Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 05.djvu/68

 HAMILTON

HAMILTON

son of Gen. Alexander and Elizabeth (Schuyler) Hamilton. His father wiis jiulge advocate of the naval retiring board in Brooklyn, and his mother a daughter of the Hon. Louis McLane of Delaware, U.S. senator and secretary of the United States treasurj- under President Jackson. Allan was graduated at Columbia college, M.D.. 1870, and was attending pliysician at the New York hospital for nervous diseases; consulting physician, i-ity insjine asylum, New York hos- pital for ruptured and crippled, and Hudson River state hospital, visiting surgeon to the epileptic and paralytic hospital on Blackwell's island and lecturer on nervous diseases in the Long Island college hospital. He was a fre- quent expert before the courts on questions of in- sanity, notably for the government in the trial of the assassin of President Garfield. He was made professor of mental diseases in Cornell uni- versity and was elected a fellow of the Roj^al society of Edinburgh. He edited the American Psychological Journal (1875); wrote Clinical Elec- tro-Therapeutics (1873); text-books on Nervous Diseases (1878-81); Medical Jurisprudence (1887^, and a System of Legal Medicine (1895).

HAMILTON, Andrew, lawyer, was a native of Scotland and came to America settling in Acco- mac county, Va., about 1697, where he was iir.st known as Trent, but finally adopted or else re- turned to the family name of Hamilton. He was steward of the plantation and at the same time conducted a classical school and married the owner of the plantation who was a widow. This alliance brought him in favor with the fam- ilies of the province and he began the practice of law. He appears to have removed to Philadel- phia before 1710 as his son James was born there that year. He was made attorney-general of the province of Pennsylvania in 1717 and a mem- ber of the provincial council in March, 1721. He resigned this office in 1724 having in the meantime continued his law practice and in 1727 he was appointed prothonatory of the supreme court and recorder of the city. He was a mem- ber of the Pennsylvania assembly from Bucks county, 1727-39, and speaker almost continu- ously. The asseml)ly up to 1729 met in a private residence and Hamilton, with his son-in law, purchased a square on which they erected a building to be used as a legislative hall but the state-liouse, afterward Independence Hall, was not completed and conveyed to the province till after his de;ith. In 1735 he defended John Peter Zenger, a New York printer, charged with libel, after his lawyers in New York had been .stricken from the list of attorneys by the judge. Fear- ing that Chief Justice DeLancey, a member of the governor's council and head of the bench, would overawe the advocate appointed by the court he

went to New York and volunteered his services in the defence. He set up the truth of the facts in the alleged libel, appealed to the jury, and by his eloquence obtained a verdict of " not guilty." This victory for the freedom of the piess was hailed by the colonists with delight and the common council presented to Hamilton the freedom of the city. The publislied account of the trial passed tiirough .several editions in Eng- land within three months. Hamilton was made a trustee of the general law office and was judge of the vice-admiralty court, 1737-41. He died in Philadelpliia, Pa., Aug. 4, 1741.

HAMILTON, Andrew Jackson, representa- tive, was born in Madison countj% Ala., Jan. 28, 1815; son of a planter, and brother of Morgan Calvin Hamilton, U.S. .senator from Alabama, 1870-77. He was clerk of the circuit court of Madison county and in 1846 settled in Austin, Texas, as a lawyer. He was attorney-general of the state; presidential elector in 1857; and a rep- resentative in the 36th congress, 1859-61, having been elected as a Republican. He opposed the secession of Texas in 1861 and removed to the north. He was appointed a brigadier-general in the U.S. volunteer army in 1862 and the same year appointed by President Lincoln, militaiy governor of Texas. He commanded the U.S. troops at Matamora; was made provisional gov- ernor of Texas in 1865 by President Johnson and a justice of the supreme court of the state in 1866. He was defeated as an independent candi- date for governor of Texas in 1869. He was a delegate to the Philadelphia loyalists' convention in 1866 and to the soldiers' convention held in Pittsburg the same year. He died in Austin, Texas, April 10, 1875.

HAMILTON, Charles Smith, soldier, was born in Western ville, Oneida county, N.Y., Nov. 16, 1822. He was graduated at the U.S. military academy in 1843, and in 1846 was 1st lieutenant in the arm)' of occupation, Mexico. He was brevetted captain for gallantry at Contreras and Churubu.-5CO and was severely wounded at Molina del Rey. He was on frontier duty, 1848-53; re- signed his commission in 1853 and engaged in farming and milling at Fond du Lac, Wis. At the beginning of the civil war he was promoted colonel of the 3d Wisconsin vohmteers, Maj' 11, 1861, and was promoted brigadier general in the volunteer army. May 17, 1861. He commanded the First division of Banks's army in Northern Virginia when he opposed the advance of "Stone- wall ' Jackson and in 1862 he was transferred to the army of the Potomac, serving in the opera- tions of 1862, including the siege of Yorktown. He was promoteil major-general of volunteers Sept. 19, 1862; was transferred to the army of the Mississippi; commanded the Third division at