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Really good on all the details of the doings between Pinckney, Marshall and Gerry in France trying to deal with Talleyrand, who mostly seems to have been trolling them for his own amusement until Jefferson, seen as more friendly to France, would come into power. This level of detail on the XYZ affair is not too available in other works. Talleyrand even employed Voltaire's niece to try to sway the diplomats, and read all their letters home, but got nowhere, particularly not with Pinckney. (This niece of Voltaire's was so agreeable that once Marshall completely missed a planned meeting with Pinckney because she took him to the theater and he felt he could not say no, and did not think to send a message.)
Beaumarchais, generally considered a hero to America for his help in financing the revolution, takes a villainous turn here as Talleyrand's agent, threatening Marshall with a blackened reputation at home.
Pickney lacked the degree of intrigue necessary to be a top-flight diplomat. He was honest to a fault, logical, virtuous and could be kind. For example, in court he represented widows and orphans pro bono. He also worked hard in the legislature to get more funding for education in South Carolina. As a lawyer he never resorted to histrionics like a Patrick Henry would, but spent a long time laying out the case with logic. So long, in fact that one time the judge left in the middle for a break, telling him to keep talking since he enjoyed hearing himself so much.
It was also good to go into the details of 1800 election in South Carolina, which I have not seen elsewhere. That state was crucial that year because it switched from Federalist to Republican (in one letter Pinckney calls them the "Demos", so that is a second instance of the use that term - I have seen it remarked that Democrats has only been found in one period newspaper) and just how that happened is interesting. Turns out that Pinckney could have made himself vice president or possibly even president if he had just been willing to agree to a Jefferson-Pinckney split of the electors. But loyal to his party and not an intriguer, he refused, twice. But in this he was anyway wise as being president is not the same as dictator. He would have had to work with a Republican Congress, who would have hated him.
The other interesting aspect of the South Carolina vote was that its electors were supposed to withhold one vote from Burr so that he did not tie Jefferson. For some reason they did not, so that instead of ascending majestically to te presidency, Jefferson had to deal with a mess in Congress. Just how that happened is unfortunately not explained here.
Politically and temperamentally, Pinckney was closest to Washington, then to Adams. He and Hamilton did not get along and Hamilton did not really trust him. They divided over France and Britain as well as over the importance of assisting the mercantile class.
Unfortunately, on the slavery issue he was dead wrong and could not see it. He worked to extend the deadline ending overseas slave imports by eight years. He was not an original thinker with respect to the constitution as well and at the constitutional convention fought against some of its most valued features.
I had hoped this book would sort out the many different prominent Pinckneys from South Carolina, explain exactly how they all related, and what they thought of one another since they were in different parties, but strangely it didn't. Charles Cotesworth was the older brother of Thomas and both would become generals and also run for president/vice president. The other Charles was some kind of cousin, but we are not told in what way exactly. We also do not get much information about brother Thomas or even the subject's children. A paragraph or two in this regard would have been helpful in rounding out the story.
Interesting tidbits.
When Pinckney and his wife first arrived in France they were taken to the theater. Mrs. Pinckney, however, was shocked to discover that they were seated next to "two ladies of pleasure", and took comfort only in the fact that very few people were in attendance.
When Marshall left France, he was happy to state that it was forever, and only regretted that the ship was named Alexander Hamilton, "a very excellent vessel but for the sin of the name".
During the Quasi-War, Washington actually first sought to appoint Pinckney as his second-in-command rather than Hamilton. One reason was that the land war would almost certainly have been fought in his territory of the South. He was more familiar there and the South might be offended if someone else were appointed over him. War Secretary McHenry somehow managed to talk up Hamilton and got him placed first, but Washington wrote a letter to Hamilton asking him to give way to Pinckney. Hamilton (correctly, in my opinion) rejected this. Adams himself preferred Knox, Washington's old artillery general. Washington ended up putting Knox in the fourth position and so he in turn refused the offer entirely, probably ending their long friendship. Pinckney, just getting back from France, graciously accepted the inferior position, another reflection of his generally good character.
Beaumarchais, generally considered a hero to America for his help in financing the revolution, takes a villainous turn here as Talleyrand's agent, threatening Marshall with a blackened reputation at home.
Pickney lacked the degree of intrigue necessary to be a top-flight diplomat. He was honest to a fault, logical, virtuous and could be kind. For example, in court he represented widows and orphans pro bono. He also worked hard in the legislature to get more funding for education in South Carolina. As a lawyer he never resorted to histrionics like a Patrick Henry would, but spent a long time laying out the case with logic. So long, in fact that one time the judge left in the middle for a break, telling him to keep talking since he enjoyed hearing himself so much.
It was also good to go into the details of 1800 election in South Carolina, which I have not seen elsewhere. That state was crucial that year because it switched from Federalist to Republican (in one letter Pinckney calls them the "Demos", so that is a second instance of the use that term - I have seen it remarked that Democrats has only been found in one period newspaper) and just how that happened is interesting. Turns out that Pinckney could have made himself vice president or possibly even president if he had just been willing to agree to a Jefferson-Pinckney split of the electors. But loyal to his party and not an intriguer, he refused, twice. But in this he was anyway wise as being president is not the same as dictator. He would have had to work with a Republican Congress, who would have hated him.
The other interesting aspect of the South Carolina vote was that its electors were supposed to withhold one vote from Burr so that he did not tie Jefferson. For some reason they did not, so that instead of ascending majestically to te presidency, Jefferson had to deal with a mess in Congress. Just how that happened is unfortunately not explained here.
Politically and temperamentally, Pinckney was closest to Washington, then to Adams. He and Hamilton did not get along and Hamilton did not really trust him. They divided over France and Britain as well as over the importance of assisting the mercantile class.
Unfortunately, on the slavery issue he was dead wrong and could not see it. He worked to extend the deadline ending overseas slave imports by eight years. He was not an original thinker with respect to the constitution as well and at the constitutional convention fought against some of its most valued features.
I had hoped this book would sort out the many different prominent Pinckneys from South Carolina, explain exactly how they all related, and what they thought of one another since they were in different parties, but strangely it didn't. Charles Cotesworth was the older brother of Thomas and both would become generals and also run for president/vice president. The other Charles was some kind of cousin, but we are not told in what way exactly. We also do not get much information about brother Thomas or even the subject's children. A paragraph or two in this regard would have been helpful in rounding out the story.
Interesting tidbits.
When Pinckney and his wife first arrived in France they were taken to the theater. Mrs. Pinckney, however, was shocked to discover that they were seated next to "two ladies of pleasure", and took comfort only in the fact that very few people were in attendance.
When Marshall left France, he was happy to state that it was forever, and only regretted that the ship was named Alexander Hamilton, "a very excellent vessel but for the sin of the name".
During the Quasi-War, Washington actually first sought to appoint Pinckney as his second-in-command rather than Hamilton. One reason was that the land war would almost certainly have been fought in his territory of the South. He was more familiar there and the South might be offended if someone else were appointed over him. War Secretary McHenry somehow managed to talk up Hamilton and got him placed first, but Washington wrote a letter to Hamilton asking him to give way to Pinckney. Hamilton (correctly, in my opinion) rejected this. Adams himself preferred Knox, Washington's old artillery general. Washington ended up putting Knox in the fourth position and so he in turn refused the offer entirely, probably ending their long friendship. Pinckney, just getting back from France, graciously accepted the inferior position, another reflection of his generally good character.