Pierce Butler
Pierce Butler (1744‑1822), born in Ireland, was a South Carolina planter. He was among the most aristocractic of the deleagtes, as his father was a British baron and a member of  Parliament.  As a younger son of the nobility, he would not inherit, and thus he turned to the military, and served in Boston during the protests of the late 1760s.  In 1771 he married into a wealthy South Carolina family, then resigned his commission in the British military, and became a rice planter.  Despite his background, he became an ardent Whig/patriot, and while in the South Carolina legislature during the war, supported the upcountry planters against the more wealthy low country planters.  He was elected a delegate to the Constitutional Convention, where he was an ardent nationalist (aligned with Wilson and Madison) and led the fight for the fugitive‑slave clause of the Constitution (Farrand, II, 443, 453‑54). In 1789 and 1792 he was elected to the U.S. Senate and resigned in October 1796. Butler also served in the Senate from 1802 to 1806.


Pierce Butler to Weeden Butler, New York, 8 October 1787 (excerpt)

. . . After four Months close Confinement We closed, on the 17th of last Month, the business Committed to Us. If it meets with the approba­tion of the States, I shall feel myself fully recompensed for my share of the trouble, and a Summer's Confinement, which injured my health much. As yet, the System We had the honor of submitting to the States, meets with general approbation. A few designing, Intrigueing, Men, of desparate Circumstances, may be opposed to; but the bulk of the Peo­ple, I am of opinion, like it The Change, in my judgement, was well timed‑A Body so Constituted as Congress, are quite unequal to govern so Extensive a Country, as the thirteen States‑All Ranks of Men saw the Necessity of a Change‑they wisely had recourse to Reason, and not Arms, for the Accomplishment of it‑In this Instance America has sett a laudable Example to Civilized Europe. It might be well for the United Provinces, and perhaps, France, to follow it; for I think the latter ap­pears to be verging towards a Change‑If Our publick Prints speak truth, the former is like to experience the miseries attendant on the very worst of Wars‑The hour of their greatness, & perhaps, wealth in my judgement, is past; they will probably, sooner, or later, be swallowd up by the great Empires‑If I can hear of any person going to London, I will send You a Copy of the result of Our deliberations; it is not worth the expence of postage, or I woud now inclose it to You‑We, in many in­stances, took the Constitution of Britain, when in its purity, for a model and surely We cou'd not have a better‑We tried to avoid, what ap­peared to Us, the weak parts of Antient, as well as modern Republicks‑How well We have succeeded, is left for You, and other Letterd Men to determine‑It is some what singular, yet so the fact is, that I have never met with any Dutch Man, who understood the Consti­tution of his own Country‑It is, certainly a very complex, unwieldy piece of business‑I have read different Histories of it, with attention, and to this hour, I have but a very inadequate idea of it Pray give me Your opinion, freely of the One I had some small hand in frameing; af­ter You have read it‑In passing judgement on it, You must call to mind, that We had Clashing Interests to reconcile‑some strong prejudices to encounter, for the same spirit that brought settlers to a certain Quarter of this Country, is still alive in it‑View the System then, as resulting from a spirit of Accommodation to different Interests, and not the most perfect One that the Deputies cou'd devise for a Country better adapted to the reception of it, than America is at this day, or perhaps ever will be‑It is a great Extent of Territory to be under One free Gov­ernment: the manners and modes of thinking, of the Inhabitants, differing nearly as much, as in different Nations of Europe‑If We can secure tranquility at Home, and respect from abroad, they will be great points gain'd‑

We have, as You will see, taken a portion of power from the Individ­ual States, to form a General Government for the whole, to preserve the Union‑The General Government, to Consist of two Branches of Legislature and an Executive, to be Vested in One person, for four Years, but Elligible again‑the first Branch of the Legislature, to be Elected by the People, of the different States, agreeable to a ratio of Numbers & wealth; to serve for two Years‑the Second to Consist of two Members from each state, to be appointed by the Legislatures of the States, to serve for six Years, One third to go out every two Years, but to be Elligible again, if their state thinks proper to appoint them. A ju­diciary to be Supreme in all matters relating to the General Govern­ment, and Appellate in State Controversies‑The powers of the General Government are so defined, as not to destroy the Sovereignty of the In­dividual States‑These are the Outlines, if I was to be more minute, I shoud test your patience‑

Note:  The Reverend Weeden Butler (1742‑1823) was master of a classical school in Chelsea, England, where Pierce Butler's son, Thomas, was a student.
 

Source: RC, Additional Manuscripts, 16603, Letters of Major Pierce Butler of South Carolina, Department of Manuscripts, British Library, London, England.  From John Kaminski and Gaspere Saladino, Documentary History of the Ratification of the Constitution, XIII, Commentaries on the Constitution, Public and Private, Vol. 1 (21 February to 7 November 1787) (Madison, Wisconsin, 1981), 351-352.