Hannibal Hamlin
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 |
This article does not cite any references or sources. (October 2007) Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unverifiable material may be challenged and removed. |
| Hannibal Hamlin | |
 |
|
|
|
|
|---|---|
| In office March 4, 1861 – March 4, 1865 |
|
| President | Abraham Lincoln |
| Preceded by | John C. Breckinridge |
| Succeeded by | Andrew Johnson |
|
|
|
| In office March 4, 1843 – March 3, 1847 |
|
| Preceded by | Alfred Marshall |
| Succeeded by | James S. Wiley |
|
|
|
| In office June 8, 1848 – January 7, 1857 March 4, 1857 – January 17, 1861 March 4, 1869 – March 3, 1881 |
|
| Preceded by | Wyman B. S. Moor Amos Nourse Lot M. Morrill |
| Succeeded by | Amos Nourse Lot M. Morrill Eugene Hale |
|
26th Governor of Maine
|
|
| In office January 8, 1857 – February 25, 1857 |
|
| Preceded by | Samuel Wells |
| Succeeded by | Joseph H. Williams |
|
|
|
| Born | August 27, 1809 Paris, Maine |
| Died | July 4, 1891 (aged 81) Bangor, Maine |
| Political party | Democratic Republican |
| Spouse | Ellen Vesta Emery Hamlin |
Hannibal Hamlin (August 27, 1809 – July 4, 1891) was the fifteenth Vice President of the United States, serving under President Abraham Lincoln from 1861-1865. He was the first Vice President from the Republican Party.
Prior to his election in 1860, Hamlin served in the United States Senate, the House of Representatives, and, briefly, as Governor of Maine.
Contents |
[edit] Early life
Hamlin was born on Paris Hill (National Historic District) in Paris, Maine, in Oxford County, a descendant of James Hamlin in the sixth generation who had settled in the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1639, and a great nephew of Senator Samuel Livermore II of New Hampshire.[citation needed] He attended the district schools and Hebron Academy there, and later managed his father's farm. For the next few years he worked at several jobs: schoolmaster, cook, woodcutter, surveyor, manager of a weekly newspaper in Paris, and a compositor at a printer's office. He studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1833. He began practicing in Hampden, a suburb of Bangor, where he lived until 1848.
[edit] Political beginnings
Hamlin's political career began in 1836, when he began a term in the Maine House of Representatives after being elected the year before. He served in the bloodless Aroostook War, which took place in 1839. Hamlin unsuccessfully ran for the United States House of Representatives in 1840 and left the State House in 1841. He later served two terms in the United States House of Representatives, from 1843-1847. He was elected to fill a U.S. Senate vacancy in 1848, and to a full term in 1851. A Democrat at the beginning of his career, Hamlin supported the candidacy of Franklin Pierce in 1852.
From the very beginning of his service in Congress he was prominent as an opponent of the extension of slavery; he was a conspicuous supporter of the Wilmot Proviso, and spoke against the Compromise Measures of 1850. In 1854 he strongly opposed the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act, which repealed the Missouri Compromise. After the Democratic Party endorsed that repeal at the Cincinnati Convention two years later, on June 12, 1856 he withdrew from the Democratic Party and joined the newly organized Republican Party, causing a national sensation.
The Republicans nominated him for Governor of Maine in the same year, and having carried the election by a large majority he was inaugurated in this office on the January 8, 1857. In the latter part of February, however, he resigned the governorship, and was again a member of the United States Senate from 1857 to January 1861.
[edit] Vice Presidency
In 1860, Hamlin became Vice President. Maine was the first state in the Northeast to be captured by the Republican Party, and the Lincoln-Hamlin ticket thus made sense in terms of regional balance. Hamlin was also a strong orator, and a known opponent of slavery. While serving as Vice President, Hamlin was not necessarily one of the chief advisers to President Abraham Lincoln, although he urged both the Emancipation Proclamation and the arming of African Americans. He strongly supported Joseph Hooker's appointment as commander of the Army of the Potomac, which was a dismal failure. It is believed that this was among the decisions that along with his identification with the Radical Republicans caused him to be dropped from the ticket in 1864. Lincoln left no record of why he was switching his Vice-President. He chose Andrew Johnson, a southern Democrat, probably with his mind on post-war reconciliation.
Hamilin's vice presidency would usher in a half-century of sustained national influence for the Maine Republican Party. In the 50-year period 1861-1911, Maine Republicans would occupy the offices of Vice President, Secretary of the Treasury (twice), Secretary of State, President pro tempore of the United States Senate, Speaker of the United States House of Representatives (twice), and would field a national presidential candidate in James G. Blaine, a level of influence in national politics never matched by subsequent Maine political delegations.
[edit] Later life
Hamlin served in the Senate from 1869 to 1881. In June 1881, President James Garfield nominated him for the post of ambassador to Spain, in which capacity he served from 1881 to 1882. After he completed the posting he retired from public life to his home in Bangor, Maine. He continued, however, to be a behind-the-scenes influence in the local and state Republican Party.
[edit] Family
Hamlin had three sons, Charles Hamlin, Cyrus Hamlin, and Hannibal Emery Hamlin. Charles and Cyrus served in the Union forces during the Civil War, Cyrus commanding a brigade of black troops. Charles and sister Sarah were present at Ford's Theater the night of Lincoln's assassination. Hannibal Emery Hamlin was Maine Attorney General from 1905 to 1908. Hannibal Hamlin's great-granddaughter Sally Hamlin was a child actor who made many spoken word recordings for the Victor Talking Machine Company in the early years of the 20th century.
There are biographies of Hamlin by his grandson Charles E. Hamlin (published 1899, reprinted 1971) and by H. Draper Hunt (published 1969).
[edit] Miscellaneous
Hamlin County, South Dakota is named in his honor, as is Hamlin, West Virginia, the county seat of Lincoln County and Hamlin, New York. There are statues in Hamlin's likeness in the United States Capitol and in a public park (Norumbega Mall) in Bangor. There is also a building on the University of Maine Campus, in Orono, named Hannibal Hamlin Hall.
Hamlin's house in Bangor subsequently housed the Presidents of the adjacent Bangor Theological Seminary. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
[edit] External links
- Hannibal Hamlin at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
- Biography at Mr. Lincoln's White House
- The life and times of Hannibal Hamlin by Charles Eugene Hamlin
[edit] References
|
|||||
|
|||||||
|
|||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Persondata | |
|---|---|
| NAME | Hamlin, Hannibal |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | |
| SHORT DESCRIPTION | first Republican to serve as Vice President of the United States |
| DATE OF BIRTH | August 27, 1809 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Paris, Maine, USA |
| DATE OF DEATH | July 4, 1891 |
| PLACE OF DEATH | Bangor, Maine, U.S. |
