Butler, Pierce, 1744-1822

BUTLER, Pierce, a Delegate and a Senator from South Carolina; born in County Carlow, Ireland, July 11, 1744; pursued preparatory studies; came to America in 1758 as an officer in the British Army; resigned his commission prior to the Revolutionary War and settled in Charles Town (now Charleston), S.C.; planter; aided the American cause during the Revolutionary War; delegate to the Continental Congress in 1787; delegate to the Federal Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia in 1787 and one of the signers of the Constitution; elected to the United States Senate in 1789 for the term ending March 3, 1793; reelected December 5, 1792, and served from March 4, 1789, to October 25, 1796, when he resigned; again elected to the United States Senate to fill the vacancy caused by the death of John Ewing Colhoun and served from November 4, 1802, until his resignation November 21, 1804; died in Philadelphia, Pa., February 15, 1822; interment in Christ Churchyard, Philadelphia, Pa.

<ul><b>RACES</b>
<li>11/03/1802 SC US Senate - Appointment Won 100.00% (+100.00%)</li>
<li>10/12/1798 SC District 02 Lost 21.19% (-57.62%)</li>
<li>11/03/1792 SC US Senate Won 88.06% (+82.09%)</li>
<li>05/10/1789 SC US Senate - Initial Election Won 100.00% (+100.00%)</li>
<li>12/31/1787 SC Continental Congress Won 100.00% (+100.00%)</li>
<li>12/31/1786 SC Continental Congress Won 100.00% (+100.00%)</li>
</ul>

<p>Pierce Butler (July 11, 1744 – February 15, 1822) was an Irish-American South Carolina rice planter, slaveholder, politician, an officer in the Revolutionary War, and one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. He served as a state legislator, a member of the Congress of the Confederation, a delegate to the 1787 Constitutional Convention where he signed the United States Constitution, and was a member of the United States Senate.</p>

<p>As one of the largest slaveholders in the United States, he defended American slavery for both political and personal motives, even though he had private misgivings about the institution and particularly about the African slave trade. He introduced the Fugitive Slave Clause into a draft of the U.S. Constitution, which gave a federal guarantee to the property rights of slaveholders. He supported counting the full slave population in state totals for the purposes of Congressional apportionment. The Constitution's Three-fifths Compromise counted only three-fifths of the slave population in state totals but still led to Southern states having disproportionate power in the U.S. Congress.</p>

<p>Butler was born on July 11, 1744, in Garryhundon, County Carlow, Ireland. He was born into the Anglo-Irish Protestant Ascendancy. He was an Anglican until after the American Revolution when he became a member of the Episcopal Church alongside of many of America's Founding Fathers. He was the third son of Sir Richard Butler, 5th Baronet, of Cloughgrenan (1699–1771) and his wife Henrietta Percy. He resigned a commission in the British Army in 1773 and settled with his wife Mary in South Carolina.</p>