PETIGRU, JAMES LOUIS. 



741 



been more decided or grateful than that of Mr. 

 Petigru ; but the two succeeding years brought 

 strife and discord into the social circles of South 

 Carolina, in consequence of her political rela- 

 tions with the General Government, and the 

 prospects he might have entertained of reach- 

 ing the highest honors of the State were se- 

 riously injured, if not destroyed. It was during 

 the nullification troubles of 1830-'32 that he 

 first showed that strong attachment to the Fed- 

 eral Union, which became the controlling prin- 

 ciple of his political life, and from which, in 

 the darkest hours of the national crisis, he 

 never deviated. The people of South Carolina 

 were then divided into two parties, of which 

 the larger, under the leadership of Calhoun, 

 McDuffie, and Hayne, insisted upon the con- 

 stitutional right and the necessity of applying 

 the State veto to the protective tariff bills of 

 Congress. Mr. Petigru took sides against this 

 doctrine, and became one of the leaders of the 

 " Union and State Rights Party," in company 

 with William Drayton, Daniel E. Huger, Henry 

 E. Dessaussure, and other distinguished law- 

 yers, representing various sections of the State. 

 This latter organization, while sympathizing 

 with the nullifiers in their dislike of the pro- 

 tective system, and in some of their opinions 

 on the subject of State rights, joined issue 

 with them on the proposed remedy of nulli- 

 fication by the State veto. In this conflict of 

 opinion and doctrine the two parties were 

 more than once on the eve of civil war. But 

 the nullifiers triumphed ; the State vetoed, 

 by ordinance, the obnoxious tariff bill ; and the 

 compromise bill of Mr. Clay soon after restored 

 quiet to the country. 



During the controversy, Mr. Petigru showed 

 himself an earnest and resolute worker. He 

 wrote and spoke with vigor and eloquence 

 throughout the campaign, and in periods of 

 great popular excitement, when the passions 

 of men could with difficulty be restrained, he 

 was always to be found in the midst of the 

 excitement, and fearless of danger. In the sub- 

 sequent calm which followed, and the restora- 

 tion of a more pacific temper to society, he 

 was probably one of the last to be forgiven by 

 the triumphant party, his views being consider- 

 ed antagonistic to the recognition of the sov- 

 ereignty of the State, and identical with meas- 

 ures of Federal usurpation. But though politi- 

 cally suspected, his talents and virtues, his 

 ability as an advocate, and his high social posi- 

 tion sufficed to keep him honored in the com- 

 munity, and he still remained without a rival 

 at the bar. Subsequently he served in the 

 State Legislature ; held for a brief period the 

 office of District Attorney of the United States, 

 at a time when such a position subjected him to 

 popular odium ; and during the last few years of 

 his life was one of the commissioners for codi- 

 fying the laws and statutes of South Carolina. 



The secession of South Carolina from the 

 Federal Union in December, 1860, found him 

 too advanced in years to take an active part in 



public or political controversies; bnt with no 

 less energy than he had combated the heresies 

 of the nullifiers thirty years previous, did he 

 declare his opinions against the dissolution of 

 the Union ; and this, so far as can now be as- 

 certained, in opposition to every other indi- 

 vidual of any note in the State. Amidst such 

 unanimity of opinion as then prevailed hi South 

 Carolina, another person in the position of Mr. 

 Petigru might have fared badly ; but his polit- 

 ical " wrong-headedness," as it was mildly call- 

 ed, was pardoned in one whose character was 

 so deeply respected, and he remained in Charles- 

 ton until his death, abating in no degree the 

 opinions he had originally formed, and tolerat- 

 ed in the expression of those opinions. Of his 

 unwavering devotion to the Union, even after 

 the bombardment of Fort Sumter, a remarkable 

 and affecting illustration is afforded in a recent- 

 ly published letter from him to the Hon. Rev- 

 erdy Johnson, of Maryland, dated April 16th, 

 1861. "I came in," he says, "with the Con- 

 stitution, which went into operation only a few 

 weeks before I saw the light : and I have ever 

 devoutly believed that Union is our great- 

 est interest. Unfortunately for me, my coun- 

 trymen have, in the course of the last fifty 

 years, taken up the idea that it was a mistake, 

 and that cotton is our greatest interest. The 

 universality of the cotton doctrine, by which I 

 am surrounded, had no sort of influence over my 

 way of thinking, and I have the misfortune of 

 witnessing, day by day, manifestations of en- 

 thusiasm in which I have not the slightest par- 

 ticipation. You maybe sure, then, of my ready 

 and hearty concurrence in your able and lucid 

 argument against the right of secession ; for the 

 Union would be but a precarious possession if it 

 stood upon the mutable ground of the popular 

 opinion of expediency from day to day. In 

 fact, if it had been authoritatively proclaimed at 

 the time of its adoption that it was only bind- 

 ing as long as it received the voluntary adhe- 

 sion of the several States, it would never have 

 been adopted at all ; for the people would have 

 justly said that it was no improvement on the 

 Confederacy. For the Confederacy would have 

 answered all its purposes if it could have been 

 sure of the voluntary adherence of the several 

 States to the duties that were submitted to 

 their" free arbitrament. There is no doubt the 

 men of 1787 did undertake a new thing in at- 

 tempting to divide the civil power between the 

 Nation and the State, so as to leave each of 

 them sovereign within their several spheres. 

 But our secessionists pretend that they did not 

 mean it. * * 



" What is to be the end of all this seems to 

 me inscrutable. But even if the Gulf States 

 and South Carolina do flake off forever, I will 

 never cease to witness with joy whatever in- 

 creases the prosperity and honor of the United 

 States." 



There is no evidence that during the last two 

 years of his life he modified in any degree the 

 views herein expressed. 



