 1745 -
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| Name |
Timothy Pickering |
| Born |
17 Jul 1745 |
| Gender |
Male |
| Person ID |
I3442 |
My Genealogy |
| Last Modified |
1 Dec 2015 |
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| Notes |
- Timothy Pickering, a soldier, administrator, politician, patriot, and a man of high personal integrity and strength of character, was born at Salem, Massachusetts on July 17, 1745. The Pickering family had been prominent in Salem since its settlement in the 1630s.
Timothy was the eighth of nine children of Timothy and Mary (Wingate) Pickering. He attended Harvard College, where he graduated in 1763, afterwards returning to Salem to serve as a clerk in the office of the register of deeds for Essex County. He was admitted the bar in 1768. He was an early supporter of the colonial independence movement, and served on various committees to agitate for independence from Britain. In 1766, he was elected a lieutenant in the Essex County Militia. During this time, he served as Selectman, town clerk in his home town of Salem, and as a representative in the General Court, the lower house of the state legislature.
In October, 1774, he was elected register of deeds for Salem, and in the following February, became colonel of the 1st Regiment of the Essex County militia. The year 1775 saw his participation in the battles of Lexington and Concord, and the publication of his classic manual of militia training, "An Easy Plan of Discipline for a Militia", adopted in 1776 by Massachusetts as its official manual for militias, and widely used during in the Revolution by the Continental army as a resource.
Timothy Pickering provided military service to his country throughout the war. After a brief assignment to coastal defense duty, he led a Massachusetts contingent to join Washington's army and participated in the campaign of 1776-7 in New York and New Jersey, spending the winter at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania. On May 7, 1777, he accepted General Washington's offer of the position as adjutant-general of the Continental Army, serving until January, 1778. In November, 1777, he was elected to serve as a member of the newly-organized Board of War. He also served the army as its Quartermaster General from May, 1780, serving until after the end of the war.
On April 8, 1776, Timothy had married Rebecca White, who was born in Bristol, England. Together they had ten children. After the war ended, Timothy Pickering moved his growing family first to Philadelphia, then to the Wyoming valley in Pennsylvania, where he bought large tracts of land for development. There, the government of Pennsylvania commissioned him to organize newly-created Luzerne County, which he represented in the state convention that ratified the Constitution of the United States in 1787, and later in the state's own Constitutional convention of 1789-90.
In the fall of 1790, he applied to President Washington for the office of Postmaster General, but was instead sent on an urgent mission to the Seneca Indians, where his sympathic nature and diplomatic ability to negotiate with them on friendly and fair terms ensured similar assignments on many other occasions. In 1794, for example, he successfully negotiated the Canandaigua Treaty with the Seneca tribe which is still in effect to this day. On August 12, 1791, President Washington did appoint Timothy Pickering as the nation's third Postmaster General, and on January 2, 1795, he became the nation's second Secretary of War. Both positions were demanding, since both the Post Office and War Department were in their infancy. Yet, he helped to tame administrative problems in the both departments and helped to build and equip several frigates in a small but substantial navy. He also suggested the establishment of permanent military academies, a suggestion that was taken in later years.
President Washington appointed Timothy Pickering Secretary of State in August of 1795, after his predecessor had been caught in secret dealings with the French. By 1798, France and America seemed on the verge of war, and were in fact already in a "quasi-war" on the seas of the Atlantic. Timothy Pickering was instrumental in shoring up America's defenses and denouncing French influence in American politics, but also condemned Britain's aggressive behavior on the seas. He was a clear supporter of Britain over France, however, and after the end of the "quasi-war", he began to have serious political dissagreements with President Adams, Washington's successor, who preffered to appease the French and keep them as allies. These continued disagreements eventually caused Timothy Pickering's dismissal from the cabinet in May of 1800.
That summer, he resumed farming in Pennsylvania, with plans to develop and subdivide his property in the upper Susquehanna for sale as farms. Yet his friends in Massachusetts were anxious for him to return to his home state to help them lead the state's Federalist party, so they invested in his land so he could complete his project and return with his family to Massachusetts, which he did.
Back in Salem, he narrowly lost a bitterly-fought election for the U.S. House of Representatives in the fall of 1802, but was soon appointed to the U.S. Senate by the Federalist-controlled state legislature. His rhetorical talents were quickly put to use in the Senate, where he argued against appropriating a bond measure to pay for Louisiana Purchase, which he felt, correctly, would eventually greatly weaken the influence and voting power of New England. Late in 1803, Timothy Pickering began meeting with collegues to discuss the feasibility of a "New England Confederacy"- the separation of the New England States and New York from the rest of the Union. The
opposition of Federalist Party leader Alexander Hamilton to the plan prevented any serious discussion of this, however, and the idea was dropped.
Another major issue upon which Timothy Pickering had a strong opinion was the Embargo imposed against Britain in 1807 by Thomas Jefferson and the Congress. He considered the move extremely pro-French, since it seemed to support Napoleon's "Continental System", an embargo he imposed against the British to stop their trade with the European continent, which was almost completely under French control. Pickering and the Federalist party saw President Jefferson's French sympathies as very dangerous to the sovereignty
of the United States, since Napoleon had proven himself to be a conqueror and a despot, rather than the friend to liberty Jefferson and his party saw him to be.
Furthermore, most New England merchants relied on trade with Britain, so they, too, strongly opposed the embargo, and Timothy Pickering spoke eloquently on behalf of these
consitutents. The embargo eventually had a devastating effect on the economy, and the crisis did much to temporarily raise the fortunes of the Federalist Party, which was nearing
extinction in other parts of the nation.
During this time, the secession of the New England states was seriously discussed once again, this time widely and by the public at large. However, Timothy Pickering and other
leading Federalists sought the repeal of the Embargo or even its nullification by the New England States but not such a drastic measure as secession, though it was never ruled out
and was certainly contemplated on occasion by Timothy Pickering and his associates as an option of last resort.
After much pressure and economic suffering, the Embargo was repealed in 1809, but Jefferson's party led the nation to war with Britain in 1812, a war against which Timothy Pickering helped lead the opposition in New England, and for which America was unprepared against it's stronger British opponent. The war solved few of the problems facing the two countries, and caused much bloodshed on both sides. (The United States capitol and White House in Washington were burned to the ground by British troops.) Towards the end of the war, frustrated New England legislatures sent delegates to a convention in Hartford, Connecticut to find ways to address the conduct of the war and ways to regain their sovereignty. Though he did not attend, Timothy Pickering had a great influence on the procedings, and the wording of its final report- urging
Constitutional changes and government reforms- came chiefly from the ideas he had suggested to some of the Convention's leading delegates.
After serving briefly on the Executive Council of Massachusetts, he served in the United States House of Representatives from March, 1813 to
March, 1817. After retiring from the House, he moved from Wenham back to Salem, Massachusetts. There, he spent the remaining years of his
life, writing valuable tracts on agriculture, and, it is said, winning a ploughing contest in his seventy-fifth year! He died in Salem on January 29,
1829, at the age of 83.
Among the children of Timothy and Rebecca Pickering were John (1777-1846); Timothy, Jr., who was a Harvard graduate and a midshipman
(d.1807); and Octavius, the author of "The Life of Timothy Pickering", published posthumously,1867-73. Timothy Pickering's grandson,
Charles Pickering (1805-1878), the son of Timothy, Jr., was a noted Zoologist and Botanist. Timothy Pickering's great-grandson, William
Henry Pickering (1858-1938), was an astronomer credited with discovering Phoebe, the planet Saturn's ninth moon, in1898, taking the earliest
accurate pictures of Mars, and predicting the existence and location of the planet Pluto in 1919, eleven years before its actual discovery.
Salem, Massachusetts Mayor Stanley J. Usovicz, Jr. proclaimed the seventeenth day of July, 2000 "Timothy Pickering Day" to honor "his exceptional and extraordinary career", and
to "recognize his remarkable accomplishments, both civilian and military".
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