William M. Gwin
William McKendree Gwin (October 9, 1805 – September 3, 1885) was an American medical doctor and politician who served in elected office in Mississippi and California. In California he shared the distinction, along with John C. Frémont, of being the state's first U.S. senators. Before, during, and after the Civil War, Gwin was well known in California, Washington, D.C., and the Southern United States as a determined Confederate sympathizer.
William Gwin
Himself (1855)
Himself (Shadow Senator)
Himself (1857)
Seat established
Himself (U.S. Senator)
September 3, 1885 (aged 79)
New York City, U.S.
Later life[edit]
Gwin returned east to New York on the same ship as Edwin Vose Sumner, commander of the Union Army's Department of the Pacific. Sumner organized Gwin's arrest along with two other secessionists, John Slidell (soon after involved in the Trent Affair) and J.L. Brent. However, President Abraham Lincoln intervened for their release, wishing to avoid an international incident, as Gwin had friends in Panama. Gwin sent his wife and one of his daughters to Europe, while he returned to his plantation in Mississippi. The plantation was destroyed in the war and Gwin, a daughter, and son fled to Paris.
In 1864, he attempted to interest Napoleon III in a project to settle American slave owners in Sonora, Mexico. Despite a positive response from Napoleon, the idea was rejected by his protégé, Maximilian I, who feared that Gwin and his southerners would take Sonora for themselves. After the war, he returned to the United States and gave himself up to Major General Philip Sheridan in New Orleans. Sheridan granted his original request for release to rejoin his family, which had also returned, but was countermanded by President Andrew Johnson.
Gwin retired to California and engaged in agricultural pursuits until his death in New York City in 1885. He was interred at Mountain View Cemetery in Oakland, California.[2]