Governor Andrew Jackson Hamilton

As provisional governor Hamilton tried to limit officeholders to former Unionists, pressed ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment and sought economic and legal rights, though not the vote, for freedmen. When the 1866 convention rejected most of his proposals, he backed the Radical Republicans, endorsed Black suffrage and helped organize the Southern Loyalists' Convention in Philadelphia. Later he reversed again, opposing the Radicals' plan for a separate West Texas state and withdrawing his support for Black suffrage, even as his brother Morgan led the Radicals in the Senate. He led the 1871 Tax-Payers' Convention.

What the plaque says

Governor Andrew Jackson Hamilton (January 28, 1815 - April 11, 1875) The First Republican Governor of Texas Nicknamed "Colossal Jack" because of his imposing stature and his oratorical skill, A.J. Hamilton was born in Alabama. He migrated to Texas about 1846. A lawyer, he served as acting Attorney General of Texas in 1850. His residence once stood one mile east of here while representing Travis County in the 4th Texas Legislature, 1851-1853. He donated land for establishing the State Cemetery. Elected to the U.S. Congress in 1859, Hamilton took a Unionist stand during the secession crisis along with his friend Sam Houston and others. Because of his convictions, he was forced to flee Texas in 1862, during the Civil War (1861-1865). U.S. President Abraham Lincoln commissioned him a brigadier general and Military Governor of Texas on Nov. 14, 1862. He had little power until he returned to Texas in Jan. 1865, when federal troops occupied Brownsville. He served as Provisional Governor, June 17, 1865 - Aug. 9, 1866, during the turmoil of Reconstruction. He was a leader at the Constitutional Convention of 1868-69, and an associate justice of the State Supreme Court, 1868-70. Running as a Conservative Republican, he lost the Governorship in 1869 to E.J. Davis. He married Mary Jane (Bowen) (1826-1915) and had 6 children. (1978)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Texas State Capitol — steps away
  Austin's fourth statehouse, a Renaissance Revival capitol of 1888 that stands 311 feet to its Goddess of Liberty and was restored after the 1983 fire.
• Bullock Texas State History Museum — 0.6 mi
  The state's history museum at the head of Congress Avenue, built around the hull of La Salle's ship La Belle, raised from Matagorda Bay with 1.8 million artifacts.
• French Legation State Historic Site — 0.7 mi
  A raised pine house built in 1840 and 1841 for France's envoy to the Republic of Texas, who left Austin in a rage over a neighbor's pigs before it was finished.
• Harry Ransom Center — 0.8 mi
  The University of Texas archive where a Gutenberg Bible and the earliest surviving camera photograph are always on view, free, beside the papers of Watergate and the movies.

More markers nearby

• Governor Edmund Jackson Davis — steps away
• Governor James Edward Ferguson, Governor Miriam A. Ferguson — steps away
• Henry Smith — steps away
• African Americans in the Texas Revolution — steps away