina an Independent Com-monwealth!” At that, the crowd rushed the stage, and frantically removed souvenir fronds from the palmetto trees. Augustine Smythe, slid down a pillar to the main floor, joined the scrum. He managed to not only get a palmetto frond souvenir, but also removed the pen and blotter used to sign the document. These items today are in the collection at the Confederate Museum, housed in Market Hall on Meeting Street.

The raucous celebration spilled into the Charleston streets, with men whooping and shooting pistols in the air. Bonfires in tar barrels, were lit on street corners across the city. Edmund Ruffin wrote, “The bands played on and on, as if there were no thought of ceasing.”

A teenager named Augustus Smythe procured a seat in the balcony of Charleston’s South Carolina Institute Hall on the night of December 20, 1860.  Over the next three hours Smythe watched the members of the South Carolina legislature sign the Ordinance of Secession, officially removing the state of South Carolina from the Union and establishing an independent republic, ultimately called the Confederate States of America. The raucous celebration after that historic event spilled into the Charleston streets, with men whooping, drinking whiskey and shooting pistols in the air. Smythe had the calm foresight to make his way through the crowd to the stage and remove the inkwell and pen which had been used to sign the Ordinance. These items today are in the collection at the Confederate Museum, housed in Market Hall on Meeting Street.

secssion, mills house

Rally on Meeting Street, in front of Mills House, 1861. From Frank Leslie’s Newspaper. Courtesy of the Library of Congress

Today In Charleston History: December 19

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1774

During the elections Francis Salvador was elected to the First Provincial Congress from the Ninety-six district – the first Jew elected to office in the American colonies.

1801

The legislature chartered South Carolina College, now the University of South Carolina.

1827

The Charleston & Hamburg Rail Road was chartered by Alexander Black and William Aiken. Black proposed to build and operate a railed road from Charleston to Hamburg Columbia and Camden.

Map of route for the Charleston & Hamburg line.

Map of route for the Charleston & Hamburg line.

Charleston’s economy heavily depending on the shipping of three staples: cotton to England, rice to southern Europe and lumber to the West Indies. The development of steamers that sailed the Savannah River that brought Georgia and South Carolina crops and goods from August to the port of Savannah, severely cutting into Charleston’s trade.

The proposed railed road from Hamburg (on the Savannah River across from Augusta) was considered the best solution – goods could be transported by rail 136 miles to Charleston. 

1828 – Nullification Crisis. State’s Rights.
John_C_Calhoun_by_Mathew_Brady,_1849

John C. Calhoun (by Matthew Brady, 1849)

The South Carolina legislature adopted the Exposition and Protest (secretly written by Vice-President John C. Calhoun) which argued about the unconstitutionality of the Tariff of Abominations because it favored manufacturing over commerce and agriculture. Calhoun believed the tariff power could only be used to generate revenue, not to provide protection from foreign competition for American industries. He believed that the people of a state or acting in a democratically elected convention, had the retained power to veto any act of the federal government which violated the Constitution.

1860 – Second Day of Secession Convention

The Mercury’s front page exclaimed:

The excitement here is a deep, calm feeling … [the city] may be said to swarm with armed men [but] we are not a mobocracy here, and believe in law, order, and obedience to authority, civil and military.          

     Issac W. Hayne, the state’s attorney general, called for secession commissioners to be sent to other states, to urge them to join South Carolina. He called for each commissioner to carry a copy of South Carolina’s Ordinance of Secession, before it was even approved.

  While the whites were celebrating, among the free blacks in Charleston, the exodus, which had started in September, continued. James D. Johnson, on Coming Street, was preparing his two houses for sale. He wrote, “I only want to beautify the exterior so as to attract Capitalists.” His son wrote, “It is now a fixed fact that we must go.”

At 11:00 a.m. the delegates met at St Andrew’s Hall. A delegate proposed that should “sit with closed doors,” and James Chesnut protested. He claimed that “a popular body should sit with the eyes of the people upon them.” He then suggested they move back to Institute Hall. John Richardson argued to Chesnut: “I protest. If there is one sentiment predominant over all others, and truly the mind of the people of Charleston, it is that this Convention should proceed!” 

st-andrews-hall-1

St. Andrews Hall, 118 Broad Street. Courtesy of Library of Congress

The doors were shut, locked and guarded by Charleston police. All the citizens could do was wait with the patience of a child on Christmas eve. An afternoon parade by the Vigilant Rifles and the Washington Light Infantry occupied some of the afternoon. They stopped in front of South Carolina Society Hall on Meeting Street, where Mayor Charles Macbeth presented a flag to Captain S. Y. Tipper “sewn by a number of the fair daughters of Carolina.” Capt. Tipper toasted Fort Moultrie:

It is ours by inheritance. It stands upon the sacred soil of Carolina, and the spirit of our patriotic fathers hover about it. Infamy to the mercenaries [Federal troops] that fire the first gun against the children of its revolutionary defenders. 

     The day ended, and no news from the convention. No ordinance yet.

Today In Charleston History: December 18

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1775 – American Revolution. Slavery.  

The South Carolina General Gazette reported that:

the Company of Foot Rangers…made a descent on that Island [Sullivan’s] burnt the House in which the Banditti were often lodged brought off four Negroes killed three or four & also took White prisoners four Men three Women & three Children destroyed many things which had been useful to those wretches.

1797 – Slavery.

Two slaves – Jean Louis and Figaro – and a free black were hanged, accused of planning “to set fire to the city as they had formerly done in St. Domingo.” They were “led to the place of execution at the bottom of Tradd Street facing the Lower Market between the Hours of Twelve and One o’Clock and hanged by the Neck.”

1860, December 18. Delegates Arrive.

In the late morning hours, the exhausted, red-eyed delegates arrived at the Charleston rail depot, greeted by the sound of drums, and a fifteen-gun salute from the Washington Light Infantry. They were led down Meeting Street into town by a military escort. Crowds lined the street, “ladies wore white cotton ‘secession bonnets’ with streamers decorated by … palmetto trees and a lone gold star.” The Palmetto Flag flew from almost every house and business. They marched past the Secession Pole in front of the Charleston Hotel. A “Secession Gun” had already been erected on East Bay, “to be fired on ratification of the ordinance. The gunpowder had been stored by a Charleston lady since the nullification crisis three decades before.”

Word passed through the city that the convention would reconvene at 4:00 p.m at Institute Hall, now being called by the locals as “Secession Hall.”

Institute-hall-secession

South Carolina Institute Hall, street view, (Harper’s Weekly)

With this festive atmosphere as the background, Rhett, Jr. paid a call to the British consul Robert Bunch to discuss how the English government would treat a Southern Confederacy. Bunch wondered if the confederacy would reopen the African slave trade which, he claimed, the English government “views with horror.” Rhett, Jr., filled with the powerful excitement of the moment, replied:

No Southern State or Confederacy will ever be brought to negotiate upon such a subject. To prohibit the Slave Trade would be virtually to admit the institution of slavery is an evil and a wrong, instead of, as the South believes, a blessing of the African Race and a system of labor appointed by God.

At 4:00 p.m., Rev. Richard Furman re-opened the convention with a prayer. The only business conducted that afternoon was a motion by Barnwell Rhett that “a committee be formed to prepare an address to the people of the Southern States.” The delegates, however, felt the hall was “too commodious … to debate intelligently.” The presence of several thousand rowdy spectators obviously changed the atmosphere of the hall from solemnity to celebratory. They decided to meet the next morning, delegates only, at St. Andrews Hall on Broad Street.  

Today In Charleston History: December 16

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1762

The Assembly voted 24-6 to suspend all other business until Governor Thomas Boone apologized for violating the rights and privilege of the House. They also sent a full account to London, asking British officials to decide the issue. They also suspended the governor’s salary. From now on, the Assembly would become more assertive in their relationship with British officials.

1891

Rev. Daniel Jenkins founded the Orphan Aid Society for black children in Charleston. 

1901

WashRaceCourse1864_650x650The first horse race was held at the South Carolina West Indian Exposition. A smaller (half mile), private track had been built on the former Washington Race Course. A stable for more than 500 horses were constructed. Races were offered daily. An admission price was levied so that “undesirable characters may be discouraged from entering.” However, a “blind tiger” (illegal saloon) operated near the race course. Ultimately, the race course failed, and by the end of the Exposition it was closed.

Today In Charleston History: December 15

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1730

Robert Johnson arrived and took office as the Royal Governor of South Carolina.  Also on board his ship were the six Cherokee chiefs who had negotiated the treaty with the king.

Gov. Johnson's Return.

Gov. Johnson’s return with Cherokee Indian chiefs.

Johnson had also served as the last Proprietary governor of South Carolina from 1717–1719. The most important event of his first administration was the suppression of the pirates who were preying upon the commerce of South Carolina and neighboring colonies. Fitting out an expedition, he personally commanded a victorious engagement with them off the bar of Charleston, and carried on the campaign until they were exterminated and their leader. Stede Bonnet was captured.

During his second term, Governor Johnson aided General Oglethorpe and the first settlers of Georgia by giving them food and escort, and during his term the settlement of Purrysburgh, by the Swiss under Colonel Peter Purry, was made. The Commons House of Assembly erected a monument to his memory in St. Philip’s church, Charles Town.

1860, Pickens Becomes Governor.
Francis_Wilkinson_Pickens

Francis Pickens

Francis Pickens became South Carolina governor, replacing William Henry Gist. Robert Barnwell Rhett was third on the first ballot. By the fifth ballot, Rhett was off the ballot altogether. It was a fatal blow to his political aspirations to lead a Southern Confederacy.

 Pickens, the former U.S. Ambassador to Russia, managed to win over the Charleston radicals by pledging a “secession now” platform.

Today In Charleston History: December 14

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1743

George Lucas was named Lt. Royal Governor of Antigua. He realized that he would never live in Carolina again. He sent his oldest son, George, to Carolina to bring his family back to the island. His daughter, Eliza, who was running her father’s plantation in his absence wrote to a friend, “We expect my brother George very shortly … His arrival will, I suppose, determine how long we shall continue here.”

Eliza was horrified about leaving Carolina. She had built a successful life and did not want to leave.

1782 – British Occupation.

The British Army evacuated Charlestown.

Wholesale looting by British troops began weeks before the withdrawal, private property from houses. More than 5000 slaves were taken by enterprising British officers, who contracted transport to the West Indies where the slaves were re-sold. Major Traile of the Royal Artillery, took down the church bells of St. Michael’s and carried them away as being British property.

As significant as the material losses were, perhaps the loss of people was more devastating in the long run. Approximately, 3800 whites and 5300 blacks joined the British exodus, resettling in Jamaica, Bermuda, England and St. Lucia. However, hundreds of British soldiers deserted and remained in South Carolina.

The Continental Army entered the city that afternoon. At Gov. Rutledge’s invitation, Gen. Green made his headquarters on Rutledge’s house on Broad Street. The thirty-month nightmare occupation was over, with bitterness lingering between both sides.

british evacuate

British evacuate Charlestown

1830

The Best Friend locomotive pulled two fourteen-foot coaches with forty men at twenty miles per hour.

Best Friend of Charleston

Best Friend of Charleston

1839 – Births.

Angelina Grimke Weld gave birth to a son, Charles Stuart.

Today In Charleston History: December 13

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1770 – American Revolution – Foundations.

Henry Laurens and Charles Pinckney, Junior presided over a meeting at the Liberty Tree in which the continuation of the Association was discussed. Thomas Lynch: “rode fifty miles to Charles Town and exerted all his eloquence and even the trope of Rhetorical Tears for the expiring liberties of his dear country, which the Merchants would sell like any other merchandise.” They then voted to discontinue the boycott on all items except tea, and “send a bitter letter to the northern colonies” about their conduct in breaking the Association.

The non-importation crisis had a severe economic impact on the American colonies, with a dramatic drop in imports from 1768 to 1769.

  • New York: £490, 673 to £75,930
  • Philadelphia: £441,829 to £204,978
  • New England (Boston and Rhode Island): £430,806 to £223,694
  • Carolina: £306,600 to £146,273

The stage was now set for Charlestown, and the rest of the American colonies, to shrug off their ties with the British motherland.

1891

daniel_jenkinsDaniel Jenkins discovered four small black children huddled in a railroad box car. Despite the fact that he lived in a two-room house, with his wife and four children, Jenkins brought the orphaned children to his small home. This was the incident that led to the formation of the Orphan Aid Society of Charleston, the founding of the Jenkins Orphanage, the establishment of the Jenkins Orphanage Band. Within ten years, the Jenkins Band had performed in Europe and for Pres. Teddy Roosevelt’s inauguration. They later appeared on Broadway in Uncle Tom’s Cabin, and Porgy, performed for Pres. William Howard Taft and at the Anglo-American Expo in London. They also had a hand in introducing jazz music to small towns up and down the east coast and helping to popularize a dance that became known as “the Charleston.” 

1. doin book cover (create space) official - frontFor the entire story, read my 2013 book, Doin the Charleston.

Today In Charleston History: December 12

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NATIONAL POINSETTIA DAY

1851

Joel Roberts Poinsett died, a Master Mason of Solomon’s Lodge, Charleston.

poinsettPoinsett was one of the most interesting men in South Carolina history. Born in Charleston in 1779, he studied law under Henry William DeSaussure. Poinsett, however, was not interested in becoming a lawyer, and convinced his parents to allow him to go on an extended tour of Europe in 1801.  For the next several years, Poinsett traveled the European continent, from France to Italy traveling through the Alps and Switzerland. He hiked up Mount Etna on the island of Sicily.

In October 1803, Poinsett left Switzerland for Vienna, Austria, and from there journeyed to Munich. In December he received word that his father was dead, and that his sister, Susan, was seriously ill. He immediately secured passage back to Charleston. Poinsett arrived in Charleston early in 1804, months after his father had been laid to rest. Hoping to save his sister’s life, Poinsett took her on a voyage to New York, remembering how his earlier voyage to Lisbon had intensified his recovery. Yet, upon arriving in New York City, Susan Poinsett died. As the sole remaining heir, Poinsett inherited a small fortune in town houses and lots, plantations, bank stock, and “English funds.” The entire Poinsett estate was valued at a hundred thousand dollars or more.

Poinsett traveled to the Russian capital of St. Petersburg in November 1806. Levett Harris, consul of the United States at St. Petersburg, and the highest American official in the country, hoped to introduce Poinsett at court to Czar Alexander. Learning that Poinsett was from South Carolina, the Empress asked him if he would inspect the cotton factories under her patronage. Poinsett and Consul Harris traveled by sleigh to Cronstadt to see the factories. Poinsett made some suggestions on improvement, which the Dowager Empress accepted.

In January, 1807, Czar Alexander and Poinsett dined at the Palace. Czar Alexander attempted to entice Poinsett into the Russian civil or military service. Poinsett was hesitant, which prompted Alexander to advise him to “see the Empire, acquire the language, study the people”, and then decide. Always interested in travel, Poinsett accepted the invitation and left St. Petersburg in March 1807 on a journey through southern Russia. He was accompanied by his English friend Lord Royston and eight others.

JRP-SoW,_SPoinsett and Royston were among the last westerners to see Moscow before its burning in October 1812 by Napoleon’s forces. Poinsett’s company traveled to Baku on the Caspian Sea. He noted that because of the petroleum pits in the region, it had long been a spot of pilgrimage for fire-worshipers. He became one of the earliest U.S. travelers to the Middle East, where, in 1806, the Persian khan showed him a pool of petroleum, which he speculated might someday be used for fuel.

Upon his return to Moscow, a year later, Czar Alexander’s discussed the details of Poinsett’s trip with him and offered him a position as colonel in the Russian Army. However, news had reached Russia of the attack of the H.M.S. Leopard upon the Chesapeake, and war between the United States and Great Britain seemed certain. Poinsett eagerly sought to return to the United States.

Before leaving Russia, Poinsett met one last time with Czar Alexander, who expressed his approval of the energetic measures by the Congress of the United States to resist the maritime pretensions of Britain. The Czar declared that Russia and the United States should maintain the same policy of respect. Poinsett again met with Foreign Minister Count Romanzoff where the Russian disclosed to Poinsett that the Czar ardently desired to have a minister from the United States at the Russian Court.

 In 1809  Pres. James Madison appointed Poinsett as Consul in General to Chile and Argentina. Poinsett was to investigate the prospects of the revolutionists, in their struggle for independence from Spain. He returned to Charleston on May 28, 1815.

poinsettia

In 1820, Poinsett won a seat in the United States House of Representatives for the Charleston district. As a congressman, Poinsett continued to call for internal improvements, but he also advocated the maintenance of a strong army and navy. He was appointed the first American minister to Mexico in 1825, and became embroiled in the country’s political turmoil until his recall in 1830. It was during this time that he visited the area south of Mexico City around Taxco del Alarcon, where he was introduced to a Mexican plant  called “Flor de Noche Buena” (Christmas Eve flower).  Poinsett, an avid amateur botanist, sent samples of the plant home to the States and by 1836 the plant was most widely known as the “poinsettia.”

In 1830, Poinsett returned to South Carolina  to again serve in the South Carolina state legislature, from 1830 to 1831. An avowed strong Unionist, his correspondence with Pres. Andrew Jackson during the Nullification Crisis kept the president abreast of the evolving situation in their home state, helping Jackson to craft policy. In 1833, Poinsett married the widow Mary Izard Pringle (1780-1857), daughter of Ralph and Elizabeth (Stead) Izard.

Poinsett-statue

Poinsett statue in Greenville, SC

Poinsett served as Secretary of War from March 7, 1837 to March 5, 1841 and presided over the continuing removal of Indians west of the Mississippi and over the Seminole War; reduced the fragmentation of the Army by concentrating elements at central locations; equipped the light batteries of artillery regiments as authorized by the 1821 army organization act.

In 1840 he a co-founder of the National Institute for the Promotion of Science and the Useful Arts in 1840, a group of politicians advocating for the use of the “Smithson bequest” for a national museum that would showcase relics of the country and its leaders, celebrate American technology and document the national resources of North America. The group was defeated in its efforts, as other groups wanted scientists, rather than political leaders, guiding the fortunes of what would become the Smithsonian Institution.

In 1841 he retired to his plantation at Georgetown died of tuberculosis, hastened by an attack of pneumonia, in Stateburg, South Carolina in 1851, and is buried at the Church of the Holy Cross Episcopal Cemetery.

Poinsett Bridge in Traveler's Rest, SC

Poinsett Bridge in Traveler’s Rest, SC

 

Today In Charleston History: December 11

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1861 – GREAT FIRE.

A fire started at Russell and Co.’s sash factory at the foot of Hasell Street and East Bay (present-day location of Harris Teeter). It crossed to the south side of Hasell Street and spread to Cameron and Co.’s machine shop. The fire spread quickly, fueled by a windy Nor’easter and an endless supply of wooden buildings. Another factor in the devastation was that most of the men who would have been available to fight the fire had signed up for Confederate military service and were not living in the city. Many people were able to save some of their belongings, but few could stop the fire from destroying their homes.

It left the city of Charleston in shambles and it remained in ruins for the remainder of the War.  Business was suspended and planters sent produce into town for the needy. “Soup houses” were opened to feed those left homeless and relief committees were established to house the homeless and to raise money for the victims. The effects of the fire were long lasting and rebuilding was slow during the economic depression in the decades following the War. The damage caused by the fire became associated with damages from the war.  Photographs of the burned city were often misrepresented as damage caused by Union guns. The Great Fire of 1861 did more damage to Charleston in one night than the Federal blockade and bombardment did over the next four years.

1861 fire path map. From the Post and Courier.

1861 fire path map. From the Post and Courier.

Emma Holmes, 23 –year old described the fire in her diary:

The flames swept on with inconceivable rapidity & fierceness, notwithstanding the almost superhuman efforts of the firemen … Through that awful night, we watched the weary hours at the windows and still the flames leaped madly on with demonic fury … At five a.m. the city was wrapped in a living wall of fire from the Cooper to the Ashley without a single gap t break its dread uniformity. It seemed as if the day would never dawn … when the sun rose, the fire was still raging so fiercely that its glare almost overpowered that of the sun … The wind circled in eddies, driving the flames in every direction & carrying showers of flakes to an immense distance …

1861 fire

Harper’s Weekly reported the fire, including the rampant speculation that the fire may have been started by rebellious slaves.

IT matters little, in effect, whether the burning of the city of Charleston was the fruit of accident or of negro incendiarism. The rebels are sure to ascribe the disaster to the latter cause. Secret terrors are the price of despotism : in slave countries, every noise, every cry, every unusual movement of a slave, carries apprehension to the heart of his master. At the time of the John Brown affair, Governor Wise told us that Virginia matrons living miles and miles away were beside themselves with terror. We know that so terrible was the alarm created by that trumpery attempt, that down on the Gulf shore negroes whose behavior had attracted attention were imprisoned, whipped, and even shot by scores. In the language of Southern members of Congress who talked secession in those days, life was not worth having, if accompanied by the agonies which such events implanted in every Southern breast.
It is by the light of these memories that we must read the tale of the burning of Charleston. The burning of 600 houses, including every public building in the city, and property valued at $7,000,000, is an astounding event. Whatever the politicians and the papers may say, the Southern people from Norfolk to Galveston are sure to conclude that the negroes did the dread deed, and each man and woman is now quaking in terror lest his or her house should be the next to go. Nor is this opinion likely to be confined to the whites. The slaves, too, will hear of the fire, and will hear simultaneously—for we know that news does spread among the slaves, hard as their masters try to keep them in ignorance—that between eight and ten thousand slaves, till lately the overworked laborers on Carolina cotton plantations, are now free men, getting eight and ten dollars a month. It will not exceed the negro’s power of combination to connect the two events together. When he does, beware the result.

Fire path, from Frank Leslie's Illutrated

Fire path, from Frank Leslie’s Illustrated

Meeting Street damage, Harper's Weekly

Meeting Street damage, Harper’s Weekly. Looking east from the roof of the Mills House. Circular Church ruins to the left … St. Philips to the right. Harper’s Weekly.

1900
At a public gathering, ground was broken for the construction of the South Carolina West Indian Exposition. Mayor Smythe and Gov. M.B. McSweeney spoke at ceremony. More than seven thousand people attended, arriving on trolleys, carriages and bicycles.