Isaac Hayne - American
Revolutionary Patriot Hanged by the
British
Summary:
Birth: |
Sep. 23, 1745 |
Death: |
Aug. 4, 1781
Charleston
South Carolina, USA |
Isaac Hayne was a Revolutionary War
Figure. He was a wealthy young rice
planter who fought for independence
during the American Revolution. He
returned to his home to live in the
neutrality after the British
captured Charleston (South Carolina)
in May of 1750. Later, while in
Charleston to secure medicine for
his ill wife and children who were
suffering from smallpox, he was
forced to declare his allegiance to
the British. Like many South
Carolinians, Hayne returned to the
fight when the tide of war turned.
He was captured by British troops
after leading a raid in July of
1781. To set a brutal example to
prevent other former Patriots from
violating their neutrality, a
military tribunal condemned Hayne to
death as a traitor. Isaac Hayne was
executed in Charleston on August 4,
1781. He was not yet 36 years old.
The funeral procession then left
Charleston for Jacksonboro, SC
(Colleton County) to the home of his
plantation - his final resting
place. He is buried there along with
11 other family members
|
Isaac Hayne
Details
HAYNE, Isaac, patriot, born
in South Carolina, 23 September, 1745; died
in Charleston, South Carolina, 4 August,
1781o He was a wealthy planter in the
districts of Beaufort and Colleton, and the
proprietor of extensive iron-works in York
district, which were afterward destroyed by
the British. At the beginning of the
Revolution he took the field, was a captain
of artillery, and at the same time state
senator. In 1780, on the invasion of the
state by the British, he served in a cavalry
regiment during the final siege of
Charleston, and, being included in the
capitulation of that place, was paroled on
condition that he would not serve against
the British while they held possession. When
in 1781 the fortunes of the British began to
decline, he, with all the others who were
paroled on the same terms, was required to
join the royal army or be subjected to close
confinement. Hayne would gladly have
accepted imprisonment, but his wife and
several of his children lay at the point of
death from small-pox. He went to Charleston,
and, being assured by the deputy British
commandant, Patterson, that he would not be
required to bear arms against his country,
took the oath of allegiance. After the
successes of General Greene had left the
British nothing but Charleston, Hayne was
summoned to join the royal army immediately.
This, being in violation of the agreement
that had been made, consequently released
him from all his obligations to the British.
He went to the American camp, and was
commissioned colonel of a militia company.
In July, 1781, he made an incursion to the
Quarter House, a precinct within five miles
of Charleston, and captured General Andrew
Williamson, a former patriot, who had gone
over to the British service. It was feared
that Williamson would be hanged as a
traitor, and the British commandant at
Charleston, Colonel Nesbit Balfour, ordered
out his entire force in pursuit. Hayne's
party was surprised and scattered; he was
captured, taken to Charleston, thrown into
the provost's prison, and after a brief
examination before a board of officers,
without trial or examination of witnesses,
was sentenced to be hanged by the joint
orders of Colonel Balfour and Lord Rawdon.
Hayne protested against this summary
proceeding, which was illegal whether he was
regarded as a British subject or a prisoner
who had broken his parole. The citizens of
Charleston united in petitioning" for his
pardon, but the court was inexorable. A
respite of forty-eight hours was allowed him
in which to take leave of his orphan
children, for his wife had lately died, and
at the end of this time he was hanged. The
conduct of Rawdon and Balfour excited the
liveliest indignation among the Americans,
and General Greene issued a proclamation, on
26 August, announcing his determination to
make reprisals. The matter was discussed
with great ability in the British
parliament, and, while both Rawdon and
Balfour justified it, each attempted to
attribute it to the agency of the other.
Thirty-two years afterward Lord Rawdon, then
the Earl of Moira, in a letter to General
Henry Lee, attempted to justify his conduct.
His " Justification" was analyzed and
criticise in "The Southern Review" for
February, 1828, by Hayne's great-nephew,
Robert Y. Hayne. --His great-nephew, Arthur
Peronneau, senator, born in Charleston,
South Carolina, 12 March, 1790; died there,
7 January, 1867, received a classical
education and engaged in business. He joined
the army in 1812, was 1st lieutenant at
Sackett's Harbor, major of cavalry on the
St. Lawrence, inspector-general in 1814, and
was brevetted lieutenant-colonel for gallant
conduct at the battle of New Orleans. He
commanded the Tennessee volunteers during
the Florida war, and retired in 1820. He
then studled law in Pennsylvania, was
admitted to the bar, and returning to South
Carolina was a member of the state
legislature, and a presidential elector on
the Jackson and Calhoun ticket in 1828. He
was United States naval agent for five years
in the Mediterranean, and was offered and
declined the mission to Belgium. In 1858 he
was elected United States senator from South
Carolina, as a state-rights Democrat, in
place of Josiah J. Evans, deceased, serving
from May, 1858, till January, 1859.--His
brother, Robert Young, statesman, born in
St. Paul's parish, Colleton district, South
Carolina, 10 November, 1791; died in
Asheville, North Carolina, 24 September,
1839. He was educated at Charleston, studied
law, was admitted to the bar eight days
before he had attained his majority, and
began practice at Charleston. He served in
the 3d South Carolina regiment during the
war of 1812, and at its close resumed
practice in Charleston. He was then elected
to the legislature of the state, serving in
1814-'18, the last year as speaker. He was
attorney-general of the state in 1818-'22,
and in 1823 was elected a United States
senator. Among the questions that came up
for consideration during his term was that
of protection to American industry. Mr.
Hayne took an active part in the debates on
the subject and vehemently opposed the
protective system. When the tariff bill of
1829 was before the senate, he made an
elaborate and powerful speech in which he
asserted that congress had not the
constitutional power to impose duties on
imports for the purpose of protecting
domestic manufactures. His opposition to the
tariff of 1828 was equally bold and
vigorous. In 1832 Henry Clay proposed a
resolution in the senate declaring the
expediency of repealing forthwith the duties
on all imported articles which did not come
in competition with American manufactures.
Mr. Hayne met this proposition with prompt
and vigorous resistance, and submitted an
amendment to the effect that all the
existing duties should be so reduced as to
afford the revenue necessary to defray the
actual expenses of the government. He
supported this amendment in a speech of
great power, but it was rejected, and the
principles of Mr. Clay's resolution were
embodied in a bill which was passed after
full discussion. In this debate the doctrine
of nullification was for the first time
announced in congress; Mr. Hayne asserted
the right of a state, under the Federal
compact, to arrest the operation of a law
adopted by congress, and sanctioned by the
president, which she in convention should
decide to be unconstitutional. This
statement of the senator from South Carolina
led to the great debate between Daniel
Webster and Mr. Hayne, upon the principles
of the constitution, the authority of the
general government, and the rights of the
states. In consequence of the adoption of
the tariff bill of Mr. Clay, the legislature
of South Carolina called a state convention,
which met at Columbia, 24 November, 1832,
and adopted an ordinance of nullification.
In the following December, Mr. Hayne was
elected governor of South Carolina, while
Mr. Calhoun resigned the vice presidency of
the United States, and succeeded him in the
senate. President Jackson, on 10 December,
issued his proclamation denouncing the
nullification ordinance, and the proceedings
in the state of South Carolina. Governor
Hayne replied with a proclamation of
defiance, and South Carolina prepared for
armed resistance. At this critical hour, at
the instance of Mr. Clay and President
Jackson, a compromise was finally agreed on,
which adjusted the system of collecting the
revenue and lowered the import duties on
certain articles of necessity and
convenience. South Carolina called another
convention, over which Governor Hayne
presided, and the ordinance of nullification
was repealed. Governor Hayne retired from
the executive office in December, 1834, and
in 1835-'7 was mayor of Charleston. He was
president of the Cincinnati and Charleston
railroad in 1836-'9, and was attending a
railroad convention at the time of his
death. He was a contributor to the "Southern
Review." See "Life and Speeches of Robert Y.
Hayne" (1845). --Robert Young's nephew, Paul
Hamilton, poet, born in Charleston, South
Carolina, 1 January, 1830; died near
Augusta, Georgia, 6 July, 1886, was the only
child of a naval officer, who died at sea
when Paul was an infant, so that Governor
Hayne stood very much in the place of a
father to his nephew, superintending his
education, and always guiding him by his
counsel. The family had independent means,
so that young Hayne had every advantage of
education that his native city could offer.
Under the eye of his mother, a woman of rare
character, and the guardianship of his
uncle, he was thoroughly educated, and was
graduated at the College of South Carolina
with distinction at an early age. He studied
law and entered on its practice, but from
his earliest years the bent of his mind had
been toward literature. As a mere child, he
had pored over Froissart's "Chronicles," the
old dramatists, Shakespeare, and the earlier
poets. His study of the literature of the
Elizabethan age never ceased, and probably
no man in the United States was more
saturated with its spirit than he. As a
consequence of this taste he gave up the
practice of law, and addressed himself
wholly to literary life. Widen only
twenty-three years of age he edited
"Russell's Magazine," a southern literary
periodical, and afterward the " Charleston
Literary Gazette"; and with his friends
William Gilmore Simms, Henry Timrod, and
others, he helped to create such a literary
atmosphere in his native city as had not
existed before that time. The civil war
interrupted all Mr. Hayne's life-plans. He
entered at once into service as one of
Governor Pickens's aides, remaining on duty
till his naturally delicate health entirely
disabled him for active service. During the
war he continued constantly to write
stirring lyrics, which exerted no small
influence throughout the south. During the
bombardment of Charleston his home was
burned to the ground, consuming his large
library, and all the ancestral belongings of
generations. Thenceforth he became an exile
from his native city, and, having been
impoverished by the war, went to Augusta,
Georgia, where he supported his family 1)y
editorial work. He established himself at
length on a few acres of pine-land, and
built a small cottage, where, with his wife
and son, he resided until his death. Here he
labored unremittingly, suffering continually
from feeble health, and keeping the wolf
from his door only by the point of his pen.
His health began seriously to fail about
1882, though he labored with untiring energy
at his literary work till within a short
period of his death. Mr. Hayne left enough
manuscript to fill two volumes. No southern
poet has ever written so much or done so
much to give a literary impulse to his
section, so that he well deserves the title
that has been bestowed upon him by his
English friends, as well as by his own
people, "the Laureate of the South." Among
the tributes to Mr. Hayne was a sonnet by
Philip Bourke Marston, the English poet. His
published volumes are "Poems" (Boston,
1855); "Sonnets and Other Poems" (New York,
1857); "Avolio, a Legend of the Island of
Cos" (Boston, 1859); "Legends and Lyrics"
(Philadelphia, 1872); " The Mountain of the
Lovers, and Other Poems" (New York,
1873);Lives of Robert Y. Hayne and Hugh S.
Legare (1878); and a complete illustrated
edition of his poems (Boston, 1882). He also
edited Henry Tin> rod's poems, with a memoir
(New York, 1872).
From
www.oldexchange.com
|
Isaac Hayne Room at the
(Modern) Exchange
Captain Jacob Milligan was a friend of Col.
Isaac Hayne.
From the
book "John Adams Bennett, Kith and Kin" by
John Stuart Adams of Hot Springs Ark......
According to
the Issac Hayne record (revolutionary war
Col. in Charleston SC), Margaret Bennett
married Jacob Millegan (note spelling) in
1774. She would have been 15 years old but
that was not uncommon.
Jacob Millegan
(it was sometimes spelled this way) was
from May until March 1783 in the Revolution
as 3rd Lt. on the Ship "Prosper" and
commander of the Galley "Revenge" according
to the record of Revolutionary soldiers and
sailors of SC. He is also listed as Harbor
Master in the 1794 Charleston Directory and
also as its compiler. In 1790 he was listed
as Intelligence Officer.
|