Maria Henrietta Pinckney

Maria Henrietta Pinckney (1782 - May 13, 1836) was an American political writer from Charleston, South Carolina. She is best known for her pamphlet the Quintessence of Long Speeches, Arranged as a Political Catechism, written in response to the 1830 nullification crisis between South Carolina and the federal government over tariffs. She died on May 13, 1836 on in her hometown of Charleston.

Early life Pinckney was born in 1782 in Charleston, South Carolina. She was the eldest daughter of the wealthy plantation owner Charles Cotesworth Pinckney and Sarah Middleton. Her father served as the United States Minister to France from 1796 to 1797. Maria lost her mother in her early years of childhood and was educated by her grandmother, Eliza Lucas Pinckney.

Influence and achievements During the 1830 nullification crisis, Pinckney authored the Quintessence of Long Speeches, Arranged as a Political Catechism defending states rights and nullification. The pamphlet was published in Charleston 1830, two years after John C. Calhoun's "Exposition and Protest". She posed a series of thirty four questions and answers summarizing the south's case for nullification. She defined the case as, "the Veto of a Sovereign State on an unconstitutional law of Congress". Pinkney called for her fellow South Carolinians to follow the example of "the patriot band who achieved Revolution" in context to the Declaration of Independence crafted during 1776 during the American Revolution fought for independence.

Later life and death Pinckney never married, and with her sister Harriet, she ran her father's plantations after his death in 1824. She died after refusing to heed her doctor's advice to go to a cooler climate, because, according to a cousin, "her patriotism will not let her travel North of the Potomac."