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Biographical Sketches
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GEORGE WALTON
Georgia
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George Walton
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Like
signers Button Gwinnett and Lyman Hall a nonnative of Georgia, George
Walton fought hard to win independence for his adopted State and his
Nationboth in the political arena and on the battlefield. He was
wounded in the British siege of Savannah late in 1778 and endured
captivity for almost a year. He evinced the same kind of tenacity in all
his other endeavors and conquered a string of adversities in his ascent
from humble origins to the highest National and State offices.
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Born sometime in the 1740's near Farmville, Va.,
Walton was orphaned early and reared by an uncle, who apprenticed him to
a carpenter. Walton supplemented extensive independent study with some
formal schooling. In 1769 he moved to Savannah, Ga., read law under a
local attorney, and 5 years later joined the bar.
That same year, Walton plunged into politics.
Rallying Revolutionaries at Savannah as did Lyman Hall in St. John's
Parishthe two Whig hotbeds in a lukewarm colonyWalton helped
organize and played a key part in meetings at Savannah in July and
August 1774 and the first provincial congress the next January. But
these meetings, to which only a few parishes sent representatives,
hardly set the dissent in motion. The divided delegates, aware of their
limited constituency, failed to send Delegates to the Continental
Congress, as had all the other Colonies, and thus alienated St. John's
Parish. Except for creation of a committee of correspondence, to which
Walton was appointed, the conferees for the most part substituted
patriotic talk for action. During this period, Walton, blending
political activism with romance, took a bride. She later gave birth to
two sons.
By July 1775, when the second provincial congress
convened and designated Walton as secretary, apathy in the Revolutionary
ranks had given way to aggressiveness. The congress dispatched four
Delegates to the Continental Congress to join Hall, already an
unofficial "delegate" from St. John's Parish. The next year, the third
provincial congress elected Walton, by this time chairman of the council
of safety, as a Delegate (1776-81). In this capacity, he sat on
committees dealing with western lands, national finance, and Indian
affairs. His only lapse in attendance occurred in 1778-79, when the
military defense of his own State took precedence over his congressional
obligations. As a colonel in the Georgia militia, he was wounded and
captured during the siege of Savannah in November-December 1778the
beginning of the British invasion of the South. He was imprisoned until
the following September, when he was exchanged for a navy captain.
Right after his release, at Augusta Walton became
involved in a factional dispute between two groups of Revolutionaries.
Walton's group, irritated because their conservative opponents had taken
advantage of the confusion generated by the British occupation of
Savannah by putting their own "governor" into office without benefit of
a general election, countered by selecting Walton as its "governor"
(November 1779-January 1780). In January the new legally elected
legislature picked a Governor, another anti-conservative. Walton
returned to the Continental Congress in 1780-81, after which he headed
back to Georgia.
Walton's subsequent career suffered no diminution.
His offices included those of chief justice (1783-89) and justice
(1790-95 and 1799-1804) of the State Superior Court; delegate to the
State constitutional convention (1788); presidential elector (1789);
Governor (1789-90); and U.S. Senator (1795-96), filling out an unexpired
term. Meantime, he had been elected as a delegate to the U.S.
Constitutional Convention (1787), but did not attend. An advocate of
higher education, he was also a trustee and founder of Richmond Academy,
in Augusta, and Franklin College (later the University of Georgia), in
Athens.
About 1790 while Governor, changing his residence
from Savannah to the capital of Augusta, Walton built "Meadow Garden"
cottage on the northern edge of the city on confiscated Loyalist lands
he had acquired. He lived in the cottage for 5 years, when he moved to
College Hill, a country estate he erected on the western outskirts. He
died there in 1804. Assigned first to the Rosney Cemetery in Augusta,
his remains now rest at the Signers' Monument in that city.
Drawing: Oil, 1874, by Samuel B. Waugh, after Charles
Willson Peale, Independence National Historical Park.
http://www.cr.nps.gov/history/online_books/declaration/bio50.htm
Last Updated: 04-Jul-2004
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