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The Role of Pierce Butler in the Constitutional Convention

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 August 2009

S. Sidney Ulmer
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Extract

It is quite well known that South Carolina sent four aristocrats to represent her in the 1787 Constitutional Convention. It is less well known that one of the four merited a listing in Burke's Peerage. In fact, while much has been written about Charles Pinckney, C. C. Pinckney, and John Rutledge, the fourth member of the delegation has been the subject of a few biographical sketches and virtually nothing more. And yet Pierce Butler was not an insignificant member of the delegation or of the Convention. Indeed, several positive claims to fame that can be established in his behalf suggest the need for a more realistic assessment of his role in the 1787 Convention. This paper is designed as a first step in that direction.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Review of Politics , Volume 22 , Issue 3 , July 1960 , pp. 361 - 374
Copyright
Copyright © University of Notre Dame 1960

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References

1 Stokes, Thomas L., The Savannah (New York, 1950), p. 230Google Scholar.

2 Census of 1790 — Heads of Families — South Carolina, Washington (1908)Google Scholar.

3 The News and Courier, Charleston, S. C., 08 29, 1937, p. 2-cGoogle Scholar.

4 Pierce Butler to Weedon Butler, Mary Villa, May 5, 1788, Ms.: British Museum.

5 Pierce Butler to Weedon Butler, Mary Villa, March 2, 1788, Ms.: British Museum.

6 Pierce Butler to Weedon Butler, Charleston, S. C., February 8, 1789, Ms.: British Museum.

7 Madison, James, Debates on the Adoption of the Federal Constitution, ed. by Elliott, Jonathan (Washington, 1859), p. 368Google Scholar. All textual references to remarks in and proceedings of the 1787 Convention are taken from this source.

8 Pierce Butler to Weedon Butler, Mary Villa, May 5, 1788, Ms.: British Museum.

9 Ibid. Also printed in Max Farrand, Records of the Federal Convention of 1787, 4 vols. (New Haven, 1937), III, 302.

10 Printed in Walter Clark, ed., The State Records of North Carolina (Goldsboro, 1902), XX, 778–779.

11 Pierce Butler to Weedon Butler, Mary Villa, May 5, 1788, Ms.: British Museum.

12 Pierce Butler to Weedon Butler, New York, October 8, 1787, Ms.: British Museum.

13 Ibid.

14 Pierce Butler to Weedon Butler, Philadelphia, August 19, 1796, Ms.: British Museum.

15 Pierce Butler to Weedon Butler, New York, January 6, 1790, Ms.: British Museum.

16 Annals of Congress, First Congress, Second Session, February 12, 1790, p. 1244.

17 Pierce Butler to Weedon Butler, South Carolina, July 18, 1788, Ms.: British Museum.

18 Pierce Butler to James Iredell, New York, 1789. Printed in Griffith J. McRee, The Life and Correspondence of James Iredell, 2 vols. (New York, 1857–58), II, 264–265.

19 Pierce Butler to James Iredell, May 30, 1786, Ms.: South Carolina Historical Society.

20 Charles Pinckney wrote Rufus King from Charleston, January 26, 1789, that “Pierce Butler and Ralph Izard” were “both strong federalists.” Ms.: New York Historical Society.

21 In The Dictionary of American Biography.

22 C. C. Pinckney to Ralph Izard, Columbia, December 20, 1794, Ms.: Library of Congress. Pinckney's reference to Butler being of the upper part of the state is notable in view of the comment made by Thomas Jefferson in 1807. Writing to Charles Pinckney, Jefferson said: “Mr. Alston, while returning from Kentucky … through the upper part of your State, proposed to a Mr. Butler, of that part of the country, to join in Colonel Burr's enterprise” and “that Butler … agreed to join in the enterprise.” Printed in Andrew A. Lipscomb (ed.), The Writings of Thomas Jefferson (Washington, 1904), II, 142–143.

23 Pierce Butler to Weedon Butler, New York, October 8, 1787; Ms.: British Museum.

24 Pierce Butler to Weedon Butler, Mary Villa, May 5, 1788; Ms.: British Museum.

25 Pierce Butler to Elbridge Gerry, Mary Villa, March 3, 1788, Ms.: Library of Congress.