#36 Choosing Virtue Over Power
IDENTITY POLITICS | Mark Boonstra: As we approach the presidential election of 2024, let us recall a bygone era when politicians of a Christian mindset chose virtue over their own ascension to power.
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Our faith-driven founders envisioned a nation where leaders would uphold the highest standards of integrity, humility, and service. They believed that true leadership is rooted in the principles of justice, compassion, and unwavering commitment to the common good. Today, as we navigate complex political cultural movements, it is imperative that we hold our current leaders accountable to these same standards. We must remind them that their authority is a stewardship entrusted by the people, and it is their duty to lead with wisdom, transparency, and a heart for righteousness. By doing so, we honor the legacy of our founders and ensure that our nation remains a beacon of hope and moral clarity in an ever-changing world. -Dr. Stephen Phinney
Charles Cotesworth Pinckney was such a man. Born in 1746 at his parents’ Mansion House on the East Bay of the city of Charleston, South Carolina, Pinckney was schooled in Christian principles from an early age. He stood firm in those principles years later, even though it may have cost him the presidency and vice-presidency of the United States (for which he was nominated by the Federalist Party). But his virtue remained intact.
The Pinckney family was devoutly Christian and regularly attended worship services at Charleston’s St. Philip’s (Anglican) Church. The parish register duly records Pinckney’s birth, and his baptism—by Rev. Alexander Garden—on May 16, 1746. From an early age, the children were required to listen for the sermon’s scriptural text and find it in the Bible once they returned home. They were also expected to memorize the “collect”—an Anglican prayer—of the day. Pinckney’s father, Charles Pinckney (who served as chief justice of South Carolina and also in its House of Commons and royal council) was known for generously sharing with the church both his time and his financial support. Although a slaveholder, he contributed toward the building of a school to teach slave children reading and religion.
Pinckney’s mother, Elizabeth (Eliza) Lucas Pinckney, was also fervently religious, and maintained throughout her life a letterbook and a series of resolutions to guide her throughout her life. Among them were her resolutions to “believe in God,” to “love him with all the powers and faculties of my soul,” to “keep a steady upright conduct before my God,” to “be charitably disposed to all mankind,” to “be a good Mother to my children” and to “instill piety, Virtue and true religion into them.” Among Eliza’s favorite hymns was Joseph Addison’s:
When all thy mercies, O my God
My rising soul surveys,
Transported with the view, I’m lost
In wonder, love and praise.
In 1753, the permanent royal appointment as chief justice of South Carolina went not to Charles, but instead to a Crown favorite. While disappointing, that development opened the door to better educational opportunities that were available only in England. The family boarded the Edinburgh, bound for London, where Charles served for a time as South Carolina’s colonial agent. Accompanying them were two other young Charleston lads, William Henry Drayton—later, a signer of the Articles of Confederation—and his brother Charles. Pinckney and his younger brother Thomas (along with the Drayton boys) were enrolled initially at an academy in Camberwell, which was run at that time by a Mr. Gerrard. Mr. Gerrard’s academy likely was the school established in 1615 as “The Free Grammar School of Edward Wilson, clerk, in Camberwell, otherwise Camerwell, in the County of Surrey.” It was founded by Rev. Edward Wilson, vicar of Camberwell, and it required that its master be “virtuous” and “sound in religion, body, and mind.”
In 1758, Pinckney’s parents returned to Charleston with their daughter, Harriott, leaving the boys to continue their studies abroad. Upon arriving home, Charles was stricken with a fever; within three weeks, he had died. Eliza wrote to her boys:
Endeavour to submit to the will of God in the best manner that you can, and let it be a comfort to you my dear Babes that you had such a Father! He has set you a great and good example, may the Lord enable you both to follow it, and may God Almighty fulfill all your pious father’s prayers upon both your heads; they were almost incessant for blessings both spiritual and temporal upon you both.
The former chief justice had directed in his will that ten guineas be charged against his Charleston Mansion House to fund the hiring of a minister each May and October to preach a sermon on the “Greatness and Goodness of God.” The Pinckney family dutifully followed that directive each year, selecting guest ministers and hosting a dinner for the town clergymen.
Eliza was left to take over the management of extensive business affairs and felt obliged to remain in South Carolina. Still, she kept close tabs on her sons’ education; writing to Mr. Gerrard to thank him for his letter of condolence, she noted that by “applying those beautiful passages of Job” to her husband, he had “given a great and good character to him.”
In 1760, the boys briefly attended a school in Kensington run by a Mr. Longmore. They then advanced to college preparatory studies at the prestigious Westminster School. This school was affiliated with Westminster Abbey (Anglican) Church, and was established by the Benedictine monks of that church in the early fourteenth century. The headmaster of the school was Rev. William Markham, who later advanced to become Archbishop of York and Lord High Almoner. Students were taught Latin, Greek, and the tenets of the Christian religion. Indeed, Pinckney wrote home, at the request of a teacher in Charleston, about his course of studies at Westminster:
Latin and Greek and the Rudiments of the Christian Religion are the only things avowedly taught, and it is difficult to go through the school without being a fair Latin and Greek scholar and being able to assign a reason for the faith that is in you.
In 1764, Pinckney enrolled at Oxford’s Christ Church College, where he was tutored by Cyril Jackson. A fellow former student under Rev. Markham, Jackson later was ordained as Rev. Cyril Jackson and served as the dean of Christ Church. Among the classes that Pinckney made a point to attend at Oxford (and from which he diligently recorded four volumes of notes) were a series of private lectures by the eminent legal historian, William Blackstone. Blackstone taught that blasphemy against “Christianity is part of the laws of the land,” and that man must “conform to his Maker’s will. This will of his Maker, is called the law of nature.”
While at Oxford, Pinckney also began his study of law at the renowned Middle Temple. In 1765, dissension grew between the motherland and the colonies as Parliament passed the hated Stamp Act. Pinckney showed his patriot colors by commissioning (for his college friend, Matthew Ridley) a portrait of himself speaking against the measure; Ridley later became Sir Matthew Ridley, the Second Baronet of Bladgon, and fathered three Anglican ministers. Before completing his studies, Pinckney took time to tour the continent, studying such disciplines as chemistry and botany (a passion of Eliza’s). And he further prepared himself for serving his country, in times of either war or peace, by enrolling at the Royal Military Academy at Caen, France.
Although admitted to the English bar in 1769, Pinckney chose to return home to Charleston. He was immediately elected to serve in the Commons House of Assembly. He also quickly established himself as a formidable lawyer, winning his first case against two of the colony’s most eminent lawyers, James Parsons and John Rutledge; Rutledge later would serve as governor of South Carolina and as a United States Supreme Court Justice—and, like Pinckney, would sign the United States Constitution. Pinckney then served as a regional attorney general, was elected to the Provincial Congress, and served on the local Committee of Safety. He also joined the militia.
Still, Pinckney made time for church affairs. He served for two years as a warden of St. Philip’s Church, and then served for many years on the parish’s vestry. He was also known to attend nearby St. Michael’s (Anglican) Church, which had opened its doors in 1761 as St. Philip’s outgrew its capacity. In 1773, Pinckney wed Sarah (Sally) Middleton. She was the daughter of Henry Middleton, who later served as the second president of the Continental Congress. Sarah’s grandfather, Arthur Middleton, had not only served as governor of South Carolina, but had served as a commissioner under the Church Act in 1706; it formally established the Church of England as the official church of South Carolina and created nine new parishes (in addition to the already-established St. Philip’s Parish in Charleston). One of the new parishes was St. James Goose Creek Parish, and in 1707 grandfather Arthur began serving on its vestry. The Middleton family was firmly entrenched at the St. James Goose Creek Church. Indeed, Arthur (Sarah’s grandfather) was given the honor of an enclosed pew in the church, for his and his heirs’ benefit forever. In addition to serving on the vestry, this Arthur was recognized for his “Pious Contributing and zealous industry and care” in “promoting the holy work of building this Church.” Henry had acquired additional pews at St. Michael’s and at St. George’s (Anglican) Church (which was borne from St. Andrew’s Parish in 1717 to accommodate the growing population along the upper Ashley River). Sarah’s brother, Arthur Middleton, who signed the Declaration of Independence, later inherited the pew at St. Michael’s on Henry’s passing in 1784.
As the war for independence approached, Pinckney, while not a firebrand, was firmly in the patriot camp. He participated—along with Arthur Middleton and William Henry Drayton—in a raid on the British armories in Charleston, rendering the motherland temporarily unable to take up arms against the colonial rebels. He was chosen to chair a committee to draft a constitution for South Carolina; his fellow committee members included Henry and Arthur Middleton, Thomas Lynch Jr., John Rutledge, Henry Laurens and Thomas Heyward Jr. Heyward and Lynch had signed the Declaration; Heyward also signed the Articles of Confederation, as did Laurens—who later served as president of the Continental Congress. Pinckney also continued his service in the South Carolina House of Commons and later in the state senate (where he served as its president). Although a staunch Anglican, he so favored freedom of religion that he strongly supported the motion of Rev. William Tennent—pastor of the Independent (later, the Circular) Church in Charleston—to disestablish the Church of England as the official church of South Carolina. He was supported in that effort by Rev. Richard Furman, then the pastor of the High Hills of Santee Baptist Church (and, later, the pastor of the Charleston Baptist Church). The subsequent 1778 South Carolina constitution formally placed other Christian Protestant denominations on a par with the Church of England. That constitution, which Pinckney helped write, provided:
1st. That there is one eternal God, and a future state of rewards and punishments.
2d. That God is publicly to be worshipped.
3d. That the Christian religion is the true religion.
4th. That the holy scriptures of the Old and New Testaments are of divine inspiration, and are the rule of faith and practice.
5th. That it is lawful and the duty of every man being thereunto called by those that govern, to bear witness to the truth.
Next Up: Choosing Virtue Over Power (Part II)
Identity Politics, with Mark Boonstra & Dr. Stephen Phinney, is an extension of IOM America’s IM Christian Writers Association. The mission of the authors is to restore faith in God & country.
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