Pinkney

Pinkney For some persons thus named, use Pinckney.

Pinkney, William (b. Annapolis, Md., 17 Mar. 1764; d. Washington, D.C., 25 Feb. 1822), lawyer and statesman. Distinguished in public affairs and law, William Pinkney was a member of the Maryland legislature and council (1788–1795), United States attorney general (1811–1815), and United States senator (1819–1822). As commissioner to England under the Jay Treaty (1796–1804), then American minister there (1807–1811), he grappled with maritime issues and mastered admiralty law. In his later years he became the leading member of the Supreme Court bar: superb oratory, thorough preparation, supreme confidence, even his dandified appearance enhanced his reputation. His most noteworthy Supreme Court argument was in McCulloch v. Maryland (1819), defining a strong union created by the American people and upholding the constitutionality of the Bank of the United States.

Maurice Baxter

Pinkney, Edward Coote (1802–28), son of William Pinkney, a leading statesman and diplomat of his time, was born in London and reared partly there and partly in Baltimore. He edited The Marylander (1827–28), a paper which supported J.Q. Adams. When his father was attacked for his haughty manner in John Neal's Randolph (1823), the younger Pinkney challenged the novelist to a duel. Pinkney's few Poems (1825) were praised by Poe for their lyric gift but were often imitative of Byron and Tom Moore.