The Ancient Rivalry Between Massachusetts and South Carolina, 1829-1856 William Merrell Clemson University, [email protected]
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Clemson University TigerPrints All Theses Theses 5-2010 'Champions of Contending Armies': The Ancient Rivalry Between Massachusetts and South Carolina, 1829-1856 William Merrell Clemson University, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://tigerprints.clemson.edu/all_theses Part of the United States History Commons Recommended Citation Merrell, William, "'Champions of Contending Armies': The Ancient Rivalry Between Massachusetts nda South Carolina, 1829-1856" (2010). All Theses. 769. https://tigerprints.clemson.edu/all_theses/769 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Theses at TigerPrints. It has been accepted for inclusion in All Theses by an authorized administrator of TigerPrints. For more information, please contact [email protected]. “CHAMPIONS OF CONTENDING ARMIES”: THE ANCIENT RIVALRY BETWEEN MASSACHUSETTS AND SOUTH CAROLINA, 1829-1856 A Thesis Presented to the Graduate School of Clemson University In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirement for the Degree Master of Arts History by William Thomas Merrell May 2010 Accepted by: Dr. Paul Christopher Anderson, Committee Chair Dr. Rod Andrew Dr. Christa Smith ABSTRACT The focus of this work is the “ancient rivalry” between Massachusetts and South Carolina, as it played out in the antebellum era. Although little attention has been devoted exclusively to the study of this rivalry, it exercised a considerable degree of influence over the nation on its path to civil war. Most notably, this rivalry directly impacted the emergence of an American national identity between 1830 and 1860. The self-perpetuating rivalry between South Carolina and Massachusetts helped define the parameters of American identity, and ensured the eventual exclusion of South Carolina from such an identity. Filtered through three specific episodes, this work will show how a unique South Carolina psychology and identity emerged in response to the state’s exclusion from American identity. This psychology gave South Carolinians the individual and collective social capacity to play an unparalleled role in the American Civil War. This role was characterized by their ability to inaugurate the secession movement and do so unanimously; their ability to embrace secession and celebrate its realization; their ability to offer a greater degree of support to the Confederate cause than their neighbors—including lower exemption and desertion percentages, higher enlistment and casualty percentages, and a more cooperative relationship with the Confederate government. The first chapter will present the Great Debate between South Carolina’s Robert Young Hayne and Massachusetts’s Daniel Webster. This chapter will show how Webster, over the course of the debate, established the historical legitimacy of a perpetual union and the historical illegitimacy of state interposition. In doing so, he excluded ii South Carolina nullification from his conception of American identity, and initiated the process by which all South Carolinians would eventually be excluded. In addition, the debate between Hayne and Webster helped engender a number of perceived foibles that would become associated with South Carolina over the next few decades, alienating the state from the rest of the nation. The second chapter will depict the controversy between Massachusetts’s Lorenzo Sabine and South Carolina’s William Gilmore Simms. This chapter will relay how Sabine excluded the majority of white South Carolinians from the nation’s unifying historical experience, thereby establishing a separate, aberrant South Carolina historical narrative. Because of the relationship between historical experience and collective identity, this episode ensured the emergence of a distinct South Carolina identity. The final chapter will explore Charles Sumner’s critique of South Carolina and Preston Brooks’s subsequent retaliation. Sumner’s treatment of South Carolina was an extension of the remarks made by Webster and Sabine. Decrying the entire history of South Carolina, Sumner provided for the unconditional exclusion of South Carolinians. With this exclusion, South Carolina witnessed the evaporation of unionism within the state. Barred from American nationality, South Carolinians turned to their state for a source of identity. iii DEDICATION For my Mother and Father iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The journey that has culminated in the completion of this thesis was begun five years ago. Regarding Master’s degrees in general, the length of time which it has taken to complete this work has been remarkably long. Having been so long accustomed to view the process I was engaged in as interminable, I am now inclined to view its termination as nothing short of a miracle. Reaching the miraculous end of my protracted journey, I must now convey my ineffable gratitude to all the invaluable parties who have aided me along the way. Dr. Paul Anderson has been my greatest academic mentor. I consider it one of my life’s greatest privileges to have had the opportunity to learn from him both as an undergraduate and as a graduate student at Clemson University. And I consider it one of my greatest misfortunes to have not had the opportunity to take more of his classes. He is a brilliant man, and has given me a great deal of insight into the South, history, and people in general. Dr. Rod Andrew and Dr. Christa Smith are prime examples of why Clemson’s Department of History and Geography epitomizes what every academic institution should be, a place where intellects engage in a network of understanding and ideas, with mutual respect and support, for the advancement of education and the betterment of society. All three of these professors are great scholars, but, more importantly, they are good people. Their support and advice has been tremendous. I am indebted to the staffs and personnel at the South Caroliniana Library in Columbia, the Strom Thurmond Institute at Clemson, The Cooper Library at Clemson, and the Laurens branch of the Laurens County Library. These people have generously v provided the research assistance necessary to the completion of such a monumental task. I am also grateful to the people of South Carolina, past and present, old and young, black and white, man and woman. They have been a constant source of inspiration. My family has been particularly instrumental in the completion of this thesis. They have been steadfast in their devotion to my cause, offering more encouragement, financial support, and love than I deserve. I am most appreciative of my precious wife. She has endured more hardships than anyone over the course of this journey. With an uncommon degree of love and patience, she has borne the fiscal burden of our household, and tolerated a great deal on my behalf. I am grateful to the members of College Street Baptist Church, and the members of my faith at large, for the many, many prayers and intercessions made on my behalf during this process. Their faith has strengthened mine, and their love is a testament to the love of God. Finally, I owe an eternal debt of gratitude to my God, the Maker of men, and my Savior, Jesus Christ. Eugene Genovese once concluded that the Christian faith of African-Americans was the only thing that could explain how they were able to survive the numerous tribulations they have endured for centuries. I believe this is a fitting explanation for how any Christian individual is able to survive the many trials of life. This thesis was long and arduous, and there were countless nights when I felt like giving up. It is through my faith alone that the light of hope survived. God believes in us all, and this is the greatest source of strength I can imagine. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS Page TITLE PAGE…………………………………………………………………………...…i ABSTRACT………………………………………………………………………………ii DEDICATION……………………………………………………………………………iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS………………………………………………………………...v INTRODUCTION………………………………………………………………………...1 CHAPTER I: DUELING TONGUES: THE HAYNE-WEBSTER DEBATE………………..10 II: DUELING PENS: THE SABINE-SIMMS CONTROVERSY………………..49 III: THE CANING OF MR. SUMNER: THE BROOKS-SUMNER AFFAIR……77 CONCLUSION………………………………………………………………………....113 REFERENCES………………………………………………………………………....116 vii INTRODUCTION “Massachusetts and South Carolina. The two representative States of the Union, like the two champions of contending armies, are doomed to settle between them the great struggle which must continue to be kept up between the North and the South.” -New York Daily Times , 27 May 1856 Sue McDowell, opening her journal on New Years Day 1861, wrote: “Gloriously my loved Carolina, have you moved in these hours which try mens souls. Your sons do no dishonor to the soil which germinated a Marion and Sumter…and time will indelibly stamp your name upon the pages of history, with the 21 st of December as the era from which to date your sovereignty.” 1 Spartanburg farmer David G. Harris confided in his journal: “I do hope the State or rather the Republic of South Carolina will not concede or retract, or submit in no respect whatever. She has taken a bold and noble stand, she must and will maintain it let it cost as much blood and money as it may. I for one am glad she has committed herself, and do not fear the consequences.” 2 The Keowee Courier proclaimed: “The long looked for and long hoped for period has at length arrived when a sovereign State (long oppressed by her enemies, who should have been her friends,) would throw aside the shackles by which she was bound, arise in the majesty of her power, and declare herself a free and independent Government.” 3 A correspondent for the Carolina Spartan wrote, “And thus was passed, ratified and sanctioned in the city of Charleston, the 20 th of December, 1860, the glorious act of secession, which is to make 1 Sue McDowell, Journal of Sue McDowell , January 1, 1861, South Caroliniana Library archives, Columbia, SC. 2 David G. Harris, Piedmont Farmer: The Journals of David Golightly Harris 1855-1870 , ed. Philip N. Racine (Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1990), 168. 3 Keowee Courier , January 5, 1861.