Henry Laurens Pinckney

Henry Laurens Pinckney (September 24, 1794 – February 3, 1863) was a U.S. Representative from South Carolina, a prominent South Carolina legislator, journalist, and municipal leader, and the son of Charles Pinckney and Mary Eleanor Laurens. He was born in Charleston, South Carolina, into a politically influential family; his father, Charles Pinckney, had been a governor of South Carolina, a delegate to the Constitutional Convention, and a U.S. Senator, while his mother was the daughter of Henry Laurens, a former president of the Continental Congress. Raised in this environment of public service and political engagement, Pinckney attended private schools in Charleston before pursuing higher education.

Pinckney graduated from South Carolina College (now the University of South Carolina) at Columbia in 1812. Following his graduation, he studied law and was admitted to the bar, commencing the practice of law in Charleston. His legal training and family background quickly drew him into public life, and he became active in state and local affairs at a relatively young age.

Pinckney served as a member of the South Carolina House of Representatives from 1816 to 1832, representing Charleston and participating in the state’s increasingly contentious political debates during the antebellum period. In 1819 he founded the Charleston Mercury, a newspaper that would become one of the most influential Southern publications of the era. He served as its sole editor for fifteen years, using the paper as a platform to shape public opinion on state rights, nullification, and other issues central to South Carolina politics. His dual roles as legislator and editor reinforced his prominence in the state’s political and intellectual life.

In addition to his legislative and journalistic work, Pinckney played a major role in municipal government. Between 1829 and 1840, he served six terms as intendant, or mayor, of Charleston. His repeated elections reflected substantial local support, and in the 1838 mayoral contest he prevailed in a competitive four-way race, receiving 600 votes to Col. James Lynah’s 575, Dr. Joseph Johnston’s 203, and Dr. J. W. Schmidt’s 141. His long tenure as intendant coincided with a period of urban growth and increasing sectional tension, during which Charleston remained a key commercial and political center of the South.

Pinckney was elected as a Nullifier to the Twenty-third and Twenty-fourth Congresses, serving in the U.S. House of Representatives from March 4, 1833, to March 3, 1837. As a member of the Nullifier Party, he aligned with South Carolina’s states’ rights faction that had championed the doctrine of nullification in opposition to federal tariff policy. In Congress he became particularly associated with the controversy over antislavery petitions. In 1836 he played a central role in crafting and advancing the so‑called “gag rule,” a procedural measure that automatically tabled antislavery petitions without discussion. His willingness to compromise with allies of New York Democrat Martin Van Buren on the terms of the 1836 gag‑rule bill led some ultra‑conservative Southern critics to denounce him as a “traitor,” and he was an unsuccessful candidate for renomination in 1836.

After leaving Congress, Pinckney continued to hold important federal and local offices. He served as collector of the port of Charleston in 1841 and 1842, overseeing customs and revenue collection at one of the South’s principal harbors. Later, he was appointed tax collector of St. Philip’s and St. Michael’s parishes, a position he held from 1845 until his death in 1863. In this capacity he remained an active figure in Charleston’s civic administration through the tumultuous years leading up to and including the early period of the Civil War.

Pinckney married Harriet Lee Post, the daughter of Reuben Post, Chaplain of the United States Senate, and Harriet Moffitt, a granddaughter of Revolutionary-era statesman Richard Henry Lee of Virginia. This marriage further linked him to prominent political families in both the South and the broader United States. Henry Laurens Pinckney died in Charleston, South Carolina, on February 3, 1863, during the period when South Carolina had seceded from the Union and joined the Confederate States. He was interred in his native city, having spent nearly his entire life in public service to Charleston and South Carolina.