George Walton (1749-2 February 1804) was Governor of Georgia from 7 January 1789 to 9 November 1790, succeeding George Handley and preceding Edward Telfair, and a US Senator from 16 November 1795 to 20 February 1796, succeeding James Jackson and preceding Josiah Tattnall. He was a member of the Federalist Party.
Biography[]
George Walton was born in Cumberland County, Virginia in 1749, and he became a lawyer in 1774; he would be one of the most successful lawyers in Georgia at the start of the American Revolutionary War. In 1776, he served as a delegate to the Continental Congress, and he voted in favor of the US Declaration of Independence. During the war, he served in Robert Howe's Continental Army battalion, and he was wounded and captured during the British capture of Savannah in 1778. In 1779, he was elected Governor of Georgia for the first time, serving for just two months. Walton became an ally of Lachlan McIntosh and an enemy of Button Gwinnett, and he and Gwinnett's political battles resulted in his expulsion from office; he was later censured for supporting the McIntosh-Gwinnett duel, in which Gwinnett was killed. During the 1780s, he focused on state politics (including treaties with Native Americans), and he again served as Governor from 1789 to 1790. In 1795, he was appointed to serve out the rest of James Jackson's unexpired term in the US Senate, leaving office in 1796 and dying in 1804.