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John R. Hamilton – White Supremacist, 1866
Posted By Norman Gasbarro on October 2, 2018
John R. Hamilton (1842-1889) is buried at the Halifax United Methodist Church Cemetery, Halifax, Dauphin County, Pennsylvania. He was a Civil War veteran.
The Pension Index Card, above, from Fold3, confirms the war service of John R. Hamilton in the 192nd Pennsylvania Infantry, Company H. Other records indicate he served as a Private and his dates of service were from 21 February 1865 through 2 April 1865. His pension application was made on 1 June 1870 and the record shows he collected until he died on 17 July 1889. No widow applied. Genealogical records do not include the name of a wife so it is possible that he was not married.
After the war, John R. Hamilton openly supported the white supremacist views of Heister Clymer by signing a call for denial of equal rights to African Americans, both those who were previously slaves and those who were previously freemen. The statement was published in the Harrisburg Patriot of 24 July 1866 and included his name, regiment, company and rank.
Heister Clymer was a white supremacist candidate for Pennsylvania Governor on the Democratic Party ticket in 1866, and was previously profiled here on 26 April 2016.
The call for a meeting of Union Soldiers was printed in the Harrisburg Patriot, 24 July 1866, along with an up-to-date list of Clymer supporters who openly supported Heister Clymer‘s white supremacist views and wanted to deny “negro equality and suffrage” even to those who had been free men before the war.
The undersigned honorably discharged Union soldiers, believing that we battled in the late war for the Union of these States, and had successfully maintained it, view with alarm the persistent efforts of radical men who seem determine, practically to destroy the Union we went forth to save. They would have the community believe that Union soldiers are willing to give up in the hour of victory the great object to which their sacrifices and toll and blood were given….
Therefore we unite in requesting all the honorably discharged officer, soldiers and seamen of Dauphin County who favor the wise and constitutional policy of President Johnson, who oppose the doctrine of negro equality and suffrage, and desire the election of the Hon. Hiester Clymer, to meet in Mass Convention at the Democratic Club Room, Walnut Street, below Third, Harrisburg, at 7 1/2 o’clock, on the evening of the 25 July 1866, for the purpose of electing fourteen delegates to the Convention of Union Soldiers, which is to assemble in this city [Harrisburg] on Wednesday, 1 August 1866.
The Dauphin County veterans who signed the racist petition calling for the meeting were from a variety of regiments and social levels. Included in the list were some residents of Upper Dauphin County, the area north of Peter’s Mountain – all of which is included in the geographic area of the Civil War Research Project.
John R. Hamilton was only one of many honorably discharged Union soldiers who openly supported the white supremacist gubernatorial campaign of Heister Clymer in 1866. The full list of those with a connection to Upper Dauphin County will be presented over time.
John R. Hamilton was previously mention on this blog in a post entitled Halifax Area Civil War Veterans. It is possible also that a John Hamilton, mentioned in a post entitled Additions to Civil War Veterans’ List as having served in the 36th Pennsylvania Infantry (Emergency of 1863), is the same person as the John R. Hamilton, the subject of this post.
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