H-K: Hale through King

See below for annotated biographies of Liberty Party leaders and members. Source: Scribner’s Dictionary of American Biography; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography.

HALE, John Parker, 1806-1873, New Hampshire, lawyer, statesman, diplomat, U.S. Congressman, U.S. Senator. Member of the anti-slavery Liberty Party. President of the Free Soil Party, 1852. Elected to Congress in 1842, he opposed the 21st Rule suppressing anti-slavery petitions to Congress. Refused to support the annexation of Texas in 1845. Elected to the U.S. Senate in 1846, he was the first distinctively anti-slavery Senator. Adamantly opposed slavery for his 16 years in office. In 1851, served as Counsel in the trial of rescued slave Shadrach. In 1852, he was nominated for President of the United States, representing the Free Soil Party. As U.S. Senator, voted for Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery.

(Blue, Frederick J. No Taint of Compromise: Crusaders in Antislavery Politics. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2005, pp. 8, 35, 51-54, 74, 100-102, 121, 126, 152, 164, 170, 205, 220; Filler, Louis. The Crusade Against Slavery, 1830-1860. New York: Harper and Brothers, 1960, pp. 187, 189, 213, 247; Goodell, 1852, p. 478; Mitchell, Thomas G. Antislavery Politics in Antebellum and Civil War America. Westport, CT: Praeger, 2007, pp. 20, 28, 29, 33-37, 43-46, 51, 60, 63-65, 68, 72, 254n; Rodriguez, Junius P., Slavery in the United States: A Social, Political, and Historical Encyclopedia, ABC-CLIO, 2007, pp. 50, 54, 298; Sorin, Gerald. The New York Abolitionists: A Case Study of Political Radicalism. Westport, CT: Greenwood Publishing Corporation, 1971, pp. 130, 132; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Volume III, pp. 33-34; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Volume 4, Pt. 2, p. 105-107; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Volume 9, p. 862; Biographical Dictionary of the U.S. Congress 1774-1927 (1928); Congressional Globe)

Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Volume 4, Pt. 2, p. 105-107:

HALE, JOHN PARKER (March 31, 1806--November 19, 1873), lawyer, politician, diplomat, was born at Rochester, New Hampshire. He was descended from Robert Hale who settled in Charlestown, in Massachusetts, in 1632. His parents were John Parker and Lydia C. (O'Brien) Hale, the latter the daughter of an Irish refugee who had died in the American service during the Revolution. His father was a successful lawyer but his death in 1819 left the family in straitened circumstances and it was due to the courage and self-sacrifice of his mother that John was enabled to attend Phillips Exeter Academy and Bowdoin College, graduating from the latter in 1827. He then studied law at Rochester and Dover, was admitted to the bar in 1830, and began practice at the latter town, maintaining residence there henceforth. When he left college he had gained a reputation for combined brilliance and laziness. In his profession he came to be known not as a learned, but as a "ready lawyer," possessed of tact and oratorical ability, and remarkably skilled in extricating himself from untenable positions (Bell, post, p. 417). He rose rapidly and made a reputation as a successful jury lawyer. It was doubtless due to this fact, as well as to his democratic principles, that he was an advocate of increasing the powers of the jury and making them judges of the Jaw as well as the fact.

Hale's political career began in 1832 with his election to the state legislature. In 1834 he was appointed United States district attorney and held office until removed by President Tyler in 1841. A year later he was elected to Congress. New Hampshire was a Democratic stronghold and Hale followed conventional doctrines. His early speeches have a somewhat demagogic tone, but he showed independence, and shortly before the end of his term, he proposed a limitation of the area open to slavery should Texas be added to the Union. His attitude on the Texas question finally led to a breach with the party when in January 1845 he addressed a letter to his constituent s denouncing annexation as promoting the interests of slavery and "eminently calculated to provoke the scorn of earth and the judgment of heaven" (Exeter News-Letter, January 20, 1845). In a special convention, the Democrats on February 12 revoked his renomination and solemnly read him out of the party. With the backing of some loyal friends, he proceeded to organize an independent movement. As a result, the New Hampshire legislature in 1846 passed under control of a combination of Whigs and independent Democrats, which on June 9 elected the insurgent Hale to the United States Senate for a six-year term commencing March 4, 1847. It was the most notable anti-slavery success hitherto achieved.

For some time, until joined by Chase and Sumner, Hale occupied a most conspicuous place, and if excluded from all party councils and responsibilities, he was at least free to assail slavery without the restraint which party membership imposed. His most notable speech was probably the one delivered in reply to Webster's address of March 7, 1850, on the territorial question (Congressional Globe, 31 Congress, 1 Session, App. pp. 1054-65). His long speeches, however, are in general inferior to his brief extemporaneous utterances in the course of debate. A voiding the excesses of some anti-slavery advocates, good humored, witty, and eloquent, he was personally popular, although his sallies occasionally provoked outbursts of wrath among the Southern members. It was during his first term in the Senate that he secured the abolition of flogging in the navy, a reform which he had urged from the time of his appearance in the lower house. His further argument that discipline should be more intelligent and humane, that the navy should offer advantages to the ordinary seaman which would make service attractive to the best grade of young men, rewarding good conduct with promotion and better opportunities (Ibid., 32 Congress, 1 Session, p. 449), was decidedly in advance of his time. He constantly urged the abolition of the grog ration as well and this was finally brought about in 1862. He himself considered these reforms the outstanding accomplishments of his Senate career, and in deference to his opinion they are recorded on his monument in the State House yard at Concord. In addition to his anti-slavery activity in the Senate, Hale conducted various platform campaigns on the subject and was a well-known lecturer throughout the North. He also appeared as counsel in cases arising under the Fugitive-Slave law, including the famous Anthony Burns case involving Theodore Parker and other eminent Bostonians. His prominence in the anti-slavery cause led to his nomination for the presidency by the Liberty party in 1847, but he withdrew in favor of Van Buren when the Free-Soil party absorbed the Liberty party in 1848. In 1852 he accepted the nomination of the Free-Soilers and polled 150,000 votes.

On the expiration of his first term in the Senate Hale resumed legal practice and for a short time lived in New York. By 1855, however, the anti-slavery coalition again controlled the New Hampshire legislature and after a prolonged contest he was elected to serve out the unexpired term of Charles G. Atherton, deceased. Three years later he was reelected for a full term. He had become one of the most prominent Republicans in the country, although the influence of his earlier Democratic affiliations was still perceptible, and it was reported that the power of the national party leaders was exerted in his behalf, inasmuch as the legislature was reluctant to break the local precedents which favored rotation. This term, however, added little to his fame, although he was active on the floor and prominent in the adoption of the various measures which at last gave slavery its quietus. During the war he held the chairmanship of the committee on naval affairs. The standard of public morals had relaxed, and in naval matters, to quote Secretary Welles, there had developed a "debauched system of personal and party favoritism" (post, I, 482), especially pernicious in the services of construction and supply. There was a navy-yard in New Hampshire, and Hale was admittedly careless, easy going, accommodating, and not over careful as to the character of his professional and political associations. His friends, who have always insisted on his personal honesty, believed that he was imposed upon by unscrupulous and designing parties, and Secretary Welles, that he was trying to use his chairmanship for personal gain and political advantage. Senators Grimes and Foot both expressed disapproval of his conduct and in 1864 when he was a candidate for reelection the impression was abroad that the leaders in Washington would be glad to see his retirement. Late in 1863 an investigation disclosed that he had accepted a fee from one J. M. Hunt, convicted of fraud against the government, and had appeared on his behalf before the secretary of war. Although exonerated by the Senate judiciary committee of any violation of law, the fact that its report included a bill making such practice illegal in future (Congressional Globe, 38 Congress, I Session, pp. 420, 460, 555) told heavily against him and undoubtedly contributed to a decisive defeat by the Republican caucus at Concord, June 9, 1864. His speech on the propose d bill (Ibid., pp. 559 ff.) does not indicate a keen sense of moral values and lends color to the comment of the Boston Daily Courier, January 1, 1864, that though he did not mean to be dishonest or dishonorable, "his perceptions were befogged by the atmosphere of fraud, corruption and crime surrounding him in the party to which he is attached."

In March 1865 Hale was appointed minister to Spain although he would have preferred the Paris legation. According to Sumner, "President Lincoln selected Hale out of general kindness and good-will to the ' lame ducks,' " and "wished to break his fall" (E. L. Pierce, Memoir and Letters of Charles Sumner, Volume IV, 1893, p. 25 5). His training and temperament were not suited for such a post, and he was handicapped by ignorance of the language. As far as can be judged by the somewhat meager records in the Papers Relating to Foreign Affairs his services were not especially significant. In 1869 he became embroiled in a singularly bitter quarrel with H. J. Perry, secretary of the legation, and in addition to the personal questions involved, the minister was charged with serious moral delinquencies involving the Queen of Spain and with having abused his importation franchise. Hale admitted signing certain con1promising documents but pleaded that the secretary had laid them before him without explaining their contents which were in Spanish. He was recalled April 5, 1869, and took leave July 29. His strength had already begun to fail, having been seriously impaired by the famous National Hotel epidemic of 1857, and he spent some further time abroad in a vain que st for health. Returning to New Hampshire in June 1870, he suffered a paralytic stroke soon afterward and his la st years were spent in semi-invalidism. His wife was Lucy Lambert of South Berwick, Maine; his daughter, Lucy Lambert Hale, the wife of William Eaton Chandler [q.v.]. As a crusader in a humanitarian cause Hale ranked among the great men of the day, but his qualities were not those best calculated to produce constructive legislation or successful administration.

[The New Hampshire Historical Society has a considerable collection of letters and miscellaneous manuscripts relating to John P. Hale. Other sources include The Hale Statue (1892), published by the New Hampshire General Court; E. S. Stearns, Genealogy and Family History of the State of New Hampshire (1908), III, 1044-49; I. W. Stuart, Life of Captain Nathan Hale (2nd ed., 1856); C. H. Bell, The Bench and Bar of New Hampshire (1894), pp. 415-18; Diary of Gideon Welles (3 volumes, 1911); G. W. Julian, "A Presidential Candidate of 1852," Century, October 1896; J. H. Ela, " Hon. John P. Hale," Granite Monthly, July 1880; Boston Transcript, New York Tribune, November 20, 1873; Independent Statesman (Concord, New Hampshire), November 27, 1873.]

W.A.R.

Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Volume III, pp. 33-34:

HALE, John Parker, senator, born in Rochester, New Hampshire, 31 March, 1806; died in Dover, New Hampshire, 19 November, 1873. He studied at Phillips Exeter academy, and was graduated at Bowdoin in 1827. He began his law studies in Rochester with Jeremiah H. Woodman, and continued them with Daniel M. Christie in Dover, where he was admitted to the bar, 20 August, 1830. In March, 1832, he was elected to state house of representatives as a Democrat. On 22 March, 1834, he was appointed U. S. district attorney by President Jackson, was reappointed by President Van Buren, 5 April, 1838, and was removed, 17 June, 1841, by President Tyler on party grounds. On 8 March, 1842, he was elected to congress, and took his seat, 4 December, 1843. He opposed the 21st rule suppressing anti-slavery petitions, but supported Polk and Dallas in the presidential canvass of 1844, and was nominated for re-election on a general ticket with three associates. The New Hampshire legislature, 28 December, 1844, passed resolutions instructing their representatives to vote for the annexation of Texas, and President Polk, in his message of that year, advocated annexation. On 7 January, 1845, Mr. Hale wrote his noted Texas letter, refusing to support annexation. The State convention of his party was re assembled at Concord, 12 February, 1845, and under the lead of Franklin Pierce struck Mr. Hale's name from the ticket, and substituted that of John Woodbury. Mr. Hale was supported as an independent candidate. On 11 March, 1845, three Democratic members were elected, but there was no choice of a fourth. Subsequent trials, with the same result, took place 23 September and 29 November, 1845, and 10 March, 1846. During the repeated contests, Mr. Hale thoroughly canvassed the state. At his North Church meeting in Concord, 5 June, 1845, Mr. Pierce was called out to reply, and the debate is memorable in the political history of New Hampshire. At the election of 10 March, 1846, the Whigs and Independent Democrats also defeated a choice for governor, and elected a majority of the state legislature. On 3 June, 1846, Mr. Hale was elected speaker; on 5 June, the Whig candidate, Anthony Colby, was elected governor; and on 9 June, Mr. Hale was elected U. S. senator for the term to begin 4 March, 1847. In a letter from John G. Whittier, dated Andover, Massachusetts, 3d mo., 18th, 1846, he says of Mr. Hale: “He has succeeded, and his success has broken the spell which has hitherto held reluctant Democracy in the embraces of slavery. The tide of anti-slavery feeling, long held back by the dams and dykes of party, has at last broken over all barriers, and is washing down from your northern mountains upon the slave-cursed south, as if Niagara stretched its foam and thunder along the whole length of Mason and Dixon's line. Let the first wave of that northern flood, as it dashes against the walls of the capitol, bear thither for the first time an anti- slavery senator.” On 20 October, 1847, he was nominated for president by a National liberty convention at Buffalo, with Leicester King, of Ohio, for vice-president, but declined, and supported Mr. Van Buren, who was nominated at the Buffalo convention of 9 August, 1848. On 6 December, 1847, he took his seat in the senate with thirty-two Democrats and twenty-one Whigs, and remained the only distinctively anti-slavery senator until joined by Salmon P. Chase, 3 December, 1849, and by Charles Sumner, 1 December, 1851. Mr. Hale began the agitation of the slavery question almost immediately upon his entrance into the senate, and continued it in frequent speeches during his sixteen years of service in that body. He was an orator of handsome person, clear voice, and winning manners, and his speeches were replete with humor and pathos. His success was due to his powers of natural oratory, which, being exerted against American chattel - slavery, seldom failed to arouse sympathetic sentiments in his audiences. Mr. Hale opposed flogging and the spirit-ration in the navy, and secured the abolition of the former by law of 28 September, 1850, and of the latter by law of 14 July, 1862. He served as counsel in 1851 in the important trials that arose out of the forcible rescue of the fugitive slave Shadrach from the custody of the U. S. marshal in Boston. In 1852 he was nominated at Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, by the Free-soil party for president, with George W. Julian as vice-president, and they received 157,685 votes. His first senatorial term ended, and he was succeeded by Charles G. Atherton, a Democrat, on 4 March, 1853, on which day Franklin Pierce was inaugurated president. The following winter Mr. Hale began practising law in New York city. But the repeal of the Missouri compromise measures again overthrew the Democrats of New Hampshire; they failed duly to elect U. S. senators in the legislature of June, 1854, and in March, 1855, they completely lost the state. On 13 June, 1855, James Bell, a Whig, was elected U. S. senator for six years from 3 March, 1855, and Mr. Hale was chosen for the four years of the unexpired term of Mr. Atherton, deceased. On 9 June, 1858, he was re-elected for a full term of six years, which ended on 4 March, 1865. On 10 March, 1865, he was commissioned minister to Spain, and went immediately to Madrid. Mr. Hale was recalled in due course, 5 April, 1869, took leave, 29 July, 1869, and returned home in the summer of 1870. Mr. Hale without sufficient cause, attributed his recall to a quarrel between himself and Horatio J. Perry, his secretary of legation, in the course of which a charge had been made that Mr. Hale's privilege, as minister, of importing free of duty merchandize for his official or personal use, had been exceeded and some goods put upon the market and sold. Mr. Hale's answer was, that he had been misled by a commission-merchant, instigated by Mr. Perry. The latter was removed 28 June, 1869. Mr. Hale had been one of the victims of the “National hotel disease,” and his physical and mental faculties were much impaired for several years before his death. Immediately upon his arrival home he was prostrated by paralysis, and shortly afterward received a fracture of one of the small bones of the leg when thrown down by a runaway horse. In the summer of 1873 his condition was further aggravated by a fall that dislocated his hip. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Volume III, pp. 33-34.

Chapter: “Vermont and Massachusetts. --John P. Hale. -- Cassius M. Clay,” by Henry Wilson, in History of the Rise and Fall of the Slave Power in America, 1872.

While the struggle for the annexation of Texas by Joint Resolution was in progress, the friends of that measure left no means untried which political chicanery or menace could suggest. The President elect made no concealment of his purpose; and it was distinctly understood that those Democrats who opposed the measure had little to expect from his administration. Even those in New York who had signed the secret circular which alone made Mr. Polk's election possible were soon made to feel the force of that displeasure which the Slave Power usually inflicted on those who resisted its authority.

But its immediate and most marked demonstration was in New Hampshire, and John P. Hale was its first victim. Though at first successful, its ultimate results were disastrous to the cause and party which prompted it. For it placed Mr. Hale in a far more commanding position than he had ever occupied before, and gave his ready tongue a voice and an audience it could never otherwise have obtained, besides affording an example of successful resistance to partisan tyranny and slaveholding dictation greatly damaging to their pretentious and hitherto unquestioned supremacy.

Mr. Hale, then a member of the House of Representatives, had been nominated by the Democratic Party for re-election. But he had not, like the great body of that party, forgotten its strong anti-Texas testimonies; nor would he, at the bidding of the convention which overslaughed Mr. Van Buren and nominated Mr. Polk; or in the hope of the prospective patronage of the incoming administration, disown that record, and applaud what a few short weeks before had been so vociferously condemned.

Compelled to define his position, he did not hesitate to reaffirm his opposition to the scheme, and to vote against it, though he regarded that declaration and vote as his political death-warrant; a martyrdom from which he evidently expected no resurrection. Indeed, he at once made his arrangements to retire from public life, and to resume his profession in the city of New York; a purpose from which he was with some difficulty dissuaded.

What he apprehended soon transpired. Such honesty of purpose, such fealty to right, such contumacy to party discipline could not be tolerated in the ranks of the exacting Democracy of that State. Early in January Mr. Hale addressed to his constituents a letter on the annexation of Texas. It was an earnest and unequivocal condemnation of the scheme. The reasons given by its advocates in support of the measure he declared to be "eminently calculated to provoke the scorn of earth and the judgment of Heaven "; and he avowed that he could never consent, by any agency of his, to place the country in the attitude of annexing a foreign nation for the avowed purpose of sustaining and perpetuating slavery.

At once the leading Democratic presses of New Hampshire and of the country opened upon him a war of denunciation, calling upon his constituents to rebuke and silence him. The Democratic State Committee immediately issued a call for a convention at Concord on the 12th of February. Franklin Pierce, who had been distinguished in Congress for his fidelity to the Slave Power, addressed the meeting, sharply and bitterly criticising this independent action of Mr. Hale, and defending the policy of annexation. He admitted that he would rather have Texas annexed as free territory, but he exclaimed, "Give it to us with slavery, rather than not have it, and have it now." And such an avowal was consistently applauded by the same convention which had just voted down, by "an emphatic No," the proposition that the meeting should be opened with prayer.

Stephen S. Foster, being present, inquired if he might be permitted “to set the speaker right in a few of his misstatements." A violent clamor at once arose against permission. The chairman decided that none but delegates could speak; and Mr. Foster took his seat, with the declaration: " I consider myself, in common with every man in the house, insulted by the remarks of the gentleman who has just taken his seat." And that convention of the same party which had a few months before pronounced against the annexation scheme, and whose chief organ had declared it to be “black as ink and bitter as hell," at once changed front on this very issue, and by a unanimous vote struck Mr. Hale's name from the ticket on which it had so recently inscribed it, and placed in its stead that of an obscure politician.
But many of Mr. Hale's constituents were more hopeful than their leader; at least, they were less resigned and less disposed to submit to defeat and death. Under the lead of Amos Tuck, who had already taken an active part in giving expression and direction to the popular disfavor against such high-handed tyranny, they at once prepared for action. In consequence of 'their earnest and vigorous proceedings, even without much aid from Mr. Hale, who deemed all resistance to the decrees of the party hopeless, the Democratic candidate lacked a thousand votes of a majority. While this result surprised and exasperated the Democratic leaders, it greatly encouraged Mr. Hale and his friends. Stimulated by their success, and continuing the struggle with increased determination and vigor, they established at the State capital the “Independent Democrat," under the editorial control of George G. Fogg. It was conducted with signal ability and tact, rendered essential service, and contributed largely to the triumph of this first successful revolt against the iron despotism of the Slave Power.

In the next election Mr. Hale participated. He canvassed the State, delivering speeches, in which he brought into full play the capacities and characteristics of his peculiar, versatile, and popular eloquence. Great excitement pervaded the State, and crowds thronged to hear him. But the Democratic leaders were indignant at his continued contumacy, and deeply chagrined at his manifest success with the people. These feelings found voice at a meeting held at the capital the first week of June. During that week the legislature commenced its session, and the religious and benevolent associations of the State held their anniversaries. Mr. Hale was expected to address a meeting at the Old North Church. Unwilling that his speech should be heard, as it probably would be, by the political and religious representatives of the State then assembled, the Democratic leaders determined that it should be replied to on the spot. Franklin Pierce was selected for that purpose. Aware that he was addressing many men of large intelligence and influence, and that his words would be sharply criticised by him under whose lead his name had been stricken from the ticket, Mr. Hale spoke with calmness, dignity, and effect. Those who listened to him could not but feel, whether they agreed with him or not, that he had been actuated by conscientious convictions and a high sense of public duty.

Mr. Pierce had noted, with the quick instincts of an adroit politician, the marked effects produced by Mr. Hale's manly and temperate vindication of his principles and position. Evidently in a towering passion, he spoke under the deepest excitement. He was domineering and insulting in manner, and bitter and sarcastic in the tone and tenor of his remarks. Mr. Hale replied briefly, but pertinently and effectively. He closed his triumphant vindication of his motives, opinions, and purposes against the aspersions of his bitter enemy with these words: “I expected to be called ambitious, to have my name cast out as evil, to be traduced and misrepresented. I have not been disappointed. But if things have come to this condition, that conscience and a sacred regard for truth and duty are to be publicly held up to ridicule, and scouted at 'Without rebuke, as has just been done here, it matters little whether we are annexed to Texas or Texas is annexed to us. I may be permitted to say that the measure of my ambition will be full if my earthly career shall be finished and my bones are laid beneath the soil of New Hampshire, and, when my wife and children shall repair to my grave to drop the tear of affection to my memory, they may read on my tombstone: 'He who lies beneath surrendered office and place and power, rather than bow down and worship slavery.' "

At the second election the Democratic candidate lacked some fifteen hundred votes necessary to an election. Several other attempts were made, in which the “Independent Democrats," though they failed of electing their own, succeeded in defeating the Democratic candidate, and in holding the balance of power. In the election of 1846, Mr. Hale was chosen a member of the legislature, was made Speaker, and subsequently elected to the Senate of the United States. The State was then subdivided into congressional districts, and Mr. Tuck was nominated to fill the seat Mr. Hale had occupied in the national House of Representatives. As a majority of votes was necessary for an election, no choice was effected during the whole of the XXIXth Congress. But in July, 1847, by a coalition between the Whigs and " Independent Democrats “in the first and third districts, Mr. Tuck was chosen in the former and General James Wilson in the latter. Mr. Tuck served six years in Congress, and made an honorable record. His chief distinction, and perhaps his chief service, however, grew out of his bold and wise leadership in that first and successful assault upon the party which had for years controlled the State with iron sway; beating down the very Gibraltar of the Northern Democracy, and making it one of the leading and most reliable States in opposition to the Slave Power.

And if merit is due to any actors in the great struggle now under review, surely no inconsiderable share belongs to those who, in that dark night, dared to beard the lion in his Northern lair, and strike for freedom with the odds so fearfully against them. Nor is the nation's debt of gratitude to Mr. Hale small for his long, brave fight in the Senate, against the scorn and contumely of the slaveholding majority. For if he did not then proclaim the full and perfect evangel of liberty, his was certainly the voice of one crying in the wilderness, preparing the way of complete deliverance. As his successful resistance to party and slaveholding tyranny broke the spell of its assumed invincibility, and encouraged others to go and I do likewise, so his ready eloquence and wit, his brilliant repartee and unfailing good-humor, did much to familiarize the country with the subject, and to call attention to its facts and principles, which perhaps a sterner advocate would have failed to effect.

Source: Wilson, Henry, History of the Rise and Fall of the Slave Power in America, Volume 1. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin, 1872, 624-628.



HALLOCK, H., Michigan, officer in the Liberty party.

(Minutes General Liberty Convention Buffalo, New York, October 20, 1847).


HASTINGS, Samuel Dexter (July 24, 1816-March 26, 1903), reformer. He was one of the active founders of the Liberty party in Pennsylvania and at the age of twenty-four was chairman of the state central committee. Hastings delivered a powerful speech against slavery and was the author of the resolutions which committed the new state of Wisconsin to its opposition to the extension of the slave trade.

(Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Volume 4, Pt. 2 pp. 386-387; Trans. Wisconsin Academy Science, Arts; and Letters, 1903, pp. 686-90; international Good Templar, October 1889; Columbian Biographical Dictionary, Wisconsin, Volume (1895); Proc. Wisconsin Historical Society, Volume XIV, pt. 2 (1904; Dictionary of Wisconsin History, Wisconsin Historical Society)

Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Volume 4, Pt. 2 pp. 386-387:

HASTINGS, SAMUEL DEXTER (July 24, 1816-March 26, 1903), reformer, born at Leicester, Worcester County, Massachusetts, was the son of Simon and Elizabeth (McIntosh) Hastings and a lineal descendant of Thomas Hastings who emigrated from England in 1634 and settled in Watertown, Massachusetts. His early youth was spent in Boston; at the age of fourteen he moved to Philadelphia and there humbly began his mercantile career. Aided by a friend from Leicester, he was established in his own business at the age of twenty-one. During his sixteen years in Philadelphia he maintained a deep interest in social and religious questions. In 1835 he began his long connection with the anti-slavery movement that brought him into intimate association with William "Lloyd Garrison, Wendell Phillips, and John G. "Whittier. He was one of the active founders of the Liberty party in Pennsylvania and at the age of twenty-four was chairman of the state central committee. On August 1, 1837, he married Margaretta Shubert and in 1846 moved to Walworth County in Wisconsin Territory. Two years later he was elected to the first state legislature by a large majority. In the first session he delivered a memorable speech against slavery and was the author of the resolutions which committed the new state to its opposition to the extension of the slave trade. He moved from Walworth County to La Crosse in 1852 and later to Trempealeau on the Mississippi. In 1856 he was returned to the legislature and the following year was elected treasurer of the state. He held this office for eight years, ably managing the state finances during the difficult period of the Civil War.

During his long career Hastings was a zealous foe of liquor and tobacco. He had spoken frequently, had encouraged legislation, and was an active member of many organizations to suppress these alleged evils. In the Sons of Temperance he became Grand Worthy Patriarch of Wisconsin and was six times elected Right Worthy Grand Templar, the highest office in the international order of Good Templars. In his youth he had been an ardent Presbyterian but withdrew from the church because of his anti-slavery views. He became prominent in the Congregational Church, was influential in establishing a free Congregational church in Philadelphia and, although remaining a layman, became moderator of the Wisconsin state convention. To this convention he made the remarkable address based on the text, "whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God," in which he effectively demonstrated that tobacco could not be used to the glory of God. He spoke for prohibition in nearly every state of the Union, in Canada, in Australia and New Zealand, and six times crossed the Atlantic to further the cause. For many years he contributed to prohibition and anti-slavery papers and in 1883 edited the speeches of John B. Finch under the title, The People versus the Liquor Traffic. He was for many years a member of the executive committee and treasurer of the national Prohibition party. Honest men sometimes quarreled with his methods, but he was never troubled by doubts of the value of his ends or his means to them. Throughout a long and active life he labored indefatigably for two great purposes: the emancipation of the negroes of the South and the imposition of prohibition upon the English-speaking peoples of the world. He died at Evanston, Illinois.

[Trans. Wisconsin Academy Science, Arts; and Letters, 1903, pp. 686-90; international Good Templar, October 1889; Columbian Biographical Dict., Wisconsin, Volume (1895); Proc. Wisconsin Historical Society, Volume XIV, pt. 2 (1904); L. N. H. Buckminster, The Hastings Memorial (1866); Wisconsin State Journal (Madison), March 26, 27, 1903. Dictionary of American Biography, 1936, Volume 4, Pt. 2, pp. 386-387)

F.M.



HITCHCOCK, J.

(Minutes, Convention of the Liberty Party, June 14, 15, 1848, Buffalo, New York).


HOIT, General, New Hampshire, officer in the Liberty party.

(Minutes General Liberty Convention Buffalo, New York, October 20, 1847).




HOLLEY, Myron, 1779-1841, Rochester, New York, abolitionist leader, political leader, reformer. Founder of the Liberty Party. The formation of the Liberty party in April 1840 at Albany was in a large measure his achievement, for he had succeeded in transforming the moral and religious indignation of the Abolitionists into effective political action. Published the anti-slavery newspaper, Rochester Freeman.

(Blue, Frederick J. No Taint of Compromise: Crusaders in Antislavery Politics. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2005, pp. 20, 23, 25, 26; Chadwick, 1899; Dumond, Dwight Lowell, Antislavery: The Crusade for Freedom in America, University of Michigan Press, 1961, pp. 295-296, 404n16; Goodell, 1852, pp. 470, 474, 556; Mitchell, Thomas G. Antislavery Politics in Antebellum and Civil War America. Westport, CT: Praeger, 2007, pp. 16-17, 21; Sernett, Milton C. North Star Country: Upstate New York and the Crusade for African American Freedom. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 2002, pp. 107-109, 112, 180, 305-306n17; Sorin, Gerald. The New York Abolitionists: A Case Study of Political Radicalism. Westport, CT: Greenwood Publishing Corporation, 1971; Wright, 1882; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Volume III, p. 236; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Volume 5, Pt. 1, pp. 150-151; American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Volume 11, p. 62)

Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Volume 5, Pt. 1, pp. 150-151:

HOLLEY, MYRON (April 29, 1779-March 4, 1841), Abolitionist, born at Salisbury, Connecticut, was the son of Luther and Sarah (Dakin) Holley and by family tradition a direct descendant of Edmund Halley, the English astronomer. Horace Holley [q.v.] was his younger brother. In 1799 he graduated from Williams College and began the study of law in the office of Judge Kent at Cooperstown, New York. In 1802 he practised law at Salisbury, and in the following year he moved to Canandaigua in New York. There he abandoned the law, and having purchased the stock of Bemis, a local merchant, he became the bookseller for the village and the surrounding country. In 1804 he married Sallie House who bore him six daughters. Elected in 1816 to represent Canandaigua in the General Assembly, he became deeply interested in the projected Erie Canal and was appointed one of the canal commissioners. He acted as treasurer of the commission and expended more than $2,500,000 for the state. Because of the method of the disbursements and his carelessness in safeguarding his own interests he was unable to produce vouchers for $30,000 of the total, and in order to make up the deficiency, he surrendered his small estate. An investigating committee exonerated him of all charges of misappropriation, but, although the state later returned his property, he was never adequately compensated for his great services. He had retired and was devoting himself to horticulture when he was again brought into public affairs by the abduction and murder of William Morgan followed by the anti-Masonic movement which swept New York state and culminated in a convention at Albany. He drafted the address of that convention to the people of the state and was one of the New York delegates to the National Anti-Masonic Convention which assembled in Philadelphia in 1830. The Address ... to the People of the United States (1830), eloquently demonstrating that Masonic societies were inimical to the principles of a free, republican government, was the work of Holley as the committee chairman. In 1831 he became editor of the Lyons Countryman and for the next three years waged a vigorous campaign against Freemasonry. In 1834 he went to Hartford to edit the Free Elector for the Anti-Masons of Connecticut, but after a year he returned to New York and settled near Rochester.

Holley first began to take a practical interest in the slavery question in the winter of 1837 and was soon convinced of the necessity of organized political action. At the anti-slavery convention held in Cleveland in 1839 he moved that a nomination of candidates for president and vice-president be made, but the motion was badly defeated. He returned to New York and secured the passage of a resolution by the Monroe County antislavery convention in favor of a distinct nomination, and a few days later he was again successful at a larger convention held at Warsaw, which convention nominated James G. Birney as its candidate. The formation of the Liberty party in April 1840 at Albany was thus in a large measure his achievement, for he had succeeded in transforming the moral and religious indignation of the Abolitionists into effective political action. On June 12, 1839, Holley issued the first number of the Rochester Freeman which he edited until it failed shortly before his death.

[Elizur Wright, Myron Holley; and What He Did for Liberty and True Religion, (1882); A Life for Liberty: Anti-Slavery and Other Letters of Sallie Holley (1899), ed. by J. W. Chadwick; Wm. L. Garrison, 1805-1879: The Story of His Life Told by His Children, Volume II (1885); The Rochester Historical Society Publication Fund Ser., volumes I-III (1922-24); W. F. Peck, Semi-Centennial History of the City of Rochester (1884); History Collections Relating to the Town of Salisbury, Connecticut, Volume II (1916); the Nation, March 9, 1882; files of the Rochester Freeman in the library of the Buffalo Historical Society; and manuscript letters in the Holley collection, New York Historical Society]

F. M-n.

Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Volume III, p. 236;

HOLLEY, Myron, reformer, born in Salisbury, Connecticut, 29 April, 1779; died in Rochester, New York, 4 March, 1841. He was graduated at Williams in 1799, studied law, and was admitted to the bar in 1802. He began practice in Salisbury, but in 1803 settled in Canandaigua, New York Finding the law uncongenial, he purchased the stock of a local bookseller and became the literary purveyor of the town. In 1810-'14 he was county-clerk, and in 1816 was sent to Albany as an assemblyman. The project of the Erie canal was at that time the great subject of interest, and through the efforts of Mr. Holley a board of commissioners was appointed, of whom he was one. His work thenceforth, until its completion, was on the Erie canal. For eight years his practical wisdom, energy, and self-sacrifice made him the executive power, without which this great enterprise would probably have been a failure. On the expiration of his term of office, in 1824, as canal-commissioner and treasurer of the board, he retired to Lyons, where with his family he had previously removed. The anti-Masonic excitement of western New York, arising from the abduction of William Morgan, soon drove Mr. Holley into prominence again. This movement culminated in a national convention being held in Philadelphia in 1830, where Henry D. Ward, Francis Granger, William H. Seward, and Myron Holley were the representatives from New York. An “Address to the People of the United States,” written by Holley, was adopted and signed by 112 delegates. The anti-Masonic adherents presented a candidate in the next gubernatorial canvass of New York, and continued to do so for several years, until the Whigs, appreciating the advantages of their support, nominated candidates that were not Masons. This action resulted, in 1838, in the election of William H. Seward. Meanwhile, in 1831, Mr. Holley became editor of the Lyons “Countryman,” a journal devoted to the opposition and suppression of Masonry; but after three years, this enterprise not having been successful, he went to Hartford, and there conducted the “Free Elector” for one year. He then returned to Lyons, but soon disposed of his property and settled near Rochester, where for a time he lived in quiet, devoting his attention to horticulture. When the anti-slavery feeling began to manifest itself Mr. Holley became one of its adherents. At this time he was offered a nomination to congress by the Whig party, provided he would not agitate this question; but this proposition he declined. He participated in the meeting of the anti-slavery convention held in Cleveland in 1839, and was prominent in the call for a national convention to meet in Albany, to take into consideration the formation of a Liberty party. At this gathering the nomination of James G. Birney was made, and during the subsequent canvass Mr. Holley was active in support of the candidate, both by continual speaking and by his incessant labors as editor of the Rochester “Freeman.” Mr. Holley's remains rest in Mount Hope cemetery, at Rochester, and the grave is marked by an obelisk, with a fine medallion portrait in white marble, the whole having been paid for in one-cent contributions by members of the Liberty party, at the suggestion of Gerrit Smith. See “Myron Holley; and What he did for Liberty and True Religion,” by Elizur Wright (Boston, 1882). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Volume III, pp. 236.



HOLMES, Ezekiel, 1801-1865, Maine state legislator, Liberty Party candidate for Governor, 1853, 1854. Holmes served four consecutive single-year terms in the Maine House of Representatives from 1836 to 1840. He served two single year terms in the Maine Senate in 1844 and 1845 before returning to the House for two terms in 1851 and 1852. He was the nominee of the Liberty Party for governor in 1853 and 1854. He lost to Whig William G. Crosby both times.

(Minutes, Convention of the Liberty Party, June 14, 15, 1848, Buffalo, New York)



HOLTON, E. D., Indiana, officer in the Liberty Party.

(Minutes General Liberty Convention Buffalo, New York, October 20, 1847).



HORTON, George F., Pennsylvania, Officer Liberty party.

(Minutes, Convention of the Liberty Party, June 14, 15, 1848, Buffalo, New York).



HUDDLESTON, J. Indiana, officer in the Liberty party.

(Minutes General Liberty Convention Buffalo, New York, October 20, 1847).



HUSSEY, Erastus, 1800-1889, Battle Creek, Michigan, political leader, abolitionist leader, agent, Underground Railroad. Helped more than one thousand slaves escape after 1840. Co-founder of the Republican Party. Member of the Free-Soil and Liberty Parties.

(Dumond, Dwight Lowell, Antislavery: The Crusade for Freedom in America, University of Michigan Press, 1961, p. 339)



HUTCHINSON, Titus, Judge, Vermont, officer Liberty party

Presiding, General Liberty Convention Buffalo, New York, October 20, 1847.



JACKSON, Francis, Liberty Party candidate for Mayor of Boston.

(Minutes, Convention of the Liberty Party, June 14, 15, 1848, Buffalo, New York)



JACKSON, James Caleb, 1811-1895, New York, abolitionist leader. Member, Executive Committee, 1840-1841, Corresponding Secretary, 1840-1842, American Anti-Slavery Society (AASS). Having become interested in the anti-slavery movement, he made the acquaintance of Gerrit Smith [q.v.], who advised him to come to Peterboro, New York. There he settled in 1838 and became an agent of the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society. In the spring of 1840 he was made the secretary of the American Anti-Slavery Society. He assisted Nathaniel P. Rogers in editing the National Anti-Slavery Standard (founded in June 1840) until Oliver Johnson became editor in June 184r. In the fall of 1840 Jackson lectured in western New York. Gerrit Smith invited him to edit a third-party paper and contributed considerably to its support. With Luther Myrick, he founded the Madison County Abolitionist at Cazenovia, New York, in September 1841.

(Sorin, Gerald. The New York Abolitionists: A Case Study of Political Radicalism. Westport, CT: Greenwood Publishing Corporation, 1971, pp. 95-96, 130-131; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Volume 5, Pt. 1, p. 468; Locke, Mary Stoughton. Anti-Slavery in America from the Introduction of African Slaves to the Prohibition of the Slave Trade (1619-1808). Boston: Ginn & Co., 1901, p. 127American National Biography, Oxford University Press, New York, 2002, Volume 11, p. 752)

Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Volume 5, Pt. 1, p. 468:

JACKSON, JAMES CALEB (March 28, 1811 July 11, 1895), physician, abolitionist, was born in Manlius, Onondaga County, New York, whither his father, James Jackson, a physician, son of Colonel Giles Jackson of Tyringham, Berkshire County, Massachusetts, had moved. The mother of James Caleb was Mary Ann (Elderkin) Jackson, granddaughter of a Connecticut Revolutionary officer, Jedidiah Elderkin. Because of impaired health, the elder James Jackson gave up medicine and retired to a farm when his son was about twelve and at seventeen the latter entered Manlius Academy to prepare for college. The death of his father prevented the completion of his academic work, however, and marrying Lucretia Brewster, September 10, 1830, he definitely abandoned all plans for a college education. Having become interested in the anti-slavery movement, he made the acquaintance of Gerrit Smith [q.v.], who advised him to come to Peterboro, New York. There he settled in 1838 and became an agent of the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society. In the spring of 1840 he was made the secretary of the American Anti-Slavery Society. He assisted Nathaniel P. Rogers in editing the National Anti-Slavery Standard (founded in June 1840) until Oliver Johnson became editor in June 184r. In the fall of 1840 Jackson lectured in western New York. Gerrit Smith invited him to edit a third-party paper and contributed considerably to its support. With Luther Myrick, he founded the Madison County Abolitionist at Cazenovia, New York, in September 1841. After a year this was sold by the publishers and Jackson moved to Utica where for two years he was editor of the Liberty Press. He then went to Albany and purchase d the Albany Patriot, which he edited until 1846, when poor health caused him to sell the paper to William L. Chaplin. In June 1847, at Macedon Lock, New York, he was one of the sponsors of the Liberty League, a fourth party, which had grown out of the Liberty Party.

During the months of his illness he had been under the care of Dr. S. O. Gleason of Cuba, New York. Long interested in medicine, Jackson soon formed a partnership with Gleason and Theodosia Gilbert. At the head of Skaneateles Lake they opened a hygienic institute known as the "Glen Haven Water Cure." In the winter of 1849-50 Gleason withdrew from the partner ship and in the fall of 1858 Jackson himself left Glen Haven and moved to Dansville, New York. There he opened a water cure that became famous as "Our Home Hygienic Institute." In 1879 he turned over the management of it to his son, Dr. James H. Jackson. Possessing religious convictions concerning the necessity of reform, Jackson was unwearied in his search for conditions that needed remedying. He was an active member of the association for dress reform, and he fought against what he considered the evils of rum and tobacco. He held drug medication to be "the popular delusion of the nineteenth century and the curse of the age"; hydropathy became his favorite reform. For many years he was the assistant editor of The Laws of Life, a periodical devoted to hydropathy and the advertisement of "Our Home." He acquired a reputation among his contemporaries as a popular orator and writer. Of his half-dozen popular books on medicine only one now has a claim to notice: How to Treat the Sick Without Medicine (Dansville, New York, 1868), an exposition of his hydropathic practices, briefly summarized as "'Tis Nature cures the sick." From 1886 to 1895 he lived in North Adams, Massachusetts; his death occurred while he was on a visit to Dansville.

[D. W. Elderkin, Genealogy of the Elderkin Family (copyright 1888); W. P. and F. J. Garrison. William Lloyd Garrison I805-1879 (4 volumes, 1885-89); J. H. Smith, History of Livingston County, New York (1881); I789-Dansville- 1902 (n.d.), ed. by A. O. Bunnell; Buffalo Courier, July 12, 1895; MS. letters in Gerrit Smith Miller Collection at Syracuse University.]

F. M-n.



JACKSON, William Hicks, 1783-1855, Massachusetts, newspaper publisher, abolitionist, temperance activist. U.S. Congressman, Whig Party. Vice president, 1833-1836, and founding member of the American Anti-Slavery Society, December 1833. Founding member, Liberty Party. President of the American Missionary Society from 1846-1854. His antislavery views had him support the Free-Soil party after its establishment in 1848.

(Dumond, Dwight Lowell, Antislavery: The Crusade for Freedom in America, University of Michigan Press, 1961, p. 286; Abolitionist, Volume I, No. XII, December, 1833; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Volume III; Biographical Dictionary of the United States Congress; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Volume 5, Pt. 1, pp. 561-562; Minutes General Liberty Convention Buffalo, New York, October 20, 1847)

Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Volume 5, Pt. 1, pp. 561-562:

JACKSON, WILLIAM HICKS, (September 2, 1783-February 27, 1855), tallow chandler, railway promoter, congressman, the son of Timothy and Sarah (Winchester) Jackson, and said to be a descendant of Edward Jackson, one of the earliest settlers of Cambridge, was born in Newton, Massachusetts. Systematic in his reading and study, he supplemented the elementary education which he received in the town schools. At the age of twenty-one, after three years' experience in a manufactory of soap and candles in Boston, he established himself in th e business, in which, in spite of reverses suffered during the War of 1812, he succeeded in laying the foundations of a modest fortune. He served a term as representative of Boston in the Massachusetts General Court in 1819, retiring at this time from active connection with his tallow chandlery. About 1826 he became greatly interested in railroads. Later as a member of the General Court, 1829-1831, he was an active supporter of railroad projects in Massachusetts, lecturing extensively and writing for many newspapers upon this subject for the next eighteen years. Many of his arguments and predictions which now seem conservative were received with ridicule and abuse at that time when many persons considered canals more advantageous. He participated actively in the construction of several Massachusetts railroads including the Western, the Boston & Worcester, the Boston & Albany, and the New Bedford & Taunton.

Jackson was a member of the Twenty-third and Twenty-fourth congresses (1833-37), being elected by Anti-Masonic and National Republican support. He refused to be a candidate for a third term. In 1840 he took part in the organization of the Liberty party, and as their candidate was defeated for the lieutenant-governorship in 1842, 1843, and 1844. His antislavery views led him to support the Free-Soil party after its establishment in 1848. Long convinced of the evils of intoxication, he was active in temperance reform, abolishing, as an employer, the custom of furnishing rum to his employees, and adding the extra sum to the wages paid. He was a founder and deacon of the Eliot Church of Newton, and president of the American Missionary Association for the first eight years of its existence, 1846-54. His financial concerns late in life were largely confined to the land company which he organized in 1848 for laying out that part of Newton known as Auburndale, and to two banks, the Newton Savings Bank, founded in 1831, of which he was president from 1831 to 1835, and the Newton National Bank, of which he was president from its founding in 1848 to his death. He was married twice: on December 1, 1806, to Hannah Woodward of Newton (d. August II, 1814) by whom he had one son and four daughters, and in 1816 to Mary Bennett of Lunenburg, by whom he had four so ns and seven daughters.

[S. F. Smith, History of Newton, Massachusetts (1880); H. K. Rowe, Tercentenary History of Newton (1930); Biographical Directory American Congress (1928); Boston Transcript, Daily Evening Traveller, February 28, 1855.]

R. E. M.

Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Volume III:

JACKSON, William, financier, b: in Newton, Massachusetts, 2 September, 1783; died there, 26 February, 1855. He received a common-school education, and was trained to mercantile life. He was a member of the state house of representatives from 1829 till 1832, and in the latter year was elected to congress as a Whig. He was re-elected for the following term, but declined a second re-nomination. He was one of the earliest promoters of railroads in Massachusetts, delivering an address to the legislature in favor of the new method of locomotion, which was derisively received. Subsequently he delivered the address in various cities of New England, awakening an interest in railroads, and when their construction was begun superintended the works on the Boston and Worcester, Boston and Albany, and other lines. He was a pioneer in the temperance movement and an early opponent of slavery, being one of the founders of the Liberty party, which was afterward merged into the Free-soil party. From 1848 till his death he was the president of the Newton bank. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Volume III.



JAY, William, 1789-1858, Bedford, NY, jurist, anti-slavery activist, abolitionist leader, anti-slavery Liberty Party. Son of first Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, John Jay. In 1819, he strongly opposed the Missouri Compromise, which allowed the extension of slavery into the new territories. Drafted the constitution of the American Anti-Slavery Society (AASS). Corresponding Secretary, 1835-1838, Executive Committee, 1836-1837, AASS. Vice President, American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society (AFASS). He was removed as a judge of Westchester County, in New York, due to his antislavery activities. Supported emancipation of slaves in the District of Columbia and the exclusion of slavery from new territories, although he did not advocate interfering with slave laws in the Southern states.

(Dumond, Dwight Lowell, Antislavery: The Crusade for Freedom in America, University of Michigan Press, 1961, pp. 47, 159, 226, 286, 301; Mabee, Carleton. Black Freedom: The Nonviolent Abolitionists from 1830 Through the Civil War. London: Macmillan, 1970, pp. 73, 107, 199, 251, 253, 295; Sorin, Gerald. The New York Abolitionists: A Case Study of Political Radicalism. Westport, CT: Greenwood Publishing Corporation, 1971, pp. 51, 77-81, 96, 132; Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Volume III; Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Volume 5, Pt. 2, pp. 11-12; American Reformers: An H.W. Wilson Biographical Dictionary, New York, 1985, pp. 473-475; Jay, W., Life and Writings of John Jay, 1833; Jay, W., An Inquiry into the Character and Tendency of the American Colonization and American Anti-Slavery Societies, 1834; Jay, W., A View of the Action of the Federal Government in Behalf of Slavery, 1837; Jay, W., War and Peace, 1848; Jay, W., Review of the Causes and Consequences of the Mexican War, 1849)

Dictionary of American Biography, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1936, Volume 5, Pt. 2, pp. 11-12:

JAY, WILLIAM (June 16, 1789-October 14, 1858), judge, author, moral reformer, was born in New York City, the son of John Jay [q.v.] and Sarah Van Brugh Livingston, and a brother of Peter Augustus Jay [q.v.]. Following a thorough classical training under Thomas Ellison, rector of St. Peter's Church in Albany, and preparation for college from Henry Davis, afterwards president of Hamilton College, he entered Yale in 1804. After his graduation (1807) he undertook the study of law in the office of John B. Henry, Albany, but impaired eyesight prevented active practice and he turned to agricultural pursuits on his father's 800 acres at Bedford.

In 1818 he was appointed judge of the court of Westchester County, and with one short interruption held that office until 1843, when he was removed through the influence of pro-slavery Democrats. His charges to the jury always commanded attention because of his "full exposition of the law, without the slightest concession to the popular current of the day" (New York Evening Post, October 15, 1858). Active with tongue and pen in championing the cause of emancipation, he was agitating for the abolition of the slave trade in the District of Columbia twenty-two years before congressional action brought it about. The first number of the Emancipator, May 1, 1833, had a contribution from Judge Jay. The same year the New York City Anti-Slavery Society was established with his support, and largely through his persuasive arguments a National Anti-Slavery Convention in Philadelphia inaugurated a country-wide campaign that was based on strictly constitutional grounds. Like Wilberforce he opposed the plan to colonize the former slaves in Africa, declaring that those who favored that plan were not moved by "the precepts of the Gospel" but by "prejudice against an unhappy portion of the human family" (An Inquiry into the Character and Tendency of the American Colonization, and American Anti-Slavery Societies, two editions, 1835). To the advocates of gradual emancipation he revealed its dangers, arguing that it must be either "immediate emancipation or continued slavery" (Ibid.). In other pamphlets he reproved certain bishops of the Protestant Episcopal Church, of which he himself was a communicant, for their use of the Bible to prop up slavery; and he vigorously assailed the American Tract Society, of which he was a life director, for its attempt to sidestep the slavery issue in the interest of harmony. A collection of his arguments, Miscellaneous Writings on Slavery, was published in 1853. He was far in advance of his age in the advocacy of arbitration to settle international disputes. His pamphlet of 1842, War and Peace: The Evils of the First and a Plan for Preserving the Last, was reprinted as a timely contribution during the World War peace discussion of 1919. The American Peace Society continued him as its president for a decade.

Amid his various humanitarian activities, he took time to write The Life of John Jay: with Selections from his Correspondence and Miscellaneous Papers (2 volumes, 1833) and in 1850 published Reply to Remarks of Reverend Moses Stuart . . . on Hon. John Jay, and an Examination of his Scriptural Exegesis, Contained in his Recent Pamphlet Entitled "Conscience and the Constitution" (1850). Other writings are essays on the Sabbath as a civil and divine institution, duelling, temperance, Sunday schools and their development, and a commentary (unpublished) on the Old and New Testaments. His pamphlets in support of Bible Societies (he was one of the founders of the American Bible Society in 1816) brought him into acrimonious controversy with Bishop J. H. Hobart [q.v.]. Jay was also a devoted agrarian with an enthusiasm for experiments in tillage, drainage, horticulture, and stock-raising on the Bedford estate. He married, September 4, 1812, Hannah Augusta McVickar, daughter of a New York merchant. John Jay, 1817-1894 [q.v.], was their only surviving son.

[Bayard Tuckerman, William Jay and the Constitutional Movement for the Abolition of Slavery (1893), containing a list of Jay's writings as an appendix; F. B. Dexter, Biographical Sketches Graduates Yale College, Volume VI (1912), also with a list of writings; G. B. Cheever, The True Christian Patriot (1860); Frederick Douglass, Eulogy of the Late Hon. William Jay (1859); A.H. Partridge, "The Memory of the Just": A Memorial of the Hon. Wm. Jay (1860); newspaper obituaries, particularly those in (New York) Evening Post, October 15, and New York Tribune, October 16, 1858.]

A. E. P.

Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Volume III:

JAY, William, jurist, born in New York city, 16 June; 1789; died in Bedford, New York, 14 October, 1858, studied the classics at Albany with the Reverend Thomas Ellison, of Oxford, England. Among his classmates was James Fenimore Cooper, with whom he formed a life-long friendship, and who inscribed to Jay “Lionel Lincoln” and some of his “Letters from Europe.” Jay was graduated at Yale in 1808, and studied law with John B. Henry of Albany, but was compelled to relinquish the profession by weakness of the eyes. He retired to his father's home at Bedford, and in 1812 married Augusta, daughter of John McVickar, a lady “in whose character were blended all the Christian graces and virtues.” In 1815 he published a “Memoir on the Subject of a General Bible Society for the United States,” and in 1810 assisted Elias Boudinot and others in forming the American Bible society, of which he was for years an active and practical promoter, and its principal champion against the vigorous attacks of the high-churchmen led by Bishop Hobart. The interest in the controversy extended to England, and Jay's numerous letters and pamphlets on the subject have been commended as models of that sort of warfare. In 1818 Jay was appointed to the bench of Westchester county by Governor DeWitt Clinton. His office as first judge was vacated by the adoption of the new constitution in 1821, but he was subsequently reappointed, without regard to politics, until he was superseded in 1843 by Governor Bouck at the demand of a pro-slavery faction. In 1826, Jay, who in 1819, during the Missouri controversy, had written strongly against the extension of slavery, demanding that congress should “stand between the living and the dead, and stay the plague,” was instrumental in calling the attention of the New York legislature and of congress to the necessity of reforming the slave-laws of the District of Columbia. A free colored man, Gilbert Horton, of Somers, Westchester county, who had gone to Washington, was there arrested as a runaway and advertised by the sheriff to be sold as a fugitive slave, to pay his jail fees, unless previously claimed by his master. Jay called a public meeting, which demanded the interposition of Governor DeWitt Clinton. This was promptly given, Horton was released, and a petition circulated for the abolition of slavery in the District. The New York assembly, by a vote of fifty-seven to thirty-nine, instructed their representatives in congress to vote for the measure. Pennsylvania passed a similar bill, and upon the memorial presented by General Aaron Ward, the house of representatives, after a prolonged debate, referred the subject to a special committee. In 1828-'9 the debate was renewed in congress, and resolutions and petitions multiplied, from Maine to Tennessee.

Among Jay's writings at this time were essays on the Sabbath as a civil and divine institution, temperance, Sunday-schools, missionary and educational efforts, and an essay on duelling, to which, in 1830, while the authorship was unknown, a medal was awarded by the Anti-duelling association of Savannah, by a committee of which Judge James M. Wayne and Governor Richard W. Habersham were members. In 1833 he published the “Life and Writings of John Jay.” Its careful sketch of the peace negotiations of 1782, and its exposition of the hostility of France to the American claims was questioned by Dr. Sparks, but their accuracy was certified by Lord St. Helens (Mr. Fitzherbert), and has since been confirmed by the Vergennes correspondence and the “Life of Shelburne.” In October, 1832, President Jackson appointed Judge Jay a commissioner to adjust all unsettled matters with the western Indians; but the appointment, which was unsolicited, was declined. Judge Jay contributed a paper on the anti-slavery movement to the first number of the “Emancipator,” published in New York, 1 May, 1833. In October of the same year the New York city anti-slavery society was formed, and in December an Anti-slavery convention met at Philadelphia to form the American anti-slavery society. Each of these bodies, at Judge Jay's suggestion, disclaimed the right of congress to interfere with slavery in the states, while claiming for congress power to suppress the domestic slave-trade and to abolish slavery in the territories under its exclusive jurisdiction. The significance of the principles and action of these societies is illustrated by the interesting historic facts: first, that nullification in South Carolina in 1832, when a medal was struck inscribed “John C. Calhoun, First President of the Southern Confederacy,” was the precursor of the secession of 1861, showing that the pro-slavery policy during the interval was a part of the secession scheme; and next, that the anti-slavery movement, organized in 1833 on strictly constitutional grounds, culminated in the Republican party, by which slavery was abolished and the republic preserved. The same year, 1833, was noted for the persecution and trial in Connecticut of Prudence Crandall (q. v.), and for the decision of Judge Daggett that colored persons could not be citizens. Judge Jay's review of that decision and his able enforcement of the opposite doctrine were approvingly quoted by Chancellor Kent in his “Commentaries.” The years 1834 and 1835 were memorable for the attempt to arrest, by threats and violence, the expression of anti-slavery sentiments. Judge Jay, in a charge to the grand jury, called their attention to the prevailing spirit of lawless violence, and charged them that any law that might be passed to abridge in the slightest degree the freedom of speech or the press, to shield any one subject from discussion, would be null and void. He prepared also, for the American anti-slavery society, an address to the public, restating their views and principles, which was widely published throughout America and Europe. In 1834 Judge Jay published his “Inquiry into the Character and Tendency of the American Colonization and American Anti-Slavery Societies,” which was read “by scholars and statesmen and exerted a powerful influence!” “The work,” wrote Prof. E. Wright, Jr., “sells faster than it can be printed,” and it was presently reprinted in London. In December, 1835, President Jackson, in his message, assailed the character and designs of the anti-slavery movement, accusing the Abolitionists of circulating through the mails “inflammatory appeals addressed to the passions of the slaves, and calculated to stimulate them to insurrection and all the horrors of civil war,” and the president suggested to congress a law forbidding the circulation through the mails of incendiary documents. On 28 December the executive committee addressed to the president what Henry Wilson called “an elaborate and dignified protest from the polished and pungent pen of Judge Jay,” denying his accusations, and offering to submit their publications to the inspection of congress.

Judge Jay's next work, “A View of the Action of the Federal Government in Behalf of Slavery” (1837), made a deep impression, and had a rapid sale. This was followed in 1839 by a startling presentation of facts on “The Condition of the Free People of Color in the United States,” in 1840 by an address to the friends of constitutional liberty on the violation by the house of representatives of the right of petition, and a review from his pen of the case of the “Amistad” negroes (see CINQUE) was read by John Quincy Adams in congress as a part of his speech on the subject. In 1842 Judge Jay reviewed the argument by Mr. Webster on the slaves of the “Creole.” The two subjects to which Judge Jay's efforts were chiefly devoted were those of war and slavery. His writings on the first, both before and after he became president of the American peace society, had no little influence at home and abroad. In his volume entitled “War and Peace; the Evils of the First, with a Plan for securing the Last” (New York, 1848), he suggested stipulation by treaty referring international disputes to arbitration, as a plan based upon obvious principles of national policy, and adapted to the existing state of civilized society. The suggestion met with the warm approval of Joseph Sturge, the English philanthropist, who visited Judge Jay at Bedford while the work was still in manuscript, and it was embodied by Mr. Sturge in a volume published by him on his return to England. The plan was heartily approved by Mr. Cobden, who wrote to Judge Jay: “If your government is prepared to insert an arbitration clause in the pending treaties, I am persuaded it will be accepted by our government.” The main feature of the plan, arbitration, after approval by successive peace congresses in Europe (at Brussels in 1848, at Paris in 1849, at London in 1851) was virtually recommended by Protocol No. 23, of the Congress of Paris, held in 1856 after the Crimean war, which protocol was unanimously adopted by the plenipotentiaries of France, Austria, Great Britain, Prussia, Russia, Sardinia, and Turkey. These governments declared their wish that the states between which any serious misunderstanding might arise should, before appealing to arms, have recourse, as far as circumstances might allow, to the good offices of a friendly power. The honor of its introduction in the congress belongs to Lord Clarendon, whose services had been solicited by Joseph Sturge and Henry Richard, and it was supported by all of his colleagues in the congress. It was subsequently referred to by Lord Derby as worthy of immortal honor. Lord Malmsbury pronounced it an act “important to civilization and to the security of the peace, of Europe,” and it was somewhat later approved by all the other powers to whom it was referred, more than forty in number. Among Judge Jay's other writings on this subject are his letter on the “Kossuth Excitement” (1852); an address before the American peace society at Boston (1845), and a petition from the society to the U. S. senate in behalf of stipulated arbitration (1853). Perhaps under this head should be included his historic and searching “Causes and Consequences of the Mexican War” (Boston, 1849). In 1846 Judge Jay republished, with an elaborate preface, the concluding chapter of Bishop Wilber-force's “History of the Church in America,” which had been announced by two American publishers who relinquished the design when it was found to contain a reproof of the American church for its course on slavery. This was followed by a letter on the same subject to Bishop Ives, of North Carolina. “The Calvary Pastoral, a Tract for the Times,” rebuked the attempt to convert the Episcopal church into a popish church without a pope. In 1849 appeared “An Address to the Non-Slave-holders of the South, on the Social and Political Evils of Slavery.” This was in part embodied in an address to the people of California, which was effectively circulated on the Pacific coast in English and Spanish. In 1850 Judge Jay addressed a letter to William Nelson, on Clay's compromise measures; and this was followed by a review of Mr. Webster's declaration that slavery was excluded from California and New Mexico by the law of physical geography. Subsequent letters and addresses included one to Samuel A. Elliott, in reply to his apology for the fugitive-slave bill, an address to the anti-slavery Christians of the United States, and in 1853 several letters and reviews of the conduct of the American tract society in the interest of slavery. The same year a volume of Judge Jay's miscellaneous writings on slavery was published in Boston. In 1854 he had the satisfaction of seeing the Republican party founded on the anti-slavery principles that he had early advocated. Of his anti-slavery labors Horace Greeley said: “As to Chief-Justice Jay, the father, may be attributed, more than to any other man, the abolition of negro bondage in this state [New York], so to Judge William Jay, the son, the future give the credit of having been one of the earliest advocates of the modern anti-slavery movements, which at this moment influence so radically the religion and the philanthropy of the country, and of having guided by his writings, in a large measure, the direction which a cause so important and so conservative of the best and most precious rights of the people should take.” He left in manuscript a commentary on the Bible.—Peter Augustus's son, John Clarkson, physician, born in New York city, 11 September, 1808; died in Rye, New York, 15 November, 1891, was graduated at the College of physicians and surgeons in 1831. In addition to his practice of medicine he made a specialty of conchology, and acquired the most complete and valuable collection of shells in the United States. This and his costly library on this branch of science were purchased by Catherine Wolfe and presented, in memory of her father, to the American museum of natural history, where it is known as the Jay collection. In 1832 he became a member of the Lyceum of natural history (now New York academy of sciences), and was its treasurer in 1836-'43. He took an active part in the efforts that were made during that time to obtain subscriptions for the new building, and bore the principal burden in planning and superintending its construction. He was one of the founders of the New York yacht-club, and for some time its secretary. From 1859 till 1880 he was a trustee of Columbia college. The shells collected by the expedition of Com. Matthew C. Perry to Japan were submitted to him for examination, and he wrote the article on that subject in the government reports. Dr. Jay was the author of “Catalogue of Recent Shells” (New York, 1835); “Description of New and Rare Shells” (1836); and later editions of his catalogue, in which he enumerates about 11,000 well-marked varieties, and at 7,000 well-established species. Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of American Biography, 1888, Volume III.



JONES, John, Illinois, abolitionist. Officer Liberty Party

(Minutes, Convention of the Liberty Party, June 14, 15, 1848, Buffalo, New York)



KELLEY, Abby Foster, (January 15, 1811 – January 14, 1887) was an American abolitionist and radical social reformer active from the 1830s to 1870s. She became a fundraiser, lecturer and committee organizer for the influential American Anti-Slavery Society, where she worked closely with William Lloyd Garrison and other radicals. She married fellow abolitionist and lecturer Stephen Symonds Foster, and they both worked for equal rights for women and for Africans enslaved in the Americas.



KING, Leicester, 1789-1856, Warren, Ohio, abolitionist leader, political leader, businessman, jurist, leader of the anti-slavery Liberty Party. Manager, 1837-1839, and Vice President, 1839-1840, American Anti-Slavery Society (AASS). Ohio State Senator, 1835-1839. Member, Whig Party. U.S. Vice Presidential candidate, Liberty Party, in 1848.(lost).

(Dumond, Dwight Lowell, Antislavery: The Crusade for Freedom in America, University of Michigan Press, 1961, p. 302; Mitchell, Thomas G. Antislavery Politics in Antebellum and Civil War America. Westport, CT: Praeger, 2007, p. 24; Rodriguez, Junius P., Slavery in the United States: A Social, Political, and Historical Encyclopedia, ABC-CLIO, 2007, p. 50)

Sources:
Dictionary of American Biography, Volumes I-X, Edited by Dumas Malone, New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1930.

Appletons’ Cyclopaedia of American Biography, Volumes I-VI, Edited by James Grant Wilson & John Fiske, New York: D. Appleton and Co., 1888-1889.