BUTLER, Pierce, a Delegate and a Senator from South Carolina; born in County Carlow, Ireland, July 11, 1744; pursued preparatory studies; came to America in 1758 as an officer in the British Army; resigned his commission prior to the Revolutionary War and settled in Charles Town (now Charleston), S.C.; planter; served in the Revolutionary War for the American cause; Delegate to the Continental Congress, 1787; delegate to the Federal Constitutional Convention in 1787; signed the U.S. Constitution; elected to the United States Senate in 1789 for the term ending March 3, 1793; reelected December 5, 1792, and served from March 4, 1789, to October 25, 1796, when he resigned; again elected to the United States Senate to fill the vacancy caused by the death of John Ewing Colhoun and served from November 4, 1802, until his resignation November 21, 1804; died in Philadelphia, Pa., February 15, 1822; interment in Christ Churchyard, Philadelphia, Pa.
View Record in the Biographical Directory of the U.S. Congress
[ Top ]Bell, Malcolm, Jr. Major Butler's Legacy: Five Generations of a Slaveholding Family. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1987.
Coghlan, Francis. "Pierce Butler, 1744-1822, First Senator from South Carolina." South Carolina Historical Magazine 78 (April 1977): 104-19.
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.
