Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 04.djvu/475

 GWINNETT

GWINNETT

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resigned on the accession of General Taylor io the presideticy and settled in San Francisco Cal. June 4, 1849. He was a member of the first con stitutional convention which met at Monterey in September, 1849, to frame a state con- stitution and in De- ceml)er was elected with John Charles Frfemont to the U.S. senate. He drew the long term and in the senate was instru- mental in procuring 1, survey of the Pa- cific coast, the estab- lishment of a U.S. mint and navy yard for San Francisco and a line of steam- ers to China and Japan. He was re-elected in 1855 and at the close of his second term as U.S. senator lie was arrested for disloyalty and was imprisoned till 1863, when he was released and went to France. In Paris he developed a scheme for the coloniza- tion of Sonora, Mexico, with Southerners, and he interested Napoleon HI. in the project. He had an interview with Maximilian at the Tuileries and two weeks later Maximilian left for Mexico. Doctor Gwiu followed with an autograjih letter from Napoleon HI. to ilarshal Bazaine. Neither the marshal nor Maximilian favored the plan and Doctor Gwin returned to France in January, 1805, and freely exposed the condition of affairs in Mexico to the Emperor, which interview obtained an order on the marshal to furnish troops to aid Doctor Gwin in his scheme. On delivering the order it was not carried out and disappointed Doctor Gwin was furnished an escort to the border and he returned to his home in California where he engaged in business. He supported the candidacy of Samuel J. Tilden for President in 1876. He subsequently removed to New York city, where he died, Sept. 3, 1885.

QWINNETT, Button, signer of the Declara- tion of Independence, was born in England about 1733. He enga,ged as a merchant in Bristol, England, and subsequently in Charles-Town, S.C. He is recorded as a general trader in Savannah, Ga., in 1765, and as a planter on St. Catharine island in 1768, having purchased part of the island from the Rev. Thomas and Mary Bosom- worth for £5"350. He made the acquaintance of Dr. Lyman Hall and became with him an influ- ential " Son of Liberty. " He was a delegate from the parish of St. John to the provincial congress which met in Savannah, Jan. 20, 1776, and with Hall, Houstoun, Bulloch and Walton, was chosen


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a delegate to the Continental congress He took his seat in congress. May 20, and on July 4, 1776, voted for and on A ugust 2 following signed tha Declaiation of Independence. He was elected a member of the Coun- cil of Safety, Oct. 7, 1776, and was the chief author of the constitution of 1777 which defined anil supported the rights of Georgia as an in- dependent state and on March 4, 1777, he was appointed presi- dent of the council as sucessor to Arcliibald Bulloch, deceased. On the same day the council of safety, at «^'-u"£«r™'=""-"'ETT, hail—walto™. the suggestion of

the newly appointed president, " requested Pres- ident Gwinnett to march into Florida with a com- petent force of militia and volunteers, erecting the American standard as he went, and pro- claiming protection and security of person and property to all who would take the oath of allegiance to the United States." The expedition ended in a disastrous failure, owing largely to divided councils, as the state troops serving in the Continental establishment were under com- mand of Gen. Lachlan Mcintosh, who claimed the right to lead in the expedition, while Presi- dent Gwinnett also claimed the right as com- mander-in-chief, and this dispute demoralized the troops and the expedition was abandoned. Gwinnett, who had been defeated of election as president, challenged Mcintosh, whom he charged with his defeat, to mortal combat, and they met, May 16, 1777, and Mcintosh was dangerously and Gwinnett mortally wounded. During the prog- ress of the Revolution Gwinnett's jaroperty was entirely destro3-ed by the British army. A monument was erected in Augusta. Ga., in front of the city hall to perpetuate the memory of the signei's from Georgia, and it was made to cover the dust of Dr. Lyman Hall and of Chief Justice George Walton, but when search was made for the last resting place of Button Gwinnett there was no record on file or even tradition handed down by which it could be located, and the full intention of the builders of the monument could not be carried out, of making the site also the final resting place of the mortal bodies of the three immortal patriots. No well authenticated portrait of him exists and he left no descendants. A comity in Georgia was named for hira. He died three days after receiving his fatal wound, near Savannah, Ga., May 19, 1777.