Henry Laurens

Received his early education in Charleston; went to England in 1744 to acquire a business education; upon his return to North America in 1747 engaged in mercantile pursuits; served as lieutenant colonel in a campaign against the Cherokee Indians 1757-1761; member of the Commons House of Assembly of South Carolina in 1757 and reelected to every session, with one exception, until the Revolution; declined appointment to King's Council in Carolina in 1764 and 1768; member of the American Philosophical Society, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1772-1792; member of the First Provincial Congress of South Carolina (9 Jan 1775); President of the Provincial Congress in June 1775; also president of the general committee and of the first Council of Safety in 1775; member of the Second Provincial Congress from November 1775 to March 1776 and president of the second Council of Safety in 1775 and 1776; Vice President of South Carolina (Mar 1776 - 27 Jun 1777); elected as a Delegate to the Continental Congress (10 Jan 1777), and served until 1780; served as President of the Congress from 1 Nov 1777 to 9 Dec 1778; Congress adopted the Articles of Confederation (15 Nov 1777), pending ratification by the individual states; American and French representatives signed two treaties in Paris – a Treaty of Amity and Commerce and a Treaty of Alliance (February 1778); Congress forced to move to York, Pennsylvania, under the pressure of British troops; Congress returned to Philadelphia on 2 Jul 1778; tendered his resignation to Congress on 9 Dec 1778 as a result of disagreement with the Congress' resolves regarding appearance of seditious handbills in Pennsylvania with criminal charges against some state officials; resignation accepted by the Congress and election date set up on 10 Dec 1778; elected Minister to Holland by the Continental Congress (21 Oct 1779), and sailed for his post early in 1780; was captured by British troops on the voyage and held a prisoner in the Tower of London for fifteen months; released on 31 Dec 1781, in exchange for Lord Cornwallis; appointed one of the peace commissioners and signed the preliminary treaty of Paris on 30 Nov 1782; returned to the United States on 3 Aug 1784, and retired to his plantation, "Mepkin," near Charleston, South Carolina; subsequently elected to the Continental Congress, to the State legislature, and in 1787 to the Federal Constitutional Convention, all of which offices he declined; continued as a planter until his death at "Mepkin". [1; 2]