Morgan Calvin HAMILTON, Congress, TX (1809-1893)

HAMILTON, Morgan Calvin, (brother of Andrew Jackson Hamilton), a Senator from Texas; born near Huntsville, Madison County, Ala., February 25, 1809; attended the public schools; engaged in mercantile pursuits in Elyton, Ala.; moved to the Republic of Texas in 1837 and owned a store in Austin; clerk in the War Department of the Republic of Texas 1839-1845; acted as Secretary of War and Marine ad interim of that Republic from December 1844 to March 1845; appointed comptroller of the treasury of Texas in 1867; delegate to the State constitutional convention in 1868; was elected as a Republican to the United States Senate on February 22, 1870, to fill the vacancy in the term ending March 3, 1871; subsequently elected for the term commencing March 4, 1871; took the oath of office on March 31, 1870, after the readmission of the State of Texas to representation, and served from March 31, 1870, to March 3, 1877; retired from public life and traveled extensively; was a resident of Brooklyn, N.Y., until his death; died in San Diego, Calif., where he had been visiting, November 21, 1893; interment in Oakwood Cemetery, Austin, Travis County, Tex.

Bibliography

Avillo, Philip J., Jr. “Phantom Radicals: Texas Republicans in Congress, 1870-1873.” Southwestern Historical Quarterly 77 (April 1974): 431-44; Welch, June Rayfield. “Hamilton Was a Radical Republican.” In The Texas Senator, pp. 94-96. Dallas: G.L.A. Press, 1978.

Source: Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1771-Present