Ralph Izard

Ralph Izard

Ralph Izard (born January 23, 1741 or 1742 near Charleston , Province of South Carolina , †  May 30, 1804 ibid) was an American politician . He served as one of the first two US Senators from the state of South Carolina and as President pro tempore of the Senate.

Ralph Izard was born on The Elms, his family's estate near Charleston. His great-grandfather of the same name, who came from Dorchester , had emigrated to America from England and settled in South Carolina; his maternal grandfather, Robert Johnson , served twice as governor of the province of South Carolina . Izard's parents died when he was a young child. He spent most of his youth in England, where he first attended school in Hackney and later graduated from Trinity Hall in Cambridge .

In 1764 Izard returned to America, where he did not stay long. In 1767 he married Alice DeLancey from New York , niece of New York colonial governor James DeLancey , with whom he had 13 children. They lived together from 1771, first in London and from 1776 in Paris . In 1779 he acted on behalf of the Continental Congress for a short time as the American representative in the Grand Duchy of Tuscany . Izard finally settled permanently in South Carolina in 1780. There he joined the revolutionary movement and pledged his large property in order to finance warships for use in the war of independence . From 1782 to 1783 he took part in the sessions of the Continental Congress.

Finally he was elected to the Senate of the first US Congress in 1788 for South Carolina ; the second mandate went to Pierce Butler . Izard fell to the class 3 seat , which meant a full six-year term for him; Butler was only able to serve as a class 2 senator for four years. Izard was a member of the pro-administration faction that supported the policies of the federal government under President George Washington . From May 31, 1794 to November 9 of the same year, he was President pro tempore of the Senate during the session of the third Congress .

After his six-year term on March 3, 1795, Izard withdrew from public life. He took care of his land from then on and died in May 1804. His son George (1776-1828) later became governor of Arkansas , his grandson Charles Deas (1818-1867) was a well-known painter.

Izard was an elected member of the American Philosophical Society .

Web links

• Ralph Izard in the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress (English)

• Ralph Izard in the database of Find a Grave (English)

Individual evidence

1. ^ Member History: Ralph Izard. American Philosophical Society, accessed October 10, 2018 .