Background
Stanford Newel was born on June 7, 1839 in Providence, Rhode Island, United States. He was the son of Stanford and Abby Lee (Penniman) Newel. At the age of fifteen he went with his parents to St. Anthony Falls, Minneapolis.
Stanford Newel was born on June 7, 1839 in Providence, Rhode Island, United States. He was the son of Stanford and Abby Lee (Penniman) Newel. At the age of fifteen he went with his parents to St. Anthony Falls, Minneapolis.
Newel graduated from Yale College in 1861 and in 1864 he completed the course in Harvard Law School. Returning to Minnesota he was admitted to the bar and began the practice of law in St. Paul.
With a private income which made it unnecessary to depend upon his profession for support, Newel took less and less interest as time went on in litigation, and made it his aim to keep his clients out of lawsuits whenever possible.
A large part of his practice was devoted to giving counsel to those who could not afford to pay regular fees. For many years he was a member of the St. Paul park board and was active in other civic affairs.
He was chairman of the state Republican central committee for six years and was twice delegate to national Republican conventions. Several times he drafted the party platforms of the Minnesota Republicans. It was not merely as a reward for his political services, however, that Newel received the appointment of United States minister to the Netherlands from President McKinley in 1897.
He soon became popular with the diplomatic corps at The Hague and with the people of the Netherlands, and won respect as an able representative of American national interests. He arrived at The Hague in July 1897. A year later, on September 6, 1898, he attended the coronation of the youthful Queen Wilhelmina as the specially accredited representative of the United States, and on February 7, 1901, attended her marriage to Duke Hendrik of Mecklenburg-Schwerin.
His most important work at The Hague was as a member of the American delegation to the first Hague Peace Conference in 1899. He was a member of the Second Committee, which had reference to the extension of the Red Cross rules of 1864 and 1868 to maritime warfare, and the revision of the declaration of 1874 concerning the laws and customs of war. With the other members of the delegation he signed the Hague Agreements at the end of the Conference for the United States. He subsequently shared in the organization of the Hague Permanent Court of Arbitration.
In 1905 he resigned from the diplomatic service and returned to St. Paul, where he died a little less than two years later.
Newel took great interest in state and local politics, and while he never ran for public office, his advice on Republican policies and candidates had great influence; he was said to have been the confidential friend and adviser of nearly every prominent man in Minnesota politics between 1880 and 1896.
Newel's background of culture learning, and experience, his record of quiet and unpretentious but effective public service, his capacity for making and keeping friends, combined with a keen mind, quick perceptions, and a gift for turning a happy and meaningful phrase, made him most valuable as a diplomatic representative abroad.
On June 24, 1880 he married Helen F. Fiedler, daughter of Ernest and Helen F. Fiedler of New York.