Butler, Pierce, 1744-1822

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.

Born in County Carlow, Ireland, Butler pursued preparatory studies before coming to America as an officer in the British Army. He resigned his commission in the British Army in 1773 and settled in Charleston, South Carolina and worked as a planter while aiding the American cause during the Revolutionary War. In early 1779, Governor John Rutledge asked the former Redcoat to help reorganize South Carolina's defenses. Butler assumed the post of the state's adjutant general, a position that carried the rank of brigadier general. He preferred to be addressed as major, his highest combat rank.

Testifying to his growing political influence, the South Carolina legislature asked Butler to represent the state at the Constitutional Convention that met in Philadelphia in 1787. Butler's experiences as a soldier and planter-legislator led to his forceful support for a strong union of the states. At the same time, he looked to the special interests of his region. He introduced the Fugitive Slave Clause (Article 4, Section 2), which established protection for slavery in the Constitution. Butler displayed inconsistencies that troubled his associates. He favored ratification of the Constitution yet did not attend the South Carolina convention that ratified it. Later, he was elected by the South Carolina state legislature to three separate terms in the United States Senate but changed his party allegiance: beginning as a Federalist, he switched to the Jeffersonian party ahead of the 1792 Senate election. In 1804, he declared himself a political independent. After these successive changes, voters did not elect Butler again to national office.

Butler retired from politics in 1805 and spent much of his time in Philadelphia where he had previously established a summer home. Butler became one of the wealthiest men in the United States, with huge land holdings in several states, through his business ventures. Butler died in Philadelphia and was buried in a vault in the cemetery of Christ Church, Philadelphia along with many of his descendants.