Charles Cotesworth Pinckney

Charles Cotesworth Pinckney
United States Minister to France
In office 1796 – 1797
President	George Washington John Adams
Preceded by	James Monroe
Succeeded by	Robert Livingston
Born	February 25, 1746(1746-02-25) Charleston, South Carolina
Died	August 16, 1825(1825-08-16) Charleston, South Carolina
Political party	Federalist Party
Spouse(s)	Sarah Middleton; Mary Stead
Children	3
Alma mater	Christ Church College, Oxford
Occupation	Lawyer, planter, statesman, soldier
Religion	Episcopalian

Charles Cotesworth (C.C.) Pinckney (February 25, 1746 – August 16, 1825), was an early American statesman of South Carolina, Revolutionary War veteran, and delegate to the Constitutional Convention. He was twice nominated by the Federalist Party as their presidential candidate, but he did not win either election.

Early life and family

Charles C. Pinckney was born into the Pinckney family of aristocratic planters in Charleston, South Carolina, on February 25, 1746. He was the son of Charles Pinckney, who would later serve as the chief justice of the Province of South Carolina, and the celebrated planter and agriculturalist, Eliza Lucas.^[1] He was the elder brother of Thomas Pinckney, who served as Governor of South Carolina, as a U.S. Representative, and as a George Washington administration dipmomat. His first cousin once removed, Charles Pinckney, served as Governor of South Carolina, as a U.S. Senator, and as a Thomas Jefferson administration diplomat.

In 1753, Pinckney's father moved the family to London, England, to serve as the colony's agent (essentially as a lobbyist to protect South Carolina's commercial and political interests). Both Charles and his brother Thomas were enrolled in the Westminster School, where they remained after the rest of the family returned to South Carolina in 1758. Both brothers also studied at Oxford University. Pinckney graduated from Christ Church College, Oxford with degrees in science and law, and proceeded to further study law with the prestigious Middle Temple society. Pinckney was called to the bar in 1769, but he continued his education in France for another year, studying botany and chemistry. He also had a brief stint at the Royal Military College at Caen.

In 1773, Pinckney married Sarah Middleton, whose father Henry Middleton served as the second President of the Continental Congress and whose brother Arthur Middleton signed the Declaration of Independence. Sarah died in 1784. In 1786, he remarried to Mary Stead, who came from a wealthy family of planters in Georgia. Pinckney had three daughters.

Early political career

After returning to South Carolina from Europe, Charles C. Pinckney began to practice 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 American Patriots; in that year he was a member of the first South Carolina provincial congress in 1775, which helped South Carolina transition from being a British colony to being an independent state.^[1] During the American Revolutionary War he would serve in the lower house of the state legislature and as a member of the South Carolina Senate in addition to his military service.

Revolutionary War

A portrait from about 1773 by Henry Benbridge.

In 1775, after the American Revolutionary War had broken out, Pinckney volunteered for military service as a full-time regular officer in George Washington's Continental Army. As a senior company commander with the rank of captain, Pinckney raised and led the elite Grenadiers of the 1st South Carolina Regiment. He participated in the successful defense of Charleston in the Battle of Sullivan's Island in June 1776, when British forces under General Sir 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 near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Pinckney and his regiment then participated in the Battle of Brandywine and the Battle of Germantown. Around this time he first met fellow officers and future Federalist statesmen Alexander Hamilton and James McHenry.

In 1778, Pinckney and his regiment, returning to the South, took part in a failed American expedition attempting to seize British East Florida. The expedition ended due to severe logistical difficulties and a British victory in the Battle of Alligator Bridge. Later that year, the British Army shifted its focus to the Southern theater, capturing Savannah, Georgia, that December. In October 1779, the Southern army of Major General Benjamin Lincoln, with Pinckney leading one of its brigades, attempted to re-take Savannah in the Siege of Savannah. This attack was disastrous for the Americans, who suffered numerous casualties.

Pinckney then participated in 1780 defense of Charleston against British siege. Major General Lincoln surrendered his 5,000 men to the British on May 12, 1780, whereupon Pinckney became a prisoner of war. As a prisoner of war, he played a major role in maintaining the troops' loyalty to the Patriots' cause. During this time, he famously 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 dishonourable, I myself would let it out." He was kept in close confinement until his release in 1782. In November 1783, he was commissioned a brevet Brigadier General in the Continental Army shortly before the southern regiments were disbanded.^[1]

Constitutional Convention

Pinckney, who had returned to the lower house of the state legislature, represented South Carolina at the constitutional convention of 1787, where he was an influential member. Pinckney advocated the idea that slaves be counted as a basis of representation and opposing abolition of the slave trade. He also advocated a strong national government (albeit one with a system of checks and balances) to replace the weak one of the time. He opposed as impracticable the election of representatives by popular vote. He also opposed paying senators, 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 the abolition of the Atlantic slave trade. He also opposed placing a limitation on the size of a federal standing army.^[2]

Pinckney played a prominent role in securing the ratification of the Federal constitution in the South Carolina convention of 1788, and in framing the South Carolina Constitution in the convention of 1790. After this he announced his retirement from politics.

U.S. Minister to France

During the 1790s, President George Washington offered Pinckney several offices in his administration. Pinckney declined them all until 1796, when he accepted an appointment as U.S. Minister to France. France was in turmoil due to the French Revolution, and the French revolutionaries had been seizing American trading ships bound for Great Britain. The French republican government rejected Pinckney's credentials upon his arrival. Three French agents then demanded a large bribe in exchange for allowing Pinckney and fellow diplomats Elbridge Gerry and John Marshall to see French foreign minister Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord. Pinckney famously replied, "No! No! Not a sixpence!" After this incident, which later came to be known as the XYZ Affair, Pinckney broke off all discussion and returned home, resigning from his position. President John Adams, a Federalist, appointed Pinckney to one of the highest posts in the new Provisional Army which Congress had voted to raise in response to the diplomatic rupture with France. However, a peaceful solution to the Quasi-War with France was negotiated by 1800 and Pinckney's active military service ended.

Later political career

In the 1800 presidential election, Pinckney was the Federalist candidate for vice-president, running with the incumbent president, John Adams. They were defeated by the Democratic-Republicans Thomas Jefferson (who became president) and Aaron Burr (who became vice president). In 1804, the Federalist Party nominated Pinckney to run for the presidency against Jefferson. Jefferson, who was very popular due to the acquisition of the Louisiana Purchase and booming trade defeated Pinckney in a landslide, winning only 27.2% of the popular vote and carrying only two states. In 1808 he was again the Federalist nominee for president, running against Jefferson's Secretary of State, James Madison. Pinckney did not fare much better against Madison, carrying only five states and winning 32.4% of the popular vote.

From 1805 until his death, Pinckney was president-general of the Society of the Cincinnati. Pinckney died on August 16, 1825 and was buried in St. Michael's Churchyard in Charleston, South Carolina. 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."^[3]

Memorialization

• Castle Pinckney, a fort in Charleston Harbor, was completed in 1797 and named for Charles Cotesworth Pinckney.
• Pinckney Island National Wildlife Refuge, a national wildlife refuge on the site of the Pinckney family's plantation, is named after Charles Cotesworth Pinckney.
• Pinckney Elementary School in Lawrence, Kansas is named for Charles Cotesworth Pinckney.
• A school in Fort Jackson, South Carolina is called C.C. Pinckney Elementary.
• During World War II, a 422-foot Liberty Ship was built in Wilmington, North Carolina in 1942 and named SS Charles C. Pinckney in his honor.
• Pickney St. in Madison, WI was named in his honor.

References

Pinckneyville Illinois was also named after him.

External links

• U.S. Army profile of Bvt. Maj. Gen. Charles C. Pinckney

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