HALE, John Parker

HALE, John Parker
Library of Congress
1806–1873

Concise Biography

HALE, John Parker, a Representative and a Senator from New Hampshire; born in Rochester, Strafford County, N.H., March 31, 1806; received preparatory education at Phillips Exeter Academy, Exeter, N.H.; graduated from Bowdoin College, Brunswick, Maine, in 1827; studied law; admitted to the bar in 1830 and commenced practice in Dover, N.H.; member, State house of representatives 1832; appointed by President Andrew Jackson as United States attorney in 1834, and was removed by President John Tyler in 1841; elected as a Democrat to the Twenty-eighth Congress (March 4, 1843-March 3, 1845); refused to vote for the annexation of Texas, although instructed to do so by the State legislature, which then revoked his renomination; elected as a Free Soil candidate to the United States Senate in 1846 and served from March 4, 1847, to March 3, 1853; unsuccessful candidate for President of the United States on the Free Soil ticket in 1852; again elected to the Senate in 1855 to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Charles G. Atherton; reelected in 1859 and served from July 30, 1855, to March 3, 1865; chairman, Republican Conference (Thirty-sixth Congress); chairman, Committee on Naval Affairs (Thirty-seventh and Thirty-eighth Congresses), Committee on the District of Columbia (Thirty-eighth Congress); appointed Minister to Spain 1865-1869; returned to Dover, N.H., and died there November 19, 1873; interment in Pine Hill Cemetery.

View Record in the Biographical Directory of the U.S. Congress

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External Research Collections

Boston Public Library

Boston, MA
Papers: 9 items.

Brown University
John Hay Library

Providence, RI
Papers: In Mary Rivers Allen collection, 1846-1881, 75 items.
Papers: In John Pierpont letters, 1831-1858, 11 items.

Connecticut Historical Society

Hartford, CT
Papers: In the Calvin W. Philleo correspondence, 1835-1860, 4.5 linear feet. Other authors include Hale.

Dartmouth College

Hanover, NH
Papers: In Elizabeth Goodwin collection, 1758-1891, 1.0 linear feet. Other authors include Hale.
Papers: In Hale-Chandler papers, 1777-1873, 4.5 linear feet. Includes correspondence concerning antislavery issue and with Franklin Pierce and papers relating to Hale's political activities and service as minister to Spain. Finding aid.

Historical Society of Pennsylvania

Philadelphia, PA
Papers: In Salmon Portland Chase collection, 1824-1881, 12 linear feet.

Library of Congress
Manuscript Division

Washington, DC
Papers: 1842, 1 letter.

Massachusetts Historical Society

Boston, MA
Papers: In John A. Andews Papers, 1772-1895, 25 boxes and 16 volumes. Subjects include Hale.
Microfilm: In Theodore Parker Papers, 1826-1865, 4 reels. Subjects include Hale.
Papers: Smith-Carter Family Papers, 1669-1880, 9 boxes. Subjects include Hale.

Minnesota Historical Society

St. Paul, MN
Papers: 1840-1844, 7 items. Letters to a constituent about the reaction in New Hampshire on his vote on the right to petition.
papers: In Republican Party State Central Committee papers, 1857-1956, 1 box. Other authors include Hale. Finding aid available.

Pierpont Morgan Library

New York, NY
Papers: 1856-1861, 2 items.

New Hampshire Historical Society

Concord, NH
Papers: 1822-1885, 6.5 linear feet. Political and family correspondence, speeches, certificates and commissions, fragmentary letterbooks, scrapbooks, and memorabilia. Correspondence with his wife and daughter and other family members while serving as U.S. representative and senator includes information on political and social activities, abolition, the annexation of Texas, navy appropriations and corporal punishment in the navy, women's rights, temperance, and his campaigns in New Hampshire towns and in 1848 as presidential candidate of the Liberty party. Hale's service as counsel in cases under the Fugitive-Slave law also is documented. Scrapbooks and letter copybooks document his service as Minister to Spain (1865-1869). Finding aid.

New-York Historical Society

New York, NY
Papers: 1862, 1 letter. To President Lincoln, requesting an interview for John Ridgway, an inventor.

Rosenbach Museum and Library

Philadelphia, PA
Papers: 1859-1862, 5 items. Correspondence and reports to the Senate Committee on Naval Affairs, chaired by Hale, concerning the Navy's Bureau of Ordnance and Washington Navy Yard.
Papers: In Cyrus W. Field correspondence, 1862, 2 items.

University of Pennsylvania
Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts

Philadelphia, PA
Papers: 1850, 1 letter. To Rev. William Henry Furness.

University of Rochester
Rush Rhees Library

Rochester, NY
Papers: 1849-1868, 7 letters by and 10 to Hale in various collections. Finding aid.

Yale University Libraries
Manuscripts and Archives

New Haven, CT
Papers: In S. Griswold Flagg Collection, 1825-1938, 1 linear foot.
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Bibliography / Further Reading

Carter, George E. "Theodore Parker and John P. Hale." Dartmouth College Library Bulletin 13 (November 1972): 13-33.

Hayes, John Lord. A Reminiscence of the Free-Soil Movement in New Hampshire, 1845. Cambridge: J. Wilson Son, 1885.

Lowden, Lucy. " 'Black As Ink--Bitter As Hell': John P. Hale's Mutiny in New Hampshire." Historical New Hampshire 27 (Spring 1972): 27-50.

Sewell, Richard H. "John P. Hale and the Liberty Party, 1847-1848." New England Quarterly 37 (June 1964): 200-23.

___. "The John P. Hale Papers." Dartmouth College Library Bulletin 10 (April 1970): 70-80.

___. John P. Hale and the Politics of Abolition. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1965.

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