People of the Revolutionary War | The Founding Fathers - An Overview | Pierce Butler
Pierce Butler (1744-1822) - South Carolina
Image: Courtesy of National Archives, Records of Exposition, Anniversary,
and Memorial Commissions
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.
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