On this day in 1777, signer of the Declaration of Independence Button Gwinnett receives a bullet wound in a duel with political rival Lachlan McIntosh. He would die three days later.

The Georgia Patriot served as a member of the Continental Congress in 1776. As such, he was one of three Georgians to sign the Declaration of Independence.

Gwinnett’s Georgia

Lastly, in 1777 Button Gwinnett helped draft Georgia’s first State Constitution. Here is a portion:

ART. LVII. The great seal of this State shall have the following device: on one side a scroll, whereon shall be engraved, ” The Constitution of the State of Georgia; ” and the motto, “Pro bono publico.” On the other side, an elegant house, and other buildings, fields of corn, and meadows covered with sheep and cattle; a river running through the same, with a ship under full sail, and the motto, “Deus nobis haec otia fecit.”

Translation: “God has bestowed these blessings on us.”