William Lowndes was an American politician and lawyer. He was a member of the U. S. House of Representatives from South Carolina from 1811 to 1822.
Background
William Lowndes was the son of Rawlins Lowndes, who was prominent in the affairs of the province and state. He was over fifty years old when he had married, as his third wife, Sarah, the sixteen-year-old daughter of Colonel Charles Jones, of Georgia. Their third child was born on February 11, 1872 at the Horseshoe Plantation in the parish of St. Bartholomew, South Carolina, United States and was christened William Jones, but he never used in any form his second baptismal name.
Education
In his seventh year Lowndes was placed in school in England and, while there, contracted an inflammatory rheumatism that weakened his health all through his life. Returning to South Carolina after three years, he studied in private schools, being especially interested in Latin, Greek, and French. He was early marked for his clear, luminous style of writing and speaking.
Career
From 1806 to 1810, Lowndes served in the General Assembly. He was in close touch with Joseph Alston, Daniel Huger, Langdon Cheves, and John C. Calhoun. The original draft of the act of 1809 to amend the state system of representation in behalf of the upper country is in his handwriting. He was elected to the Twelfth Congress in 1810 along with Cheves and Calhoun, and these, with David R. Williams and others, formed the nucleus of a war party. In this Congress he served on the committee for commerce and manufactures and on that for military affairs and, in the Thirteenth Congress, as chairman of the committee on naval affairs.
He had served, in 1807, as captain of a military company and regretted, in later life, that he had not given himself to a military career. He spoke in behalf of every motion to increase the military and naval strength of the country, and his service on the naval committee added to his reputation. In 1815 he was appointed chairman of the committee on ways and means and served for three years. In 1819, as chairman of a special committee on coinage, he submitted a classic report on the relative value of coins of different nations in relation to our own.
The summer of 1819 he spent in European travel in a vain attempt to build up his failing health. In the Sixteenth Congress, 1819, he was appointed chairman of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, and in 1820 was the candidate of his party for speaker of the House. The debate on the Missouri question was the last important public work in which he was engaged. He spoke briefly in the beginning, as one of the conference committee, in favor of the compromise under which Missouri was allowed to make her own constitution. When Missouri offered her constitution at the next session, he was chairman of a committee of three to report on its acceptance. This report took the ground that Missouri was already a state, and he supported it by a speech so calm and dispassionate as to win approval from both sections in the midst of a frenzied debate. After this effort, his health compelled him to entrust the handling of the Missouri question to Clay.
In 1822 he was offered the mission to France but was compelled to decline this, as he had previously declined appointments to Turkey and to Russia. In December 1821, he had been nominated by the South Carolina legislature for the presidency. On May 8, 1822, he resigned his seat in Congress and again tried the effect of a sea voyage for his health. When six days out from Philadelphia he died and was buried at sea.
Achievements
Politics
Lowndes identified himself with the Republican party. He strongly opposed the Embargo and Non-Intercourse policy of Jefferson. He supported the creation of the second Bank of the United States, and he advocated the tariff of 1816. He supported Forsythe's bill of 1817 against privateering and in the next year supported the right of the executive to a free hand in investigating affairs in the South American republics. In 1819 he expressed his disapprobation of Andrew Jackson's course in the Seminole War.
Views
Quotations:
"The Presidency is not an office to be either solicited or declined. "
Personality
Lowndes was of striking height, over six feet six, unusually slender and loose-limbed.
Quotes from others about the person
"I think the wisest man I ever knew was William Lowndes. " - Henry Clay
Connections
On September 16, 1802, Lowndes married Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas Pinckney.