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:''This page is about a former politician; see Andrew Hamilton (disambiguation) for other meanings.''
'Andrew Jackson Hamilton' (January 28, 1815 – April 11, 1875) was a United States politician during the third quarter of the 19th century. He was a lawyer, state representative, Military governor of Texas, as well as governor of Texas during Reconstruction. ^[1]

Contents

Early life

Political career

Governor of Texas

After the governorship

Sources

External links

Early life

Hamilton was born in Huntsville, Alabama on January 28, 1815. His education began in Alabama where he went to law school and was eventually admitted to the bar in Talladega, Alabama. In order to join his older brother Morgan, Hamilton moved to Texas late in 1846 and opened his own law practice in La Grange, Texas. Three years later he left the city, and moved to Austin, Texas to begin his political career. ^[1]

Political career

In 1849 Hamilton was appointed as the acting state attorney general by Texas Governor Peter H. Bell. ^[1]
In 1850 he was elected to the Texas House of Representatives representing Travis County as a Democrat. He would only serve one term, leaving office in 1853 but during this time he joined the "Opposition Clique", a faction of southern politicians in the Democratic Party who opposed secession and the reopening of the slave trade. ^[1]
In 1858, Hamilton was elected to the United States House of Representatives as an Independent Democrat representing the western district of Texas. During this time he served on a House committee formed during the winter of late 1860 to try to solve the sectional feud between the north and south. He chose not to run for re-election in 1860 but won a special election on his return to Texas in 1861 to the State Senate. He was forced to resign his post with threats to his life and fleed to Mexico in July 1862. ^[1]
During the American Civil War, Hamilton sided with the Union. He went on a tour of the Northeast, giving speeches in New York, Boston, and other northern cities speaking out in favor of the union and critical of the "slave power" of the south. He was regarded as a hero in the North because of this. Abraham Lincoln named Hamilton Military Governor of Texas later in 1862. He spent most of the war serving his post in New Orleans after a failed attempt to capture South Texas in 1863. ^[1]

Governor of Texas

At the end of the war, President Andrew Johnson named Hamilton as the provisional civilian governor of the state, an office Hamilton held for 14 months during the early stages of Reconstruction. As governor he ratified the Thirteenth Amendment and granted economic freedom to the newly freed slaves. He faced problems such as Indian incursions, general lawlessness, chaotic finances from the aftermath of the Civil War. ^[7]When his plans at the Constitutional Convention of 1866 were not enacted he rejected Johnson's plan for reconstruction and aligned himself with the Radical Republicans. He spoke out in favor of black suffrage and in September 1866 organized the Southern Loyalists' Convention in Philadelphia where he criticized President Johnson. He resigned in 1867 and went to work as a bankruptcy judge in New Orleans. Later that year he accepted a position as a justice on the Texas Supreme Court. Hamilton tried to regain the governorship in the election of 1869, but he was defeated by Edmund J. Davis. ^[1]

After the governorship

After leaving office, Hamilton switched over the Republican Party. He served on the Texas Constitutional Convention of 1868-69 and on the Republican National Executive Committee. He changed his views on black suffrage withdrawing his support for it. After losing the Gubernatorial election in 1869, Hamilton served as the leader of Tax-Payers' Convention in 1871. ^[1]
Hamilton died in Austin, Texas on April 11, 1875 of tuberculosis. He is buried at Oakwood Cemetery.

Sources

1. Andrew Jackson Hamilton
2. Andrew Jackson Hamilton
3. Andrew Jackson Hamilton
4. Andrew Jackson Hamilton
5. Andrew Jackson Hamilton
6. Andrew Jackson Hamilton
7. Texas Governor Andrew Jackson Hamilton
8. Andrew Jackson Hamilton
9. Andrew Jackson Hamilton

External links

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