GENERAL THOMAS PINCKNEY."

The brilliant careers of the two Pinckneys of revolutionary fame illustrate the life-long intertwining and overlapping pathways of two brothers, a rare and beautiful thing of which few examples are furnished by history. Their education, tasks, aspirations, labors, and fields of action are so identical that it is at times difficult to tell where the career of the one man ends and that of the other begins. Both were born in South Carolina, both were educated in England, both became lawyers, both espoused the patriotic cause in the times that tried men's souls, both rose to high rank in the army, both served in the diplomatic department of the infant republic, both took part in the councils of the nation, and both narrowly missed becoming its Chief Executive. Of Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, the elder of the brothers by four years, much has been written, but on account of some remarkable oversight the world knows but little of his younger yet none the less able and successful brother, Thomas Pinckney. Possibly this neglect may be partly attributable to that lack of interest in their past which is so remarkable in the people of the Southern States, and partly to the mistaken belief that the career of Thomas Pinckney was overshadowed by the splendid talents of Charles Cotesworth. Of late years, however, a revived interest in Southern history is everywhere manifest, and one sees the promise of much light ahead on many points which are of more than local significance, for the great men of a century or more ago belong to the whole nation they served so bravely and so well. Their fame is not the exclusive heritage of the neighborhood wherein they first saw the

'Life of General Thomas Pinckney. By his grandson, Reverend Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, D.D., President of the South Carolina Historical Society. Boston and New York: Houghton, Mifflin & Co., 1895; 8vo.,. pp. 237.

light of day. This somewhat tardy attempt to set forth the genius and work of Thomas Pinckney is therefore to be commended warmly. The fact that his biographer is his grandson is, moreover, a forcible reminder of the extreme youth of our country.

But it is to be regretted that with a subject of such unusual interest and with such valuable material at hand, Pinckney's biographer did not produce a more readable book. The matter is badly put together; the traditional division into chapters ignored, and an index altogether dispensed with. The proof-reading, too, has been bad or careless, the year 1753, for instance, on page 13 having been plainly intended for 1743. These objections are trivial, however, in comparison with the wholly unnecessary and inexcusable spirit of sectionalism which pervades the entire volume, a spirit to which the Pinckneys of the heroic age appear to have been complete strangers, for they were Federalists to the core. Notwithstanding these defects, however, Dr. Pinckney's life of his grandfather is not without its interest and value, since it contains several hitherto unpublished letters and is the most detailed account of Pinckney's career that has yet appeared.

Thomas Pinckney was born in 1750 and died in 1828. Just where these two events occurred, one is left to conjecture, the author preserving a complete silence on the subject. It is reasonable to infer, however, that they both took place in South Carolina, in or near Charleston, where the original Pinckney, the grandfather of the subject of this sketch, whose name was also Thomas, had settled as far back as 1692. Thomas Pinckney the elder appears to have been a gentleman of independent fortune, who married Mary Cotesworth, of Durham, England, and lived in Charleston until his death, from yellow fever in the early part of the last century. His three surviving sons, Thomas, Charles, and William, each became engaged in the public service. Thomas, an army officer, died young; William became Commissioner in Equity, while Charles rose to be Chief

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Justice. Charles, the father of the revolutionary brothers, was educated in the old country, where he married Elizabeth Lamb, the daughter of Captain Lamb, of London, who died childless after having accompanied her husband to his home in South Carolina. Bred to the bar, Charles Pinckney practised his profession with marked success, and was successively Speaker of the House of Representatives, member of the King's Council, and Chief-Justice, as already mentioned; but owing to political intrigues abroad, one Peter Leigh, head-bailiff of Westminster, having been forced out of England, Mr. Pinckney was deprived of his office, to the disgust of everybody, in order to make room for this unworthy successor. Meanwhile Mr. Pinckney married again, his second wife being Eliza Lucas, a woman of rare talent and loveliness, who bore him three children, Charles Cotesworth, Thomas, and Harriet, all of whom grew up and survived their father. Acting in accordance with the custom then prevalent among the wealthy planters, Mr. Pinckney took his two sons to England in order to educate them. This occurred when Thomas was eight years old and Charles Cotesworth four years his senior. The boys remained abroad for a number of years, studying first at Westminster school, and subsequently at Oxford and at the Temple. Thomas appears to have acquired a decided taste for the classics, which he preserved throughout a long and active life; but he confined his education neither to Greek and Latin nor to the law, for before returning home he had learned fencing, riding, and similar accomplishments, and in order to study military science had spent an entire year at Caen, in Normandy. Thus equipped, he returned to South Carolina after an absence of nineteen years, and in 1774 was admitted to the Charleston bar. The next year we find his mother thus writing to her daughter, Mrs. Horry, concerning her younger son's maiden effort in court: "Your brother is here; he has just stept in from court to let me know Tom had spoke for the first time; they had gained the Cause, and Mr. (I forget the Client's name)

presented Tom with a couple of Joes as soon as he had done. . . . Tom is come in from court; he don't seem at all satisfied with himself; says he was confused."

Reference is made by the biographer to another letter apparently from an equally interested representative of the fair sex, who declares Pinckney's black silk gown "very becoming" and his manner" charming and modest."

But the stirring events of the times were soon to put a temporary end to the professional ambition of the young advocate and enforce upon him the truth that in war the laws are silent. For, scarcely six months after his first speech in court came the news from Lexington, which fired the entire province. This was somewhat remarkable; for the relations between South Carolina and the mother country had been very close, and indeed the leading men of the colony had scarcely anything to complain of. But there was little wavering, and the province quickly decided to cast in her lot with that of the rest of the country. The union was recognized as essential to the preservation of all, and in spite of a strong sentiment of loyalty, which at times resulted in civil war, nothing could withstand the deepsettled determination of those who drew their swords in defense of what they conceived to be their ancient rights as Englishmen. It is none the less remarkable to find that men like the Pinckneys, men of wealth and education, who had lived the greater part of their lives abroad and had everything to gain by adhering to the crown, were among the very first to flock to the standard of the patriots.

The two Pinckneys were at once made captains and assigned to duty. Thomas took part in the Georgia and Florida campaigns, helped to defend Charleston during its siege, and after the fall of that town joined the army in the North. There he met Washington, who ever afterward held him in high esteem. Indeed there were many points of resemblance between the two men. The end of the war found the younger brother a major in the Continental army, and the elder a general.

In 1787 Thomas Pinckney became Governor of South Carolina. This was extremely fortunate for the country at large, since his federal proclivities caused him to throw the weight of his great influence on the side of the proposed national constitution, which was adopted by South Carolina largely through the influence of himself and brother. Apart from this inestimable service, his record as Governor was an excellent one, which is saying a great deal, as the office was no sinecure. Indeed, at that particular time, it required a vast amount of patience, coolness, tact, and judgment, owing to the discontent of those whom the war had impoverished and the constant friction between the Tories and their triumphant neighbors. Then, too, the Indians on the western border were becoming restless and dangerous; but Pinckney's wise administration checked crime, brought the Cherokees to terms, and restored good feeling between the two factions into which the State had been divided, by treating the Tories in a liberal manner and extending to them the equal protection of the law.

But perhaps the most useful services Pinckney rendered his country were those he performed while Minister to England and Envoy-Extraordinary to Spain. His English mission lasted four years, beginning in 1792 and ending in 1796, a period when the young republic's reputation abroad was next to nothing. This, no doubt, was owing quite as much to the implication of its principles with those of the French Revolution as to the natural weakness of the country. At all events, England at that time felt sufficiently strong to impress our citizens into her army and navy and to disregard treaty rights generally, and other nations assumed an unbearable superciliousness in dealing with us. Pinckney, therefore, went to the court of St. James at a most unfavorable time, but in spite of the chilling reception at first accorded him, he gained many friends. for himself and his country before he left England. Much of his time, however, appears to have been taken up with listening to complaints of persons who claimed to be Amer-