BUTTON GWINNETT Second only to Hancock, After crossing the Atlantic To Charleston... to Georgia. A historical ghost misting The corridors of Independence. One of 56 Along with Adams and Franklin And Harrison and Lee, second only To Hancock But lost In the dust of the silent rows Of now dead books, The forgotten sound of a name Left behind in an uneventful moment Between twilight and eternity. He died once In a duel On a mud slick field somewhere In antiquity, Somewhere else but here Button Gwinnett (1735 – May 19, 1777) was an British-born American political leader who, as a representative of Georgia to the Continental Congress, was the second of the signatories (first signature on the left) on the United States Declaration of Independence. He was also, briefly, the provisional president of Georgia in 1777, and Gwinnett County (now a major suburb of metropolitan Atlanta) was named for him. Gwinnett was killed in a duel by a rival, Lachlan McIntosh, following a dispute after a failed invasion of East Florida
Posted on: Mon, 31 Mar 2014 00:42:10 +0000
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