Pinckney, Charles, 1757-1824

Charles Pinckney (October 26, 1757 – October 29, 1824) was an American Founding Father, planter, and politician who was a signer of the United States Constitution. He was elected and served as the 37th Governor of South Carolina, later serving two more non-consecutive terms. He also served as a U.S. Senator and a member of the House of Representatives. He was first cousin once removed of fellow signer Charles Cotesworth Pinckney.

Born and educated in Charles Town (now Charleston) in the Province of South Carolina, Pinckney pursued classical studies. Admitted to the bar in 1779, he commenced practice in Charleston that year and was elected to the South Carolina House of Representatives for the first time, serving until 1780. About that time, well after the War for Independence had begun, Pinckney enlisted in the South Carolina militia. He became a lieutenant and served at the siege of Savannah. When Charleston fell to the British the next year, Pinckney was captured; he was held as a prisoner until June 1781 and sent north for a potential exchange. He did not return to Charleston until 1783. Pinckney was elected to the Continental Congress in 1783, serving from 1784 until 1787. Pinckney's role in the Constitutional Convention is controversial. Although one of the youngest delegates, he later claimed to have been the most influential one and contended he had submitted a draft, known as the Pinckney Plan, that was the basis of the final Constitution, a claim disputed by other framers including James Madison. Pinckney submitted an elaborate form of the Virginia Plan, proposed first by Edmund Randolph, but it was disregarded by the other delegates. He was also re-elected to the South Carolina House, serving from 1786 to 1789.

Pinckney's political career blossomed following the adoption of the Constitution. From 1789 to 1792, the state legislature elected him as governor of South Carolina, and in 1790 he chaired the state constitutional convention. During this period, he became associated with the Federalist Party though his views changed over time and he increasingly began to cast his lot with Carolina back-country Democratic-Republicans against his own eastern elite. The population in the western part of the state was increasing, but legislative apportionment favored the Low Country planters. In 1796 Pinckney was elected governor again by the state legislature. In 1798, his Democratic-Republican supporters in the legislature elected him to the U.S. Senate.

In the presidential election of 1800, he served as Thomas Jefferson's campaign manager in South Carolina. The victorious Jefferson appointed Pinckney as minister to Spain. Pinckney returned from Spain to Charleston and to leadership of the state Democratic-Republican Party. He served in the legislature in 1805 and 1806 and was elected Governor for a third time, serving from 1806 to 1808. In this position, he favored legislative reapportionment in order to give more fair representation to back-country districts. He also advocated universal white manhood suffrage. He served again in the legislature from 1810 to 1814 and then temporarily withdrew from politics. In 1818 he won election to the U.S. House of Representatives where he fought against the Missouri Compromise. A major slaveholder whose wealth depended on enslaved labor at his plantations, he supported expansion of the institution of slavery to new territories and states.

In 1821, with his health beginning to fail, Pinckney retired for the last time from politics. He died in Charleston and was buried at St. Philip's Cemetery there.