Pinckney, Charles Cotesworth (1746-1825), a planter, politician, and diplomat, was a South Carolina signer of the Constitution of the United States. An influential delegate at the Constitutional Convention of 1787, Pinckney supported a strong national government and the power of the Senate to ratify (approve) treaties. He also helped settle the dispute between the Northern and Southern states over regulation of the foreign slave trade (see Constitution of the United States (The compromises) ). He later helped win ratification of the Constitution by South Carolina. Pinckney’s cousin Charles Pinckney was also a signer of the Constitution.
Pinckney was born in Charleston, South Carolina, on Feb. 25, 1746 (Feb. 14, 1745, according to the calendar in use at the time of his birth). He was educated in Britain and France but returned to South Carolina to practice law. During the American Revolution (1775-1783), he rose to the rank of brigadier general. He was taken prisoner when the British captured Charleston in 1780, and he was held for two years.
In 1796, Pinckney accepted a position as U.S. minister to France. But the French refused to receive him. The next year, President John Adams appointed Pinckney as one of three special commissioners to resolve differences between the United States and France. French negotiating agents demanded a loan to France and a bribe for the French statesman Prince Talleyrand. Pinckney’s reply to their demands was “No! No! Not a sixpence!” This negotiation attempt came to be known as the XYZ Affair (see XYZ Affair ).
Pinckney ran as a Federalist candidate in three presidential elections. He lost to Thomas Jefferson in 1800 and 1804 and to James Madison in 1808. Pinckney died on Aug. 16, 1825.
