Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XIII.djvu/537

 PINCKNEY PINDAR 521 which ratified it; and again of the conven- tion which in 1790 adopted the constitution of the state. In 1796 he was appointed minister to France. The directory treated him with marked disrespect, and finally ordered him to leave the country. He returned subsequently with Marshall and Gerry as associates, but ne- gotiations went on slowly, and the American commissioners were at length given to under- stand that nothing would be accomplished un- til the government had received a present in money. Talleyrand submitted this proposition to them, intimating that the penalty of refusal would be war. "War be it, then! " replied Pinckney. " Millions for defence, sir, but not a cent for tribute ! " On returning to the United States he was appointed a major gene- ral in the army in anticipation of war with France. In 1800 he was an unsuccessful candi- date for president, receiving with John Adams the votes of the federal party. II. Thomas, brother of the preceding, born in Charleston, Oct. 23, 1750, died there, Nov. 2, 1828. He was educated in England, first at Westminster school, and afterward at Oxford, studied law in the Middle Temple, was admitted a barrister, and returned to South Carolina in 1770 after an absence of 17 years. In 1775 he entered one of the provincial regiments as lieutenant, became a major, and was aide-de-camp to Gen. Lin- coln. He fought with distinction at the battle of Stono; and at the assault on Savannah he headed one of the assailing columns of the con- tinental army. After the fall of Charleston he joined the army of Gates, and at the battle of Camden was desperately wounded, captured, and sent to Philadelphia, where he remained until the peace. In 1789 he was elected gov- ernor of South Carolina, and in 1792 received the appointment of minister to Great Britain, whence in 1794 he was transferred in the same capacity to Spain, where he negotiated the treaty of Ildefonso, by which the United States secured the free navigation of the Mississippi. He returned home in 1796, and was elected by the federalists to congress from the Charleston district in 1797, and again in 1799. In 1812 he became major general of the southern military division of the country, the duties of which in- volved the prosecution of war with the Creek and Seminole Indians. His last active field service was at the battle of Horse-shoe Bend, where the military power of the Creeks was finally broken. III. Charles, grandson of Wil- liam, born in Charleston in 1758, died there, Oct. 29, 1824. He was educated for the bar, and when scarcely of age was chosen to the provin- cial legislature. At the capture of Charleston he became a prisoner, and remained such until near the close of the war, when he resumed his profession. In 1785 he was elected a dele- gate to congress from South Carolina, and he subsequently took an important part in the preparation of a plan of government for the United States. He was a member of the con- vention which framed the federal constitution, and in 1788 advocated its ratification in the South Carolina convention. In 1789 he was elected governor of the state. In 1790 he pre- sided over the state convention by which the constitution of South Carolina was adopted. In 1791 and again in 1796 he was elected gov- ernor, and in 1798 United States senator. He was a frequent and able speaker on the repub- lican side of that body, and was one of the most active promoters of Jefferson's election to the presidency in 1800. In 1802 he was appointed minister to Spain, and during his residence in that country negotiated a release from the Spanish government of all right or title to the territory purchased by the United States from France. In 1806 he was for the fourth time elected governor of South Carolina. In 1819-'21 he earnestly opposed the Missouri compromise bill in congress. PINCKNEIA. See GEORGIA BARK. PINDAR (Gr. Uivdapoc), a Greek lyric poet, born in Thebes or in the village of Cynos- cephalae about 520 B. C., died about 440. The family to which he belonged was one of the noblest in Thebes. Pindar in his boyhood received lessons on the flute from the player Scopelinus, and his father sent him to Athens for instruction in the art, where he remained until about the age of 20. After his return to Thebes he received instructions from two poetesses, Myrtis and Corinna of Tanagra. Plu- tarch says the latter "advised him to intro- duce mythical narratives into his poems, as the music, rhythm, and elevated language were properly designed simply to adorn the subject matter. In accordance with her recommenda- tion, he wrote a hymn, still extant in part, which was filled with nearly all the Theban mythology; whereupon she said: 'We ought to sow with the hand, and not with the whole sack.' " There is still extant an epinician ode written by Pindar in his 20th year in honor of Hippocles, a victor in the Pythian games. He rapidly acquired great reputation, and the dif- ferent states of Greece and the tyrants of the colonies on important occasions applied to him to write choral songs. About 473 he visited Syracuse, where he remained about four years. The poems of Pindar consisted of epinicia or tri- umphal odes, hymns to the gods, peeans, dithy- rambs, odes for processions, songs of maidens, mimic dancing songs, drinking songs, dirges, and encomia or panegyrics on rulers. The only entire poems that have come down to us are the Epinicia, which were all written in honor of victories gained in the public games, with the exception of the llth Nemean, com- posed when Aristagoras was installed in the office of prytanis at Tenedos. The triumphal odes are divided into four books, correspond- ing to the four great public games of Greece. The mythical element is always prominent in them. Pindar was himself a strict worship- per of the gods, and appears to have placed credence in the marvellous and supernatural accounts of Greek legendary history ; but he