Pinckney
CHARLES COTES- WORTH, an American statesman; born PINDAR in Charleston, S. C., Feb. 25, 1746. He was sent to England and educated at Westminster and at Christ Church, Oxford, read law at the Middle Temple, and studied for a while at the military academy in Caen, France. He afterward settled as a lawyer at Charleston, S. C.
He was Washington's aide-de-camp at the battles of Brandywine and Germantown.
In 1780 he was taken prisoner at the surrender of Charleston, and held to the close of the war. A member of the convention that framed the Constitution of the United States (1787), he introduced the clause forbidding religious tests as a qualification for office. He declined the secretaryship of war in 1794, and of state in 1795; in 1796 he was sent as minister to France, but the Directory refused to receive him. While on this mission it was intimated that peace might be granted in return for a money payment; he made the reply, "Millions for defense, but not a cent for tribute."
In 1800-1808 he was thrice an unsuccessful Federalist candidate for the presidency. He died Aug. 16, 1825.