Timothy Pickering

Timothy Pickering 1745-1829, American political leader and Revolutionary War army officer, b. Salem, Mass. He was admitted to the bar (1768) and played an active part in pre-Revolutionary activities against the British. In 1774 and 1775 he was connected with the Massachusetts committee of correspondence. A colonel in the Massachusetts militia, he joined George Washington's army in the American Revolution, served (1777) as Washington's adjutant-general, was a member of the board of war, and was (1780-85) quartermaster general. After the Revolution, he moved to Pennsylvania and was sent by the Pennsylvania government to the Wyoming valley region of Pennsylvania to organize the newly formed Luzerne co. and to represent the state in the dispute over land claims between Connecticut settlers and Pennsylvania. He was a member of the state constitutional convention (1789-90) and negotiated treaties with various Native American tribes for the federal government. He was Postmaster General (1791-95), Secretary of War (1795), and Secretary of State (1795-1800). Pickering was dismissed after President John Adams learned that he had been scheming with the Alexander Hamilton branch of the Federalist party to steer the United States into war with France. Returning to Massachusetts, he became chief justice of the court of common pleas and was later a U.S. Senator (1803-11) and Representative (1813-17). A strong Federalist and an opponent of Adams, Pickering was a leading figure in the Essex Junto and an outspoken opponent of the War of 1812. He wrote Political Essays (1812).

Bibliography: See biography by his son, O. Pickering, and C. W. Upham (4 vol., 1867-73); G. H. Clarfield, Timothy Pickering and American Diplomacy, 1795-1800 (1969).

Pickering, Timothy (1745–1829) Revolutionary War army officer, U.S. representative, U.S. senator, and secretary of state, born in Massachusetts. Pickering became a member of that colony's Committee of Correspondence and supported the cause of independence, although he opposed the creation of a colonial army. In 1777, when it was clear that there was to be no compromise between the Crown and the colonists, he accepted a commission in the Continental army. As quartermaster, he found it increasingly difficult to supply the troops and resigned, disillusioned. In 1790, he was appointed by President George Washington to negotiate with the Seneca Indians, and did so patiently and effectively, attempting to protect them and other tribes from land speculators and retroceding to them thousands of acres of land. In 1795 Washington named him secretary of war. He supported Jay's Treaty and was rewarded later that year with the position of secretary of state. He conspired to undermine President John Adams's attempts to cement peace with France and as a result was dismissed from his post. In 1803 he was appointed to fill out the terms of a retiring U.S. senator and during his time in the Senate remained rigidly pro-British and anti-Republican. Denied a second term in the Senate, he won election to the House of Representatives, where he opposed the War of 1812; having antagonized the political powers, in 1816 he was denied renomination and retired from politics.