 The
eldest son of a politically prominent
planter and a remarkable mother who
introduced and promoted indigo culture
in South Carolina, Charles Cotesworth
Pinckney was born in 1746 at Charleston.
Only 7 years later, he accompanied his
father, who had been appointed colonial
agent for South Carolina, to England. As
a result, the youth enjoyed a European
education.
Pinckney received tutoring
in London, attended several preparatory
schools, and went on to Christ Church
College, Oxford, where he heard the
lectures of the legal authority Sir
William Blackstone and graduated in
1764. Pinckney next pursued legal
training at London's Middle Temple and
was accepted for admission into the
English bar in 1769. He then spent part
of a year touring Europe and studying
chemistry, military science, and botany
under leading authorities.
Late in 1769, Pinckney sailed home
and the next year entered practice in
South Carolina. His political career
began in 1769, when he was elected to
the provincial assembly. In 1773 he
acted as attorney general for several
towns in the colony. By 1775 he had
identified with the patriot cause and
that year sat in the provincial
congress. Then, the next year, he was
elected to the local committee of safety
and made chairman of a committee that
drew up a plan for the interim
government of South Carolina.
When hostilities broke out, Pinckney,
who had been a royal militia officer
since 1769, pursued a full-time military
calling. When South Carolina organized
its forces in 1775, he joined the First
South Carolina Regiment as a captain. He
soon rose to the rank of colonel and
fought in the South in defense of
Charleston and in the North at the
Battles of Brandywine, PA, and
Germantown, PA. He commanded a regiment
in the campaign against the British in
the Floridas in 1778 and at the siege of
Savannah. When Charleston fell in 1780,
he was taken prisoner and held until
1782. The following year, he was
discharged as a brevet brigadier
general.
After the war, Pinckney resumed his
legal practice and the management of
estates in the Charleston area but found
time to continue his public service,
which during the war had included tours
in the lower house of the state
legislature (1778 and 1782) and the
senate (1779).
Pinckney was one of the leaders at
the Constitutional Convention. Present
at all the sessions, he strongly
advocated a powerful national
government. His proposal that senators
should serve without pay was not
adopted, but he exerted influence in
such matters as the power of the Senate
to ratify treaties and the compromise
that was reached concerning abolition of
the international slave trade. After the
convention, he defended the Constitution
in South Carolina.
Under the new government, Pinckney
became a devoted Federalist. Between
1789 and 1795 he declined presidential
offers to command the U.S. Army and to
serve on the Supreme Court and as
Secretary of War and Secretary of State.
In 1796, however, he accepted the post
of Minister to France, but the
revolutionary regime there refused to
receive him and he was forced to proceed
to the Netherlands. The next year,
though, he returned to France when he
was appointed to a special mission to
restore relations with that country.
During the ensuing XYZ affair, refusing
to pay a bribe suggested by a French
agent to facilitate negotiations, he was
said to have replied "No! No! Not a
sixpence!"
When Pinckney arrived back in the
United States in 1798, he found the
country preparing for war with France.
That year, he was appointed as a major
general in command of American forces in
the South and served in that capacity
until 1800, when the threat of war
ended. That year, he represented the
Federalists as Vice-Presidential
candidate, and in 1804 and 1808 as the
Presidential nominee. But he met defeat
on all three occasions.
For the rest of his life, Pinckney
engaged in legal practice, served at
times in the legislature, and engaged in
philanthropic activities. He was a
charter member of the board of trustees
of South Carolina College (later the
University of South Carolina), first
president of the Charleston Bible
Society, and chief executive of the
Charleston Library Society. He also
gained prominence in the Society of the
Cincinnati, an organization of former
officers of the War for Independence.
During the later period of his life,
Pinckney enjoyed his Belmont estate and
Charleston high society. He was twice
married; first to Sarah Middleton in
1773 and after her death to Mary Stead
in 1786. Survived by three daughters, he
died in Charleston in 1825 at the age of
79. He was interred there in the
cemetery at St. Michael's Episcopal
Church.
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