Charles Cotesworth "C.C." Pinckney (25 February 1746-16 August 1825) was an American Federalist Party politician and ambassador to France from 9 September 1796 to 5 February 1797, succeeding James Monroe and preceding Robert Livingston.
Biography[]
Charles Cotesworth Pinckney was born in Charleston, South Carolina on 25 February 1746, the older brother of Thomas Pinckney and the cousin of Charles Pinckney. He came from a powerful family of aristocratic planters, and he practiced law for several years before being elected to the colonial legislature. Pinckney supported independence from Great Britain, and he rose to the rank of Brigadier-General in the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War, fighting in the American South and being captured at the Fall of Charleston in 1780. After the war, he was elected to the state legislature, and the Pinckney brothers represented the landed elite of the South Carolina Lowcountry. In 1787, he attended the Constitutional Convention, where he argued for a strong federal government, and he ensured that his state ratified the constitution. From 1796 to 1797, he served as George Washington's ambassador to the French First Republic, and he was insulted by the French ambassadors in the "XYZ Affair", during which the French diplomats demanded bribes before they could meet with the American diplomats. After returning from France, Pinckney became a member of the Federalist Party, and he ran as John Adams' vice-presidential candidate during the election of 1800. In 1804, he was named the Federalist presidential nominee, but Democratic-Republican Party presidential incumbent Thomas Jefferson won re-election in a landslide. In 1808, in a closer election, Pinckney lost to James Madison, who succeeded his close ally Jefferson as president. Pinckney died in Charleston in 1825 at the age of 79.
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