1To James Madison from Charles Pinckney, 28 March 1789 (Madison Papers)
It is not often I am deficient in Attention to my friends, particularly those whose friendship I think worth cultivating—but I will confess that to you I have been almost inexcusably & to myself unaccountably inattentive. There are however some excuses to be made for me. I have not been sure of ever finding you either in New York Philadelphia or in Virginia—for being in Congress, in our...
2To Thomas Jefferson from Charles Pinckney, 4 April 1789 (Jefferson Papers)
I have the honour to inclose you an extract from the proceedings of the Executive of this state, in consequence of a law passed, by the Legislature at their last session for funding and ultimately discharging their foreign debt. A copy of the Ordinance is also inclosed, and a list of the foreign creditors with the nature of their debts, whether due by bond, indent or open account as obtained...
3To George Washington from Charles Pinckney, 14 December 1789 (Washington Papers)
Your avocations have been so numerous & important since your entrance into office that I have not troubled you with but one letter which was to recommend Mr Hall, & to very sincerely congratulate you upon your appointment to the supreme magistracy. I am well convinced that to increase the number of your correspondents unnecessarily is to do you a serious injury, for I should suppose with...
4To James Madison from Charles Pinckney, 14 June 1790 (Madison Papers)
I had the honour of your favour by Mr: Deas with the papers referred to, but my necessary absence from this place & the business of the Convention has prevented my being able to write you until this moment. Your goodness I am sure will readily excuse what may have appeared to be a neglect & believe me as I really am very much disposed to maintain a correspondence from which I ought to expect...
5To George Washington from Charles Pinckney, 4 July 1790 (Washington Papers)
I had the honour of writing you by the Maria some weeks ago —since which I have heard that Colonel Willett had proceeded by Land, with Mr McGillivray & a number of the Creek Chiefs on a Visit to New York. As this confidence in them in consenting to travel through the Country has induced the inhabitants of our frontiers to suppose that every thing either is accommodated or in a fair way of...
6To George Washington from Charles Pinckney, 8 March 1791 (Washington Papers)
Upon my return to this City I found your obliging letter of introduction which had been previously left by Colonel Trumbull at my house during my absence in attending the meeting of the Legislature at Columbia. As soon as I am sufficiently recovered from my present indisposition arising from the accident of a fall from my carriage, I shall make a point of seeing him & endeavouring to make this...
7To George Washington from Charles Pinckney, 26 April 1791 (Washington Papers)
Hearing that Colonel Washington will set out in a few days to meet you at Waccamaw, I take the Liberty of acquainting You that I have requested General Moultrie to ask the favour of yourself & the gentlemen of your family to dine with me on the day of your arrival in Charleston—the arrangements for the other days, the General will shew you & I trust they will prove acceptable—You may be...
8To George Washington from Charles Pinckney, 2 May 1791 (Washington Papers)
I beg leave to remind you that I shall expect the honour of your company at dinner on Thursday at four O Clock —and to a Ball on friday Evening at seven O Clock. I am with respectful Regard Dear Sir Your’s Truly ALS , PHi : Gratz Collection. GW landed at two o’clock in Charleston at Prioleau’s wharf to an artillery salute, pealing bells, and “reiterated shouts of joy” from “an uncommonly large...
9To James Madison from Charles Pinckney, 6 August 1791 (Madison Papers)
From our former intimacy while I had the pleasure to serve with you in Congress & the Convention I am induced to make you the following communication in the confidence of friendship assured that you will only mention it to the person & in the manner I wish—as it is upon a subject of some Delicacy. It has been suggested to me that several foreign ministerial appointments will take place at the...
10To George Washington from Charles Pinckney, 18 August 1791 (Washington Papers)
(Duplicate) Dear Sir Charleston [S.C.] 18th August 1791. I am much pleased to find by our last vessels from Philadelphia that you are safely arrived & escaped the dangers which might have been expected from a tour of such length & at so hot a season—hearing after you left us that it was your intention to have taken Ninety Six in your Route from Augusta & that you could not be at Columbia...
11To George Washington from Charles Pinckney, 20 September 1791 (Washington Papers)
I had the honour to write you lately by the Delaware since which an occasion makes it necessary for me to address you again, on the subject of the inclosed application to me from the general Assembly of St Domingo —By these inclosures you will percieve the wretched & distressed situation in which these unhappy people are & I am afraid if not checked in time it is a flame which will extend to...
12To George Washington from Charles Pinckney, 6 October 1791 (Washington Papers)
I wrote you lately on the subject of the unfortunate situation of St Domingo & the application they made to me with my answer, which with the inclosures I hope you have recieved —The object of this Line is merely to introduce to your acquaintance Mr Barnwell one of our newly elected members of the house of Representatives & who I think will do much credit to his appointment —He will deliver...
13To George Washington from Charles Pinckney, 6 November 1791 (Washington Papers)
If a law should be passed during the session of the Legislature for the government of the militia & any appointments should take place under the authority of the Union for the militia of the respective states, subordinate to that of an Adjutant for each such for instance as an Inspector I will take the liberty of mentioning to You the name of Mr Abraham Seixas for this state —I am well aware...
14To George Washington from Charles Pinckney, 8 January 1792 (Washington Papers)
(Private) Dear Sir Charleston [S.C.] January 8: 1792 I am to lament that my absence from this place for nearly two months in attending the Legislature & other Business in the Country deprived me of the pleasure of seeing & shewing every civility in my power to Lord Wycombe during his short stay in Charleston. I am told his Lordship is now on a visit to the Floridas & that it is probable he...
15To George Washington from Charles Pinckney, 8 January 1792 (Washington Papers)
My absence from Charleston has prevented my acknowledging sooner your favour of the 8th inclosing Mr Jefferson’s opinion on the subject of a proposed application from the Executive of this State for the redelivery of certain fugitives charged by the Grand Jury of this District with having forged the Indents assumed by the Union. The Constitution having very properly delegated the management of...
16To Thomas Jefferson from Charles Pinckney, 28 April 1792 (Jefferson Papers)
I have received the letter you did me the honour to address to me of the 1st instant in answer to mine of the 8th. January last to the President of the United States on the subject of the re delivery of fugitives from Justice. Having submitted the matter to your better Judgement it becomes me to acquiesce as I assure you I do with pleasure in any arrangement you may think proper for placing it...
17To Thomas Jefferson from Thomas Pinckney, 9 May 1792 (Jefferson Papers)
In answer to your questions relating to the recovery of certain debts in South Carolina I have the honor of informing you that it is thought that several instances of Judgments for British debts have occurred, but for want of time to procure direct official information from South Carolina the only instance which can now be ascertained here is of the House of Powel Hopton & Co. having obtained...
18To George Washington from Charles Pinckney, 30 September 1792 (Washington Papers)
I have the honor to enclose you copies of Letters from General Pickens and Colonel Anderson on the subject of Indian Affairs —To me I confess their intelligence is unexpected, for I thought the justice and friendship the United States had treated the Creeks and Cherokees with, had entirely secured their confidence and respect; and that notwithstanding the attempts of the northern and western...
19To George Washington from Charles Pinckney, 14 October 1792 (Washington Papers)
(Private) Dear Sir. Charleston [S.C.] October 14: 1792 I have the honour to inclose you copies of my dispatches by Captain Burroughs lest any accident should have happened to him—not having recieved any Express since the first, I am not able to add to my former communications on that subject. As the four years for which I have been appointed to the office I hold will expire in December, and as...
20To James Madison from Charles Pinckney, 16 May 1799 (Madison Papers)
I have no doubt you have recieved my communications at large from Mr Nicholas. I prefered speaking to him & Mr Venable to writing, as many of my letters have been intercepted. I was glad to find, whether in consequence of those or not, that you have again appeared in the State Legislature. Be assured I cannot think you were ever right to leave public life—in times like the present I can never...
21To James Madison from Charles Pinckney, 30 September 1799 (Madison Papers)
I Will Be obliged to you to favour me with an answer to my last, (if recieved) on the subject of the absolute necessity of your State Legislature passing at their next session an act to declare that the Electors of a President & Vice President shall be elected by joint Ballott by your State Legislature in the manner it is done in this State—this act must Be passed at your next session or it...
22To Thomas Jefferson from Charles Pinckney, 12 October 1800 (Jefferson Papers)
I have written you very often lately but have never yet had the pleasure of a line from you or known whether you have received my Letters—indeed from the manner in which a Letter from Mr. Nicholas came to me after being opened, I have every reason to beleive very few if any of my friends Letters reach me, or those I write, the Gentlemen to whom they are Addressed—I wish to know how things will...
23To James Madison from Charles Pinckney, 26 October 1800 (Madison Papers)
Permit me to put you to some little Expence & trouble in forwarding the inclosed to our friend at Monticello or wherever he may be when you get it—please send it to him under cover as I wish him much to get it safe. I congratulate you on our very fair prospects at present. We shall do well here. I am hopeful you got my little republican Farmer from Philadelphia, & afterwards from hence the...
24To Thomas Jefferson from Charles Pinckney, 22 November 1800 (Jefferson Papers)
I have just recieved your favour after an interval since its date of nearly one Month—I am to particularly regret Your not recieving my communications, as I wanted some facts from you to aid me in the very delicate & arduous struggle I have in this state—finding from my intelligence that the Pennsylvania Senate intended to contend for a concurrent vote in the choice of Electors & thus to...
25To Thomas Jefferson from Charles Pinckney, [3] December 1800 (Jefferson Papers)
I wrote you yesterday a short Letter of sincere congratulation on our success in the Election & as it will be some time before I can be at Washington I wish to detail to you the reasons that will inevitably detain me.—When I was two Years since a candidate for the Senate I pledged myself to the republican Interest of this State to use every Exertion in my power to make a peace with France &...
26To Thomas Jefferson from Charles Pinckney, 20 December 1800 (Jefferson Papers)
Having finished the public Business I went to Columbia as I was returning to Charleston to take shipping for Washington & at this place met with a paper which is inclosed & which has surprised me exceedingly—is it possible that the State of Pennsylvania has been deprived of her Vote by a majority of two in the senate? Or, taking the whole number of the federal part of their senate together, by...
27To Thomas Jefferson from Charles Pinckney, 8 January 1801 (Jefferson Papers)
I wrote you some weeks since informing you that after the finishing some indispensable public Business important to the continuance & increase of the republican interest in this state I should go to Charleston & proceed from thence by Water either to Baltimore or to Washington as passages offered—Since this I am concerned to inform You that in my way down from Columbia stopping at this place I...
28To Thomas Jefferson from Charles Pinckney, [9 February 1801] (Jefferson Papers)
I am this moment arrived in New York on my way to the seat of Government, it Being the only Port to which I could procure a passage at this rough Season & my arm is too lame from the accident to it to travel by land, unless very slow & with care.—I was anxious to have been with You by the 11th. & set out for that purpose but a long passage & contrary winds prevented—it now snows very much &...
29To Thomas Jefferson from Charles Pinckney, 5 March 1801 (Jefferson Papers)
I recollect before I left Carolina I requested you by letter not to make any arrangements or take any step respecting that State until I had seen you as I had some opinions & information to communicate on that subject— On reflection since, I have been induced to suppose that this request on my part was an improper one, & that I ought not to presume so far as to wish to intrude on you my...
30To Thomas Jefferson from Charles Pinckney, [12 March 1801] (Jefferson Papers)
On considering the offer You have been so good as to make me to go to the Court of Spain I have determined to accept it as I can at all times return whenever my friends in Carolina shall advise me that my presence may be useful or required there in support of the republican interest—L As it will be necessary for me to return to my family for a short time before I embark for Europe I will thank...
31To James Madison from Charles Pinckney, 16 March 1801 (Madison Papers)
I waited here sometime in expectation of the pleasure of seeing you. It is now nearly fourteen Years since we parted & the changes we have encountered as well in our individual situations as in our political concerns made me particularly anxious to see a friend with whom I had been so intimately acquainted & for whom I have always had the most sincere affection. I am to lament extremely the...
32Memorandum from Charles Pinckney, [ca. 17 March 1801] (Jefferson Papers)
MS ( DNA : RG 59, LAR , 3:0377); undated; in Pinckney’s hand, except as noted below; endorsed by TJ: “S. Carolina. Mr. Pinckney’s 2d. memm.” Some of Pinckney’s recommendations on South Carolina appointments were incorporated into Burr’s memorandum of this date printed above. Pinckney probably left this memorandum with the president before he left for Charleston. In letters to Madison and TJ on...
33To Thomas Jefferson from Charles Pinckney, 20 April 1801 (Jefferson Papers)
I wrote you on the road respecting the Chief Judge of this circuit—as I am necessarily detained in visiting my plantations in the country I do not expect to be in Town before the 20th May after which I shall be enabled to write you from Charleston on that subject & to recommend to you some gentleman who will probably accept. I find our citizens in this neighbourhood extremely pleased & am glad...
34To Thomas Jefferson from Charles Pinckney, 6 May 1801 (Jefferson Papers)
I take the liberty of introducing to your acquaintance Doctor Blythe who is a gentleman of this state & of great respectability.—he is a member of our Senate & was one of our republican Electors in December last—he is at present on a tour through the northern states with his Lady & I feel much pleasure in having this opportunity of introducing him to your acquaintance as he is a man of letters...
35To James Madison from Charles Pinckney, 26 May 1801 (Madison Papers)
I wish to mention to you a circumstance & to request your reparation of a Wrong done by Mr: Pickering during his administration to the most valuable republican Paper we ever had in this State. I mean the one called the City Gazette & Daily advertiser & published lately by Messieurs Freneau & Paine in Charleston & now by MacIver & Williams. Sometime in 1799 this Paper first published the...
36To Thomas Jefferson from Charles Pinckney, 26 May 1801 (Jefferson Papers)
Having been longer at my Plantations in settling my affairs than I expected I have not had an opportunity of seeing the Gentlemen I wished to consult to recommend to you a suitable character to fill the place of chief Judge for this circuit in the room of Mr Bee who declines—In my way down I saw & requested Mr John Keith of Georgetown to suffer me to mention him to you as qualified for this...
37To James Madison from Charles Pinckney, 8 July 1801 (Madison Papers)
In conformity with your request I now acknowledge the receipt of Your favour & the inclosures. Instructions Commission Letter of Credence, cypher Passports & Letters to Messieurs Willink Staphorst & Hubbard. As I shall take at least two thirds of my Outfit in Europe You will my dear sir oblige me by writing to them soon to answer my Drafts for as much of the Outfit as I choose to draw for on...
38To Thomas Jefferson from Charles Pinckney, 8 July 1801 (Jefferson Papers)
I Will be much obliged to you to do me the favour when you recieve this to write me in answer by any Vessel that may be going directed to me at Madrid to the care of our Minister if he should be arrived or Charge d’affairs at Paris—I am hopeful we shall sail in a fortnight & that the Vessel I go in will land me either in Holland or at Havre as I expect she goes to Hamburgh—it is the only...
39To James Madison from Charles Pinckney, 22 July 1801 (Madison Papers)
I believe I omitted in my last to mention to You that I only have drawn for three thousand Dollars of my Outfit & drawn on You & that I wish to recieve the remainder in Europe—& that I will thank You to Write to Messieurs Willink, Van Staphorst & Hubbard to pay it to my drafts there . There seeming to have been an Omission of a Word or two in your Letter to those Gentlemen will make this...
40To James Madison from Charles Pinckney, 8 September 1801 (Madison Papers)
Letter not found. 8 September 1801. Mentioned in Pinckney to JM, 14 Sept. 1801 . Discusses news from Egypt and the probable consequences of installing a new elector of Cologne. Also mentions the likelihood that a new constitution will be proposed for the Batavian Republic.
41To Thomas Jefferson from Charles Pinckney, 8 September 1801 (Jefferson Papers)
In pursuance of my promise I have the honour to inform you that as soon as I recieved my instructions I sailed for Europe & had almost the whole way Eastwardly Winds—by which means the ship in which I arrived two hours agoe at Helder in Holland has had upwards of fifty six days passage—five of which we have been off the Texel & unable from the Winds to get in.—I propose to set out to morrow...
42To James Madison from Charles Pinckney, 14 September 1801 (Madison Papers)
In addition to my dispatch of Tuesday on the subject of the intelligence from Egypt & differences respecting the Elector of Cologne I am now to inform You that Menou has rejected all offers to capitulate & seems determined either to resist until he is relieved, if that should be practicable, or bury himself & his Garrison under the ruins of Alexandria & that notwithstanding all the...
43To Thomas Jefferson from Charles Pinckney, 14 September 1801 (Jefferson Papers)
I had the honour to acquaint you that I arrived in Holland on the 10th of this month & yesterday reached Amsterdam—the fatigue & length of my very long sea Voyage & a desire to examine this storehouse of Batavia will keep me here a few days & then I mean to proceed by the way of the Hague & Brussells as rapidly as I can to Paris & from thence to Madrid—To you who are so well acquainted with...
44To James Madison from Charles Pinckney, 22 September 1801 (Madison Papers)
I arrived last Evening at the Hague & proceed to day on my route to Paris. I inclose You the Leyden Gazette of this morning. I passed through Leyden Yesterday & stopped there sometime to view the academy & such things as were worthy my attention in that respectable & antient town once the capital of Holland & particularly to form an acquaintance & have some conversation with M: Blussé the...
45To Thomas Jefferson from Charles Pinckney, October 1801 (Jefferson Papers)
My last to you was from Paris on the subject of the Peace. since this I have left that city & am now in Bourdeaux on my way to Spain where I am hopeful to arrive in a few days.—as I informed You the Expedition to Saint Domingo will take place.— Benezech is appointed to the Civil Department with plenary powers & will go out as proconsul or Commissary.—this is fixed & it is said Rochambeau will...
46To Thomas Jefferson from Charles Pinckney, October 1801 (Jefferson Papers)
I wrote You two days since by a Vessel from hence—& as another goes in a short time I thought I would send You a Line to say I had written you & delivered Your Letters to Mr Lee our Consul at this port.—it seems to be the general opinion in France that their government will at an early day adopt some thing like the Navigation act of Great Britain, but that at present such is the Want of...
47To Thomas Jefferson from Charles Pinckney, 6 October 1801 (Jefferson Papers)
I wrote you from Brussells that I had by accident met with a gentleman at that place who had from some private communications convinced me a peace would be immediately made between France & England.—that particular reasons would induce France at this time to give up to England points she would not at any other concede & that the force of popular opinion would compell her (England) to a Peace...
48To James Madison from Charles Pinckney, 14 March 1802 (Madison Papers)
My last Dispatch will have fully informed you of the state of things here my removal from the Escurial to Madrid & that Mr: Graham arrived here about the 20th: January. By him I recieved for the first time the Wish of our Government to endeavour to obtain the cession by sale from this Court of the Floridas & as I know it would be difficult if not impossible to do so without the concurrence &...
49To James Madison from Charles Pinckney, 20 March 1802 (Madison Papers)
I have yesterday recieved your favour by Mr: Rose Campbell & immediately sit down to answer it. You say that only three Letters have been recieved from me. This is astonishing. I wrote four from the Helder & Amsterdam—one from the Hague: one from Brussells & Two to the President from Paris—one by Way of Havre & the other of London. The latter I gave to Mr Grant to forward. From Bourdeaux two &...
50To James Madison from Charles Pinckney, 20 March 1802 (Madison Papers)
The present opportunity I avail myself of to send you another copy of the same Book on the Duties & commercial regulations of Spain which I am hopeful you will recieve safe. This will go so slow by Mules to Bayonne & from thence to Bourdeaux that all my other letters written at the same time & I expect others written after will very probably reach you before this as I am obliged to send the...