Thomas Pinckney was an American statesman, diplomat, and military officer who fought in both the American Revolutionary War and the War of 1812, achieving the rank of major general.
29 Facts About Thomas Pinckney
2.
Thomas Pinckney served as Governor of South Carolina and as the US minister to Great Britain.
3.
Thomas Pinckney was the Federalist candidate for vice president in the 1796 election.
4.
Thomas Pinckney supported the independence cause and worked as an aide to General Horatio Gates.
5.
Thomas Pinckney presided over the state convention which ratified the United States Constitution.
6.
Thomas Pinckney served as an envoy to Spain and negotiated the Treaty of San Lorenzo, which defined the border between Spain and the United States.
7.
Thomas Pinckney was elected as a member of the American Philosophical Society in 1797.
8.
Thomas Pinckney's father, Charles Pinckney, was a prominent colonial official, while his mother, Eliza Lucas, was known for her introduction of indigo culture to the colony.
9.
Thomas Pinckney was the second of three siblings to survive to adulthood; his older sister, Harriett, later married a wealthy South Carolina planter, while his older brother, Charles Cotesworth Thomas Pinckney, became a prominent leader in South Carolina.
10.
When Thomas Pinckney was 3, his father took the family to Great Britain on colonial business, but the elder Thomas Pinckney died in 1758.
11.
Thomas Pinckney's mother kept the family in Great Britain, and Pinckney studied at Westminster School, Christ Church, Oxford, and the Middle Temple.
12.
Thomas Pinckney was allowed to recuperate from his wounds at his mother-in-law Rebecca Brewton Motte's plantation outside Charleston.
13.
Thomas Pinckney returned to the South and that year fought under the Marquis de Lafayette in Virginia.
14.
Thomas Pinckney strongly favored ratification of the United States Constitution and presided over the state convention that ratified the Constitution.
15.
Thomas Pinckney initially declined appointment to a federal position, but in 1792 he agreed to serve as President George Washington's ambassador to Britain.
16.
Thomas Pinckney helped Jay conclude the Jay Treaty, which addressed some issues between the US and Britain but proved divisive in the United States.
17.
In 1795, while he continued to serve as the ambassador to Britain, Thomas Pinckney was sent to Spain to negotiate a treaty regarding boundaries and US navigation on the Mississippi River.
18.
Thomas Pinckney lived there with him and her daughter and grandchildren in her later years.
19.
Thomas Pinckney would be the ostensible running mate of Vice President John Adams, but under the electoral rules in place prior to the ratification of the Twelfth Amendment, each member of the Electoral College cast two votes for president with no distinction made between presidential votes and vice presidential votes.
20.
Many Democratic-Republicans held favorable views of Thomas Pinckney, who had not been closely identified with the Federalist Party before 1796.
21.
South Carolina split its vote between Jefferson and Thomas Pinckney, awarding each candidate 8 electoral votes.
22.
Thomas Pinckney was elected to the United States House of Representatives in September 1797, and served until March 1801.
23.
Thomas Pinckney's service was frequently affected by poor health, and he declined to seek another term in 1800.
24.
Thomas Pinckney served as one of the managers appointed by the House in 1798 to conduct the impeachment proceedings against William Blount.
25.
Thomas Pinckney did see battle during the war, but served as an administrator of American forces in the Southern United States.
26.
Thomas Pinckney published a pamphlet listing factors that he thought led to the rebellion conspiracy and should be prevented in the future.
27.
Thomas Pinckney died in Charleston, South Carolina, on November 2,1828.
28.
Thomas Pinckney first married Elizabeth Motte in 1779, a daughter of Jacob and Rebecca Brewton Motte, a planter and merchant family.
29.
Thomas Pinckney became a leading Republican voice in the House of Representatives from 1812 until his death in 1822.