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Charles Cotesworth Pinckney was born on February 25 th, 1746 at Charleston, the eldest son of a politically prominent planter and a remarkable mother who introduced and promoted indigo culture in South Carolina. 7 years later, he accompanied his father, who had been appointed colonial agent for South Carolina, to England. As a result, the young Charles 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. When South Carolina organized its forces in 1775 to battle the British, Pinckney joined the First South Carolina Regiment as a captain. He soon rose to the rank of colonel and fought in the South in defence of Charleston and in the North at the Battles of Brandywine, PA, and Germantown, PA. When Charleston fell in 1780, he was taken prisoner and held until 1782. The following year, he was discharged as a brevet brigadier general.
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. 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. 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. Michaels Episcopal Church.
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