Charles Pinckney was born on the 26th of October 1757 at Charleston, South Carolina; he was the son of Charles Pinckney (1731-1784), first president of the first South Carolina Provincial Congress (January to June 1775), and a cousin of Charles Cotesworth Pinckney and Thomas Pinckney.
When the American Revolution broke out in 1775 he was studying law, served in the early campaigns in the South. In 1779 was elected to the South Carolina House of Representatives, was captured and taken prisoner by the British when Charleston fell in1780. He remained a prisoner of war until the summer of 1781.
He was elected a delegate to the Congress Assembled under the Articles of Confederation in 1784, 1785 and 1786, and in 1786. He moved the appointment of a committee "to take into consideration the affairs of the nation", for the purpose of examining the Articles of Confederation and possible expansion of the powers of Congress. After the committee was appointed, he was made chairman of a sub-committee which prepared a plan for amending the Articles of Confederation. After the Annapolis convention of 1786 failed to draw enough States to even begin debate, it recommended another Convention to take place in 1787.
In 1788 he married Mary Eleanor Laurens on April 22. They had one son who was born in 1794, Henry Laurens Pinckney (died 1863). After the Convention of 1787 he worked to ensure South Carolina would ratify the Constitution, which they would end up doing on May 23, 1788.
Pinckney was president of the State Convention of 1790 that framed a new constitution for South Carolina, was Governor of the state from 1789 to 1792, a member of the state House of Representatives in 1792-1796, and again Governor from 1796 to 1798. From 1799 to 1801 he was a member of the United States Senate. He entered public life as a Federalist, but later became the leader in organizing the Democratic-Republican party in his state, and contributed largely to the success of Thomas Jefferson in the Presidential election of 1800. By Jefferson's appointment he was American minister to Spain from 1801 to 1805. In general his mission was a distinct failure, his arrogance and indiscretions finally causing the Spanish government to request his recall.
The Pinckney Plan
For some time the validity of the Pinckney Plan was questioned, since it bore considerable resemblance to the “Committee of Detail Plan. In 1818, John Quincy Adams was preparing the journal of the convention for publication and discovered that the Pinckney plan was missing, he wrote to Pinckney for a copy, and Pinckney sent him what he asserted was either a copy of his original draft or a copy of a draft which differed from the original in no essentials. But as this was found to bear a close resemblance to the draft reported by the committee of detail, Madison and others, who had been members of the convention, as well as historians, treated it as spurious, and for years Pinckney received little credit for his work in the convention. Later historians, however, notably J. Franklin Jameson and Andrew C. McLaughlin, have accredited to him the suggestion of a number of provisions of the constitution as a result of their efforts to reconstruct his original plan chiefly from his speeches, or alleged speeches, and from certain papers of James Wilson, a member of the committee of detail, one of which papers is believed to be an outline of the Pinckney plan.
CHARLES PINCKNEY’S DRAFT CONSTITUTION (Presented May 29, 1787)
Draft Preamble
We, the people of the states of New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia, do ordain, declare, and establish, the following constitution, for the government of ourselves and posterity.
Government to consist of Three Branches of Government
Legislature
- House of Delegates
- Senate
Meet once a year
House of Delegates term for --- years, elected every --- years, and must be --- years of age.
Senate members chosen by the House of Delegates.
House of Delegates will be the Judge of Elections, returns, and qualifications.
Freedom of speech on the House floor is guaranteed, as is travel to and from debates, with exceptions of serious crimes.
Journals and Yea and Nay votes will be kept and published, except for meetings requiring secrecy.
Members barred from holding other offices while a member of either house, except for officers specifically for that house.
Members will be compensated for service
Two-Thirds vote from both houses required to override a veto.
Legislature shall have the power to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts and excises.
The Legislature shall have the power to:
- To regulate commerce with all nations, and among the several states;
- To borrow money, and emit bills of credit;
- To establish post-offices;
- To raise armies;
- To build and equip fleets;
- To pass laws for arming, organizing, and disciplining the militia of the United States;
- To subdue a rebellion in any state, on application of its legislature;
- To coin money, and regulate the value of all coins, and fix the standard of weights and measures;
- To provide such dockyards and arsenals, and erect such fortifications, as may be necessary for the United States, and to exercise exclusive jurisdiction therein;
- To appoint a treasurer, by ballot;
- To constitute tribunals inferior to the supreme court;
- To establish post and military roads;
- To establish and provide for a national university at the seat of government of the United States;
- To establish uniform rules of naturalization;
- To provide for the establishment of a seat of government for the United States, not exceeding—miles square, in which they shall have exclusive jurisdiction;
- To make rules concerning captures from an enemy;
- To declare the law and punishment of piracies and felonies at sea, and of counterfeiting coin, and of all offences against the laws of nations;
- To call forth the and of the militia to execute the laws of the Union, enforce treaties, suppress insurrections, and repel invasions;
- To make all laws for carrying the foregoing powers into execution.
The legislature of the United States shall have the power to declare the punishment of treason, which shall consist only in levying war against the United States, or any of them, or in adhering to their enemies. No person shall be convicted of treason but by the testimony of two witnesses.
The proportion of direct taxation shall be regulated by the whole number of inhabitants of every description; which number shall, within—years after the first meeting of the legislature, and within the term of every—year after, be taken in the manner to be prescribed by the legislature.
No tax shall be laid on articles exported from the states; nor capitation tax, but in proportion to the census before directed.
All laws regulating commerce shall require the assent of two thirds of the members present in each house. The United States shall not grant any title of nobility. The legislature of the United States shall pass no law on the subject of religion: nor touching or abridging the liberty of the press: or shall the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus ever be suspended, except in case of rebellion or invasion.
All acts made by the legislature of the United States, pursuant to this Constitution, and all treaties made under the authority of the United States, shall be the supreme law of the land; and all judges shall be bound to consider them as such in their decisions.
The Senate shall have the sole and exclusive power to declare war, and to make treaties, and to appoint ambassadors and other ministers to foreign nations, and judges of the supreme court.
They shall have the exclusive power to regulate the manner of deciding all disputes and controversies now existing, or which may arise, between the states, respecting jurisdiction or territory.
Concerning the President:
The executive power of the United States shall be vested in a President of the United States of America, which shall be his style; and his title shall be His Excellency. He shall be elected for—years; and shall be reeligible.
He shall from time to time give information to the legislature of the state of the Union, and recommend to their consideration the measures he may think necessary. He shall take care that the laws of the United States be duly executed. He shall commission all the officers of the United States; and, except as to ambassadors, other ministers, and judges of the supreme court, he shall nominate, and, with the consent of the Senate, appoint, all other officers of the United States. He shall receive public ministers from foreign nations; and may correspond with the executives of the different states. He shall have power to grant pardons and reprieves, except in impeachments. He shall be commander-in-chief of the army and navy of the United States, and of the militia of the several states; and shall receive a compensation which shall not be increased or diminished during his continuance in office. At entering on the duties of his office, he shall take an oath faithfully to execute the duties of a President of the United States. He shall be removed from his office on impeachment by the House of Delegates, and conviction, in the supreme court, of treason, bribery, or corruption. In case of his removal, death, resignation, or disability, the president of the Senate shall exercise the duties of his office until another President be chosen. And in case of the death of the president of the Senate, the speaker of the House of Delegates shall do so.
Concerning the Judiciary:
The legislature of the United States shall have the power, and it shall be their duty, to establish such courts of law, equity, and admiralty, as shall be necessary.
The judges of the courts shall hold their offices during good behavior; and receive a compensation, which shall not be increased or diminished during their continuance in office. One of these courts shall be termed the supreme court; whose jurisdiction shall extend to all cases arising under the laws of the United States, or affecting ambassadors, other public ministers and consuls; to the trial or impeachment of officers of the United States; to all cases of admiralty and maritime jurisdiction. In cases of impeachment affecting ambassadors, and other public ministers, this jurisdiction shall be original; and in all other cases appellate.
All criminal offences, except in cases of impeachment, shall be tried in the state where they shall be committed. The trials shall be open and public, and shall be by jury.
Proportioning Congress:
- Immediately after the first census of the people of the United States, the House of Delegates shall apportion the Senate by electing for each state, out of the citizens resident therein, one senator for every—members each state shall have in the House of Delegates. Each state shall be entitled to have at least one member in the Senate.
Powers Forbidden to the States:
- No state shall grant letters of marque and reprisal, or enter into treaty, or alliance, or confederation; nor grant any title of nobility; nor, without the consent of the legislature of the United States, lay any impost on imports; nor keep troops or ships of war in time of peace; nor enter into compacts with other states or foreign powers; nor emit bills of credit; nor make any thing but gold, silver, or copper, a tender in payment of debts; nor engage in war, except for self-defence when actually invaded, on the danger of invasion be so great as not to admit of a delay until the government of the United States can be informed thereof. And, to render these prohibitions effectual, the legislature of the United States shall have the power to revise the laws of the several states that may be supposed to infringe the powers exclusively delegated by this Constitution to Congress, and to negative and annul such as do.
Equal Protection of Citizens and Extradition:
- The citizens of each state shall be entitled to all privileges and immunities of citizens in the several states. Any person, charged with crimes in any state, fleeing from justice to another, shall, on demand of the executive of the state from which he fled, be delivered up, and removed to the state having jurisdiction of the offence.
Acts of state Legislatures:
- Full faith shall be given, in each state, to the acts of the legislature, and to the records and judicial proceedings of the courts and magistrates of every state.
Admitting of States:
- The legislature shall have power to admit new states into the Union, on the same terms with the original states; provided two thirds of the members present in both houses agree.
Insurrection:
- On the application of the legislature of a state, the United States shall protect it against domestic insurrection.
Amending the Constitution:
- If two thirds of the legislatures of the states apply for the same, the legislature of the United States shall call a convention for the purpose of amending the Constitution; or, should Congress, with the consent of two thirds of each House, propose to the states amendments to the same, the agreement of two thirds of the legislatures of the states shall be sufficient to make the said amendments parts of the Constitution.
Ratification:
- The ratification of the—conventions of—states shall be sufficient for organizing this Constitution.”
Ordered, that the said draft be referred to the committee of the whole appointed to consider the state of the American Union.
(End CHARLES PINCKNEY’S Proposed Constitution)
Additional resources used:
http://www.nndb.com : http://www.let.rug.nl : http://oll.libertyfund.org
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