James Louis Petigru

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_L._Petigru

James Louis Petigru (May 10, 1789 – March 9, 1863) was an American lawyer, politician, and jurist in South Carolina. He is best known for his service as the Attorney General of South Carolina, his juridical work that played a key role in the recodification of the state's law code. He was also known for opposing nullification and, in 1860, state secession.

Career

Petigru graduated from South Carolina College in 1809. He was admitted to the South Carolina bar in 1812. In 1816, he was elected as the solicitor of Abbeville County, South Carolina. He became the Attorney General of South Carolina in 1822. In 1830, after having lost a bid for a seat in the South Carolina Senate, he was elected to fill a vacant seat in the South Carolina House of Representatives. He was the leader of the anti-nullificationists in that body.

He also acted as lead attorney in the case of M'Cready v. Hunt, focusing on test oaths and States Rights, which was brought before the South Carolina Court of Appeals in 1834. The case involved a "test oath" passed by the South Carolina legislature in November 1832, requiring members of the state militia to pledge "faithful and true allegiance" to the State of South Carolina. The law was vague on the underlying and contentious issue of sovereignty, and did not specifically state whether allegiance to the state was superior to allegiance to the federal government. Given tensions of the times, dispute over interpretation of the oath immediately erupted. The "Nullifier" faction asserted that allegiance to the state had precedence over allegiance to the federal government, while "Unionists" asserted that the federal government had primacy over all states.

Eventually, a legal case on the validity of the test oath reached the state Court of Appeals in Columbia. Attorney Robert Barnwell Rhett, of Beaufort, argued for the test oath with the support of state Governor Robert Y. Hayne. In opposition, the Unionist Petigru was joined by business attorney Abram Blanding of Columbia, and Thomas Smith Grimké of Charleston. The June 2, 1834 decision from the three judges fell 2 to 1 for the Unionists. "Nullifiers" immediately called for the impeachment of the two jurists.[citation needed] "Nullifier" legislators responded to the decision by calling for a constitutional amendment to legalize the test oath and assert the primacy of allegiance to South Carolina. (Ford, pp. 148–149)

After South Carolina seceded in 1860, Petigru famously remarked, "South Carolina is too small for a republic and too large for an insane asylum." This quote is still used to describe contemporary South Carolinian politics. Petigru opposed the Confederacy, although he did not believe that South Carolina would return to the Union.

He had been entrusted, in 1859, with the codification of the laws of South Carolina; he completed the task in December 1862. His code was rejected by the unreconstructed legislature of 1865, but formed the basis for the codification of 1872.

Petigru died in Charleston, South Carolina, in 1863. He is buried in St. Michael's Churchyard.

Note: From 1852 to 1861, James Johnston Pettigrew (son of his 1st cousin, Ebenezer Pettigrew) was James Louis Petigru's junior law partner in Charleston. James Johnston Pettigrew later served as a Brig. General in the Army of Northern Virginia. In May 1863 Pettigrew's brigade joined the Army of Northern Virginia for the Pennsylvania campaign. On 1 July, in one of the bloodiest assaults of the war, Pettigrew's brigade drove some of the best Federal units from their position on McPherson's Ridge on the outskirts of Gettysburg. The division commander, Henry Heth, was wounded, and during the next two days of the Battle of Gettysburg Pettigrew commanded his own and three other brigades. On the third day the severely reduced division, under Pettigrew, took part in the dramatic, unsuccessful, and controversial assault known to history as Pickett's Charge. In this attack Pettigrew's horse was hit and he was wounded in the hand; he was said to have been one of the last men to return to the Confederate lines. At Gettysburg Pettigrew's own brigade had the highest casualties of any in the army. During the retreat from Pennsylvania, at the Falling Waters just north of the Potomac early in the morning of 14 July, Pettigrew was shot in the stomach in a melee with a straggling Federal cavalry unit that had ridden into his resting troops by error. Pettigrew refused the immobilization that was the only hope of saving his life, commenting that he had rather die than be captured again. Remaining with the army, he was carried eighteen miles to Bunker Hill, (West) Va., where he died three days later at 6:25 A.M. at age thirty-five.

https://www.ncpedia.org/biography/pettigrew-james-johnston

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

http://www.theofficialschalloffame.com/inducteesn-s.html?action=Bac...

"James Louis Petigru (May 10, 1789-March 9, 1863) was a lawyer, politician, and jurist in South Carolina. He is best known for his service as the state's Attorney General, his juridical work that played a key role in the recodification of the state's law code, and his opposition to nullification and, in 1860, state secession..." See Wikipedia article for more background.

Petigru was born in the Abbeville District of South Carolina in 1789 to William and Louise Gibert Pettigrew, daughter of the Reverend Jean Louis Gibert, who founded the Huguenot colony of New Bordeaux in 1764. In 1816, he married Jane Postell. The couple's three sons died in childhood or early adulthood. His two daughters were accomplished in the arts. Petigru's elder daughter, Jane Caroline (Petigru) Carson (1820–1892), a noted portrait artist and watercolorist, fled Charleston at the start of the Civil War, first to New York City for several years and ultimately to Rome, where she lived among other American expatriates and died in 1892. His younger daughter, Susan DuPont (Petigru) King Bowen, made a name for herself as a novelist.

GEDCOM Source

@R-2142462254@ Ancestry Family Trees Online publication - Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com. Original data: Family Tree files submitted by Ancestry members. This information comes from 1 or more individual Ancestry Family Tree files. This source citation points you to a current version of those files. Note: The owners of these tree files may have removed or changed information since this source citation was created.

GEDCOM Source

Ancestry Family Trees http://trees.ancestry.com/pt/AMTCitationRedir.aspx?tid=28147424&pid=41

GEDCOM Source

@R-2142462254@ Ancestry Family Trees Online publication - Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com. Original data: Family Tree files submitted by Ancestry members. This information comes from 1 or more individual Ancestry Family Tree files. This source citation points you to a current version of those files. Note: The owners of these tree files may have removed or changed information since this source citation was created.

GEDCOM Source

Ancestry Family Trees http://trees.ancestry.com/pt/AMTCitationRedir.aspx?tid=28147424&pid=41

GEDCOM Source

@R-2142462254@ Ancestry Family Trees Online publication - Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com. Original data: Family Tree files submitted by Ancestry members. This information comes from 1 or more individual Ancestry Family Tree files. This source citation points you to a current version of those files. Note: The owners of these tree files may have removed or changed information since this source citation was created.

GEDCOM Source

Ancestry Family Trees http://trees.ancestry.com/pt/AMTCitationRedir.aspx?tid=28147424&pid=41