Ralph Izard

Ralph Izard (* January 23, 1741 or 1742 in Charleston, South Carolina, † May 30, 1804 ibid ) was an American politician. He acted as one of the first two U.S. senators from the state of South Carolina and as President pro tempore of the Senate.

Ralph Izard was on " The Elms ," the estate of his family near Charleston, was born. His great-grandfather of the same name, a native of Dorchester, had emigrated from England to America and settled in South Carolina; his maternal grandfather, Robert Johnson, officiated twice as Governor of the Province of South Carolina. Izard parents died when he was still a small child. He spent most of his youth in England where he first attended a school in Hackney and later in Cambridge, completed his education at Trinity Hall.

1764 Izard returned back to America, where he did not remain long, however. He married in 1767 a native of New York Alice DeLancey, niece of New York's colonial governor James DeLancey, with whom he had 13 children. Together they lived 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 an American representative in the Grand Duchy of Tuscany. Izard 1780 eventually settled permanently in South Carolina. There he joined the revolutionary movement and pledged his large estates to finance warships for use in the War of Independence can. From 1782 to 1783 he took part in the meetings of the Continental Congress.

Finally, he was in 1788 for South Carolina elected to the Senate of the First U.S. Congress; the second mandate was awarded to Pierce Butler. Izard fell while the Class 3 seat, which meant a full six -year term for him; Butler was initially able to officiate only four years as a Class 2 senator. Izard belonged to the pro- Administration Group, which supported the policy of the federal government under President George Washington. From May 31 1794 to November 9 of the same year he was the president pro tempore of the Senate during the session of the third Congress before.

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