Allegiance to the USA

James Chesnut, Sr. was central to Mary Boykin Chestnut’s life. While he was her father-in-law, she lived under his roof for many years and had few nice things to say about him in her diary. One of the most interesting comments she made about James Chesnut, Sr. is to be found in a twenty-two page biographical sketch of her husband James Chesnut, Jr. When writing of her husband she uses her father-in-law as a device to show the enormous social and political changes of the last century:

“No man [James Chesnut, Sr.] had a larger stake in the country. He was a rebel from the great nullification party who so longed ruled the state, and he remained a union man until the secession of South Carolina left him no choice.”

“Born a subject of George III he had renounced his allegiance and cast in his lot with the Independent States of America. He had taken the oath to South Carolina---to the Confederate States---and when over ninety years old, blind and despairing there was yet another change. He was asked to take the oath, or to renew his allegiance to the USA. He gave it grimly, saying “surely this must be the last.”

Elisabeth Muhlenfeld, "Mary Boykin Chesnut: A Biography", (Louisiana State Press, Baton Rouge and London, 1981) p. 170.