Background
John Hale was born in Rochester, Strafford County, New Hampshire, the son of John Parker Hale and Lydia Clarkson O'Brien.
John Hale was born in Rochester, Strafford County, New Hampshire, the son of John Parker Hale and Lydia Clarkson O'Brien.
He attended Phillips Exeter Academy and graduated in 1827 from Bowdoin College, where he was a classmate of Franklin Pierce and a prominent member of the Athenian Society, a literary club. He began his law studies in Rochester with Jeremiah H. Woodman, and continued them with Daniel M. Christie in Dover. He passed the bar examination in 1830, and practiced law in Dover.
He was admitted to the bar at Dover in 1830 and became known as a successful jury lawyer. In 1832 he was elected to the state legislature, and in 1834 was appointed United States district attorney.
In 1842 he was elected to the United States House of Representatives as a Democrat. He opposed the annexation of Texas because of his antislavery convictions, breaking with the Democratic Party in 1845. This event, coupled with his campaign to win New Hampshire for the antislavery cause, was known as the "Hale Storm of 1845."
He was elected to the United States Senate in 1846 and served until 1853. He secured the abolition of flogging in the Navy, and he lectured on abolition throughout the North. In 1847 he was nominated for the presidency by the Liberty Party, but withdrew in favor of Martin Van Buren when the new Free Soil Party absorbed Liberty Party adherents in 1848.
In 1853 he resumed his legal practice but in 1854 was again elected to the United States Senate, where he served until 1865 as one of the leading Republicans in the country. During the Civil War, he held the chairmanship of the naval affairs committee. He was acquitted by the Senate judiciary on charges of fraud with a New Hampshire naval yard. In 1864 he was defeated for re-nomination to the Senate by the Republican caucus. He was appointed minister to Spain in 1865, but in 1869 he was recalled to the United States.
Democratic (Before 1847), Liberty (1847–1848), Free Soil (1848–1854), Opposition (1854–1855)
U. S. House of Representatives, New Hampshire House of Representatives, United States Senate
On September 2, 1834 Hale married Lucy Hill Lambert (1814-1902) in Berwick, Maine. They were the parents of two daughters, Elizabeth (Lizzie) (1835-1895) and Lucy (1841-1915).