Robert Y. Hayne

Robert Young Hayne (November 10, 1791 – September 24, 1839) was an American political leader.

Early life

Born in St. Pauls Parish, Colleton District, South Carolina, Hayne studied law in the office of Langdon Cheves in Charleston, South Carolina, and in November 1812 was admitted to the bar there, soon obtaining a large practice. For a short time during the War of 1812 against Great Britain, he was captain in the Third South Carolina Regiment. He was a member of the lower house of the South Carolina state legislature from 1814 to 1818, serving as Speaker of the House in the later year; was attorney-general of the state from 1818 to 1822, and in 1823 was elected, as a Democrat, to the United States Senate.After the death of Hayne's first wife, Frances Henrietta Pinckney, in 1820 he married Rebecca Brewton Alston. Her father, William Alston, gave her a lot on lower King Street where Hayne built a house (today's 4 Ladson Street) that remained in the family until 1863.

Early Political Career

Hayne was considered a conspicuously ardent free-trader and an uncompromising advocate of States Rights. He opposed the protectionist tariff bills of 1824 and 1828, and consistently upheld the doctrine that slavery was a domestic institution and should be dealt with only by the individual states. In one of his speeches opposing the sending by the United States of...
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