Andrew Jackson Hamilton

Andrew Jackson Hamilton ( born January 28, 1815 in Huntsville, Alabama, † April 11, 1875 in Austin, Texas ) was an American politician and the 12th Governor of Texas.

Hamilton was the son of James and Jane ( Bayless ) Hamilton. After studying law and qualifying as a lawyer, he moved in 1846 to La Grange, Texas and opened a law office there. Four years later he was elected Attorney General of Texas and the following year in the Texas House of Representatives. In 1858 he became a deputy in the House of Representatives of the United States for Texas.

During the Civil War, Hamilton was on the side of the Union Army and was appointed by Abraham Lincoln to the military governor of Texas, 1862. After the war, U.S. President Andrew Johnson appointed him provisional governor of Texas, he spent the next 14 months. 1865, he was appointed Governor Fletcher Stockdale successor and remained in office until 1866; he was then judge of the Supreme Court of Texas. He was succeeded by James W. Throckmorton. In 1869 he was set up by the Democrats again as a candidate, but lost the election.

After this defeat, he withdrew from the public, continued to work as a lawyer and on his farm until he died in 1875 of tuberculosis.