the next twenty years in his reputation among the planter class in South Carolina. At the time of his death in 1857, he received no recognition from his home state. He was appointed as loan commissioner for Texas by President Mirabeau Lamar and traveled to Europe to try to secure much-needed credit for the new republic. He did succeed in negotiating some commercial treaties. He also gained diplomatic recognition for Texas from Great Britain and the Netherlands. After being replaced in 1842, Hamilton struggled over several years to try to obtain federal reimbursement for his personal loan to Texas. Hamilton moved with his family to Texas in 1855, nearly ten years after the republic had been annexed and made a U.S. state. In 1857, while Hamilton was returning by the steamboat Opelousas to Texas from Washington, D.C., his ship was hit by the Galveston and exploded on fire; it sank within half an hour off Avery Island, Louisiana, in the Gulf of Mexico. Twenty people died from the Opelousas, including Hamilton after he gave up his seat in a lifeboat to a woman and her child. Legacy Hamilton helped gain approval by the South Carolina legislature to authorize and appropriate $100,000 for an armory and defensive installation in Charleston against slave revolts; what became known as the Citadel was completed in the city in 1829. Hamilton was the first governor of South Carolina to have his photograph taken. Hamilton County, Texas is named in his honor. References Further reading Johnson, Michael P. “Denmark Vesey and his Co-Conspirators”, William and Mary Quarterly, LVIII, No. 4. (October 2001), 915-976 . Johnson, Michael P., Douglas R. Egerton, Edward A. Pearson, David Robertson, Winthrop Jordan, et al. in "Forum: The Making of a Slave Conspiracy, Part 2", William and Mary Quarterly, LViV, No. 1, (January 2002) Tinkler, Robert, James Hamilton of South Carolina. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2004. External links SCIway Biography of James Hamilton Jr. NGA Biography of James Hamilton Jr. United States Congress Biography of James Hamilton Jr. Busick, Sean R. "Hamilton, James Jr. South Carolina Encyclopedia. 1786 births 1857 deaths South Carolina lawyers Democratic Party members of the South Carolina House of Representatives Democratic Party governors of South Carolina University of South Carolina trustees Democratic Party South Carolina state senators Mayors of Charleston, South Carolina Deaths due to shipwreck at sea Nullifier Party state governors of the United States