On this Constitution Day, we reflect on the remarkable life of Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, a military officer who risked both his life and fortune as an aide to Gen. George Washington. Pinckney played a pivotal role in shaping the future of America as a delegate to the Constitutional Convention of 1787.
During the Revolutionary War, when Charles Town fell to British forces in 1780, Pinckney was captured and imprisoned at Snee Farm and later at the Haddrell’s Point prison camp. While in captivity, British officers attempted to undermine his faith in the American cause. Pinckney’s resolute response was:
“If I had a vein that did not beat with the love of my Country, I myself would open it. If I had a drop of blood that could flow dishonorable, I myself would let it out.”
After the war, Pinckney became a political advocate for the Lowcountry’s planter class. He opposed his friend Edward Rutledge, who sought to end the importation of slaves to South Carolina, arguing that the state’s economy depended on a continuous influx of enslaved Africans. As a state senator, he declared:
“...the nature of our climate and the flat, swampy situation of our country obliges us to cultivate our lands with negroes, and that without them South Carolina would soon be a desert waste.”
Pinckney’s military connections, forged through Washington and others, facilitated his rise as a prominent national leader. At the Constitutional Convention, he lamented that after the Revolutionary War, states prioritized local issues over collective interests. He asserted that a strong central government and national military were essential for the country’s safety and prosperity, emphasizing the need for states to unite for mutual economic and military well-being. Simultaneously, he aimed to create a political system of checks and balances to protect citizens from tyranny, as experienced in many European nations.
However, Pinckney, who owned about 250 slaves, faced an ideological conflict within a nation that championed freedom. He remarked:
“Bills of rights generally begin with declaring that all men are by nature born free. Now, we should make that declaration with a very bad grace when a large part of our property consists in men who are actually born slaves.”
He withheld his support for the Constitution until a compromise was reached, ensuring the protection of slavery and allowing the continued importation of African laborers.
In the years following the Convention, Pinckney unsuccessfully ran as the Federalist Party’s candidate for Vice President in 1800 and for President in 1804 and 1808, despite not actively campaigning. In those elections, he was defeated by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison. Nevertheless, Pinckney remained engaged in public affairs until his death in 1825. Today, he is recognized as one of South Carolina’s most significant historical figures. Along with his cousins, Charles and Thomas Pinckney of Snee Farm, he was part of a family that played a crucial role in shaping the design of the United States of America.
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