Charles Cotesworth Pinckney Charles Cotesworth " C . C . " Pinckney ( February 25 , 1746August 16 , 1825 ) , was an early American statesman of South Carolina , Revolutionary War veteran , and delegate to the Constitutional Convention . He was twice nominated by the Federalist Party as their presidential candidate , but he did not win either election . Early life and family . Charles Cotesworth Pinckney was born into the Pinckney family of aristocratic planters in Charleston , South Carolina , on February 25 , 1746 . He was the son of Charles Pinckney , who would later serve as the chief justice of the Province of South Carolina , and the celebrated planter and agriculturalist , Eliza Lucas . He was the elder brother of Thomas Pinckney , who served as Governor of South Carolina , as a U . S . Representative , and as a George Washington administration diplomat . His first cousin once removed , Charles Pinckney , served as Governor of South Carolina , as a U . S . Senator , and as a diplomat in the administration of Thomas Jefferson . In 1753 , Pinckney ' s father moved the family to London , England , where he served as the colony ' s agent ( essentially as a lobbyist to protect South Carolina ' s commercial and political interests ) . Both Charles and his brother Thomas were enrolled in the Westminster School , where they remained after the rest of the family returned to South Carolina in 1758 . Both brothers also studied at Oxford University . Pinckney graduated from Christ Church , Oxford with degrees in science and law , and proceeded to further study law with the prestigious Middle Temple society . Pinckney was called to the bar in 1769 , but he continued his education in France for another year , studying botany and chemistry . He also had a brief stint at the Royal Military College at Caen . In 1773 , Pinckney married Sarah Middleton , whose father Henry Middleton served as the second President of the Continental Congress and whose brother Arthur Middleton signed the Declaration of Independence . Sarah died in 1784 . In 1786 , he remarried to Mary Stead , who came from a wealthy family of planters in Georgia . Pinckney had three daughters . Early political career . After returning to South Carolina from Europe , Pinckney began to practice law in Charleston . He was first elected to a seat in the colonial legislature in 1770 . In 1773 he served as a regional attorney general . When war erupted between the thirteen American colonies and Great Britain in 1775 , Pinckney stood with the American Patriots ; in that year he was a member of the first South Carolina provincial congress , which helped South Carolina transition from being a British colony to being an independent state . During the American Revolutionary War he would serve in the lower house of the state legislature and as a member of the South Carolina Senate in addition to his military service . Revolutionary War . In 1775 , after the American Revolutionary War had broken out , Pinckney volunteered for military service as a full - time regular officer in George Washington ' s Continental Army . As a senior company commander with the rank of captain , Pinckney raised and led the elite Grenadier s of the 1st South Carolina Regiment . He participated in the successful defense of Charleston in the Battle of Sullivan ' s Island in June 1776 , when British forces under General Sir Henry Clinton staged an amphibious attack on the state capital . Later in 1776 Pinckney took command of the regiment , with the rank of colonel , a position he retained to the end of the war . After this , the British Army shifted its focus to the Northern and Mid - Atlantic states . Pinckney led his regiment north to join General Washington ' s troops near Philadelphia , Pennsylvania . Pinckney and his regiment then participated in the Battle of Brandywine and the Battle of Germantown . Around this time he first met fellow officers and future Federalist statesmen Alexander Hamilton and James McHenry . In 1778 , Pinckney and his regiment , returning to the South , took part in a failed American expedition attempting to seize British East Florida . The expedition ended due to severe logistical difficulties and a British victory in the Battle of Alligator Bridge . Later that year , the British Army shifted its focus to the Southern theater , capturing Savannah , Georgia , that December . In October 1779 , the Southern army of Major General Benjamin Lincoln , with Pinckney leading one of its brigades , attempted to re - take Savannah in the Siege of Savannah . This attack was disaster for the Americans , who suffered numerous casualties . Pinckney then participated in 1780 defense of Charleston against British siege . Major General Lincoln surrendered his 5 , 000 men to the British on May 12 , 1780 , whereupon Pinckney became a prisoner of war . As a prisoner of war , he played a major role in maintaining the troops ' loyalty to the Patriots ' cause . During this time , he famously said , " If I had a vein that did not beat with the love of my Country , I myself would open it . If I had a drop of blood that could flow dishonorable , I myself would let it out . " He was kept in close confinement until his release in 1782 . In November 1783 , he was commissioned a brevet Brigadier General in the Continental Army shortly before the southern regiments were disbanded . He was promoted to Major General during his subsequent service in the South Carolina militia . Constitutional Convention . Pinckney , who had returned to the lower house of the state legislature , represented South Carolina at the constitutional convention of 1787 , where he was an influential member . Pinckney advocated the idea that slaves be counted as a basis of representation and opposed abolition of the slave trade . He also advocated a strong national government ( albeit one with a system of checks and balances ) to replace the weak one of the time . He opposed as impracticable the election of representatives by popular vote . He also opposed paying senators , who , he thought , should be men of independent wealth . Pinckney played a key role in requiring treaties to be ratified by the Senate and in the compromise that resulted in the abolition of the Atlantic slave trade . He also opposed placing a limitation on the size of a federal standing army . Pinckney played a prominent role in securing the ratification of the Federal constitution in the South Carolina convention of 1788 , and in framing the South Carolina Constitution in the convention of 1790 . At the ratification convention Pinckney distinguished three types of government and said republics were where " the people at large , either collectively or by representation , form the legislature " . After this he announced his retirement from politics . XYZ Affair . In 1789 , President George Washington offered Pinckney his choice of the State Department or the War Department ; Pinckney declined both . When Washington offered Pinckney the role of Ambassador to France in 1796 Pinckney accepted . Relations with the French First Republic was then at a low ebb : the Jay Treaty between the US and Great Britain had angered members of the ruling French Directory , and they had ordered the French Navy to step up seizures of American merchant vessels found to be trading with Britain , with whom France was at war . When Pinckney presented his credentials in November 1796 , they were refused , with the Directory stating that no ambassador could be accepted until the outstanding crisis was resolved . After Pinckney reported this to the recently - inaugurated President John Adams in 1797 , a commission composed of Pinckney , John Marshall , and Elbridge Gerry was established to treat with the French . Gerry and Marshall joined Pinckney at The Hague , and traveled to Paris in October 1797 . After a cursory preliminary meeting with the new French Foreign Minister Talleyrand , the commissioners were approached informally by a series of intermediaries who spelled out French demands . These included a large loan to France , which the commissioners had been instructed to refuse , and substantial bribes for Talleyrand and members of the Directory , which the commissioners found offensive . These exchanges became the basis for what became known as the " XYZ Affair " when documents concerning them were published in 1798 . Talleyrand , who was aware of political differences in the commission ( Pinckney and Marshall were Federalists who favored Britain , and Gerry wavered politically between moderate Federalism ideas and the Jeffersonian Republicans , who favored France and were strongly hostile to Britain ) , exploited this division in the informal discussions . Pinckney and Marshall left France in April 1798 ; Gerry remained behind in an unofficial capacity , seeking to moderate French demands . The breakdown of negotiations led to what became known as the undeclared Quasi - War ( 1798 - 1800 ) , pitting the two nation ' s navies against each other . In July 1798 he was commissioned as a Major General in the US Army , and served until the end of the crisis between the two countries . Later political career . In the 1800 presidential election , Pinckney was the Federalist candidate for vice - president , running with the incumbent president , John Adams . They were defeated by the Democratic - Republican s Thomas Jefferson ( who became president ) and Aaron Burr ( who became vice president ) . In 1804 , the Federalist Party nominated Pinckney to run for the presidency against Jefferson . Jefferson , who was very popular due to the acquisition of the Louisiana Purchase and booming trade , defeated Pinckney in a landslide . Pinckney won only 27 . 2 % of the popular vote and carried only two states , Delaware and Connecticut . In 1808 he was again the Federalist nominee for president , running against Jefferson ' s Secretary of State , James Madison . Pinckney did not fare much better against Madison , carrying only five states and winning 32 . 4 % of the popular vote . From 1805 until his death , Pinckney was president - general of the Society of the Cincinnati . Pinckney died on August 16 , 1825 and was buried in St . Michael ' s Churchyard in Charleston , South Carolina . His tombstone reads , " One of the founders of the American Republic . In war he was a companion in arms and friend of Washington . In peace he enjoyed his unchanging confidence . "