Pierce
BUTLER,
a Delegate and a Senator from South
Carolina; born in Ballintemple, County Carlow, Ireland, July 11,
1744; third son of Sir Richard Butler, The fifth Baron
of Cloughrenan. His mother was Henrietta Percy, daughter of
the Mayor of Dublin, Anthony Percy. He pursued preparatory studies; came to America in
1758 as an officer in the British Army; resigned his
commission prior to the Revolutionary War and settled
in Charles Town (now Charleston), S.C.; planter; aided
the American cause during the Revolutionary War;
delegate to the Continental Congress in 1787; member of
the convention which framed the Federal Constitution in
1787; elected to the United States Senate in 1789 for
the term ending March 3, 1793; re-elected December 5,
1792, and served from March 4, 1789, to October 25,
1796, when he resigned; again elected to the United
States Senate to fill the vacancy caused by the death
of John Ewing Colhoun and served from November 4, 1802,
until his resignation November 21, 1804; died in
Philadelphia, Pa., February 15, 1822; interment in
Christ Churchyard, Philadelphia, Pa.
Senate Years of Service:
1789-1791; 1791-1795; 1795-1796; 1802-1804
Party:
Pro-Administration; Anti-Administration; Democratic
Republican; Democratic Republican.
Source:
http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=B001186
A Biography of Pierce Butler
1744-1822
One of
the most aristocratic delegates at the convention, Butler
was born in 1744 in County Carlow, Ireland. His father was
Sir Richard Butler, member of Parliament and a baronet.
Like so
many younger sons of the British aristocracy who could not
inherit their fathers' estates because of primogeniture,
Butler pursued a military career. He became a major in His
Majesty's 29th Regiment and during the colonial unrest was
posted to Boston in 1768 to quell disturbances there. In
1771 he married Mary Middleton, daughter of a wealthy South
Carolinian, and before long resigned his commission to take
up a planter's life in the Charleston area. The couple was
to have at least one daughter.
When the
Revolution broke out, Butler took up the Whig cause. He was
elected to the assembly in 1778, and the next year he served
as adjutant general in the South Carolina militia. While in
the legislature through most of the 1780s, he took over
leadership of the democratic upcountry faction in the state
and refused to support his own planter group. The War for
Independence cost him much of his property, and his finances
were so precarious for a time that he was forced to travel
to Amsterdam to seek a personal loan. In 1786 the assembly
appointed him to a commission charged with settling a state
boundary dispute.
The next
year, Butler won election to both the Continental Congress
(1787-88) and the Constitutional Convention. In the latter
assembly, he was an outspoken nationalist who attended
practically every session and was a key spokesman for the
Madison-Wilson caucus. Butler also supported the interests
of southern slaveholders. He served on the Committee on
Postponed Matters.
On his
return to South Carolina Butler defended the Constitution
but did not participate in the ratifying convention. Service
in the U.S. Senate (1789-96) followed. Although nominally a
Federalist, he often crossed party lines. He supported
Hamilton's fiscal program but opposed Jay's Treaty and
Federalist judiciary and tariff measures.
Out of
the Senate and back in South Carolina from 1797 to 1802,
Butler was considered for but did not attain the
governorship. He sat briefly in the Senate again in 1803-4
to fill out an unexpired term, and he once again
demonstrated party independence. But, for the most part, his
later career was spent as a wealthy planter. In his last
years, he moved to Philadelphia, apparently to be near a
daughter who had married a local physician. Butler died
there in 1822 at the age of 77 and was buried in the yard of
Christ Church.
Source: http://www.let.rug.nl/usa/B/butler/butler.htm