Everything about John Hay totally explained
John Milton Hay (
October 8,
1838 –
July 1,
1905) was an
American statesman, diplomat, author, journalist, and private secretary and assistant to
Abraham Lincoln.
Life
Hay was born in
Salem, Indiana, of
Scottish ancestry,
(External Link
) raised in
Warsaw, Illinois, and educated at
Brown University (
1858), where he joined
Theta Delta Chi. At Brown, he developed an interest in poetry, and Hay became a part of Providence's literary circle which included
Sarah Helen Whitman and
Nora Perry. When he graduated, he was named Class Poet.
(External Link)He began his public career as a secretary to
Abraham Lincoln at age 22, while technically a clerk in the
Interior Department. At a time when most of Lincoln's cabinet was hostile to him and vying for position and influence, Hay served also as a friend, confidant and companion, as well as a performer of odd jobs. He lived in the northeast corner bedroom on the second floor of the
White House. He shared that room with his fellow secretary
John G. Nicolay, who was six years older.
For a few months, he served in the
Union army under Generals
Hunter and
Gillmore. He rose to the rank of major and was later brevetted lieutenant colonel and colonel.
(External Link)
Hay's diary and writings during the
Civil War are basic historical sources. Some have credited Hay with being the real author of President Lincoln's
Letter to Mrs. Bixby, consoling her for the loss of her sons in the war.
Hay was present when President Lincoln died after being shot at
Ford's Theatre. Hay and Nicolay wrote a formal 10-volume biography of Lincoln (
Abraham Lincoln: A History, 1890) and prepared an edition of his collected works.
In 1861, he was admitted to practice in the Supreme Court of Illinois. Portions of Hay's diaries and letters from 1861–1870, published in the book
Lincoln and the Civil War, show the President in a far more intimate light. The portrait of Abraham Lincoln is affectionate, certainly biased in Lincoln's favor, but also contains insights and anecdotes of the homely and humorous sort that Lincoln enjoyed. Hay had a long term affair with Henry Cabot Lodge's wife, Anna, known as "Nannie," throughout the 1880s-90s.
Hay was named
U.S. ambassador to the
United Kingdom in 1897 when
William McKinley became President. Some of the recognition of the longstanding community of interests between that country and the United States came as a result of Hay's stay there. (See ) In August
1898, Hay was named Secretary of State and helped negotiate the
Treaty of Paris of 1898. Hay continued serving as Secretary of State after Theodore Roosevelt succeeded McKinley, serving until his own death in 1905.
His contributions included the adoption of an
Open Door Policy in
China (announced on
January 2,
1900) which may have been a contributing factor in the
Boxer Rebellion, and the preparations for the
Panama Canal. He negotiated the
Hay-Pauncefote Treaty (
1901), the
Hay-Herran Treaty (
1903), and the
Hay-Bunau Varilla Treaty (
1903), all of which were instrumental clearing the way for the construction and usage of the Canal. In all, he brought about more than 50 treaties, including the settlement of the
Samoan dispute, as a result of which the United States secured
Tutuila, with an excellent harbor in the
Pacific; a definitive
Alaskan boundary treaty in
1903; the negotiation of reciprocity treaties with
Argentina,
France,
Germany,
Cuba, and the
British West Indies; the negotiation of new treaties with
Spain; and the negotiation of a treaty with
Denmark for the cession of the
Danish West India Islands.
(External Link)
In 1904, Hay was one of the first seven chosen for membership in the
American Academy of Arts and Letters.
He is buried in
Lake View Cemetery in
Cleveland, Ohio.
Legacy
Hay is also renowned for his comment, written in a letter to President
Theodore Roosevelt, describing the
Spanish-American War as a "splendid little war."
Regarding a misunderstanding between Theodore Roosevelt and Mark Hanna, Hay had commented, "This wordy city poisons men, who might be friends, against each other" (from
Theodore Roosevelt by Henery F. Pringle, page 349).
Hay appears as a character in
Gore Vidal's historical novels
Lincoln and
Empire. He appears, portrayed by
John Huston, in the 1975 film
The Wind and the Lion, a fictionalization of the
Perdicaris Affair in Morocco in
1904. He is portrayed in the
1997 miniseries Rough Riders by actor and legendary
United States Marine R. Lee Ermey.
Hay was a close friend of
Henry Adams, American historian and author. Hay and Adams built homes next to one another on
Lafayette Square in
Washington, DC, designed by H.H. Richardson. That structure was demolished and the site is now occupied by the
Hay-Adams Hotel.
Brown University's
John Hay Library housed the entire library collection from its construction in 1910 until the
John D. Rockefeller, Jr. Library was built in 1964. In 1971, when physical science materials were transferred to the new Sciences Library, the John Hay Library became exclusively a repository for the Library's Special Collections.
For more information regarding John Hay, read
The Five of Hearts.
His daughter Alice Evelyn Hay married
James Wolcott Wadsworth Jr.
(External Link) Another daughter, Helen Julia Hay, married
Payne Whitney, and they were the parents of
John Hay Whitney and
Joan Whitney Payson.
Hay's New Hampshire estate has been conserved as part of the
John Hay National Wildlife Refuge, the
Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests' John Hay Land Studies Center, and the
Garden Conservancy's Fells Reservation.
Books by Hay
- Abraham Lincoln: A History (with John G. Nicolay, 1890)
- The Bread-winners (1883)
- Castilian Days (1875)
- Pike County Ballads and Other Poems (1871)
- Poems (1890)
Further Information
Get more info on 'John Hay'.
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