James Hamilton was an American statesman, politician, and businessman. He was mayor of Charleston, South Carolina, from 1821 to 1822.
Background
James Hamilton was born on May 8 1786, in Charleston, South Carolina, United States, the son of Major James and Elizabeth Hamilton. His father was a native of Pennsylvania; his mother, of South Carolina, a daughter of Thomas Lynch and, at the time of her marriage to Hamilton, the widow of John Harleston.
Education
Young Hamilton received his early education at Newport, Rhode Island, and later completed his formal schooling in Dedham, Massachusetts. He studied law in Charleston.
Career
James Hamilton served as secretary to Governor Henry Middleton until the War of 1812, when both he and his father volunteered. He rose to the rank of major, and as one of General Izard’s staff saw service on the Canadian border. At the close of the war, after a brief experience as a cotton planter, he formed a law partnership with the brilliant James Louis Petigru, which, while highly successful, lasted only long enough to cement a mutual affection which endured even the bitterness of the nullification controversy.
In 1820 Hamilton began his political career with election to the lower house of the legislature, to which he was reelected in 1821 and 1822. In the latter year he was also elected intendant of Charleston and as such crushed the conspiracy of Denmark Vesey for a slave insurrection. In the same year he was elected to Congress to succeed his close friend, William L. Lowndes, who had resigned. He took his seat December 13, 1822, and served until March 3, 1829, when he voluntarily retired. He quickly assumed a prominent part in the work of the House. Within a year he was chairman of the military-affairs committee, and from 1825 to 1829 he was the recognized leader of the Jacksonian opposition to the Adams administration. He was equally prominent in the anti-tariff group.
Hamilton went to Washington an intense nationalist, but he quickly became a convinced and fervent advocate of state rights. Attacking the protective tariff incessantly, he became almost fanatical on the subject, and joined with William Smith and Dr. Thomas Cooper in an agitation of the question in South Carolina which at last brought Calhoun to their extreme position. Introduced by John Randolph to the Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions, Hamilton became thoroughly indoctrinated with their principles and found in them the remedy for the woes of his state.
In a speech at Walterboro, South Carolina, on October 21, 1828, he outlined the doctrine of nullification and opened the campaign for state action. In 1830 he was elected governor and began organizing the state. Speaking in every district, he established nullification clubs which became the organization of the state-rights and free-trade party. He was reelected in 1831, and the passage of the tariff act of 1832 gave him a legislature favorable to his policy, which at once called a convention of the people. Calhoun had by now elaborated the theory of nullification for the intellectuals. Hamilton, intensely practical, had interpreted the doctrine to the people, had organized them, and now won a convention that was, in the words of Petigru, “in his palm. ” On him must rest the major responsibility for nullification in practice. He himself was elected to the convention and was chosen president.
The ordinance of nullification was passed, and, upon his retirement from the governorship, Hamilton was placed in command of the state’s troops with the rank of brigadier-general. He quickly organized and armed a force of 27, 000 men. Up to the passage of the ordinance he had been very radical, but, having no desire for war or a dissolution of the Union, he now favored the compromise which secured tariff reduction, and joined with Petigru, the leader of the Union party, in averting violence between the opposing parties. To his mind the fight was won, even though nullification had died in the effort.
Hamilton lost political strength after nullification. The radical state-rights group resented his conservatism and the Unionists never forgave him. He himself lost interest in politics and turned to business with brilliant, though temporary, success. He operated profitably five large rice plantations, two cotton plantations, a brick yard, and a rice mill. He organized the Bank of Charleston, then the largest in the United States, and became its president. He was an active director of the South Carolina and the Louisville, Cincinnati & Charleston railroads. He formed with his eldest son an exporting firm which carried on a large business. He engaged in tremendous land speculations in Alabama and Mississippi. For a time everything he touched succeeded, but presently a crash came and he lost the major part of his property and carried down with him many of his associates.
In the meantime, Hamilton had become enthusiastic over the struggle of Texas for independence, and, eager to aid, had advanced considerable sums of money to the cause. In 1835 he was made a perpetual citizen of the republic and a little later, by unanimous vote of the Texas congress, he was offered chief command of the army. In 1836, as state senator, he led the South Carolina legislature to express active sympathy with the revolution, but believing that it was to the interest of the South for Texas to remain a separate republic, he opposed annexation. In 1838 President M. B. Lamar made him commissioner of loans to raise money, which he did with considerable success, and in 1839 he went to Europe as diplomatic agent to France, Great Britain, Belgium, and the Netherlands.
He quickly secured recognition of Texas by France and the Netherlands and favorable commercial treaties. In Belgium he secured recognition and began negotiations for a commercial treaty. In Great Britain he was equally successful, concluding with Lord Palmerston a treaty of recognition, a treaty for the suppression of the African slave trade, and a convention providing for a British offer of mediation to Mexico. He then sailed for the United States and, under authority of a commission from Texas, was seeking to secure a final settlement with Mexico in which he was assured of the good offices of Calhoun and Webster, when the news reached him that Sam Houston, again president, had recalled him and repudiated the work in which he was then engaged. The indebtedness of Texas to Hamilton now amounted to $210, 000 in gold, and the state’s failure to pay any part of it embarrassed him deeply. Nothing that he attempted succeeded.
Hamilton finally came to advocate annexation, supported Polk in 1844, and was reconciled to Jackson, who had so eagerly desired to hang him in 1833 and whom he had called “the Old Dotard and Despot. ” He favored the compromise measures of 1850, and, when Calhoun died, was appointed to the Senate to succeed him, but when the accusation was made that he was not a resident of South Carolina he immediately returned the commission, declining to accept an office to which any one would question his title. In 1855 he moved to Texas where he had an enormous grant of land. Things began to brighten. There was hope that the United States would pay a part of his loan to Texas and, while he was in Washington temporarily, news reached him that Texas was ready to pay $35, 000 more. Hastening to Texas, he took passage at New Orleans for Galveston. In the Gulf of Mexico the vessel collided with its sister ship and sank. Hamilton gave his life preserver to a woman for her child. His right arm was injured and he clung for a little while to a hatch cover with his left hand, then slipped off into the water and disappeared from view.
Achievements
Views
Quotations:
“He who dallies is a dastard; he who doubts is damned. ”
Personality
Hamilton was always frank and courageous, but entirely too sanguine and impetuous. In the nullification controversy, as in his whole career, Hamilton was sincere and honest in purpose, sacrificing his national career to the cause. His speeches, fluent and clever rather than profound, show thought and power of logical analysis. In action he was prompt and vigorous, with a genius for organization and manipulation. His tastes were simple, and, with none of the austerity of Calhoun, he was almost as restrained. Wine, women, and song had no appeal for him; life was always a serious matter, and he felt keenly its obligations. He had a fiery temper, but he had also a sweetness of disposition which won him many friends, even among his political opponents. He was a noted duelist and is said to have fought fourteen duels, always wounding his opponent.
Connections
On November 15, 1813, Hamilton married Elizabeth Heyward, the daughter of Daniel and Ann Sarah Trezevant Heyward. The couple had eleven children, ten males and one female.