Gwin, William McKendree

Life Span
to
    Full name
    William McKendree Gwin
    Place of Birth
    Burial Place
    Birth Date Certainty
    Exact
    Death Date Certainty
    Exact
    Gender
    Male
    Race
    White
    Sectional choice
    South
    Origins
    Slave State
    No. of Spouses
    2
    No. of Children
    6
    Family
    James Gwin (father), Mary Adair (mother), Caroline M. J. Sampson (first wife), Mary Elizabeth Hampton Bell (second wife)
    Education
    Transylvania
    Occupation
    Politician
    Farmer or Planter
    Businessman
    Doctor, Dentist or Nurse
    Relation to Slavery
    Slaveholder
    Political Parties
    Democratic
    Government
    Jackson Administration (1829-37)
    US Senate
    US House of Representatives

    William McKendree Gwin (Congressional Biographical Directory)

    Reference
    GWIN, William McKendree, a Representative from Mississippi and a Senator from California; born near Gallatin, Sumner County, Tenn., October 9, 1805; pursued classical studies; graduated from the medical department of Transylvania University, Lexington, Ky., in 1828; practiced medicine in Clinton, Miss., until 1833; United States marshal of Mississippi in 1833; elected as a Democrat from Mississippi to the Twenty-seventh Congress (March 4, 1841-March 3, 1843); declined to be a candidate for renomination in 1842; moved to California in 1849; member of the State constitutional convention in 1849; upon the admission of California as a State into the Union was elected as a Democrat to the United States Senate and served from September 10, 1850, to March 3, 1855; reelected to the United States Senate to fill the vacancy occurring at the expiration of his term, caused by the failure of the legislature to elect, and served from January 13, 1857, to March 3, 1861; chairman, Committee on Naval Affairs (Thirty-second and Thirty-third Congresses), Committee on Post Office and Post Roads (Thirty-sixth Congress); an outspoken proponent of slavery, was twice arrested for disloyalty during the Civil War; traveled to France in 1863 in an attempt to interest Napoleon III in a project to settle American slave-owners in Mexico; retired to California and engaged in agricultural pursuits; died in New York City September 3, 1885; interment in Mountain View Cemetery, Oakland, Calif.
    "Gwin, William McKendree," Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1774 to Present, http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=g000540.
    Chicago Style Entry Link
    Quinn, Arthur. The Rivals: William Gwin, David Broderick, and the Birth of California. New York: Crown Publishers, Inc., 1994 view record
    Steele, Robert V. Between Two Empires: The Life Story of California’s First Senator. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1969. view record
    How to Cite This Page: "Gwin, William McKendree," House Divided: The Civil War Research Engine at Dickinson College, https://hd.housedivided.dickinson.edu/node/12211.