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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."
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."
==Later Life==
Though well into his seventies when he left the Senate, Sumter remained active in private life and involved with the political issues of the day. He had challenged a younger Federalist to a duel in 1799, and at the age of 86 was sued for assault.
At the end of his life, Sumter lent his support to [[John C. Calhoun]] and other advocates of [[nullification]] concerning the tariff being imposed by [[Andrew Jackson]]'s administration. He referred to this legislation as "a system of usurpation no longer in harmony with the spirit of our Constitution," and, though unable to attend, sent a message to an anti-tariff convention in early 1832, reading in part, "every individual [in this state] will either rank among the enemies of the liberties of his country or else among those who have honored it."<ref>Bradford, p. 145.</ref>
Sumter died on June 1, 1832, at his plantation of South Mount (near Stateburg). His grave is now part of the Thomas Sumter Memorial Park in Sumter County, South Carolina.
==Legacy==
Within the South especially, Sumter was honored as a great wartime hero. Four Southern states named counties in his honor: South Carolina, Georgia, [[Florida]], and [[Alabama]]. The South Carolina city of [[Sumter, South Carolina|Sumter]] was also named for him.
[[Fort Sumter]] in Charleston Harbor, begun in 1829, was named for Sumter as well, and was the site of the first shots of the [[American Civil War]].
Starting in the 19th century, it became common to refer to South Carolina natives as "Gamecocks." The football team for the [[University of South Carolina]] was first referred to as the "Gamecocks" in 1900, in recognition of Sumter's wartime sobriquet, and has been extended to the university at large.
The state government in [[Columbia, South Carolina|Columbia]] erected a monument on the capitol grounds in 1913 in honor of Sumter and his fellow Revolutionary War partisan leaders, [[Francis Marion]] and [[Andrew Pickens]].
==References==
==References==