54 of 56 · Georgia
GWINNETT
A Duelist's Guide
28 lessons. 4 chapters. In his own words.
He signed, fought a rival for command, and died of the wound at forty-two. His autograph is now the rarest in the room.
Button Gwinnett · 1735–1777 · Merchant · acting governor · duelist
01
A Late Colony
1 of 4
Georgia comes last. Come anyway.
“A zealous democrat. He carried a copy of the first constitution of Pennsylvania with him to Georgia, where he had address enough to get it adopted.”
Benjamin Rush, Characters of the Signers · ca. 1800
Born Gloucestershire. Failed Bristol merchant. St. Catherine's Island. The youngest colony, the last to send a full delegation. Late is a starting time, not an apology. Bring a document the room does not yet have.
Import the constitution you cannot wait for.
“A zealous democrat. He carried a copy of the first constitution of Pennsylvania with him to Georgia, where he had address enough to get it adopted.”
Benjamin Rush, Characters of the Signers · ca. 1800
He liked Pennsylvania's radical frame and made it Georgia's. Imitation is how a late colony catches up. Steal the good statute. Do not wait to invent one while the British are in Florida.
Sign, then go home. The colony is unfinished.
“And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.”
The Declaration of Independence · 1776
Arrived May. Voted July 2. Signed August 2. Back in Savannah by the end of the month. A late colony cannot spare you to enjoy Philadelphia. The parchment is a beginning. The creek border is the job.
A late name on a late colony is still a name.
“So attached to the Liberty of this State & Continent, that his whole Attention, Influence & Interest, centered in it, & Seem'd Riveted to it.”
Lyman Hall to Roger Sherman · 1777
Hall wrote this after the duel. Attachment is what a late arrival has instead of ancestry. Rivet yourself. The room can smell a tourist. It cannot ignore a man who has burned his boats.
Late is a starting time, not an apology.
“A zealous democrat. He carried a copy of the first constitution of Pennsylvania with him to Georgia, where he had address enough to get it adopted.”
Benjamin Rush, Characters of the Signers · ca. 1800
Born Gloucestershire. Failed Bristol merchant. St. Catherine's Island. The youngest colony, the last to send a full delegation. Come anyway. Bring a document the room does not yet have.
Steal the good statute. Do not wait to invent one.
“A zealous democrat. He carried a copy of the first constitution of Pennsylvania with him to Georgia, where he had address enough to get it adopted.”
Benjamin Rush, Characters of the Signers · ca. 1800
He liked Pennsylvania's radical frame and made it Georgia's. Imitation is how a late colony catches up. The British are in Florida. Import the constitution you cannot wait for.
A late colony cannot spare you to enjoy Philadelphia.
“And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.”
The Declaration of Independence · 1776
Arrived May. Voted July 2. Signed August 2. Back in Savannah by the end of the month. The parchment is a beginning. The creek border is the job. Sign, then go home.
02
The Rival
2 of 4
Command is not owed because you signed.
“The Gen calld him (as tis said) Scoundrell & lying Rascal.”
Lyman Hall to Roger Sherman, on Lachlan McIntosh in the Assembly · 1777
Gwinnett wanted the Georgia troops. McIntosh had them. The parchment does not come with a general's commission. A rival with a battalion will not move because your autograph is famous. Find another lever or walk away.
Do not run a war as a personal slight.
“The Contention between him & the Gen run high, principally respect the Expedition against E Florida.”
Lyman Hall to Roger Sherman · 1777
East Florida was a real front. The quarrel made it a duel in waiting. Strategy that cannot survive a rival's face is not strategy. It is a grudge with maps.
The Assembly can approve you and still not save you.
“The Assembly Resolved, that they approved of the Conduct of Mr Gwinnett & his Council so far as those Matters had been laid before them.”
Lyman Hall to Roger Sherman · 1777
He won the inquiry. He lost the governorship. He lost the morning in the pasture. A resolution is paper. A rival with pistols is not. Do not cash a legislative victory at dawn.
Keep the friend who will write the truth after.
“Alas my Friend! my Friend!”
Lyman Hall to Roger Sherman · 1777
Hall had pulled him into the cause. Hall wrote Sherman the whole ugly story. A rival will define you if no friend remains to say you were attached to the liberty of the continent. Keep one such friend. He is the only honest obituary.
The parchment does not come with a general's commission.
“The Gen calld him (as tis said) Scoundrell & lying Rascal.”
Lyman Hall to Roger Sherman, on Lachlan McIntosh in the Assembly · 1777
Gwinnett wanted the Georgia troops. McIntosh had them. A rival with a battalion will not move because your autograph is famous. Find another lever or walk away. Command is not owed because you signed.
Strategy that cannot survive a rival's face is a grudge with maps.
“The Contention between him & the Gen run high, principally respect the Expedition against E Florida.”
Lyman Hall to Roger Sherman · 1777
East Florida was a real front. The quarrel made it a duel in waiting. Do not run a war as a personal slight. The creek border does not care who insulted whom in the Assembly.
Do not cash a legislative victory at dawn.
“The Assembly Resolved, that they approved of the Conduct of Mr Gwinnett & his Council so far as those Matters had been laid before them.”
Lyman Hall to Roger Sherman · 1777
He won the inquiry. He lost the governorship. He lost the morning in the pasture. A resolution is paper. A rival with pistols is not. The Assembly can approve you and still not save you.
03
Twelve Paces
3 of 4
It was twelve feet. Vanity lengthens the walk.
“They were placed at 10 or 12 foot Distance, Discharged their pistols nearly at the same Time—Each Wounded in the Thigh.”
Lyman Hall to Roger Sherman · 1777
Sir James Wright's pasture, May 16, 1777. Not a gentleman's avenue of paces. A short lawn and two pistols. Honor that requires twelve feet is already a kind of suicide. Call it what it was.
Do not ask to be helped up for a second shot.
“The Gen Asked him if he Chose to Take another Shot—was Answered, Yes, if they wd help him up.”
Lyman Hall to Roger Sherman, reporting the duel · 1777
Thigh broken. He wanted another round. The seconds stopped it. Courage here is indistinguishable from a refusal to learn. The first ball was already enough. Live, if the seconds will let you.
Hot weather and a broken thigh is a death sentence.
“The Weather Extrem Hot—a Mortification came on—he languished from that Morning (Friday) till Monday Morning following & Expired.”
Lyman Hall to Roger Sherman · 1777
Gangrene, not glory. May 19. Forty-two years old. Ten months after the signature. McIntosh lived. The cause lost a governor and kept a feud. Duels do not clarify republics. They thin them.
O Liberty, stop taking your best at dawn.
“O Liberty! why do you suffer so many of your faithfull sons, your Warmest Votaries to fall at your Shrine!”
Lyman Hall to Roger Sherman · 1777
Hall's cry is the right sermon. A shrine that feeds on the faithful is a bad religion. Save the powder for Florida. The pasture behind Colonel Martin's house is not a battlefield. It is a waste.
Honor that requires twelve feet is already a kind of suicide.
“They were placed at 10 or 12 foot Distance, Discharged their pistols nearly at the same Time—Each Wounded in the Thigh.”
Lyman Hall to Roger Sherman · 1777
Sir James Wright's pasture, May 16, 1777. Not a gentleman's avenue of paces. A short lawn and two pistols. Vanity lengthens the walk. Call it what it was. Twelve feet.
The first ball was already enough. Live, if the seconds will let you.
“The Gen Asked him if he Chose to Take another Shot—was Answered, Yes, if they wd help him up.”
Lyman Hall to Roger Sherman, reporting the duel · 1777
Thigh broken. He wanted another round. The seconds stopped it. Courage here is indistinguishable from a refusal to learn. Do not ask to be helped up for a second shot.
Duels do not clarify republics. They thin them.
“The Weather Extrem Hot—a Mortification came on—he languished from that Morning (Friday) till Monday Morning following & Expired.”
Lyman Hall to Roger Sherman · 1777
Gangrene, not glory. May 19. Forty-two years old. Ten months after the signature. McIntosh lived. The cause lost a governor and kept a feud. Hot weather and a broken thigh is a death sentence.
04
The Scarce Name
4 of 4
Die early and the signature becomes a relic.
“And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.”
The Declaration of Independence · 1776
His autograph is the rarest in the room. Not because it was the noblest hand. Because he had ten months to write anything else and spent them on a rival. Scarcity is a market. It is not a eulogy.
Riveted is the word. Not famous.
“The Man was Valuable, so attached to the Liberty of this State & Continent, that his whole Attention, Influence & Interest, centered in it, & Seem'd Riveted to it.”
Lyman Hall to Roger Sherman · 1777
Hall did not mention collectors. He mentioned attachment. Be riveted. Let the dealers worry about the ink. A scarce name that was not spent on the work is just a curiosity. His was spent. Then wasted on twelve feet of grass.
A widow, a daughter, and a continent to deplore.
“He left a Mournfull Widow & Daughr & I may say, the Friends of Liberty on the whole Continent to Deplore his Fall.”
Lyman Hall to Roger Sherman · 1777
The estate was insolvent. The name became expensive. That inversion is the joke history plays on duels. The family got the debt. Strangers got the relic. Do not die in a way that mints a hobby.
Carry the Pennsylvania constitution. Skip the pasture.
“A zealous democrat. He carried a copy of the first constitution of Pennsylvania with him to Georgia, where he had address enough to get it adopted. He fell soon afterwards in a duel in that State.”
Benjamin Rush, Characters of the Signers · ca. 1800
Rush put the whole life in three sentences: import a frame of government, then fall. The first act built a state. The second unbuilt a man. Stop after the useful sentence.
Scarcity is a market. It is not a eulogy.
“And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.”
The Declaration of Independence · 1776
His autograph is the rarest in the room. Not because it was the noblest hand. Because he had ten months to write anything else and spent them on a rival. Die early and the signature becomes a relic. Do not mint a hobby.
Be riveted. Let the dealers worry about the ink.
“The Man was Valuable, so attached to the Liberty of this State & Continent, that his whole Attention, Influence & Interest, centered in it, & Seem'd Riveted to it.”
Lyman Hall to Roger Sherman · 1777
Hall did not mention collectors. He mentioned attachment. A scarce name that was not spent on the work is just a curiosity. His was spent. Then wasted on twelve feet of grass.
The family got the debt. Strangers got the relic.
“He left a Mournfull Widow & Daughr & I may say, the Friends of Liberty on the whole Continent to Deplore his Fall.”
Lyman Hall to Roger Sherman · 1777
The estate was insolvent. The name became expensive. That inversion is the joke history plays on duels. Do not die in a way that mints a hobby and starves a daughter.