Henry William de Saussure Henry William de Saussure ( August 16 , 1763 – March 26 , 1839 ) was an American lawyer , state legislator and jurist from South Carolina who became a political leader as a member of the Federalist Party following the Revolutionary War . He was appointed by President George Washington as the 2nd Director of the United States Mint , was a co - sponsor of the legislation that established the South Carolina College which was to become the University of South Carolina and was given the title of Chancellor as a justice of the SC Equity Court , also known as chancery court . In this capacity he wrote and codified much of the state ' s equity law still in use today . He served as Intendant ( Mayor ) of both Charleston and Columbia , SC . He was a principal investor in founding what was originally intended to be the city ' s Federalist leaning newspaper , the " Charleston Courier " in 1803 . The newspaper still exists today as it was eventually merged with others to become " The Post and Courier " . As a sitting appellate court judge , his opinions on a variety of issues were widely published under a pseudonym , which was the custom then for public officials who wished to express their views away from the bench . His opinions were highly critical of the summary abridgment of rights of the accused during the Denmark Vesey trials , purportedly in the name of public safety . He and others like him suspected there was less substance to the charges of a conspiracy to organize a slave revolt than the public in Charleston was being led to believe . He openly opposed Nullification along with other leading South Carolinians . After the Federalist Party faded in the early 1820s , he was a voice for Unionist moderation before a rising tide States Rights supporters swept the stage of all others in South Carolina a generation later . Though deep political differences would eventually separate them , John C . Calhoun studied law in the offices of Henry de Saussure and Timothy Ford , his partner and brother - in - law . As a founder and early trustee of the University of South Carolina in Columbia , one of the original buildings located on the Horseshoe at the center of the campus , DeSaussure College , was named in his honor . Early life . At the age of 16 , together with his father Daniel de Saussure ( 1736 – 1798 ) , he participated in the defense of the city during the 1780 Siege of Charleston . When the city surrendered to British forces , both were captured . As a prisoner of war , Henry was detained aboard the Pack - Horse , a prison ship in Charleston Harbor . Due to the deplorable conditions of the confinement , his health declined on board the ship . He was later released to his mother ' s custody and those others fortunate to survive the ordeal were released in a prisoner exchange in June 1781 , more than a year after the surrender . His father , Daniel , was deemed to be more of a prize and sent to the British prisons at St . Augustine , Florida along with other leaders of the American rebellion captured in South Carolina . As a prominent merchant in the city , Daniel ' s properties in Charleston and Beaufort were also confiscated . Daniel ' s wife , Mary , and their younger children , three daughters , were then exiled to Philadelphia for the remainder of the American Revolution . The family was reunited at Philadelphia after Henry ' s father was released as part of a prisoner exchange following the surrender of British forces at the Yorktown . Still occupied , Charleston and New York would remain in British hands for some time longer . Refugees and exiles were unable to return until after the withdrawal of British troops from those areas . In addition to his father , Henry William de Saussure had three uncles who served as officers of the Continental Line during the American Revolution . All three uncles died in service to the American cause leaving no male heirs to the de Saussure family in America except that of Daniel . Louis de Saussure was killed during the Siege of Savannah in 1779 . Henry de Saussure died in camp during the Siege of Charleston in 1780 . Thomas de Saussure was killed at the Battle of Yorktown in 1781 . Education and marriage . While in Philadelphia young de Saussure attended Princeton College and studied law under Jared Ingersoll , a noted Philadelphia attorney who would later be an active participant in the Constitutional Convention and a leading proponent of the Federalist Party . Before returning to Charleston , de Saussure married Elizabeth Ford , the daughter of Colonel Jacob Ford , Jr . and Theodosia Johnes Ford of Morristown , New Jersey . Henry and Elizabeth were married at her family ' s home in Morristown . Henry & Eliza de Saussure had 12 children . Their second son , William F . De Saussure , was appointed to fill an unexpired term in the United States Senate in 1852 . It was the same seat held by John C . Calhoun . Despite Henry de Saussure ' s early political association with the Federalist Party and later support of Unionist candidates in opposition to the Nullification movement , most notably Joel Roberts Poinsett , his son William Ford De Saussure would become a signer of the Ordinance of Secession in 1860 . Famous family members . In addition to his son William F . De Saussure , notable relatives of Henry William de Saussure include his grandfather ' s brother César de Saussure ( 1705 – 1783 ) , foreign service attaché and social commentator ; European cousins Horace - Bénédict de Saussure ( 1740 – 1799 ) , Swiss naturalist , Albertine Necker de Saussure ( 1766 – 1841 ) , Swiss writer , educationalist , and advocate of education for women , Ferdinand de Saussure ( 1857 – 1913 ) , Swiss linguist , and ( 1925 – 2007 ) , Swiss artist and member of the Taizé Community . Other American descendants include grandson Wilmot Gibbes de Saussure ( 1822 – 1886 ) , South Carolina militia general and South Carolina Secretary of the Treasury during the American Civil War and Arthur Ravenel , Jr . ( 1927 – ) , a member of the United States Congress who represented the First Congressional District of South Carolina from 1987 to 1995 .