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Railing against what he called the gradual, steady encroachment of the North, Rhett said the South had to take decisive action to counter the effects of the Tariff of 1842, which was crippling the Southern economy. It was time, he said, to take up the cause of separation from the Union.
Rhett reappeared Saturday, played by Bluffton resident Larry Hughes as part of an event commemorating the 166th anniversary of the speech that transformed the tree he spoke beneath into the "secession oak."
A former president of the Bluffton Historical Preservation Society, Hughes said many historians credit Rhett and the rest of the so-called "Bluffton Boys" with stoking the fires that eventually led to South Carolina seceding from the Union.
Rhett was born Robert Barnwell Smith in Beaufort in 1800. He changed his last name to Rhett in 1838, according to the Biographical Directory of the U.S. Congress website. After serving in the House of Representatives, he was elected as a Democrat to the U.S. Senate. He died in 1876 and was buried in Charleston.
Over the course of Saturday morning, about 200 people visited the tree behind the Stock Farm development on May River Road.
It was just the second time in recent memory that a large ceremony has commemorated the speech, event organizer and Stock Farm owner Emmett McCracken said, and the first in which he has participated.
Many in the crowd, despite having lived in Bluffton for years, said it was their first time visiting the tree, estimated to be between 350 and 400 years old. Some said they had avoided going to the tree because it sits on private property, but McCracken says he's happy to direct people to the site.
Rusty and Bob Gillies moved to Sun City Hilton Head from California seven years ago. Rusty Gillies said she was taken by the tree's unique status as a landmark of the secession movement.
"We're seeing things we've only read about and studied about," she said.
In his remarks, McCracken acknowledged that there were likely other "secession oaks" in South Carolina.
"But this one is ours," McCracken said, "and we're going to maintain it's the only true one."
