CHARLES PINCKNEY

Last Updated on September 12, 2023 by

“I always loved Politics and I find as I grow older I become more fond of hem.” – Charles Pinckney

Does anyone remember his name from our very first Charleston walk blog? He was a great public servant for South Carolina and is buried in St. Philip’s Church in Charleston.

“Charles Pinckney grew up in a society where there was a spirit of public service. Where individuals believed in something greater than themselves; they believed in a public good. Many were willing – as stated so boldly in the Declaration of Independence to ‘pledge their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred Honor’ to create a new nation. Charles Pinckney was one of those individuals. For all but four years of his life, he was involved in public service. He served his state as a legislator, as an officer during the Revolutionary War, as governor [elected four times], as president of the state constitutional convention, and was a member of the state convention that ratified the US Constitution. He represented South Carolina in the Articles of Confederation Congress, in the Constitutional Convention, and in the US Congress as a representative and senator. He served the nation as a minister plenipotentiary to Spain (a diplomatic representative ranking below an ambassador but having full governmental power and authority). Charles Pinckney was an old-fashioned patriot who was willing to serve the people of South Carolina and the United States when asked. He did his duty. For him public service was a sacred trust. And, for him, public service was not without great personal sacrifice.” – Dr. Walter Edgar, USC

Charles Pinckney National Historic Site (AKA Snee Farm) was our first foray into plantation land, largely because it was within the NPS system and not a ‘for-profit’ property. This means free for us. Veteran’s have free access to all parks, sites, monuments, etc… within the NPS system with a yearly veteran’s pass. Woohoo for us.
It is less than ten miles out of Charleston in Mount Pleasant. It is also just a short drive from Boone Hall Plantation, allowing for an excellent comparison of an NPS maintained site compared to a for-profit site.
Originally 715 acres (and the smallest of Pinckney’s seven plantations), all that remains are 28 acres including the existing house and a couple of outbuildings. Pinckney inherited “Snee Farm’ from his father where he continued the family tradition of growing rice and indigo crops there with a slave work force until the demands of his political career made it difficult for him to manage his extensive land holdings. He conveyed Snee farm to trustees in 1816 who then sold most of it off in 1817. The home certainly does not take you back to the antebellum south, it was more of a cottage or todays modern equivalent of a Colonial. A plantation by any other name is just a farm after all. It does have a great porch with some rocking chairs looking out over a massive lawn and the largest Magnolia trees we’ve ever seen. We caught them at the tail end of their blooming season, but I can imagine it is pretty amazing in full bloom. There is also a lovely memorial by Charles Pinkney dedicated to his father in front of the house amongst the copse of Magnolia trees. I do have to ask, ‘Do they grow everything this large down here?’ because the oak trees (we found out they are live oaks) are the largest we have seen in our lives, too.

Another bit of history I though deserved note before we close out our tour of the Pinckney NHS is the amount of Pinkney’s contributions to the US Constitution. There were two drafts, or plans, that were submitted at the convention – The Virginia Plan and The Pinkney Plan. The list below includes Pinkney’s major contributions that were put into effect in the US Constitution. Keep in mind that this guy was the ripe old age of 26 at the time the Constitution was written.

• The Legislature shall consist of a House and a Senate
• Only the House shall have the power of impeachment
• The Legislature shall have the power to establish Post Offices
• The Legislature shall have the power to call out the militia
• The Legislature shall have the power to raise an army and a navy
• A single chief executive, called the President, shall be established
• The President shall inform the Legislature of the conditions of the nation (The State of the Union)
• The President shall serve as the Commander-in-Chief of the Army and the Navy
• The President shall have the power to convene the Legislature under extraordinary conditions
• The Judicial department would settle matters between states and the Federal government
• No state shall keep troops or warships during peace time
• No state shall coin money
• No state can enter into a treaty
• No state may establish tariffs
• Interstate and foreign commerce shall be regulated only by Congress
• A Citizen’s Bill of Rights

This guy was pretty incredible!