Burt, Armistead | South Carolina Public Radio

"B" is for Burt, Armistead (1802-1883). Congressman. After attending Pendleton Academy, Burt married John C. Calhoun’s niece and became his protégé. He supported Calhoun’s opposition to the Tariff of 1828 and was the secretary of the 1832 Nullification Convention. He sat in Congress for ten years (1843-1853). Burt was an accepted spokesman in the House for Calhoun’s pro-southern policy, particularly preserving states’ rights, reducing tariffs, and maintaining the balance between free and slave states in the Senate. During the Civil War, he supervised enlistments and was the custodian of property and affairs for local soldiers. In May 1865, Jefferson Davis and senior military advisers held the Confederacy’s final council of war in Burt’s Abbeville home. After the war Armistead Burt drafted the state’s “Black Codes,” participated in the “Taxpayers’ Conventions,” and supported Wade Hampton’s 1876 campaign for governor.