Robert Y. Hayne

Robert Young Hayne (November 10, 1791 – September 24, 1839) was an American slave-owner, lawyer, and politician. He served in the United States Senate from 1823 to 1832, as Governor of South Carolina 1832–1834, and as Mayor of Charleston 1836–1837. As Senator and Governor, he was a leading figure in the Nullification Crisis and, along with John C. Calhoun and James Hamilton Jr., a vocal proponent of the doctrines of states' rights, compact theory, and nullification; his 1830 debate in the Senate with Daniel Webster is considered a defining episode in the constitutional crisis which precipitated the American Civil War. Early and family life Robert Y. Hayne was born on November 10, 1791 to Elizabeth Peronneau and her husband William Hayne, who owned plantations farmed by enslaved labor in St. Paul Parish, Colleton District, South Carolina. Robert Hayne had a younger brother, Paul Hamilton Hayne (1803-1830). Hayne received a private education suitable for his class, then studied law in the office of Langdon Cheves in Charleston. On November 3, 1813, he married Frances Henrietta Pinckney (1790–1818), daughter of prominent lawyer and former governor Charles Pinckney. They had a daughter, Frances Henrietta Pinckney Sharpe (1818–1875). In 1820, after his first wife's death from childbirth complications, Hayne married Rebecca Brewton Allston. Her father, William Alston, gave her a lot on lower King Street where Hayne built a house (today's 4 Ladson Street). Hayne would later give his daughter Frances a plantation in Tamassee, South Carolina, when she married the local Pendleton, South Carolina court clerk, Elam Sharpe, shortly before Hayne's unexpected death in 1839. Lawyer, officer, planter, railroad president Hayne was admitted to the bar in 1812, and practiced law in Charleston. During the War of 1812 against Great Britain, he was Lieutenant in Charleston Cadet Infantry and rose to Captain in the Third South Carolina Regiment. Hayne later served as the Quartermaster General of the state militia. By 1836, he had risen in the state militia ranks to major general.