- William M. Gwin
Infobox Senator
name=William McKendree Gwin
width=200px
jr/sr=United States Senator
state=California
party=Democrat
term=September 9 ,1850 –March 3 ,1855 January 13 ,1857 –March 3 ,1861
preceded="(none)"
William M. Gwin
succeeded=William M. GwinJames A. McDougall
date of birth=October 9 ,1805
place of birth=Gallatin, Tennessee , USA
date of death=September 3 ,1885
place of death=New York City, New York, USA
spouse=
profession=Politician ,Physician
religion=
footnotes=William McKendree Gwin (
October 9 ,1805 –September 3 ,1885 ) was an American medical doctor and politician.Born near
Gallatin, Tennessee , his father, theReverend James Gwin, was a pioneerMethodist minister under the Rev.William McKendree , his son's namesake. Rev. James Gwin also served as a soldier on the frontier under GeneralAndrew Jackson . William Gwin pursued classical studies and graduated from the medical department ofTransylvania University inLexington, Kentucky in 1828. He practiced medicine inClinton, Mississippi until 1833 when he became theUnited States Marshal for Mississippi, serving for one year.He was elected as a Democrat from Mississippi during the
27th Congress of 1841 to 1843. Declining a renomination for Congress on account of financial embarrassment, he was appointed, on the accession ofJames K. Polk to the Presidency, to superintend the building of the new custom-house at New Orleans, Louisiana. He moved toCalifornia in 1849 and participated in the California state constitutional convention the same year. He also purchased some property inPaloma, California where agold mine was established. The Gwin Mine would eventually yield millions of dollars, providing him with a fortune to live on. He also organised the "Chivalry" wing of the Democratic Party, which was opposed by the Whig wing.Upon the admission of California as
U.S. state , Gwin was elected as a Democrat to theUnited States Senate . He first served fromSeptember 9 ,1850 , toMarch 3 ,1855 . He was a strong advocate ofpacific expansion and in 1852 advocated a survey of theBering Strait . Following the discovery of gold inCalifornia in 1848, Gwin presented a bill that, when approved by the Senate and the House, became the Act ofMarch 3 ,1851 , which established a three-member Board of Land Commissioners, to be appointed by the President for a three-year term (the period was twice extended by Congress, resulting in a five-year total term of service). [Robinson, p. 100] The function of thisPublic Land Commission was to determine the validity of Spanish and Mexicanland grant s in California.California Governor
John Bigler turned to Gwin's rivalDavid Broderick when Gwin failed to help him obtain the Ambassadorship toChile . Broderick was appointed Chairman of theCalifornia Democratic Party which was split as a result. Gwin had a duel with Congressman Joseph McCorkle with rifles at thirty yards following an argument over his alleged mismanagement of federal patronage: Shots were fired by both men but only a donkey some distance off was shot dead. This introduced a period of turmoil in California's political scene with bribery, physical intimidation, and non-stop political maneuvering being prevalent. Although weaker than Gwin's faction, the Roderick faction was able to block Gwin from being re-elected senator in 1855. When theKnow Nothings exploited this weakness, Broderick accepted Gwin's canditure and he was reelected to the United States Senate, and served fromJanuary 13 ,1857 , toMarch 3 ,1861 . He tookJoseph Heco with him toWashington, D.C. to meet his friend PresidentJames Buchanan .During the 32nd and
33rd Congress es he was chairman of theU.S. Senate Committee on Naval Affairs . During his second term he was also a member of theU.S. Senate Committee on Finance . While in the Senate, he secured the establishment of a mint in California, the survey of the Pacific coast, a navy yard and station, with large appropriations, and carried through the senate a bill providing for a line of steamers betweenSan Francisco ,China andJapan , by way of theSandwich Islands . By 1860 he was advocating the purchase ofAlaska from theRussia nTsar . Despite the newly formed Republican Party winning several important urban contests in California, Gwin's wing of the Democratic Party did very well in the California elections of 1859. After the election of Abraham Lincoln in 1860, Gwin helped organise abortive secret discussions between Lincoln's new Secretary of State,William H. Seward , and some of Southern leaders to find a compromise which would avoid the permanent dissolution of the Union.Before hostilities broke out between the states, Gwin toured the South and then returned to California. Here the "Chivalry" spoke on the South's behalf. Gwin even considered that it might be possible for a Republic of the Pacific centered on California to secede from the Union but when his party suffered badly in the elections of 1861 he saw there was little that he could do in California. Gwin returned east to New York on the same ship as
Edwin Vose Sumner (commander of theUnion Army 'sDepartment of the Pacific ) andMikhail Bakunin - an acquaintance ofJoseph Heco . Sumner organised Gwin's arrest along with two other secessionist sympathisers but PresidentAbraham Lincoln intervened for his release. He sent his wife and one of his daughters toEurope returning himself to his plantation in Mississippi. The plantation was destroyed in the war and Gwin, a daughter, and son fled toParis . In 1864 he attempted to interestNapoleon III in a project to settle American slave-owners inSonora ,Mexico . Despite a positive response fromNapoleon III , the idea was rejected by his protegé, Maximilian I, who feared that Gwin and his southerners would take Sonora for themselves. After the war, he returned to theUnited States and gave himself up to GeneralPhilip Sheridan inNew Orleans . General Sheridan granted his original request for release to rejoin his family, whom had also returned, but this was countermanded by PresidentAndrew Johnson who was on the outs with Sheridan.He retired to California and engaged in agricultural pursuits until his death in
New York City in 1885. He was interned in Mountain View Cemetery,Oakland, California .Notes
References
*
*appletonsExternal links
* [http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=5994 William M. Gwin] at
Find A Grave
* [http://online.ohlone.edu/english/eng163/WGwin.html Senator William Gwin and the Politics of Prejudice] by Howard A. DeWitt
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.