Charles Pinckney (governor)

Charles Pinckney
37th Governor of South Carolina
In office December 9, 1806 – December 10, 1808
Lieutenant	John Hopkins
Preceded by	Paul Hamilton
Succeeded by	John Drayton
In office December 8, 1796 – December 18, 1798
Lieutenant	Robert Anderson
Preceded by	Arnoldus Vanderhorst
Succeeded by	Edward Rutledge
In office January 26, 1789 – December 5, 1792
Lieutenant	Alexander Gillon Isaac Holmes
Preceded by	Thomas Pinckney
Succeeded by	William Moultrie
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from South Carolina's 1st district
In office March 4, 1819 – March 4, 1821
Preceded by	Henry Middleton
Succeeded by	Joel Roberts Poinsett
United States Minister to Spain
In office March 1802 – October 25, 1804
President	John Adams
Preceded by	David Humphreys
Succeeded by	James Bowdoin III
United States Senator from South Carolina
In office December 6, 1798 – June 6, 1801
Preceded by	John Hunter
Succeeded by	Thomas Sumter
Delegate from South Carolina to the Congress of the Confederation
In office November 1, 1784 – October 30, 1787
1st President of the South Carolina Senate
In office August 31, 1779 – January 8, 1782
Preceded by	Position established
Succeeded by	John Lloyd
Member of the South Carolina Senate from St. Phillip's and St. Michael's Parish
In office August 31, 1779 – January 8, 1782
Member of the South Carolina House of Representatives from St. Phillip's and St. Michael's Parish
In office November 26, 1810 – November 28, 1814
Member of the South Carolina House of Representatives from Christ Church Parish
In office November 24, 1806 – December 9, 1806
In office November 26, 1792 – December 8, 1796
In office January 1, 1787 – January 21, 1789
Personal details
Born	(1757-10-26)October 26, 1757 Charles Town, South Carolina (now Charleston)
Died	Charleston, South Carolina
Resting place	Saint Philip's Episcopal Church Cemetery, Charleston
Political party	Federalist
Other political affiliations	Democratic-Republican
Spouse(s)	Mary Eleanor Laurens
Relations	Colonel Charles Pinckney (father) Frances Brewton (mother)
Children	Frances Henrietta Pinckney Mary Eleanor Pinckney Henry Laurens Pinckney
Residence	"Snee Farm", Mount Pleasant, South Carolina
Profession	Lawyer, Statesman
Religion	Episcopalian

Charles Pinckney (October 26, 1757 – October 29, 1824) was an American politician who was a signer of the United States Constitution, the 37th Governor of South Carolina, a Senator and a member of the House of Representatives. He was first cousin once removed of fellow signer Charles Cotesworth Pinckney.

Pinckney was an ancestor of seven future South Carolina governors, a few of which have prominent South Carolinian names, including the Maybank and Rhett families.

Early life and education

Pinckney was born and educated in Charleston, South Carolina. His father, Colonel Charles Pinckney, was a rich lawyer and planter. On his death in 1782, he bequeathed Snee Farm, a plantation outside the city, and his numerous slaves to his eldest son Charles.

Marriage and family

Busy with the war and his political career, Pinckney did not marry until 1787. He married Mary Eleanor Laurens, daughter of Henry Laurens, the wealthy and politically powerful South Carolina merchant and slave trader. They had at least three children.

Among his in-laws were Colonel John Laurens and U.S. Representative David Ramsay; another brother-in-law married the daughter of South Carolina Governor John Rutledge.

Career

Pinckney was elected to the Continental Congress (1777–78). He started to practice law in Charleston in 1779 at the age of 21. About that time, well after the War for Independence had begun, young Pinckney enlisted in the militia (though his father demonstrated ambivalence about the Revolution). He became a lieutenant, and served at the siege of Savannah (September–October 1779). When Charleston fell to the British the next year, the young Pinckney was captured and held as a prisoner until June 1781.

He was elected again to the Continental Congress following the war, serving 1784–87. He was elected to the state legislature for several terms (1779–80, 1786–89, and 1792–96). As a nationalist, he worked hard in Congress trying to ensure that the United States would receive navigation rights from Spain to the Mississippi River and to strengthen congressional power.

Pinckney's role in the Constitutional Convention is controversial. Although one of the youngest delegates, he later claimed to have been the most influential one and contended he had submitted a draft, known as the Pinckney Plan, that was the basis of the final Constitution. This was strongly disputed by James Madison and some of the other Framers. He submitted an elaborate form of the Virginia Plan, submitted by Edmund Randolph, but it was disregarded by the other delegates. Historians assess him as an important contributing delegate. Pinckney boasted that he was 24, allowing him to claim distinction as the youngest delegate, but he was 30 years old that year. He attended full-time, spoke often and effectively, and contributed immensely to the final draft and to the resolution of problems that arose during the debates. He also worked for ratification in South Carolina (1788).

At the Convention, Pierce Butler and Pinckney, both from South Carolina, introduced the Fugitive Slave Clause (Article IV, Section II, Clause III). James Wilson of Pennsylvania objected, saying that it was special protection for slaveholders, requiring all state governments to enforce it at taxpayers' expense, in places where no one or most residents did not own slaves. Butler withdrew the clause. But, the next day, a southerner reinstated the clause and the Convention adopted it without further objection. This clause was added to the clause that provided extradition for fugitives from justice.

No Person held to Service or Labour in one State, under the Laws thereof, escaping into another, shall, in Consequence of any Law or Regulation therein, be discharged from such Service or Labour, but shall be delivered up on Claim of the Party to whom such Service or Labour may be due.

This clause was first applied to fugitive slaves and required that they be extradited upon the claims of their masters. This practice was not eliminated until the Thirteenth Amendment abolished slavery. In 1864, during the Civil War, an effort to repeal this clause of the Constitution failed.

He was also responsible for another important clause to the Constitution that later was used, along with the 1st and 14th amendments, to vacate several state constitutions' clauses requiring oaths of office holders to affirm a deity. South Carolina had established Protestantism as the state religion, so it was interesting that he introduced a clause into the Constitution article VI in opposition to an established state religion. His "no religious test" clause read as follows:

no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States

Once the inclusion of the phrase was brought to a vote it passed with little opposition and so for the first time in history an official of a national government was not required to have a religion. Interesting also was that the final blow to states requiring office holders to swear to God was fought in his home state of South Carolina, that had originally had an established state religion, in the 1997 South Carolina Supreme Court case of Silverman v. Campbell.

Subsequent to his importance and influence as a delegate, Pinckney's political career blossomed. From 1789 to 1792, the state legislature elected him as governor of South Carolina, and in 1790 he chaired the state constitutional convention. During this period, he became associated with the Federalist Party, in which he and his cousin Charles Cotesworth Pinckney were leaders. But, with the passage of time, the former's views began to change.

In 1795 he attacked the Federalist-backed Jay's Treaty. He increasingly began to cast his lot with Carolina back-country Democratic-Republicans against his own eastern aristocracy. The population in the western part of the state was increasing, but apportionment favored the Low Country planters. In 1796 Pinckney was elected governor again by the state legislature. In 1798 his Democratic-Republican supporters in the legislature elected him to the U.S. Senate.

He strongly opposed actions by his former party, and in the presidential election of 1800, served as Thomas Jefferson's campaign manager in South Carolina. The victorious Jefferson appointed Pinckney as Minister to Spain (1801–05). He tried but did not succeed in gaining cession by Spain of the Floridas to the United States. He facilitated Spanish acquiescence in the transfer of Louisiana from France to the United States in 1803 by the Louisiana Purchase.

File:Pinckneygrave1.jpg

Pinckney's grave at St. Philip's in Charleston

Pinckney returned from Spain to Charleston and to leadership of the state Democratic-Republican Party. He sat in the legislature in 1805–06 and was again elected as governor (1806–08). In this position, he favored legislative reapportionment, giving better representation to back-country districts, and advocated universal white manhood suffrage. He served again in the legislature from 1810 to 1814, and then temporarily withdrew from politics. In 1818 he won election to the United States House of Representatives, where he fought against the Missouri Compromise as he was interested in having slavery be expanded to new territories and states.

In 1821, with his health beginning to fail, Pinckney retired for the last time from politics. He died in 1824, three days after his 67th birthday. He was laid to rest at St. Philip's Episcopal Churchyard in Charleston.

Legacy and honors

• Pinckney's Snee Farm plantation is maintained as Charles Pinckney National Historic Site.
• His son, Henry L. Pinckney (September 24, 1794 – February 3, 1863) was a U.S. Representative from South Carolina, and mayor of Charleston. His daughter married Robert Young Hayne, U.S. Representative, mayor of Charleston, and governor of South Carolina.

See also

• U.S. Constitution, slavery debate in Convention

References

• Marty D. Mathews, Forgotten Founder: The Life and Times of Charles Pinckney (Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 2004).

External links

• Charles Pinckney at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
• SCIway Biography of Charles Pinckney
• NGA Biography of Charles Pinckney
• The Plan of Charles Pinckney – Submitted as an alternative to the Virginia Plan

Political offices
Preceded by Thomas Pinckney	Governor of South Carolina 1789–1792	Succeeded by William Moultrie
Preceded by Arnoldus Vanderhorst	Governor of South Carolina 1796–1798	Succeeded by Edward Rutledge
Preceded by Paul Hamilton	Governor of South Carolina 1806–1808	Succeeded by John Drayton
United States Senate
Preceded by John Hunter	U.S. Senator (Class 2) from South Carolina 1798–1801 Served alongside: Jacob Read, John Ewing Colhoun	Succeeded by Thomas Sumter
Diplomatic posts
Preceded by David Humphreys	U.S. Minister to Spain 1802–1804	Succeeded by George W. Erving
United States House of Representatives
Preceded by Henry Middleton	Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from South Carolina's 1st congressional district 1819–1821	Succeeded by Joel R. Poinsett