Pierce Butler was one of only 39 men that signed the Constitution of the United States and one of the first senators from South Carolina
Pierce Butler was born in County Carlow Ireland, the third son of Sir Richard Butler, 5th Baronet of Cloughgrennan. As the third son, he wasn’t going to inherit his father’s estate or title so he joined the British Army at age 11. By age 14, he was a full Lieutenant and commanded troops against the French in North America. He went to South Carolina as a member of the British Army but resigned in 1773 to join the American cause.
In 1779, the Governor of South Carolina asked Pierce to reorganize the state’s defenses. He was given the rank of brigadier general but preferred major because that was his highest combat rank. As a former royal officer, he was targeted by the British but was able to avoid capture. Beyond his military role, he donated his own cash and supplies to help the American forces and worked on behalf of prisoners of war.
After the war, Pierce became a politician. On September 17, 1787, as a delegate representing the state of South Carolina, he became a founding father of the United States of America when he signed the Constitution at Independence Hall in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He was one of only 39 men that had that honor.
In 1789, Pierce was one of the first two politicians elected to the United States Senate from South Carolina. He served three terms and his name was suggested as a potential vice presidential running mate for Thomas Jefferson. In 1816, he was appointed to a three-year term as one of five government directors of the Bank of the United States. When his term ended, President James Monroe expressed ‘high respect and sincere friendship’ for him.
As a businessman, Pierce became one of the wealthiest men in the United States. He owned many rice and cotton plantations in South Carolina and other states, including Butler Island and St. Simon’s Island in Georgia.
Revolutionary War hero, founding father of the country, United States Senator, one of the wealthiest men in America at that time. Not a bad resume.
But, like many of the founding fathers from the South, Pierce was a slave owner. At one point, he was the largest slave owner in Coastal Georgia with as many as a thousand slaves. Some historians say that he was privately opposed to slavery and the international slave trade in particular, but the fact is he supported slavery because it was important to the Southern economy.
Pierce died in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1822 and left his estate to his two grandsons, John Mease and Pierce Butler Mease, the sons of his oldest daughter Sarah, on the condition that they change their surname to Butler, which they did.
Primary Sources:
- Hutson, James H. “Pierce Butler’s Records of the Federal Constitutional Convention.” Quarterly Journal of the Library of Congress 37 (Winter 1980): 64-73.
- Sikes, Lewright B. The Public Life of Pierce Butler, South Carolina Statesman. Washington: University Press of America, 1979.
- Gannon, Kevin M. “Butler, Pierce” South Carolina Encyclopedia. May 17, 2016.
