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LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses Graduate School

1971

Thirty Years With Calhoun, Rhett, and the

Charleston Mercury: a Chapter in South Carolina
Politics.
John Stanford Coussons
Louisiana State University and Agricultural & Mechanical College

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(1971). LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses. 2042.
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 394

pure heart" to the state, Elmore asserted. In response, the assembly

petitioned Governor Whitmarsh B. Seabrook to appoint a committee-of-

Twenty-Five "to proceed to Washington to receive and bring home the

mortal remains of the Hon. J. C. Calhoun." At the same time the City

Council, convening in special session, requested of both the governor

and the Calhoun family that Charleston be accorded "the distinction of

being selected as the final resting place of the illustrious CALHOUN."

Quickly acceding to the request of the meeting. Governor Sea­

brook faithfully followed the Calhoun formula in selecting members

for the committee. Orthodox Nullifiers John E. Carew and Henry W.

Conner were appointed to sit with former Unionist Christopher Mem-

minger. (Prominent by his absence from this committee was Robert

Barnwell Ehett.) Both the family and the governor also agreed that

Calhoun should be buried in Charleston. As part of its preparation

for a proper reception of the body in the city, the Council ap­

pointed a committee of its own. Again the membership consisted of

both Nullifiers and Unionists; included among the latter was no less

a figure than James L. Petigru, archpriest of South Carolina Union­

ism. Even in death Calhoun would maintain his emphasis on the need

for unity within the state.

Calhoun was buried with all the solemnity reserved at that

time for the death of a ruler of a country. In Washington memorial

services were held in both the Senate and House chambers. Then his

body was placed on board the crepe-draped steamer Baltimore for a

last journey South. As the vessel warped her way into the stream—

^^Ibid., Apr. 2, 5, 6, 10; Thomas, Carolina Tribute to

Calhoun, 39-72.

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 395

away from the dock and its silent crowd— the muted notes of martial

music mingled with the sound of Washington’s tolling church bells.

Accompanied by the Committee-of-Twenty-Five and a committee of six

Senators appointed for the same purpose, "the mortal remains" of

South Carolina's greatest son began its water-borne passage past

Alexandria and Mount Vernon to Acquia Creek. There the "remains

were landed on the shores of Virginia," for the trip by rail to Fred­

ericksburg, Richmond, Petersburg, and Wilmington.

Flags ;:lew at half mast, business was suspended, guns boomed

and church bells tolled while the body of the late Senator was "re­

ceived with honors" at each place. In a solemn procession the gov­

ernor of Virginia escorted Calhoun’s body through Richmond streets

before it lay in state in Jefferson’s capitol. Another procession

led the bier through Petersburg for a memorial service in St. Paul’s

church. Forty miles from Wilmington the Calhoun party was met by a

delegation which conducted it into that city for further honors.

After the citizens of Wilmington had registered "their respect to the

memory of the dead," the body was put on board the steamer Nina for

the final leg of its return to Charleston.

The progress to the South ended at twelve o ’clock noon on

April 25 when the Nina docked at the foot of Boundary Street. This

thoroughfare, soon to be renamed in Calhoun’s honor, was crowded with

mourners, many of whom had come by way of the free passage given on

the Washington and Wilmington Railroad. Silent but for her tolling

bells, the city wore heavy mourning as twelve ex-governors and the

lieutenant governor met Calhoun's body and escorted it to the Citadel

Square.

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 396

There the governor waited with the General Assembly and the

officials, clergy, students, and fraternal organization of the city.

Behind the governor stood the heavily-draped battlements of the Cita­

del, a fortress erected when Calhoun was a young Secretary of War.

After Governor Seabrook had received the body from James M. Mason,

Chairman of the Senate Committee of Escort, and the solemn ceremony

of another memorial service, the "precious remains" were committed

to the care of the Mayor. The procession then reformed and moved

south into King Street. It wound its way past draped and closed

houses, stores and churches, down King Street into Hassel, on to

Meeting and finally by way of South and East Battery to Broad Street.

The cortege stopped at the City Hall where the Guard of Honor was

posted and the body lay in state for the rest of the day.

At ten o'clock on April 26, a final procession was formed.

Carried by the Guard of Honor, the dead leader moved again through

Charleston's streets, this time to St. Phillip's church. "After an

anthem sung by a full choir," the Right Reverend Christopher Gads­

den, Bishop of South Carolina, read the Order for the Burial of the

Dead. "[A]n eloquent funeral discourse" followed this rite, and the

body was removed to the west churchyard. There the last prayers were

said and— under the watchful eyes of the Guard of Honor— "Mr. Calhoun"

was buried. In thus surrendering his charge, the Mayor noticed that

"Nearby pendent from the tall spar that supported it, drooped the

flag of the Union, its folds mournfully sweeping the verge of the

tomb."

The Mercury had suspended publication for the day. But on

the following day, April 27, it recorded the event in words that

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 397

revealed the emotions of its staff, and their special sense of loss :

Our city has passed through a scene that will never be

forgotten by those who witnessed it . . . it absorbed the
whole thought; and soul and presence of the city. All
shared in it and Charleston was one house of mourning.

25Thomas, Carolina Tribute to Calhoun, 1-16; 24-91; Mercury

Apr. 2, 3, 5, 6, 10, 16, 22, 24, 25, 27, 1850.

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 V IT A

The author was b o m in Minden, Louisiana on January 13, 1931.

He attended the public schools of Dubberly, Louisiana and was gradu­

ated from the Dubberly High School in May, 1948. Entering Louisiana

College during the following month, he was graduated with the Bachelor

of Arts on June 1, 1951. One week later he began graduate study in

the Department of History at the Louisiana State University. After a

year in graduate school, he entered the Navy where he served as a line

officer on a destroyer. Upon his separation from the service in Oc­

tober 1955, he taught in the Midway Junior High School, Shreveport,

Louisiana. He re-entered the graduate school at the Louisiana State

University in June, 1956, and received the degree of Master of Arts

in August, 1958. In September he became an Assistant Professor of

History at The Citadel: The Military College of South Carolina,

Charleston. Subsequently promoted to Associate Professor, the author

is a Commander in the Naval Reserve and a candidate for the Ph.D.

degree in August, 1971.

407

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 E X A M I N A T I O N A N D THESIS R E P O R T

Candidate: John Stanford Coussons

Major Field: History

Title of Thesis: Thirty Years With Calhoun, Rhett, and the Charleston Mercury:
A Chapter in South Carolina Politics
Approved:

Major Professor and Chairman

Dean of the Graduate School

EXAM INING COMMITTEE:

— S I.

Date of Examination:

June 25, 1971

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