Charles Cotesworth Pinckney
A South Carolina delegate in 1787 and minister to France in 1796-1797, Charles Cotesworth Pinckney linked Revolutionary military service to Federalist diplomacy and the defense of national honor.
Born February 25, 1746 / Died August 16, 1825
On February 25, 1746, in Charleston, Province of South Carolina, Charles Cotesworth Pinckney was born into a prominent Lowcountry family with Atlantic connections. He studied at Westminster School and Christ Church, Oxford, before legal training at the Middle Temple prepared him for the bar. Returning to South Carolina before the Revolution, he entered colonial politics and militia service.
Pinckney fought in the Revolutionary War, endured imprisonment after the fall of Charleston in 1780, and later sat in the Constitutional Convention in 1787. He defended a stronger national government while also pressing South Carolina's interests in the debates over representation and slavery. As minister to France in 1796-1797, he refused to treat unofficial demands for bribes as a condition of negotiation, helping trigger the XYZ Affair.
The XYZ Affair fed the Quasi-War with France and strengthened Federalist arguments for military preparedness and national honor. Pinckney's career also linked South Carolina's Revolutionary leadership to the diplomatic conflicts that tested the Constitution in the 1790s.
Key Contributions
- Charles Cotesworth Pinckney was an American statesman, military officer and Founding Father who served as United States Minister to France from 1796 to 1797.
- On September 17, 1787, Charles Cotesworth Pinckney signed the United States Constitution in Philadelphia after representing South Carolina in the federal convention.
- Charles Cotesworth Pinckney's public record is closely tied to Constitutional Convention convenes, a named event that defined the period in which Charles Cotesworth Pinckney served.
Related Events
Constitutional Convention convenes
From May to September 1787, delegates in Philadelphia abandoned revision of the Articles of Confederation and drafted a new Constitution under George Washington's presidency.
United States Constitution signed
On September 17, 1787, thirty-nine delegates signed the Constitution in Philadelphia and sent the proposed frame of government to the states for ratification.
Related People
Abraham Baldwin
After the Constitutional Convention of 1787, Abraham Baldwin carried Georgia into the new federal order and helped found...
Alexander Hamilton
From the Constitutional Convention in 1787 through the Treasury program of 1790-1791, Alexander Hamilton shaped the fisc...
Benjamin Franklin
Between 1754 and the Treaty of Paris in 1783, Benjamin Franklin moved from colonial printer to indispensable diplomat, l...
Charles Pinckney
At the Constitutional Convention of 1787 and in South Carolina politics after ratification, Charles Pinckney advanced a...
Daniel Carroll
Daniel Carroll served in the Constitutional Convention of 1787 and the First Congress, helping secure Maryland's ratific...
Daniel of St. Thomas Jenifer
Long active in Maryland government before 1776, Daniel of St. Thomas Jenifer brought fiscal experience to the Constituti...