William Pinkney | Biography

William Pinkney served as U.S. attorney general from 1811 to 1814 under President James Madison. Pinkney also served in an number of government positions and was a delegate to the Constitutional Convention in 1788.

Pinkney was born on March 17, 1764 in Annapolis, Maryland. Although he originally intended to study medicine, he was convinced by a prominent lawyer to join the legal profession. At this time most lawyers did not attend school for their legal education. Pinkney, like so many others, served a legal apprenticeship, performing clerical duties, reading cases, and receiving instruction from an attorney. In 1786, after he was admitted to the Maryland. Pinkney established a law practice in a rural part of the state.

However, Pinkney had political aspirations as well. He was elected to the Maryland House of Delegates in 1788 and quickly made a name for himself as a gifted and influential legislator. He was sent as a delegate to the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia in 1788. Though Pinkney left the legislature in 1792 to devote himself to his law practice, he remained a prominent figure in the Federalist Party. In 1796 President George Washington named him to a commission that was charged with settling boundary disputes between the United States and British-ruled Canada. The commission also resolved disputes involving shipping and commerce. Pierrepont served ably for eight years, with the consequence that his law practice shifted to international commercial trade.

Pinkney served briefly as Maryland's attorney general but reentered the diplomatic field in 1806 when President Thomas Jefferson asked Pinkney to go to England to help negotiate a treaty that would protect U.S. ships when Great Britain and other European nations were at war with each other. Though he reluctantly agreed, Pinkney soon found him marooned in England, with Jefferson refusing to name a replacement. Pinkney stayed in England four years.

When Pinkney returned to Baltimore in 1811, he was elected to the Maryland state senate. However, he resigned his seat within a few months to accept President Madison's appointment as U.S. attorney general. At this time the attorney general's office had little power and virtually no staff. In addition, it paid poorly because it was a part-time position. Pinkney, like his predecessors, was expected to issue advisory opinions and maintain his law practice as well. In practice this arrangement had allowed the attorney general to be absent from Washington, D.C. for months at a time. Pinkney triggered a reevaluation of this practice when he volunteered to fight in the War of 1812. Congress responded in 1814 by enacting a law that required the attorney general to be in Washington when Congress was in session. Pinkney could not abide this residency requirement, as it would have destroyed his law practice. Therefore, he resigned. During his brief tenure he issued a number of advisory opinions and helped revise the federal criminal code.

Pinkney's continuing interest in foreign affair led him to accept two diplomatic posts. From 1816 to 1818 he served as minister to Russia and special envoy to Naples. On his return to Baltimore, Pinkney was actively involved in many cases heard by the U.S. Supreme Court. In 1820 Pinkney was elected to the U.S. Senate. He died in office on February 25, 1822 in Washington, D.C.