Gopher Proxy
gopherpedia.com:70 gopherpedia.com:70/0//Thomas Pinckney
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
======================================================================
= Thomas Pinckney =
======================================================================
Introduction
======================================================================
Thomas Pinckney (October 23, 1750November 2, 1828) was an American
statesman, diplomat, and military officer who fought in both the
American Revolutionary War and the War of 1812, achieving the rank of
major general. He served as 36th governor of South Carolina and as the
U.S. minister to Great Britain.
Born into a prominent family in Charles Town in the Province of South
Carolina, Pinckney studied in Europe before returning to America. He
supported the independence cause and worked as an aide to General
Horatio Gates. After the Revolutionary War, Pinckney managed his
plantation and won election as Governor of South Carolina, serving
from 1787 to 1789. He presided over the state convention which
ratified the United States Constitution. In 1792, he accepted
President George Washington's appointment to the position of minister
to Britain, but was unable to win concessions regarding the
impressment of American sailors. He also served as an envoy to Spain
and negotiated the Treaty of San Lorenzo, which defined the border
between Spain and the United States.
Following his diplomatic success in Spain, the Federalists chose
Pinckney as John Adams's running mate in the 1796 presidential
election. However, under the rules then in place, the individual who
won the most electoral votes became president, while the individual
who won the second most electoral votes became vice president.
Although Adams won the presidential election, Democratic-Republican
candidate Thomas Jefferson won the second most electoral votes and
therefore, won election as vice president. After the election,
Pinckney served in the United States House of Representatives from
1797 to 1801. His brother, Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, was the
Federalist vice presidential nominee in 1800 and the party's
presidential nominee in 1804 and 1808. During the War of 1812,
Pinckney was commissioned as a major general.
Pinckney was elected as a member of the American Philosophical Society
in 1797.
Early life and Revolutionary War years
======================================================================
Pinckney was born on October 23, 1750, in Charlestown in the Province
of South Carolina. His father, Charles Pinckney, was a prominent
colonial official, while his mother, Eliza Lucas, was known for her
introduction of indigo culture to the colony. Pinckney was the second
of three siblings to survive to adulthood; his older sister, Harriott,
later married a wealthy South Carolina planter, while his older
brother, Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, became a prominent leader in
South Carolina. When Pinckney was 3, his father took the family to
Great Britain on colonial business, but the elder Pinckney died in
1758. His mother kept the family in Great Britain, and Pinckney
studied at Westminster School, Christ Church, Oxford, and the Middle
Temple. Pinckney was admitted to the bar in November 1774 and almost
immediately left for South Carolina.
Though he had spent the majority of his life in England, Pinckney
sympathized with the Patriot cause in the American Revolutionary War.
Along with his brother, Charles, he became a captain in the
Continental Army in June 1775. After seeing much action, he became an
aide-de-camp to General Horatio Gates, and was captured by the British
at the disastrous Battle of Camden in 1780. By that time he had
married and had an infant child. He was allowed to recuperate from his
wounds at his mother-in-law Rebecca Brewton Motte's plantation outside
Charleston. In 1781 he and his family traveled to Philadelphia, where
he was released by the British in a prisoner exchange. Pinckney
returned to the South and that year fought under the Marquis de
Lafayette in Virginia.
Governor and ambassador
======================================================================
After the war, Pinckney focused on his plantations and his legal
practice. In 1787, he ran for the position of Governor of South
Carolina at the urging of his friend, Edward Rutledge. Pinckney was
elected governor with little opposition. He strongly favored
ratification of the United States Constitution and presided over the
state convention that ratified the Constitution. He served in the
South Carolina House of Representatives for St. Philip's and St.
Michael's Parish from January 3 to December 20, 1791.
Pinckney initially declined appointment to a federal position, but in
1792 he agreed to serve as President George Washington's ambassador to
Britain. As Pinckney was unable to get the British to reach an
agreement on various issues, including the practice of impressment or
the evacuation of British forts in American territory, Washington
dispatched John Jay as a special envoy to Britain. Pinckney helped Jay
conclude the Jay Treaty, which addressed some issues between the U.S.
and Britain but proved divisive in the United States. In 1795, while
he continued to serve as the ambassador to Britain, Pinckney was sent
to Spain to negotiate a treaty regarding boundaries and U.S.
navigation on the Mississippi River. In the resulting Treaty of San
Lorenzo, Spain agreed to allow Americans to export goods through the
Mississippi River.
Upon his return to the United States, Pinckney joined with his
mother-in-law, Rebecca Motte in developing a rice plantation known as
Eldorado on the Santee River outside Charleston. She lived there with
him and her daughter and grandchildren in her later years.
Presidential election of 1796
======================================================================
Pinckney's diplomatic success with Spain made him popular at home, and
on his return the Federalist party nominated him as a candidate in the
1796 presidential election. The Federalists were strongest in the
region of New England, and they hoped that Pinckney's Southern roots
would help him win votes in his home region. Pinckney would be the
ostensible running mate of Vice President John Adams, but under the
electoral rules in place prior to the ratification of the Twelfth
Amendment, each member of the Electoral College cast two votes for
president with no distinction made between presidential votes and vice
presidential votes. Pinckney, Adams, and the main
Democratic-Republican candidates, Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr,
each had a potential chance at winning the presidency.
Alexander Hamilton clashed with Adams over control of the Federalist
Party, and he may have worked to elect Pinckney as president over
Adams. Many Democratic-Republicans held favorable views of Pinckney,
who had not been closely identified with the Federalist Party before
1796. Some Democratic-Republicans hoped that Pinckney could bridge
partisan divides. Thus, Pinckney could potentially attract electors
who would not consider voting for Adams.
In the election, most New England electors voted for the Federalist
candidates, most Southern electors voted for Democratic-Republican
candidates, and the two parties each received support from electors in
the middle states. South Carolina split its vote between Jefferson and
Pinckney, awarding each candidate 8 electoral votes. However, several
New England electors, fearing the possibility of Pinckney's election
over Adams, refused to vote for Pinckney. Adams finished with 71
electoral votes, Jefferson with 68 electoral votes, and Pinckney with
59 electoral votes. Adams became president and, under the rules then
in place, the runner-up, Jefferson, became vice president.
Public service
================
Pinckney was elected to the United States House of Representatives in
September 1797, and served until March 1801. His service was
frequently affected by poor health, and he declined to seek another
term in 1800. While in Congress, he supported the Alien and Sedition
Acts. He also served as one of the impeachment managers appointed by
the House in 1798 to conduct the impeachment proceedings against
William Blount.
After leaving Congress, Pinckney once again focused on developing his
plantations. At the request of President James Madison, he returned to
military service during the War of 1812. He did see battle during the
war, but served as an administrator of American forces in the Southern
United States. In 1826, he succeeded his brother as the president of
the Society of the Cincinnati, an organization made up of veteran
officers of the American Revolutionary War.
Denmark Vesey conspiracy
==========================
In 1822, news was reported of a massive planned slave uprising, to be
led by Denmark Vesey, a literate free man of color. Vesey and numerous
other free blacks and slaves were quickly arrested in a roundup and
suppression of rebellion by authorities. Slaves constituted the
majority of the population in Charleston, where there was a
substantial population of free people of color. Whites long feared
just such an uprising. In closed court proceedings, Vesey and numerous
other suspects were convicted; they were soon executed as
conspirators. Arrests continued, with some suspects deported from the
country.
Pinckney published a pamphlet listing factors that he thought led to
the rebellion conspiracy and should be prevented in the future.
*1st: The example of Saint-Domingue (now Haiti), where slaves were
freed by the victors in the French Revolution of 1804. Many of the
freed slaves and their families resettled in the Charleston area.
Vesey planned an insurrection on Bastille Day, July 14, 1822.
*2nd: The indiscreet zeal in favor of universal liberty, expressed by
many of our fellow citizens in the States north and east of Maryland;
aided by the black population of those states.
*3rd: The idleness, dissipation, and improper indulgences permitted
among all classes of negroes in Charleston, and particularly among the
domestic being taught to read and write. Being taught to read and
write is the most dangerous.
*4th: The facility of obtaining money afforded by the nature of their
occupations to those employed as mechanics, draymen, fisherman,
butchers, porters and hucksters.
*5th: The disparity of numbers between the white and black inhabitants
of the city.
Death
=======
Pinckney died in Charleston, South Carolina, on November 2, 1828.
Legacy and honors
======================================================================
*From at least 1801 through 1825, he and his second wife Frances
Pinckney lived at a town house they built at 14 George Street, in
Charleston. It is now preserved as the Middleton-Pinckney House and
listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
*Pinckneyville, Georgia, was named after General Thomas Pinckney,
after he traveled through the area. That town no longer exists, as
its residents left to found the nearby Norcross. Pinckneyville is the
name of a Middle School in Norcross.
*Pinckney, New York, was named after him.
*Pinckney was portrayed by Hugh O'Gorman in the miniseries 'John
Adams', though he is erroneously portrayed as a United States Senator
instead of Ambassador to Great Britain during the George Washington
administration
Family
======================================================================
His father, Charles Pinckney, was Chief Justice of South Carolina. His
mother, Eliza Lucas, was prominent for introducing the cultivation of
indigo to the colonies.
His brother Charles Cotesworth Pinckney and his cousin Charles
Pinckney were signers of the United States Constitution.
Pinckney first married Elizabeth Motte in 1779, a daughter of Jacob
and Rebecca Brewton Motte, a planter and merchant family. After her
death, he married in 1797 her younger sister, Frances, the widow of
John Middleton. (He was a cousin of Arthur Middleton.) The Mottes were
patriots in the Revolution.
Pinckney's elder son, Colonel Thomas Jr. (1780-1842), married
Elizabeth Izard (1781-1862), a cousin twice removed of South Carolina
Congressman Ralph Izard.
His younger son, named Charles Cotesworth Pinckney (1789-1865) after
his brother, married Phoebe Caroline Elliott, a daughter of a South
Carolina State Representative, William Elliott, and Phoebe Waight.
That son served as Lt. Governor of South Carolina between 1832 and
1834.
The Pinckneys' daughter Elizabeth married William Lowndes, son of
Revolutionary War-era South Carolina Governor Rawlins Lowndes. He
became a leading Democratic-Republican voice in the House of
Representatives from 1812 until his death in 1822. Lowndes's
connection to the Pinckneys, despite their contrasting political
affiliation, helped gain the younger man's election to Congress in
1811.
External links
======================================================================
*[http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=P000357
Congressional biography of Thomas Pinckney]
*[http://www.sciway.net/hist/governors/tpinckney.html SCIway Biography
of Thomas Pinckney]
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20070930033405/http://www.nga.org/portal/site/nga/menuitem.29fab9fb4add37305ddcbeeb501010a0/?vgnextoid=6016c9eea881a010VgnVCM1000001a01010aRCRD&vgnextchannel=e449a0ca9e3f1010VgnVCM1000001a01010aRCRD
NGA Biography of Thomas Pinckney]
*[https://rose.library.emory.edu/ Stuart A. Rose Manuscript, Archives,
and Rare Book Library], Emory University:
[http://pid.emory.edu/ark:/25593/8zrzb Pinckney family papers,
1823-1864]
|-
|-
|-
|-
License
=========
All content on Gopherpedia comes from Wikipedia, and is licensed under CC-BY-SA
License URL: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
Original Article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Pinckney
.
you're on gopherpedia.com^70/0//Thomas Pinckney
back link is gopherpedia.com:70