Background
Phillips was born August 16, 1823 in Salem, Massachusetts. He was the eldest son of Jane Appleton (Peele) Phillips and politician Stephen C. Phillips (1801–1857).
Phillips was born August 16, 1823 in Salem, Massachusetts. He was the eldest son of Jane Appleton (Peele) Phillips and politician Stephen C. Phillips (1801–1857).
He studied at various private schools in Salem, New York, and Washington, District of Columbia. Phillips then studied law at the Harvard Law School.
Phillips was a delegate to the 1856 Republican National Convention (its first) in Philadelphia. Phillips was Attorney-General of the state of Massachusetts from 1858 to 1861. Phillips was also a delegate to the 1864 Republican National Convention which re-nominated Abraham Lincoln for president
A fellow student at Harvard was William Little Lee (1821–1857) who had helped draft the 1852 Constitution of the Kingdom of Hawaii and served as chief justice of the supreme court until his early death.
In 1866 Phillips was invited by King Kamehameha V to come to Honolulu, where he became an officer of the government of the Kingdom of Hawaii. He was appointed to the House of Nobles in the legislature of the Hawaiian Kingdom in 1867, and attended sessions in 1868, 1870, and 1872.
Phillips temporarily acted as minister of foreign affairs in the cabinet from July 18, 1868 to while Charles de Varigny was in France trying to negotiate a treaty. On December 31, 1869 Charles Coffin Harris became minister of foreign affairs
Phillips returned to marry Margaret Duncan on October 3, 1871 in Haverhill, Massachusetts.
She was daughter of another politician, James H. Duncan (1793–1869). After the death of Kamehameha V, the new king Lunalilo chose a new council and cabinet, and in January 1873 resigned his posts and moved to San Francisco. He was replaced by Albert Francis Judd as attorney general.
In San Francisco he practiced law for the Equitable Life Insurance company and the California state board of railroad comminssioners.
In 1881 he moved back to his home state in Danvers, Massachusetts. He died on April 8, 1897.
He entered Harvard University in 1838 wen only 15 years old, graduating in 1842, as a member of Phi Beta Kappa. He was appointed as Hawaii"s attorney general and as a member of the king"s Privy Council.
