Charles Cotesworth Pinckney | |
|---|---|
 1795 portrait byJames Earl | |
| 6thUnited States Minister toFrance | |
| In office September 9, 1796 – February 5, 1797 | |
| Nominated by | George Washington |
| Preceded by | James Monroe |
| Succeeded by | Robert R. Livingston |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1746-02-25)February 25, 1746 |
| Died | August 16, 1825(1825-08-16) (aged 79) |
| Political party | Federalist |
| Spouse(s) | |
| Children | 3 |
| Parent(s) | Charles Pinckney Eliza Lucas |
| Education | Westminster School Christ Church, Oxford Middle Temple |
| Other political post(s) |
|
| Military service | |
| Allegiance | Great Britain United States |
| Branch/service | South Carolina Militia Continental Army United States Army |
| Years of service | 1769–1783 1798–1800 |
| Rank | Major General |
| Commands |
|
| Battles/wars | |
Charles Cotesworth Pinckney (February 25, 1746 – August 16, 1825) was an American statesman, military officer andFounding Father who served asUnited States Minister to France from 1796 to 1797. A delegate to theConstitutional Convention where he signed theConstitution of the United States, Pinckney was twice nominated by theFederalist Party as its presidential candidate in1804 and1808, losing both elections.
Born into aplanter class family fromSouth Carolina, Pinckney practiced law for several years and was elected to the colonial legislature. A supporter of independence fromGreat Britain, Pinckney served in theAmerican Revolutionary War, rising to the rank ofbrigadier general. After the war, he won election to the South Carolina legislature, where he and his brotherThomas represented the landedslavocracy of theSouth Carolina Lowcountry. An advocate of a stronger federal government, Pinckney served as a delegate to the 1787Philadelphia Convention, which wrote a new federal constitution. Pinckney's influence helped ensure that South Carolina would ratify the United States Constitution. A town and district namedPinckneyville in South Carolina were named after Charles in 1791.[1]
Pinckney declinedGeorge Washington's first offer to serve inhis administration, but in 1796 Pinckney accepted the position of minister to France. In what became known as theXYZ Affair, the French demanded a bribe before they would agree to meet with the U.S. delegation. Pinckney returned to the United States, accepting an appointment as a general during theQuasi-War with France. Though he had resisted joining either major party for much of the 1790s, Pinckney began to identify with the Federalist Party following his return from France. The Federalists chose him as their vice presidential nominee in the 1800 presidential election, hoping that his presence on the ticket could win support for the party in theAmerican South. ThoughAlexander Hamilton schemed to elect Pinckney president under the electoral rules then in place, both Pinckney and incumbent Federalist PresidentJohn Adams were defeated by theDemocratic-Republican candidates.
Seeing little hope of defeating popular incumbent president Thomas Jefferson, the Federalists chose Pinckney as their presidential nominee for the 1804 election. Neither Pinckney nor the party pursued an active campaign, and Jefferson won in a landslide. The Federalists nominated Pinckney again in 1808, in the hope that Pinckney's military experience and Jefferson's economic policies would give the party a chance of winning. Though the 1808 presidential election was closer than the 1804 election had been, Democratic-Republican nomineeJames Madison nonetheless prevailed.
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Charles Cotesworth Pinckney was born inCharlestown in theProvince of South Carolina on February 25, 1746, into theplanter class. He was the son ofCharles Pinckney, who would later serve as the chief justice of theProvince of South Carolina, andEliza Lucas, a celebrated planter and agriculturalist, who is credited with developing indigo cultivation in this area.[2] His younger brother,Thomas Pinckney, later served asgovernor of South Carolina, as did his first cousin once removed,Charles Pinckney.[3]
In 1753, Pinckney's father moved the family toLondon, England, where he served as the colony's agent. Both Charles and his brother Thomas were enrolled in theWestminster School, where they continued as students after the rest of the family returned to South Carolina in 1758. Pinckney enrolled inChrist Church, Oxford, in 1763 and began studying law atMiddle Temple in 1764. After a short stint at a military academy in France, Pinckney completed his studies in 1769 and was called to the English bar. He briefly practiced law in England before establishing a legal practice in Charleston.[4]
After returning to the American colonies in 1773, Pinckney married Sarah Middleton. Her fatherHenry Middleton later served as the second president of theContinental Congress, and her brotherArthur Middleton signed theDeclaration of Independence. Sarah died in 1784. In 1786, Pinckney married again, to Mary Stead, who came from a wealthy family of planters in Georgia. Pinckney had three daughters.
Pinckney studied botany in France in 1769 for a year. For his assistance to the French botanist André Michaux, he was honored by having a plant species named for him: Pinckneya pubens.[5][6]
After returning to South Carolina from Europe, Pinckney began topractice law in Charleston. He was first elected to a seat in the colonial legislature in 1770. In 1773 he served as a regional attorney general. When war erupted between the thirteen American colonies and Great Britain in 1775, Pinckney stood with the AmericanPatriots; in that year he was a member of the first South Carolina provincial congress, which helped South Carolina transition from being a British colony to being an independent state.[2] During the American Revolutionary War, he served in the lower house of the state legislature and as a member of theSouth Carolina Senate, in addition to his military service.
Pinckney joined the colonial militia in 1772, and he helped organize South Carolina's resistance to British rule.[4] In 1775, after the American Revolutionary War had broken out, Pinckney volunteered for military service as a full-time regular officer in George Washington'sContinental Army. As a senior company commander with the rank of captain, Pinckney raised and led the eliteGrenadiers of the 1st South Carolina Regiment. He participated in the successful defense of Charleston in theBattle of Sullivan's Island in June 1776, when British forces under GeneralSir Henry Clinton staged an amphibious attack on the state capital. Later in 1776 Pinckney took command of the regiment, with the rank of colonel, a position he retained to the end of the war.
After this, the British Army shifted its focus to the northern and mid-Atlantic states. Pinckney led his regiment north to join General Washington's troops nearPhiladelphia. Pinckney and his regiment participated in theBattle of Brandywine and theBattle of Germantown. Around this time he first met fellow officersAlexander Hamilton andJames McHenry, who became future Federalist statesmen.
In 1778, Pinckney and his regiment, returning to the South, took part in a failed American expedition attempting to seize BritishEast Florida. The expedition ended because of severe logistical difficulties and a British victory in theBattle of Alligator Creek Bridge. Later that year, the British Army shifted its focus to the southern theater,capturing Savannah, Georgia, in December 1778. In October 1779, the southern Army of Major GeneralBenjamin Lincoln, with Pinckney leading one of its brigades, attempted to re-take the city in theSiege of Savannah. This attack was a disaster for the Americans, who suffered numerous casualties.
Pinckney participated in the1780 defense of Charleston against British siege, but the city fell. Major General Lincoln surrendered his 5,000 men to the British on May 12, 1780, and Pinckney became aprisoner of war. As such, he demonstrated leadership, playing a major role in maintaining the troops' loyalty to the Patriot cause. During this time, he said, "If I had a vein that did not beat with the love of my Country, I myself would open it. If I had a drop of blood that could flow dishonorable, I myself would let it out." He was kept in close confinement until his release in 1782. In November 1783, he was commissioned abrevetbrigadier general shortly before the southern regiments were disbanded.[2] He was promoted to major general during his subsequent service in the South Carolina militia.[7]
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With the conclusion of the Revolutionary War, Pinckney returned to his legal practice, becoming one of the most acclaimed attorneys in South Carolina. He also returned to the lower house of the South Carolina legislature, and he and his brother Thomas became major political powers in the state. He became an advocate of the landed elite of the South Carolina Lowcountry, who dominated the state's government during this period. Though close friends with fellow legislatorEdward Rutledge, Pinckney opposed Rutledge's attempts to end the importation of slaves, arguing that South Carolina's economy required the continual infusion of new slaves. Pinckney also took the lead in negotiating the end to a border dispute with the state of Georgia, and he signed the Convention of Beaufort, which temporarily solved some of the disputes.[8]
The Revolutionary War had convinced many in South Carolina, including Pinckney, that the defense of the state required the cooperation of the other colonies. As such, Pinckney advocated a stronger national government than that provided by theArticles of Confederation, and he represented South Carolina at theConstitutional Convention of 1787,[9] where his younger cousinCharles Pinckney also served as a delegate.[10] Pinckney advocated thatAfrican Americanslaves be counted as a basis of representation. According to a book review inThe New York Times in January 2015:
TheNorthwest Ordinance of July 1787 held that slaves 'may be lawfully reclaimed' from free states and territories, and soon after, afugitive slave clause – Article IV, Section 2 – was woven into the Constitution at the insistence of the Southern delegates, leading South Carolina's Charles C. Pinckney to boast, 'We have obtained a right to recover our slaves in whatever part of America they may take refuge, which is a right we had not before.'[11]
Pinckney advocated for a strong national government (albeit one with a system of checks and balances) to replace the weak one of the time. He opposed as impractical the election ofrepresentatives by popular vote. He also opposed payingsenators, who, he thought, should be men of independent wealth. Pinckney played a key role in requiring treaties to be ratified by the Senate and in the compromise that resulted in continued American participation in theinternational slave trade for at least twenty years. He also opposed placing a limitation on the size of a federal standing army.[12]
Pinckney played a prominent role in securing the ratification of the Federal Constitution in the South Carolina convention of 1788, and in framing theSouth Carolina Constitution in the convention of 1790. At the ratification convention, Pinckney distinguished three types of government and said republics were where "the people at large, either collectively or by representation, form the legislature". After this, he announced his retirement from politics.
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In 1789, PresidentGeorge Washington offered Pinckney his choice of theState Department or theWar Department; Pinckney declined both. When Washington offered Pinckney the role of Secretary of State in 1795, Pinckney declined but accepted the post ofminister to France in 1796. Relations with theFrench First Republic were then at a low ebb: theJay Treaty between the U.S. and Great Britain had angered members of the rulingFrench Directory, and they had ordered theFrench Navy to step up seizures of American merchant vessels found to be trading with Britain, with whom Francewas at war. When Pinckney presented his credentials in November 1796, they were refused, with the Directory stating that no ambassador could be accepted until the outstanding crisis was resolved. Pinckney was outraged by the offense.
After Pinckney reported this to the recently inaugurated PresidentJohn Adams in 1797, a commission composed of Pinckney,John Marshall, andElbridge Gerry was established to treat with the French. Gerry and Marshall joined Pinckney atThe Hague and traveled to Paris in October 1797. After a cursory preliminary meeting with the new French Foreign MinisterTalleyrand, the commissioners were approached informally by a series of intermediaries who spelled out French demands. These included a large loan to France, which the commissioners had been instructed to refuse, and substantial bribes for Talleyrand and members of the Directory, which the commissioners found offensive. These exchanges became the basis for what became known as the "XYZ Affair" when documents concerning them were published in 1798.
Talleyrand, who was aware of political differences in the commission (Pinckney and Marshall were Federalists who favored Britain, and Gerry wavered politically between moderate Federalist ideas and theJeffersonian Republicans, who favored France and were strongly hostile to Britain), exploited this division in the informal discussions. Pinckney and Marshall left France in April 1798; Gerry remained behind in an unofficial capacity, seeking to moderate French demands. The breakdown of negotiations led to what became known as the undeclaredQuasi-War, pitting the two nation's navies against each other.
With a potential war looming, Congress authorized the expansion of the Army, and President Adams asked Washington to take command as commander-in-chief of the Army. As a condition for accepting the position, Washington insisted that Pinckney be offered a position as a general. Washington believed that Pinckney's military experience and political support in the South made him indispensable in defending against a possible invasion by the French. Many Federalists feared that Pinckney would chafe at serving under Hamilton, who had been appointed as Washington's second-in-command, but Pinckney pleasantly surprised the Federalists by accepting his appointment as a general without complaint.[13] Pinckney led the Army's southern department from July 1798 to June 1800.[14]
Pinckney and his political allies had resisted becoming closely allied with the Federalist or Democratic-Republican parties during the 1790s, but Pinckney began to identify as a Federalist following his return from France. With the support of Hamilton, Pinckney became the Federalist vice presidential nominee in the 1800 presidential election.[a] Pinckney's military and political service had won him national stature, and Federalists hoped that Pinckney could win some southern votes against Democratic-Republican nominee Thomas Jefferson. Hamilton had even greater hopes, as he wished to displace Adams as president and viewed Pinckney as more amenable to his policies. In-fighting between supporters of Adams and Hamilton plagued the Federalists, and the Democratic-Republicans won the election. Pinckney refused to become involved in Hamilton's plans to make him president and promised not to accept the votes of anyelector who was not also pledged to Adams.[15]
Federalists saw little hope of defeating the popular Jefferson in the 1804 election; though the party remained strong in New England, Jefferson was widely expected to win the southern and mid-Atlantic states. With little hope of winning the presidency, the Federalists nominated Pinckney as their presidential candidate, but neither Pinckney nor the Federalists pursued an active presidential campaign against Jefferson. The Federalists hoped that Pinckney's military reputation and his status as a southerner would show that the Federalist Party remained a national party, but they knew that Pinckney had little chance of winning even his own home state. Jefferson won the election in a rout, taking 162 electoral votes compared to Pinckney's 14. Pinckney's defeat in South Carolina made him the firstmajor party presidential nominee to lose his own home state.[16]
Jefferson's second term proved more difficult than his first, as the British and French attacked American shipping as part of theNapoleonic Wars. With Jefferson's popularity waning, Federalists entertained stronger hopes of winning back the presidency in 1808 than they had in 1804. With the support of Jefferson,James Madison was put forward as the Democratic-Republican nominee. Some Federalists favored supporting a renegade Democratic-Republican inJames Monroe orGeorge Clinton, but at the Federalist nominating convention, the party again turned to Pinckney. With a potential war against France or Britain looming, the Federalists hoped that Pinckney's military experience would appeal to the nation. The Federalists won Delaware and most of New England, but Madison won the remaining states and won a commanding majority of the electoral college.[17]
After the 1808 election, Pinckney focused on managing his plantations and developing his legal practice.[18] From 1805 until his death in 1825, Pinckney was president-general of theSociety of the Cincinnati. Pinckney was elected a member of the American Antiquarian Society in 1813.[19] Pinckney was elected to theAmerican Philosophical Society in 1789.[20]
Pinckney died on August 16, 1825, and was buried inSt. Michael's Churchyard in Charleston, South Carolina.[21] His tombstone reads, "One of the founders of the American Republic. In war he was a companion in arms and friend of Washington. In peace he enjoyed his unchanging confidence."[7]
Pinckney was a life-long slave owner. He repeatedly espoused the belief that slavery was necessary to the economy of states like South Carolina and opposed emancipation. At the Constitutional Convention, he did agree toabolish the importation of slaves in 1808, but his rationale was based on how stopping this trade would increase the value of large existing slave holdings like his. In 1801, Pinckney owned about 250 slaves. When his daughter Eliza married, Pinckney gave her fifty slaves. On his death, he bequeathed his remaining slaves to his daughters and nephews.[22]
In the South Carolina House of Representatives, on January 18, 1788, Pinckney offered several defenses for the lack of a bill of rights in the proposed U.S. Constitution. One was that bills of rights generally begin by declaring that all men are by nature born free. The reporter's summary of his observation concludes, "Now, we should make that declaration with a very bad grace, when a large part of our property consists in men who are actually born slaves."[23]
This article incorporatespublic domain material from websites or documents of theUnited States Army Center of Military History.Elbridge Gerry ... proposed that the Constitution contain express language limiting the size of the standing army to several thousand men. Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, ostensibly at the instigation of Washington, responded that such a proposal was satisfactory so long as any invading force also agreed to limit its army to a similar size.
Collier, Christopher and James Lincoln (1986).Decision in Philadelphia: The Constitutional Convention of 1787. Ballantine.ISBN 0-345-34652-1.
Media related toCharles Cotesworth Pinckney at Wikimedia Commons
| Diplomatic posts | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | United States Minister to France 1796–1797 | Succeeded by |
| Party political offices | ||
| Preceded by | Federalist nominee forVice President of the United States 1800 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Federalist nominee forPresident of the United States 1804,1808 | Succeeded by |
| Non-profit organization positions | ||
| Preceded by | President General of theSociety of the Cincinnati 1805–1825 | Succeeded by |
| Envoys to France (1776–1779) |  | |
|---|---|---|
| Ministers Plenipotentiary to France (1778–1815) | ||
| Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to France (1816–1893) | ||
| Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to France (1893–present) | ||
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| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| People | |
| Other | |
