Button Gwinnett, arriving with his wife first in Charleston, Province of South Carolina, had moved to the Province of Georgia by 1765.
Gwinnett had abandoned his mercantile pursuits, selling off all his merchandise to buy a tract of land where he started a plantation.
He had prospered as a planter, and by 1769 had gained such local prominence that he was elected to the Provincial Assembly.
Gwinnett had not become a strong advocate of colonial rights until 1775, when St. John's Parish, which encompasses his lands, threatened to secede from Georgia due to the colony's rather conservative response to the events of the times.
During his tenure in the Assembly, Gwinnett's chief rival had been Lachlan McIntosh, and Lyman Hall was his closest ally.
Gwinnett's rivalry with McIntosh had begun when McIntosh was appointed as brigadier general of the Georgia Continentals in 1776.
Gwinnett had voted in favor of the Declaration of Independence, adopted by Congress on July 2, 1776, two days before the "fair copy," dated July 4, 1776, was presented to the Congress.
He had signed the famous parchment 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 had been a candidate for a brigadier general position to lead the 1st Regiment in the Continental Army, but lost out to Lachlan McIntosh.
The loss of the position to his rival had embittered Gwinnett greatly.
Gwinnett serves in the Georgia state legislature, and in 1777 he writes the original draft of Georgia's first State Constitution.
He had soon become Speaker of the Georgia Assembly, a position he had held until the death of the President (Governor) of Georgia, Archibald Bulloch.
Gwinnett had been elevated to the vacated position by the Assembly’s Executive Council.
In this position, he has sought to undermine the leadership of McIntosh.
Tensions between Gwinnett and McIntosh reach a boiling point when the General Assembly votes to approve Gwinnett's attack on British Florida in April 1777.
In early 1777, Gwinnett and his allies had gained control of the Georgia Provisional Congress, and he had become acting President of the Congress and commander-in-chief of Georgia's military.
As such, he is now the superior of his rival Lachlan McIntosh.
Gwinnett had had McIntosh's brother arrested and charged with treason.
He had also ordered McIntosh to lead an invasion of British-controlled East Florida, which had failed.
Gwinnett and McIntosh blame each other for the defeat, and McIntosh publicly calls Gwinnett "a scoundrel and lying rascal".
Gwinnett now challenges McIntosh to a duel, which they fight on May 16, 1777 at a plantation owned by Governor James Wright.
The two men exchange pistol shots at twelve paces, and both are wounded.
Gwinnett dies of his wounds on May 19, 1777.
McIntosh, although wounded, quickly recovers and will go on to live until 1806.
He will never be charged in connection with Gwinnett's death.
