James Gwin (Methodist minister)

James Gwin

Rev. James Gwin (January 10, 1769 – August 3, 1841) was an American frontier soldier and Methodist camp-meeting preacher who worked throughout the west, originally in Tennessee and Kentucky, then in Missouri and Illinois, finally retiring to Mississippi to be closer to his sons. In 1843 he was described as "the Indian fighter, and war chaplain to chieftain [Andrew] Jackson—one of the best Christians in the world, but believing it to be a religious duty never to forgive an enemy until he had first given him a sound thrashing—who believed both in prayer and battle—the battle first and the prayer afterwards." One of Gwin's sons, William McKendree Gwin, became one of the first U.S. Senators from California. Another son, Samuel Gwin, died from wounds received in a duel in Mississippi over an appointment made by Jackson to a U.S. government land office. The last letter Jackson ever wrote was addressed to W. K. Gwin; Jackson expressed his deep fondness for Gwin as well as his regard for Gwin's "venerated father and brother."

Biography

Gwin was born in Virginia or North Carolina. He moved west around 1791, arriving in time to fight the Cherokee in Tennessee, participating in a bloody battle on Caney Fork and in the Nickajack Expedition. Gwin later wrote detailed accounts of these fights for the Nashville-based Western Methodist magazine in the mid-1830s, under the title "Recollections of the West."

He joined the Methodist Conference in 1802, at Sumner county, Tennessee. He organized what was called the Barren Circuit in Kentucky. Beginning in 1807 he traveled in company with William McKendree and preached at camp meetings in Illinois and Missouri, which were then "but thinly settled." Methodist historian McFerrin described him as "commanding, being more than six feet in height, and in his later years he weighed over two hundred pounds...and his voice unsurpassed for strength and sweetness...His early educational opportunities were limited, but he was a great student of nature, and had wonderful fluency of speech. His sermons were not remarkable for order or symmetry, nor did they show much familiarity with the classics or scholastic divinity; but he was well-versed in the Scriptures, and had studied the human heart; hence his discourses were direct, and oftentimes eloquent and powerful...Said a young minister, who was his colleague in Nashville, while Mr. Gwin was pastor there, 'Brother Gwin, how is it that you are ever prepared to preach? You seem to be seldom in your study, and scarcely ever read.' 'O my son,' replied Mr. Gwin, 'you do not understand it: you preachers of your class have to read and study books to master your subjects, but I know what the books are made of before they are printed.'"

William McKendree and James Gwin camp meetings schedule 1818

McGwin was present at the Battle of New Orleans where he tended to the men as chaplain. It was later claimed by a Jackson-enthusiast Natchez newspaper that he commanded between 1,200 and 1,400 men at the battle, equivalent to a brigade.

According to the "California correspondent for the New Orleans True Delta" in 1850, "...the Rev. James Gwin, was for several years attached to Gen. Jackson's suite...Jackson was devotedly attached to him, and it is well known, that whenever he desired to reach the public ear, it was his wont to express his views or complain of his grievances in letters addressed to his favorite chaplain." One such case was an 1835 letter signaling that he favored Martin Van Buren over Hugh Lawson White to be his successor. Gwin died in 1841, and has a grave marker at Cedar Hill Cemetery in Vicksburg, Mississippi.

One of his sons was William McKendree Gwin, eventually a U.S. Senator for California. Dr. W. M. Gwin also played an important role in Jackson's communications with Sam Houston regarding the establishment of Texas.

Samuel Gwin

Chocchuma Hotel for Sale by Samuel Gwin (1834)

Another son, Samuel Gwin (1790s–1838) was ultimately involved in a Jacksonian political battle over patronage jobs. He had served in John Coffee's mounted brigade during the War of 1812. He was said to be "a cripple" but could ride a horse. He later wrote to a U.S. Senator that he was "in Coffee's brigade In the assault and capture of Pensacola in 1814, and in all the engagements with the British below New Orleans." During the same period he served as "secretary to the General." His life for the 14 years between the end of the war and 1829 is undocumented. In 1829 during the first year of the Andrew Jackson administration he was appointed to a clerkship at the post office and went to Washington, D.C. for that job.

Andrew Jackson wanted to appoint, first, his nephew Stockley D. Hays, who inconveniently died before he could fulfill the duties of the land office appointment, and second, Samuel Gwin. U.S. Senator George Poindexter opposed both selections. Gwin wrote to Poindexter that while he remained devoted to his post office duties, he had health problems stemming from his military service and his wife was developing tuberculosis so a warmer climate would benefit their health. Gwin's appointment was rejected by the Senate but Roger Taney suggested that Jackson that he could make a recess appointment according to Taney's reading of the U.S. Constitution. Ultimately Gwin was appointed/transferred to a new land office at Chocchuma, Mississippi. A memorandum in support of Gwin was sent to Washington by "Powhattan Ellis, Gen. Thomas Hinds and Robert J. Walker, signed by every Democratic member of the legislature and by one thousand of the most influential citizens." Another testimonial was provided by George R. Yerger, J. S. Yerger, and Fulton Anderson, "who had known him from boyhood in Tennessee."

The sale of public land at the Chocchuma land office was ultimately investigated by the U.S. Congress, "which revealed that although members of Congress, the chief justice of the Court of Appeals of Mississippi, and the federal marshal were present, no one could recall that the provisions of the Act of 1830 had been read, as required by the instructions of the Commissioner of the Land Office, or that there had been protests against the clearly illegal actions of the combinations. It was also brought out that the register, Samuel Gwin, had left his office to buy some tracts and had resold them immediately at a 33 percent profit to settlers, but the only unusual feature of his conduct is that he was induced to admit his dereliction."

Ultimately Samuel Gwin dueled Poindexter's law partner Isaac Caldwell over the matter, and both of them died from it, one sooner, and one later.

See also

• Spoils system

Sources

• Anderson, Douglas (1921). "The Fighting Gwins of Fountain Head". Nashville Banner. Vol. XLVI. Nashville, Tennessee. - "The articles to be printed under this heading have to do with Rev. James Gwin and his two sons, Samuel sad Willlam. They will take the reader into the Indian fighting und camp-meeting periods of our history, and then into the Jacksonian and dueling periods."
  • 1921-08-07 Part 1
  • 1921-08-14 Part 2
  • 1921-08-21 Part 3
  • 1921-08-28 Part 4
  • 1921-09-04 Part 5
  • 1921-09-11 Part 6
• Gates, Paul W. (November 1968). History of Public Land Law Development, Written for the U.S. States Public Land Law Review Commission. One chapter written by Robert W. Swenson. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office. LCCN 68062999. OCLC 453829.
• McFerrin, John B. (1874). "XVII". History of Methodism in Tennessee. Vol. I. Nashville, Tennessee: Southern Methodist Printing House. pp. 419–469. LCCN unk82042716. OCLC 669362005 – via HathiTrust.

Further reading

• Campbell, Will (2002) [1992]. Providence. Baylor University Press.