 One
of the most aristocratic delegates at the convention, Butler was
born in 1744 in County Carlow, Ireland. His father was Sir Richard
Butler, member of Parliament and a baronet.
Like so many younger sons of the British aristocracy
who could not inherit their fathers' estates because of
primogeniture, Butler pursued a military career. He became a major
in His Majesty's 29th Regiment and during the colonial unrest was
posted to Boston in 1768 to quell disturbances there. In 1771 he
married Mary Middleton, daughter of a wealthy South Carolinian, and
before long resigned his commission to take up a planter's life in
the Charleston area. The couple was to have at least one daughter.
When the Revolution broke out, Butler took up
the Whig cause. He was elected to the assembly in 1778, and the next
year he served as adjutant general in the South Carolina militia.
While in the legislature through most of the 1780s, he took over
leadership of the democratic upcountry faction in the state and
refused to support his own planter group. The War for Independence
cost him much of his property, and his finances were so precarious
for a time that he was forced to travel to Amsterdam to seek a
personal loan. In 1786 the assembly appointed him to a commission
charged with settling a state boundary dispute.
The next year, Butler won election to both the
Continental Congress (1787-88) and the Constitutional Convention. In
the latter assembly, he was an outspoken nationalist who attended
practically every session and was a key spokesman for the
Madison-Wilson caucus. Butler also supported the interests of
southern slaveholders. He served on the Committee on Postponed
Matters.
On his return to South Carolina Butler defended
the Constitution but did not participate in the ratifying
convention. Service in the U.S. Senate (1789-96) followed. Although
nominally a Federalist, he often crossed party lines. He supported
Hamilton's fiscal program but opposed Jay's Treaty and Federalist
judiciary and tariff measures.
Out of the Senate and back in South Carolina
from 1797 to 1802, Butler was considered for but did not attain the
governorship. He sat briefly in the Senate again in 1803-4 to fill
out an unexpired term, and he once again demonstrated party
independence. But, for the most part, his later career was spent as
a wealthy planter. In his last years, he moved to Philadelphia,
apparently to be near a daughter who had married a local physician.
Butler died there in 1822 at the age of 77 and was buried in the
yard of Christ Church. |
