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Timothy Pickering
2nd United States Postmaster General
In office August 12, 1791 – January 1, 1795
President	George Washington
Preceded by	Samuel Osgood
Succeeded by	Joseph Habersham
2nd United States Secretary of War
In office January 2, 1795 – December 10, 1795
President	George Washington
Preceded by	Henry Knox
Succeeded by	James McHenry
3rd United States Secretary of State
In office December 10, 1795 – May 12, 1800
President	George Washington (1795-1797) John Adams (1797-1800)
Preceded by	Edmund Randolph
Succeeded by	John Marshall
United States Senator from Massachusetts
In office March 4, 1803 – March 3, 1811
Preceded by	Dwight Foster
Succeeded by	Joseph Varnum
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Massachusetts's 3rd district
In office March 4, 1813 – March 3, 1815
Preceded by	Leonard White
Succeeded by	Jeremiah Nelson
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Massachusetts's 2nd district
In office March 4, 1815 – March 3, 1817
Preceded by	William Reed
Succeeded by	Nathaniel Silsbee
Born	July 17, 1745(1745-07-17) Salem, Massachusetts, U.S.
Died	January 29, 1829 (aged 83) Salem, Massachusetts, U.S.
Political party	Federalist
Profession	Politician
Religion	Unitarian

Timothy Pickering (July 17, 1745 – January 29, 1829) was a politician from Massachusetts who served in a variety of roles, most notably as the third United States Secretary of State, serving in that office from 1795 to 1800 under Presidents George Washington and John Adams.

Pickering was born in Salem, Massachusetts to Deacon Timothy and Mary Wingate Pickering. He was one of nine children and the younger brother of John Pickering. He attended grammar school in Salem and graduated from Harvard University in 1763. Salem minister William Bentley noted on Pickering: "From his youth his townsmen proclaim him assuming, turbulent, & headstrong." ^[1]

After graduating from Harvard, Pickering returned to Salem where he began working for John Higginson, the town clerk and Essex County, Massachusetts register of deeds. Pickering was admitted to the Massachusetts Bar in 1768 and, in 1774, he succeeded Higginson as register of deeds. Soon after, he was elected to represent Salem in the Massachusetts General Court and served as a justice in the Essex County Court of Common Pleas. On April 8, 1776, he married Rebecca White of Salem. ^[2]

In January 1766, Pickering was commissioned a lieutenant in the Essex County militia. He was promoted to captain three years later. In 1769, he published his ideas on the drilling soldiers in the Essex Gazette. These were published in 1775 as "An Easy Plan for a Militia."^[3]

In December 1776, he led a well-drilled regiment of the Essex County militia to New York, where General George Washington took notice and offered Pickering the position of adjutant general of the Continental Army in 1777. He was widely praised for his work in supplying the troops during the remainder of the conflict. In August 1780, the Continental Congress elected Pickering Quartermaster General. ^[4]

After the end of the American Revolution, Pickering made several failed attempts at financial success. In 1783, he embarked on a mercantile partnership with Samuel Hodgdon that failed two years later. In 1786, he moved to the Wyoming Valley in Pennsylvania where he assumed a series of offices at the head of Luzerne County. When he attempted to evict Connecticut settlers living in the area, Pickering was captured and held hostage for nineteen days. In 1787, he was part of the Pennsylvania convention held to consider ratification of the United States Constitution.^[5]

After the first of Pickering's two failed attempts to make money speculating in Pennsylvania frontier land, now-President Washington appointed him commissioner to the Iroquois Indians; and Pickering represented the United States in the negotiation of the Treaty of Canandaigua with the Iroquois in 1794.

Washington brought Pickering into his cabinet, as Postmaster General in 1791. He remained in Washington's cabinet and then that of John Adams for nine years, serving as postmaster general until 1795, Secretary of War for a brief time in 1795, then Secretary of State from 1795 to 1800. As Secretary of State he is most remembered for his strong Federalist Party attachments to English causes, even willingness to wage war with France in service of these causes during the Adams administration.

After a quarrel with President John Adams over Adams's plan to make peace with France, Pickering was dismissed from office in May 1800. In 1802 Pickering and a band of Federalists, agitated at the lack of support for Federalists, attempted to gain support for the secession of New England from the Jeffersonian United States. The irony of a Federalist moving against the national government was not lost among his dissenters. He was named to the United States Senate as a senator from Massachusetts in 1803 as a member of the Federalist Party. He lost his senate seat in 1811, and was elected to the United States House of Representatives in U.S. House election, 1812, where he remained until 1817. His congressional career is best remembered for his leadership of the New England secession movement (see Essex Junto and the Hartford Convention).

After Pickering was denied re-election in 1816, he retired to Salem, where he lived as a farmer until his death in 1829, aged 84. In 1942, a United States Liberty ship named the SS Timothy Pickering was launched. She was lost off Sicily in 1945. Until the 1990s, Pickering's ancestral home, the circa 1651 Pickering House, was the oldest house in the United States to be owned by the same family continually.

Citations and notes

General information

• Timothy Pickering at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
• Clarfield, Gerard H. "Postscript to the Jay Treaty: Timothy Pickering and Anglo-American Relations, 1795-1797," William and Mary Quarterly 3d ser., 23, 1 (1966): 106-20.
• Clarfield, Gerard H. Timothy Pickering and American Diplomacy, 1795-1800. Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1969.
• Clarfield, Gerard. Timothy Pickering and the American Republic. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1980.
• Clarfield, Gerard H. "Timothy Pickering and French Diplomacy, 1795-1796." Essex Institute Historical Collections 104, 1 (1965): 58-74.
• Clarfield, Gerard H. "Victory in the West: A Study of the Role of Timothy Pickering in the Successful Consummation of Pinckney‘s Treaty," Essex Institute Historical Collections 101, 4 (1965): 333-53.
• Garraty, John A. and Mark C. Carnes. American National Biography, vol. 17, "Pickering, Timothy". New York: Oxford University Press, 1999.
• Guidorizzi, Richard Peter. "Timothy Pickering: Opposition Politics in the Early Years of the Republic" Ph.D. diss, St. John’s University, 1968.
• Hickey, Donald R. "Timothy Pickering and the Haitian Slave Revolt: A Letter to Thomas Jefferson in 1806," Essex Institute Historical Collections 120, 3 (1984): 149-63.
• McCurdy, John Gilbert. "'Your Affectionate Brother': Complementary Manhoods in the Letters of John and Timothy Pickering." Early American Studies 4, 2 (Fall 2006): 512-545.
• McLean, David. Timothy Pickering and the Age of the American Revolution. New York: Arno Press, 1982.
• Pickering, Octavius, and Charles W. Upham. The Life of Timothy Pickering. 4 vols. Boston: Little Brown, 1867-73.
• Phillips, Edward Hake. "The Public Career of Timothy Pickering, Federalist, 1745-1802." Ph.D. diss, Harvard University, 1952.
• Phillips, Edward Hake. "Salem, Timothy Pickering, and the American Revolution." Essex Institute Historical Collections 111, 1 (1975): 65-78.
• Phillips, Edward Hake. "Timothy Pickering at His Best: Indian Commissioner, 1790-1794." Essex Institute Historical Collections 102, 3 (1966): 163-202.
• Prentiss, Harvey Pittman. Timothy Pickering as the Leader of New England Federalism, 1800-1815. New York: DaCapo Press, 1972.
• Wilbur, William Allan. "Crisis in Leadership: Alexander Hamilton, Timothy Pickering and the Politics of Federalism, 1795-1804." Ph.D. diss, Syracuse University, 1969.
• Wilbur, W. Allan. "Timothy Pickering: Federalist, Politician, An Historical Perspective," Historian 34, 2 (1972): 278-92.
• Wilentz, Sean "The Rise of American Democracy: Jefferson to Lincoln" W.W. Norton. New York. 2005.

• Timothy Pickering at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
• Biography and portrait at Quartermaster-Generals

v • d • e United States Postmasters General Pre-federal: Franklin • Bache • Hazard Cabinet level: Osgood • Pickering • Habersham • G Granger • Meigs • McLean • Barry • Kendall • Niles • F Granger • Wickliffe • Johnson • Collamer • Hall • Hubbard • Campbell • A Brown • Holt • King • Blair • Dennison • Randall • Creswell • Marshall • Jewell • Tyner • Key • Maynard • James • Howe • Gresham • Hatton • Vilas • Dickinson • Wanamaker • Bissell • Wilson • Gary • Smith • Payne • Wynne • Cortelyou • Meyer • Hitchcock • Burleson • Hays • Work • New • W Brown • Farley • Walker • Hannegan • Donaldson • Summerfield • Day • Gronouski • O'Brien • Watson • Blount U.S. Postal Service: Blount • Klassen • Bailar • Bolger • Carlin • Casey • Tisch • Frank • Runyon • Henderson • Potter

v • d • e United States Secretaries of War and Secretaries of the Army Cabinet-level Knox • Pickering • McHenry • Dexter • Dearborn • Eustis • Armstrong • Monroe • W. H. Crawford • Calhoun • Barbour • P. B. Porter • Eaton • Cass • Poinsett • Bell • Spencer • J. M. Porter • Wilkins • Marcy • G. W. Crawford • Conrad • J. Davis • Floyd • Holt • S. Cameron • Stanton • Schofield • Rawlins • Belknap • A. Taft • J. Cameron • McCrary • Ramsey • Lincoln • Endicott • Proctor • Elkins • Lamont • Alger • Root • W. H. Taft • Wright • Dickinson • Stimson • Garrison • Baker • Weeks • D. F. Davis • Good • Hurley • Dern • Woodring • Stimson • Patterson • Royall Dept. of Defense Royall • Gray • Pace • Stevens • Brucker • Stahr • Vance • Ailes • Resor • Froehlke • Callaway • Hoffmann • Alexander • Marsh • Stone • West • Walker • Caldera • Dahlberg • Westphal • White • Brownlee • Harvey • Geren

v • d • e United States Secretaries of State Jefferson • Randolph • Pickering • J Marshall • Madison • Smith • Monroe • Adams • Clay • Van Buren • Livingston • McLane • Forsyth • Webster • Upshur • Calhoun • Buchanan • Clayton • Webster • Everett • Marcy • Cass • Black • Seward • Washburne • Fish • Evarts • Blaine • Frelinghuysen • Bayard • Blaine • Foster • Gresham • Olney • Sherman • Day • Hay • Root • Bacon • Knox • Bryan • Lansing • Colby • Hughes • Kellogg • Stimson • Hull • Stettinius • Byrnes • G Marshall • Acheson • Dulles • Herter • Rusk • Rogers • Kissinger • Vance • Muskie • Haig • Shultz • Baker • Eagleburger • Christopher • Albright • Powell • Rice

v • d • e United States Senators from Massachusetts Class 1: Dalton • Cabot • Goodhue • Mason • Adams • Lloyd • Gore • Ashmun • Mellen • Mills • Webster • Choate • Webster • Winthrop • Rantoul • Sumner • Washburn • Dawes • Lodge, Sr. • Butler • Walsh • Lodge, Jr. • J. Kennedy • Smith • E. Kennedy Class 2: Strong • Sedgwick • Dexter • Foster • Pickering • Varnum • Otis • Lloyd • Silsbee • Davis • Bates • Davis • Everett • Rockwell • Wilson • Boutwell • Hoar • Crane • J. Weeks • Walsh • Gillett • Coolidge • Lodge, Jr. • S. Weeks • Saltonstall • Brooke • Tsongas • Kerry

v • d • e Cabinet of President George Washington (1789-1797) Vice President John Adams (1789-1797) Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson (1789-1793) • Edmund Randolph (1794-1795) • Timothy Pickering (1795-1797) Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton (1789-1795) • Oliver Wolcott, Jr. (1795-1797) Secretary of War Henry Knox (1789-1794) • Timothy Pickering (1795-1795) • James McHenry (1796-1797) Attorney General Edmund Randolph (1789-1794) • William Bradford (1794-1795) • Charles Lee (1795-1797)

v • d • e Cabinet of President John Adams (1797-1801) Vice President Thomas Jefferson (1797-1801) Secretary of State Timothy Pickering (1797-1800) • John Marshall (1800-1801) Secretary of the Treasury Oliver Wolcott, Jr. (1797-1801) • Samuel Dexter (1801) Secretary of War James McHenry (1796-1800) • Samuel Dexter (1800-1801) Attorney General Charles Lee (1797-1801) Secretary of the Navy Benjamin Stoddert (1798-1801)