February 21, 1863, The Charleston Mercury
The hand of the destroyer has again been stretched forth in the work of desolation – unpitying, inscrutable – to strike down the prominent amongst us. The Honorable EDMUND RHETT is dead. EDMUND RHETT, senior, was born in the town of Beaufort, South Carolina, March 15yh, 1808, of one of the oldest Carolina families, and departed this life at Spartanburg on the 15th inst., after a brief illness, in the 55th year of his age – cut off in the midst if an active and vigorous manhood. His remains are deposited in the TAYLOR Burial Ground at Columbia, near those of his lamented brother, ALBERT RHETT, to whom he was devotedly attached. In life, they were closely united and are not separated in the grave.
After studying with an elder brother on the rice plantation of his father, EDMUND RHETT was sent for two years to school at Andover, Massachusetts, and thence to Yale College. Being equally proficient in Mathematics and the Ancient Languages, he had but a single competitor. This was one of the WINTHROP family, of Boston, with whom the Faculty proposed that he should divide the first honor of the class. After consultation with his friends, he declined the proposal. The course of the Faculty being deemed to be governed by sectional partialities and prejudices, he retired before the commencement exercise; but his diploma was sent after him to South Carolina. He studied law in the office, and became copartner, of the Hon. R. BARNWELL RHETT, residing in Charleston, while the latter was Attorney General of the State. His brother soon after went to Congress as a Representative of the Seventh District. Mr. EDMUND RHETT established himself at Beaufort, practising his profession, at first in copartnership with his brother ALBERT, then living at Grahamville, and meeting with decided success. He served formerly as a member of the House of Representatives from St. Helena Parish in the State Legislature. For many years he added to his profesional labors the burdens of Intendancy of Beaufort. In 1858 he was elected to the State Senate, and in the fall of […..] was re-elected for four years – still serving as Intendant of Beaufort. He was Chairman of the Senate’s Committee on Education, and Trustee of the South Carolina College. After the fall of Beuafort, from the disaster at Broad River, he served as a private at Port Royal Ferry. Under an Act of the Legislature, which soon sat, he was appointed one of a Commission for the registry of property destroyed. He was also made Provost Marshal of the Third Military District, and exercised the responsible duties of that office until his decease.
Mr. RHETT was an assiduous student and an ardent devotee of the ancient classics; not as a means to an end – not simply because they were the noblest instructors in literary taste, or afforded the best discipline for the understanding – but because they were in themselves the highest source of literary enjoyment. Hence he loved to linger over the pages of the great writers of antiquity – especially of EURIPIDES and ARISTOPHANES. When but a young man, that ripe and glorious scholar, HUGH S. LEGARE, found in him kindred tastes, and declared that he was the most accomplished scholar of his age in the State. When driven from his home in the town of Beaufort, he said to a friend, ‘I will spend the summer in W —-, because N — — will be there, and we can read EURIPIDES togather.’ No employments, however varied – no labors, however arduous, could wear from his mind the deep admiration and interest he felt in the ancient classics. It was one of the greatest pleasures to snatch a spare hour or two from the innumerable engagements which pressed upon his time, and to feast his fine taste amidst his favorite authors. To this love of the ancients was attributable his marked purity of diction and simplicity of style, whether in debate or in composition.
Although a thorough lawyer, versed in all the forms and learning of the profession, he viewed it not as a mere means of personal acquisition and advancement – not as only a technical and intricate science. He cultivated it from a high, broad and humanitarian aspect. In his mind the object and end of the noble calling was substantial justice between man and man – the order, peace and well-being of the community. Standing at the head of the profession of law, the great power his position gave him was used not to oppress, but to protect; and the confidence he inspired was proved not only by his large practice, but by the many trusts and estates placed in his hands.
As a citizen, he always exhibited public spirit and self-sacrifice.