ABSTRACT

Hamilton C. Jones was born in Greenville County, Virginia, on August 23, 1798, and taken to Stokes County, North Carolina, when he was an infant. His father died not long after the move, and his mother, Martha, then married Col. James Martin, a widower and a member of a wealthy and prominent family. Jones followed the Martins's political beliefs: when he was a university student, he supported the Federalists, and after the demise of that party he was passionately committed to Whig principles. Given Gaston's brilliance and his standing in the legal profession, Jones chose the right person with whom to study, but the decision was not without its dangers for Gaston was a Catholic in an anti-Catholic state. In 1820, after obtaining his license to practice law, Jones married Eliza Henderson. In 1832 he founded The Carolina Watchman, a Whig newspaper that vigorously opposed the Republican views of the other village paper, The Western Carolinian.