Robert Young HAYNE, Congress, SC (1791-1839)

HAYNE, Robert Young, (brother of Arthur Peronneau Hayne), a Senator from South Carolina; born on Pon Pon plantation, St. Paul’s Parish, Colleton District, S.C., November 10, 1791; attended private schools in Charleston; studied law; admitted to the bar in 1812 and commenced practice in Charleston, S.C.; served in the War of 1812, becoming captain of the Charleston Cadet Riflemen in 1814; appointed quartermaster general of the State in December 1814; member, State house of representatives 1814-1818, and served as speaker in 1818; State attorney general 1818-1822; elected to the United States Senate in 1822; reelected in 1828 as a Jacksonian and served from March 4, 1823, to December 13, 1832, when he resigned to become Governor; participated in January and February 1830 in a notable exchange with Senator Daniel Webster of Massachusetts upon the principles of the Constitution, the authority of the general government, and the rights of the States; chairman, Committee on Naval Affairs (Nineteenth through Twenty-second Congresses); member of the South Carolina nullification convention in 1832; Governor of South Carolina 1832-1834; mayor of Charleston 1835-1837; promoter and president of the Louisville, Cincinnati & Charleston Railroad 1836-1839; died in Asheville, N.C., September 24, 1839; interment in St. Michael’s Churchyard, Charleston, S.C.

Bibliography

American National Biography; Dictionary of American Biography; Jervy, Theodore. Robert Y. Hayne and His Times. 1909. Reprint. New York: Da Capo Press, 1970; Patterson, Lane. “The Battle of the Giants: Webster and Hayne: Orators at Odds.” American History Illustrated 17 (February 1983): 18-23.

Source: Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1771-Present