A Character of Hugh Legare

On paper, Hugh Legare appears to have been one of many political leaders in South Carolina from 1820 till 1850 who were stuck in John C. Calhoun's shadow. Most of them are pretty forgettable though some remain somewhat prominent: Joel Pointset for his flowers, Robert Barnwell Rhett for his constant calls for secession, George McDuffie for his oratory and James Henry Hammond for his brilliant mind and horrid personal life. At first glance, there is little to notice about Hugh Legare beside his deformed shape and a brief stint in that collection of political outcasts that was the Cabinet of John Tyler. But in this fascinating intellectual biography, Michael O'Brien reveals that Legare was more than a politician; he was one of the most learned men in the South and a fascinating writer who seemed more at home writing on Byron and Dryden than he was in the Congress or representing the fledgling republic in Brussels. O'Brien provides a solid enough account of Legare's odd political career-like so many others, raised up and then cast down by Calhoun and his often byzantine methods of controlling the state; his alliance with the Conservative faction in Virginia led by William C. Rives; his tenure under Tyler. But this is not the heart of the book. O'Brien is at his best in fleshing out the intellectual culture and Charleston society that produced Legare. Best of all, O'Brien has a very fresh but insightful style and is able to hold the reader's attention. For those seeking to better understand the mind of the Old South, in that odd shift from classicism to romanticism, this study of a prominent scholar in politics is more than useful; it is indispensable.