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Sumter was appointed a Justice of the Peace in 1773 for the Camden District, and won the esteem of his neighbors enough to be elected as representative for the District Eastward of Wateree River to the First Provincial Congress of South Carolina, which met in [[Charleston, South Carolina|Charleston]] on January 11, 1775. He was subsequently re-elected to the Second Provincial Congress later that year, and from 1776 to 1780, served in the First, Second, and Third General Assemblies after [[Declaration of Independence|independence was declared]]. Simultaneously, Sumter entered the South Carolina militia, being elected a captain in 1775 and serving that winter in the campaign against [[Loyalists]] organizing in the backcountry. In February 1776, he was made lieutenant colonel of the Second Regiment of the South Carolina Line, serving in the [[Battle of Fort Moultrie]] (June 1776), the campaign against Cherokees on the frontier (July-October 1776), and in several campaigns to protect [[Georgia]] (1777-78). In September 1778, Sumter, by now a brigadier general, resigned his commission, frustrated by the inconclusive and sporadic nature of the fighting and desiring to redress his financial affairs, left in disarray by his absence from home.
Sumter was appointed a Justice of the Peace in 1773 for the Camden District, and won the esteem of his neighbors enough to be elected as representative for the District Eastward of Wateree River to the First Provincial Congress of South Carolina, which met in [[Charleston, South Carolina|Charleston]] on January 11, 1775. He was subsequently re-elected to the Second Provincial Congress later that year, and from 1776 to 1780, served in the First, Second, and Third General Assemblies after [[Declaration of Independence|independence was declared]]. Simultaneously, Sumter entered the South Carolina militia, being elected a captain in 1775 and serving that winter in the campaign against [[Loyalists]] organizing in the backcountry. In February 1776, he was made lieutenant colonel of the Second Regiment of the South Carolina Line, serving in the [[Battle of Fort Moultrie]] (June 1776), the campaign against Cherokees on the frontier (July-October 1776), and in several campaigns to protect [[Georgia]] (1777-78). In September 1778, Sumter, by now a brigadier general, resigned his commission, frustrated by the inconclusive and sporadic nature of the fighting and desiring to redress his financial affairs, left in disarray by his absence from home.
'''Partisan Leader'''
'''"The Gamecock"'''
Sumter was not present when Charleston and the American army defending it were captured by the British in May 1780, but with the collapse of Patriot military power in the state, he decided to return to the field as a militia commander, fighting an [[guerrilla warfare|irregular war]] against the British army under [[Charles Cornwallis]]. Returned to his rank of brigadier general, he first fled to [[North Carolina]] and recruited a force, made up largely of fellow South Carolina Patriots driven from their homes, and had begun his campaigning in earnest in July, with a successful attack on British and Loyalist units at Hanging Rock on the Catawba River. He was defeated in a surprise attack by Lieutenant Colonel [[Banastre Tarleton]] at Fishing Creek the following month, but soon reorganized his units.
Sumter was not present when Charleston and the American army defending it were captured by the British in May 1780, but with the collapse of Patriot military power in the state, he decided to return to the field as a militia commander, fighting an [[guerrilla warfare|irregular war]] against the British army under [[Charles Cornwallis]]. Returned to his rank of brigadier general, he first fled to [[North Carolina]] and recruited a force, made up largely of fellow South Carolina Patriots driven from their homes, and had begun his campaigning in earnest in July, with a successful attack on British and Loyalist units at Hanging Rock on the Catawba River. He was defeated in a surprise attack by Lieutenant Colonel [[Banastre Tarleton]] at Fishing Creek the following month, but soon reorganized his units.
As was the case with much of the Patriot campaigning in the southern theater, Sumter lost battles as often as he won. Through 1781 especially, he was generally defeated in combat. He also had a difficult relationship with other American commanders, especially in the [[Continental Army]], as he preferred to operate independently rather than coordinate with them; prior to the [[Battle of Camden]], for example, he chose to raid Cornwallis' supply lines rather than unite his forces with the main body. However, his fierce fighting and his resilience earned him respect from both sides. Cornwallis himself referred to Sumter as his "greatest plague," and Tarleton gave him his lasting nickname when, after Blackstock's Farm, he said that Sumter "fought like a gamecock." Because of this, Sumter came to be known as the Carolina Gamecock, or simply, "the Gamecock."<ref>''The Road to Guilford Courthouse'', John Buchanan, p. 393.</ref>
As was the case with much of the Patriot campaigning in the southern theater, Sumter lost battles as often as he won. Through 1781 especially, he was generally defeated in combat. He also had a difficult relationship with other American commanders, especially in the [[Continental Army]], as he preferred to operate independently rather than coordinate with them; prior to the [[Battle of Camden]], for example, he chose to raid Cornwallis' supply lines rather than unite his forces with the main body. However, his fierce fighting and his resilience earned him respect from both sides. Cornwallis himself referred to Sumter as his "greatest plague," and Tarleton gave him his lasting nickname when, after Blackstock's Farm, he said that Sumter "fought like a gamecock." Because of this, Sumter came to be known as the Carolina Gamecock, or simply, "the Gamecock."<ref>''The Road to Guilford Courthouse'', John Buchanan, p. 393.</ref>
==Political Career==
Sumter resigned from the state militia in February 1782. With American government authority restored to most of South Carolina, he again represented the district Eastward of Wateree River in the Jacksonboro Assembly of 1782, as well as in subsequent General Assemblies until 1790. After the end of the war, he founded the town of Stateburg on land that he owned and unsuccessfully advocated for it as the new state capital.
Sumter was generally opposed to efforts to replace the [[Articles of Confederation]] with the new [[U.S. Constitution]]. He felt that South Carolina had been neglected by the national government during the war and been liberated largely through its own efforts, and therefore owed that government nothing. He was a member of the state ratification convention in Charleston in May 1788; after his motion that South Carolina delay the vote until after Virginia's convention was defeated, Sumter voted against ratification. Though Sumter and the other [[Anti-Federalists]] were defeated, their opposition was instrumental in convincing [[Federalists]] in the state convention to include in the instrument of ratification a statement that "the states...retain every power, not expressly relinquished by them and vested in the General Government of the Union."
To provide state Anti-Federalists with a voice, Sumter ran for and won a seat in the [[House of Representatives]] in 1789, where he joined the calls for passage of the [[Bill of Rights]], and later opposed the economic policies of [[Alexander Hamilton]], as well as plans to enlarge the jurisdiction of the federal courts and create a large standing army.
Sumter left the House in 1793, but was elected once again in 1797 as a [[Democratic-Republican]] and served until December 1801, during which time he voted against the [[Alien and Sedition Acts]]. In December 1801, the South Carolina legislature appointed him to the [[U.S. Senate]] following Senator Charles Pinckney's resignation. Sumter remained in the Senate until December 1810. As senator, he generally favored the policies of President [[Thomas Jefferson]], supporting the impeachment of Federalist judges and opposing [[internal improvements]], a protective [[tariff]], and calls for [[U.S. Congress|Congress]] to address the [[slavery]] issue. These positions established him as a leading voice for Southern interests and a representative figure of the [[Jeffersonian]] political philosophy in antebellum America. [[John Randolph of Roanoke]] once said of Sumter, "If I were allowed to vote by proxy, and on that vote depended the welfare of the Republic, I would make Thomas Sumter my proxy."
==References==
==References==