Isaac Hayne - American Revolutionary Patriot  Hanged by the British

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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).

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