John P. Hale | |
|---|---|
 Portrait,c. 1860–1865 | |
| 18thUnited States Minister to Spain | |
| In office September 30, 1865 – July 29, 1869 | |
| President | Andrew Johnson Ulysses S. Grant |
| Preceded by | Gustav Koerner |
| Succeeded by | Daniel Sickles |
| Chairman of the Senate Republican Conference | |
| In office 1859 – December 1862 | |
| Preceded by | Position established |
| Succeeded by | Henry B. Anthony |
| United States Senator fromNew Hampshire | |
| In office July 30, 1855 – March 3, 1865 | |
| Preceded by | Jared W. Williams |
| Succeeded by | Aaron H. Cragin |
| In office March 4, 1847 – March 3, 1853 | |
| Preceded by | Joseph Cilley |
| Succeeded by | Charles G. Atherton |
| Member of theU.S. House of Representatives fromNew Hampshire'sat-large district | |
| In office March 4, 1843 – March 3, 1845 Seat 4 | |
| Preceded by | Ira Eastman |
| Succeeded by | Seat abolished |
| Personal details | |
| Born | John Parker Hale (1806-03-31)March 31, 1806 Rochester, New Hampshire, U.S. |
| Died | November 19, 1873(1873-11-19) (aged 67) Dover, New Hampshire, U.S. |
| Political party | Democratic (Before 1847) Liberty (1847–1848) Free Soil (1848–1854) Opposition (1854–1855) Republican (1855–1873) |
| Spouse | Lucy Hill Lambert |
| Education | Bowdoin College (BA) |
| Signature |  |
John Parker Hale (March 31, 1806 – November 19, 1873) was an American politician and lawyer fromNew Hampshire. He served in theUnited States House of Representatives from 1843 to 1845 and in theUnited States Senate from 1847 to 1853 and again from 1855 to 1865. He began his congressional career as aDemocrat, but helped establish the anti-slaveryFree Soil Party and eventually joined theRepublican Party.
Born inRochester, New Hampshire, Hale established a legal practice inDover, New Hampshire after graduating fromBowdoin College. Hale won election to theNew Hampshire House of Representatives in 1832 and served as theUnited States Attorney for New Hampshire under PresidentAndrew Jackson and PresidentMartin Van Buren. He won election to the United States House of Representatives in 1842 but was denied the party's nomination in 1844 due to his opposition to theannexation of Texas. After losing his seat, he continued to campaign againstslavery and won election to the Senate in 1846 as an Independent Democrat. In the Senate, he strongly opposed theMexican–American War and continued to speak against slavery.
Hale helped establish the anti-slavery Free Soil Party and was a candidate for the party's presidential nomination in 1848, but the1848 Free Soil Convention instead nominated former President Van Buren. He won the party's presidential nomination in1852, receiving 4.9% of the popular vote in the general election. After the passage of theKansas–Nebraska Act, Hale joined the nascent Republican Party and returned to the Senate. He served until 1865, at which point he accepted an appointment from PresidentAbraham Lincoln to serve as theMinister to Spain. He held that post until he was recalled in April 1869, at which point he retired from public office.
Hale was born inRochester,Strafford County, New Hampshire, the son of John Parker Hale and Lydia Clarkson O'Brien. He attendedPhillips Exeter Academy and graduated in 1827 fromBowdoin College, where he was a classmate ofFranklin Pierce and a prominent member of the Athenian Society, a literary club. He began his law studies in Rochester with Jeremiah H. Woodman and continued them with Daniel M. Christie inDover. He passed thebar examination in 1830 and practiced law in Dover.[1] He married Lucy Lambert, the daughter of William Thomas Lambert and Abigail Ricker.
In March 1832, Hale was elected to theNew Hampshire House of Representatives as aDemocrat. In 1834, PresidentAndrew Jackson appointed him asU.S. District Attorney for New Hampshire. This appointment was renewed by PresidentMartin Van Buren in 1838, but in 1841, Hale was removed on party grounds by PresidentJohn Tyler, aWhig.[1]
Hale was elected as a Democrat to the Twenty-eighthCongress, serving from March 4, 1843, to March 3, 1845. There he spoke out against thegag rule that had been approved by Congress on December 12, 1838. This rule had been created by another New Hampshire representative,Charles G. Atherton and was intended to put a stop to anti-slavery petitions.[2]
Hale supported the Democratic candidatesJames K. Polk andGeorge M. Dallas in the1844 presidential election, and was renominated for his congressional seat without opposition. Before the congressional election, Texas annexation was adopted by the Democratic Party as part of its platform. In December 1844 theNew Hampshire Legislature passed resolutions instructing its senators and congressmen to favor Texas annexation. Instead, Hale made a public statement opposing annexation on anti-slavery grounds.
The Democratic state convention was then reassembled inConcord under Pierce's leadership for the purpose of stripping Hale of his congressional nomination. The reassembled convention branded him a traitor to the party, and in February 1845 his name was stricken from the Democratic ticket. In the subsequent election, Hale ran as an independent. Hale, the replacement Democratic candidate, and the Whig candidate failed to obtain a majority, so the district was unrepresented.[1][2]
In the face of an apparently invincible Democratic majority, Hale set out to win New Hampshire over to the anti-slavery cause. He addressed meetings in every town and village in the state, carrying on a remarkable campaign known as the "Hale Storm of 1845," which included a June 5, 1845 debate between Pierce and Hale at the North Church in Concord.[1][2] In 1846, Hale was able to use New Hampshire's unusual electoral rules to his advantage. Under thestate constitution, candidates forGovernor andState Senate required a majority of the vote to win; if no candidate won a majority, theGeneral Court would pick among the top two candidates.[3]
The strong performance of the anti-slaveryFree Soil Party resulted in no majority winner in the 1846 gubernatorial election or in seven out of twelve State Senate seats. Accordingly, Hale's coalition of Whigs,Liberty Party members and Independent Democrats were able to join to win control of state government after the election. The coalition selected seven Whig candidates to fill the State Senate vacancies, ensuring coalition control of the chamber. It then elected WhigAnthony Colby as Governor (despite him winning just 32% of the vote to DemocratJared W. Williams's 48%), Liberty Party memberJoseph Cilley to a vacancy in the U.S. Senate, and Hale as Speaker of the State House. When Cilley's term expired in 1847, Hale was elected as his successor.[3]
Hale was elected June 9, 1846, as anIndependent Democratic Candidate to theUnited States Senate and served from March 4, 1847, to March 3, 1853, later becoming aFree Soiler.
He was among the strongest opponents of theMexican–American War in the Senate and is considered "the first U.S. Senator with an openly anti-slavery (orabolitionist) platform".[4]
Hale was the only Senator to vote against the resolution tendering the thanks of Congress toWinfield Scott andZachary Taylor for their victories in theMexican–American War. In 1849, he was joined in the Senate by anti-slavery advocatesSalmon P. Chase andWilliam H. Seward, and was later joined byCharles Sumner in 1851.[2]
Hale also opposedflogging and thespirit ration in theUnited States Navy, and secured the abolition of flogging in September 1850.[5]
In 1851, Hale served as counsel in the trials of anti-slavery activists that arose out of their forcible rescue of fugitive slaveShadrach Minkins from the custody of theUnited States Marshal inBoston.[1]
Hale was an unsuccessful candidate forPresident of the United States on the Free Soil ticket in 1852, finishing behind Democratic candidate Franklin Pierce and Whig candidate Winfield Scott.[6]
In March 1853, Hale was succeeded in the Senate by DemocratCharles G. Atherton and began practicing law in New York City.[1]
Following the repeal of theMissouri Compromise, Democrats were again ousted in New Hampshire. Hale was elected to the Senate as a member of the newRepublican Party in 1855, replacingJared W. Williams, who had been appointed following the death ofCharles G. Atherton.James Bell, a fellow Republican, was elected to New Hampshire's other Senate seat in the same election. Hale entered the Senate on July 30, 1855, was re-elected in 1859, and served until March 3, 1865.
Hale served as thechair of theSenate Republican Conference until 1862. That year, Hale succeeded in repealing the Navy's spirit ration, which he had attempted during his first Senate term.
President Lincoln nominated Hale to the post ofminister to Spain and he served in that capacity 1865–1869.[7] Hale attributed his April 1869 recall to a quarrel with Horatio J. Perry, his secretary of legation. Perry had accused Hale of violating his diplomatic privilege of importing free of duty merchandise for his official or personal use by putting some goods up for sale and pocketing the proceeds. Hale's answer was that he had been misled about the rules by a commission merchant friendly to Perry. Perry was himself removed from his post in June 1869.[1]
Hale died in Dover, New Hampshire on November 19, 1873. He was buried atPine Hill Cemetery in Dover.
Hale'sFederal style house, built in 1813, is now part of theWoodman Institute Museum.New Hampshire Historical Marker No. 264 on Central Avenue inDover marks the site of his home.[8][9]
Longtime Washington journalistBenjamin Perley Poore wrote that Hale, as Senator in the late 1850s, "never failed to command attention":
The keen shafts of the Southerners, aimed at him, fell harmlessly to his feet, and his wonderful good nature disarmed malicious opposition. Those who felt that he had gone far astray in his political opinions did not accuse him of selfish motives, sordid purposes, or degraded intrigues. His was the "chasseur" style of oratory—now skirmishing on the outskirts of an opponent's position, then rallying on some strange point, pouring in a rattling fire, standing firm against a charge, and ever displaying a perfect independence of action and a disregard of partisan drill.[10]
Hale is one of several prominent New Hampshire politicians with a statue at theNew Hampshire State House Complex inConcord.[11] Portraits of President Lincoln and John P. Hale hang next to each other in the chamber of theNew Hampshire House of Representatives.
On September 2, 1834, Hale married Lucy Hill Lambert (1814–1902) inBerwick, Maine. They were the parents of two daughters, Elizabeth (Lizzie) (1835–1895) and Lucy (1841–1915).
Elizabeth Hale first married Edward Kinsley (1825–1888). Their only child died shortly after birth. Her second husband was William Henry 'Harry' Jacques (1847–1916).
Lucy Lambert Hale was secretly betrothed in 1865 toJohn Wilkes Booth,Abraham Lincoln's assassin.[12] Booth had a picture of Lucy Hale with him when he was shot and killed by SergeantBoston Corbett on April 26, 1865.[12][13] Lucy Hale eventually married SenatorWilliam E. Chandler.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
| Class 2 |  | |
|---|---|---|
| Class 3 | ||
 | ||
Chairs of theUnited States Senate Committee on Armed Services | ||
|---|---|---|
| Military Affairs Committee (1816–1947) | | |
| Naval Affairs Committee (1816–1947) | ||
| Armed Services Committee (1947–present) | ||
| Nullifier | |
|---|---|
| Know Nothing | |
| Free Soil | |
| Union | |
| Liberal Republican | |
| Readjuster | |
| Populist | |
| Silver or Silver Republican | |
| Nonpartisan League | |
| Farmer–Labor | |
| Other | |
| Independents | |
| Ministers Plenipotentiary to Spain (1779–1825) | |
|---|---|
| Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to Spain (1825–1913) | |
| Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to Spain (1913–present) | |
