Button Gwinnett

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2nd Governor of Georgia
Button Gwinnett
Image:Button Gwinnett.png
In office March 4, 1777 – May 8, 1777
Preceded by	Archibald Bulloch
Succeeded by	John A. Treutlen

Born	April 10, 1735 Gloucestershire, England
Died	May 19, 1777 near Savannah, Georgia

Button Gwinnett (baptized: April 10, 1735 – May 19, 1777), was second of the signatories (first signature on the left) on the United States Declaration of Independence as a representative of Georgia. He was also briefly the provisional president of Georgia in 1777, prior to his death, and Gwinnett County (now a major suburb of metro Atlanta) was named after him.

Button was born in 1732 in the parish of Down Hatherley in Gloucestershire, England, to Reverend Samuel and Anne Gwinnett. There are conflicting reports as to his birthdate, but he was baptized in St Catherine’s Church in Gloucester on April 10 1735. After attending The King's School, Gloucester he started his career as a merchant in Bristol, England. He then moved to Wolverhampton in 1755 and married a local, Ann Bourne, in 1757. In 1762 the couple left Wolverhampton and moved to America.

Arriving first in Charleston, South Carolina, by 1765 they had travelled to Savannah, Georgia. Gwinnett abandoned his mercantile pursuits, selling off all his merchandise to buy a tract of land on St. Catherines Island where he started a plantation. He prospered as a planter, and by 1769 had gained such local prominence that he was elected to the Provincial Assembly. During his tenure in the Assembly, Gwinnett's chief political rival was Lachlan McIntosh and Lyman Hall was his closest ally. Gwinnett did not become a strong advocate of colonist rights until 1775, when St. John's Parish, which encompassed his lands, threatened to secede from Georgia due to the colony's rather conservative response to the events of the times.

He was appointed commander of Georgia's militia, but declined the position, and was elected to attend the Continental Congress. He signed the first paper copy of the Declaration of Independence on July 4 1776, and remained in Philadelphia until the Parchment Declaration was completed. He signed the final copy on August 2 1776. After signing the Declaration, he was accompanied as far as Virginia by Carter Braxton, another of the signers, carrying a proposed State Constitution drawn up by John Adams. During his service in the Continental Congress, Gwinnett was a candidate for a brigadier general position to lead the 1st Georgia Regiment in the Continental Army, but lost out to Lachlan McIntosh. The loss of the position to his rival embittered Gwinnett greatly.

He served in the Georgia State Legislature and in 1777 he wrote the original draft of Georgia’s first State Constitution mainly from the John Adams pamphlet. He soon became Speaker of the Georgia Assembly, a position he held until the death of the President (Governor) of Georgia, Archibald Bulloch. Gwinnett was elevated to the vacated position by the Assembly’s Executive Council. In this position, he sought to undermine the leadership of McIntosh.

As president of the Council of Safety, he organized an invasion of British East Florida. Due to the convening of the legislature, Gwinnett was unable to lead the troops himself and relied on a subordinate officer of McIntosh. The invasion ultimately proved to be a failure. Gwinnett's loss of an election for governor in May 1777 is most likely due to the failed expedition. At this time McIntosh, revelling in Gwinnett's embarrassment, openly criticized him for the failed campaign, although Gwinnett was cleared of wrongdoing. Gwinnett challenged McIntosh to a duel, which was fought on May 16 1777, at the small town of Thunderbolt, near Savannah. Both were wounded: McIntosh survived, but Button Gwinnett died three days later of gangrene resulting from having the bone of his leg shattered.

Image:Buttongwinnettmarker.jpg

A monument for Button Gwinnett at Colonial Park Cemetery in Savannah, Georgia.

A fairly obscure historical figure, Gwinnett nonetheless does hold one claim to fame: his autograph is among the most valuable in the world, a fact used to good effect by science fiction author Isaac Asimov in his short story "Button, Button." Valuations usually suggest an example of an original Gwinnett signature would be valued only behind the likes of Julius Caesar and William Shakespeare, making Gwinnett’s by far the most valuable American autograph. Single examples of Gwinnett’s autograph have been sold for as much as $150,000. Its extraordinarily high value is a result of a combination of the desire by many top collectors to acquire a complete set of autographs by all 56 signers of the U.S. Declaration of Independence, and the extreme rarity of the Gwinnett signature (there are less than 30 known extant examples, since Gwinnett was fairly obscure prior to signing the Declaration and died shortly afterwards). In the 1920s, five copies of his signature were owned by a Dr. Rosenbach.