John Adams Gilmer

John Adams Gilmer (November 4, 1805 – May 14, 1868) was a Congressional Representative from North Carolina.

Early life John Adams Gilmer was born on November 4, 1805, near Alamance Church in Greensboro, Guilford County, North Carolina, to Anne (née Forbes) and Robert Shaw Gilmer. His parents came from Ireland to North Carolina via Pennsylvania. His father was a farmer and wheelwright.

Gilmer attended the public schools and an academy in Greensboro. and William H. Seward sounded him out on the question, but Gilmer temporized until the matter was dropped. In fact, Gilmer wrote the following to Stephen A. Douglas: Had Lincoln appointed Gilmer, he would have been mightily embarrassed by that gentleman’s conduct when war finally came. On April 17, Gilmer wrote to Stephen A. Douglas: “may the God of battles crush to the earth and consign to eternal perdition , Mr. Lincoln, his cabinet and ‘aiders and abettors,’ in this cruel, needless, corrupt betrayal conservative men of the South. We would have saved the country, but for the fatuity and cowardice of this infernal Administration . . . . I hope you will not aid or countenance so detestable a parvenue .”

Gilmer served as a member of the Second Confederate Congress in 1864. In February 1865, he proposed a peace and reconstruction plan that would allow both the Union and Confederacy to keep separate identities and send representatives, He served as a delegate to the Union National Convention at Philadelphia in 1866.

Personal life Gilmer married Juliana Paisley on January 3, 1832. They had a son, John Alexander, who was a lieutenant colonel in the Confederate Army and a judge.

Gilmer died on May 14, 1868, in Greensboro. He is interred in the Old First Presbyterian Church Cemetery at the Greensboro Historical Museum.