Governor of Texas On June 17, 1865, President Andrew Johnson named Hamilton as the provisional civilian governor of the state. Hamilton held office for 14 months during the early stages of Reconstruction. He was governor when the nation ratified the Thirteenth Amendment and granted economic freedom to the newly freed slaves, although Texas itself declined to ratify the amendment until 1870. Hamilton also faced problems such as Indian incursions, general lawlessness, and chaotic finances in the aftermath of the Civil War. When his plans at the Constitutional Convention of 1866 were not enacted, he rejected Johnson's plan for Reconstruction and aligned himself with the Radical Republicans. He spoke out in favor of black suffrage and in September 1866 organized the Southern Loyalists' Convention in Philadelphia, where he criticized President Johnson. He resigned in 1867 and went to work as a bankruptcy judge in New Orleans. Later that year he accepted a position as a justice of the Texas Supreme Court. Hamilton tried to regain the governorship in the election of 1869, but was defeated by Edmund J. Davis. Post-governorship After leaving office, Hamilton switched to the regular Republican Party. He served on the Texas Constitutional Convention of 1868–69 and on the Republican National Executive Committee. He reversed his views on black suffrage, withdrawing his support for it. After losing the Gubernatorial election in 1869, Hamilton served as the leader of Tax-Payers' Convention in 1871. Andrew Jackson Hamilton died in Austin, Texas, on April 11, 1875, of tuberculosis. He is buried at Oakwood Cemetery. References External links Retrieved on 2009-03-23 1815 births 1875 deaths 19th-century American judges 19th-century American lawyers 19th-century American politicians 19th-century deaths from tuberculosis Members of the United States House of Representatives from Texas Governors of Texas Justices of the Texas Supreme Court Texas Attorneys General Politicians from Huntsville, Alabama People of Texas in the American Civil War Texas Unionists Radical Republicans Texas Republicans Burials at Oakwood Cemetery (Austin, Texas) Southern Unionists in the American Civil War Texas Democrats Texas Independents Independent Democrat members of the United States House of Representatives Democratic Party governors of Texas Lawyers from Huntsville, Alabama Tuberculosis deaths in Texas