Thomas Pinckney

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Thomas Pinckney 1750–1828, American political leader and diplomat, b. Charleston, S.C.; brother of C. C. Pinckney and cousin of Charles Pinckney. At the outbreak of the American Revolution he joined the militia; he saw action in Florida, took part in the defense of Charleston (1780), and was wounded and captured at Camden in the Carolina campaign. After the war he served as governor (1787–89). While minister to England (1792–96), he was sent as envoy extraordinary to Spain (1794–95). His treaty with Spain (1795) established commercial relations between the United States and Spain, provided for free navigation of the Mississippi by American citizens and Spanish subjects, granted the right of deposit at New Orleans, and set the boundaries of Louisiana and E and W Florida. As a member of Congress (1797–1801) he upheld Federalist measures but voted against the Sedition Act and expressed no eagerness for war with France. In the War of 1812 Pinckney was a major general.

Bibliography: See biography by C. C. Pinckney (1895); S. F. Bemis, Pinckney's Treaty (1960, repr. 1973); J. L. Cross, London Mission (1968).

Pinckney, Thomas (1750–1828) Revolutionary War army officer. Raised primarily in England, the South Carolina-born Pinckney established a successful law practice in Charleston and openly opposed the Intolerable Acts (1775). He entered the state legislature in 1778 and served as an aide to Gen. Horatio Gates; Pinckney fought at Yorktown (1781). After the war, he served two consecutive terms as governor of South Carolina (1777, 1778) and supported the adoption of a strong federal constitution, aligning himself with Alexander Hamilton and the new Federalist party. George Washington named him ambassador to Great Britain in 1791, in which position he attempted to negotiate, without much success, issues involving freedom of the seas, fishing rights, and compensation for damage inflicted by the British during the war. Pinckney ran for vice president in 1800, as John Adams's running mate; the ticket lost to Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr. After four years in the House of Representatives, Pinckney returned to South Carolina, where he lived out the rest of his life.