Charles Cotesworth Pinckney
Charles Cotesworth Pinckney was an American statesman, military officer and Founding Father who served as United States Minister to France from 1796 to 1797. A delegate to the Constitutional Convention where he signed the Constitution of the United States, Pinckney was twice nominated by the Federalist Party as its presidential candidate in 1804 and 1808, losing both elections.
Charles Cotesworth Pinckney
Sarah Middleton Pinckney, portrait by Henry Benbridge
A portrait from about 1773 by Henry Benbridge
Major General Charles Cotesworth Pinckney (NYPL NYPG94-F43-419838)
Constitutional Convention (United States)
The Constitutional Convention took place in Philadelphia from May 25 to September 17, 1787. Although the convention was intended to revise the league of states and first system of government under the Articles of Confederation, the intention from the outset of many of its proponents, chief among them James Madison of Virginia and Alexander Hamilton of New York, was to create a new frame of government rather than fix the existing one. The delegates elected George Washington of Virginia, former commanding general of the Continental Army in the late American Revolutionary War (1775–1783) and proponent of a stronger national government, to become President of the convention. The result of the convention was the creation of the Constitution of the United States, placing the Convention among the most significant events in American history.
States and territories of the United States at the time of the Constitutional Convention
Independence Hall's Assembly Room
James Madison, author of the Virginia Plan
Roger Sherman of Connecticut