Charles Cotesworth Pinckney autograph letter signed ("Charles Cotesworth Pinckney"). One page of a bifolium, 6.5" x 7.75", no place, [Charleston, South Carolina?]; September 11, 1801. Integral address sheet. Docketed. Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, signer of the Constitution, writes a letter in which he points out how Federalists are being branded as Tories. Letter from Pinckney to fellow South Carolinian John Bee Holmes (1760-1827), passing on two recent publications which included references to Federalists as Tories. The letter reads, in part: "I enclose you the Palladium which arrived by this days post in order to shew you that in the 1t. Column of the 2d. page, the same origin of the term "Tory" as applicable to the Federalists is given, as I related to you some time ago. The relation is not so full as mine, as I had it from Mr. [Wise?] himself & saw the Letters which passed on the occasion. I also enclose you a Gazette of the United States to shew you, page...Col 2d., that the Federal Printers disavow the sentiments of Mr. Dennie the Editor of the Port Folio in his lavish encomiums on the British..." At the time that Pinckney wrote this letter, he was recovering from the Federalists' defeat in the 1800 presidential election to Thomas Jefferson. He would run for president as a Federalist in 1804. At this time, the Federalists were under attack from the Democratic-Republicans as allies of Great Britain and pro-monarchy elites. This letter shows Pinckney's sensitivity concerning equating Federalists like himself as "Tories." Also includes a hand-colored steel engraving of Pinckney by Johnson, Fry & Co., circa 1862. Charles Cotesworth Pinckney (1746-1825) was a founder of the U.S., statesman from South Carolina, veteran of the Revolutionary War, and signer of the U.S. Constitution. He served as U.S. Minister to France from 1796 to 1797. Pinckney ran for vice president on the Federalist ticket in the 1800 election, which lost to Thomas Jefferson, and was twice nominated by the Federalist Party as its presidential candidate in 1804 and 1808, losing both elections. John Bee Holmes (1760-1827), born in South Carolina, was the seventh mayor of Charleston, South Carolina, serving one term between 1794 and 1795. During the Revolutionary War, he was General John Barnwell's (1748-1800) aide-de-camp. He was admitted to the bar in 1783 and began a career in law. In addition to the office of mayor, Holmes represented the Charleston area in the General Assembly of South Carolina from 1791 to 1797, and served in the South Carolina Senate from 1799 to 1801. Condition: Thin strip of paper attachment on verso. Light scattered soiling and foxing. HID03101062020 © 2022 Heritage Auctions | All Rights Reserved

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