Among the victims of this cruel practice, was Button Gwinnett, a man of splendid talents and a pure patriot of the revolution, whose private character was without a stain, and his public career as brilliant as it was transient. He was born in England in 1732. His parents were respectable, but not wealthy. Being a boy of promise, they bestowed upon him an accomplished education, and at his majority he commenced a successful career in the mercantile business at Bristol, in his native country. He was commanding in appearance, six feet in height, open countenance, graceful manners, and possessed of fine feeling. Surrounded by an increasing family, he resolved on seeking another and a broader country, and in 1770 embarked for America. He landed at Charleston, S. C., where he commenced commercial business and remained two years. He then disposed of his merchandise and purchased a plantation upon St. Catharine’s Island, in Georgia, to which he removed and became an enterprising agriculturalist. He was a man of an active and penetrating mind, and a close observer of passing events. Having been in England during the formation of the visionary and impolitic plan of taxing the colonies, he understood well the frame work of the British cabinet, and from his course in the struggle that ensued, it is reasonable to infer that he had imbibed strong whig principles before his removal to this country. The subject of raising a revenue from the pioneers of the new world had been long and ably discussed in England. Many of her profoundest statesmen, and the most sagacious one that ever graced her parliament, lord Chatham, portrayed with all the truth of prophecy, the result of the unjust, the blind course of ministers towards the Americans. Connected with commerce and intelligent men as he was at Bristol, Mr. Gwinnett had become well informed upon the litigated points in controversy, and was well acquainted with the relative feelings and situation of the two countries. When the question of liberty or slavery was fairly placed before the people of his adopted land, he declared himself in favour of the latter. Knowing as he did the superior physical force of Great Britain and the comparative weakness of the colonies, their freedom, at first, seemed to him a paradox. His doubts upon the subject were removed in 1775, by the enthusiasm exhibited by the patriots, and by the lucid demonstrations of Lyman Hall, a bold and fearless advocate of equal rights, with whom he became intimate. Convinced from the beginning of the justice of the cause, and now convinced of its feasibility, he soon became a public champion in its favour. He had counted the cost, he had revolved in his mind the dangers that would accumulate around his family, himself and his property, which he truly predicted would be destroyed by his enemies, and had deliberately and nobly resolved to risk his life, his fortune and his sacred honour, in defence of chartered rights and constitutional franchises.