John Adams Gilmer

Background

John Adams Gilmer was born on November 4, 1805, in Guilford County, North Carolina. His father, Robert Gilmer, a Revolutionary soldier, a farmer, and wheelwright, and his mother, Anne Forbes, were both of Scotch-Irish stock.

Education

Gilmer's education began at an old-field school which he attended for a few months in winter; for the rest of the year, he worked on the farm. At nineteen he entered Eli W. Caruthers's academy in Greensboro.

He studied law under Archibald D. Murphy, and, licensed in 1832, began practice.

Career

In 1846, Gilmer began a membership of ten years in the state Senate. As a legislator, he was the champion of state aid to railroads and an unvarying opponent of agitation of the slavery question.

He acquired such a reputation and so much personal popularity that in 1856 the Know-Nothing party, into which North Carolina Union Whigs had generally gone, nominated him for governor.

In a hopeless contest, he stumped the state against Gov. Thomas Bragg, gave an excellent account of himself and, though defeated, increased the popular confidence which was already his. He was a rather engaging political figure.

In 1857, Gilmer was elected to Congress, where he rapidly gained influence, and in 1859, having been re-elected, he was, during the long deadlock over the speakership, for much of the time his party’s candidate for the office.

During his last term, he was chairman of the committee on elections. At his own expense, he sent into North Carolina in February more than one hundred thousand copies of anti-secession speeches and documents.

He was a close friend of Seward who, with several others, urged Lincoln to appoint him to the cabinet. The President finally authorized Seward to offer him a place and invited Gilmer to visit him at Springfield.

Gilmer, after an unsuccessful attempt to induce Lincoln to restate his position with respect to the South, declined to accept. But he urged upon Seward the policy of withdrawing all troops from Southern forts and of leaving the revenue laws unenforced, believing that this would save the Union - Gilmer was elected to the secession convention of North Carolina, and though he normally acted with the conservatives, he was committed to the war and there was no turning back.

He was elected to the Confederate Congress in 1863 and served from May 2, 1864, until the downfall of the Confederacy. He was chairman of the committee on elections, and a member of the ways and means and of numerous special committees.

After the war, he supported Johnson’s policies and was a delegate to the National Union Convention of 1866.

Achievements

• John Adams Gilmer figured more prominent than any other politician in the upper South in the effort to inoculate his region against secession. He laboured behind the scenes with Seward to defuse the threat that more states might join the Confederacy.

Politics

Except for a brief service as county solicitor, Gilmer held no office but always he had an active interest in politics as a rather partisan Whig. When the national Whig party disintegrated, Gilmer along with Zebulon Vance and other prominent North Carolina Whigs joined the American or Know-Nothing party.

Views

As one of the outstanding Southern Unionists, Gilmer had won Northern support by his opposition to the admission of Kansas under the Lecompton constitution. He had also worked actively to prevent the injection of the slavery question into the discussion of the speakership.

In the final session, he was an unyielding opponent of secession and a strong advocate of compromise.

Quotations: "The rules are simple and easily understood by anyone who has once seen the game, but to the totally uninitiated they appear to be hopelessly unintelligible."

Personality

Full of the driving force and with every mark of a passionate temper, well-controlled, John Adams Gilmer was clearly a fighter. He had a frank and cordial manner, a keen sense of humor, and a broad and ready wit. He could win attention anywhere, even from opponents.

Physical Characteristics: Gilmer was a tall, sturdily built and commanding figure.

Quotes from others about the person

• "The melancholy effects of the unhappy intestine war preyed heavily on his spirits, naturally elastic, and on his robust constitution, and so brought his life to a premature close." - John H. Wheeler

Connections

On January 3, 1832, Gilmer was married to Juliana Paisley, the daughter of William P. Paisley, a well-known Presbyterian minister.

Father:

Robert Gilmer

Mother:

Anne Forbes

Wife:

Julia Anna Paisley Gilmer

1810-1875

Daughter:

Frances Matilde Gilmer Brenizer

1842-1904

Son:

John Alexander Gilmer

1838-1892

Son:

William Paisley Gilmer

1835-1842

opponent:

Thomas Bragg

John Adams Gilmer lost the election to the Democratic incumbent, Governor Thomas Bragg, by the fairly decisive margin of more than 12,000 votes.

References

• Lincoln and the Politics of Slavery: The Other Thirteenth Amendment and the Struggle to Save the Union
  2016