HALE, JOHN P. 



HAEDEE, WILLIAM J. 



349 



tives, when Mr. Hale, in opposition to the sen- 

 timent of his party, then in the height of its 

 power, took the side of the antislavery ele- 

 ment. Notwithstanding this act, however, 

 a Democratic convention again nominated 

 him for Congress, but, having immediately af- 

 terward strongly opposed the annexation of 

 Texas on antislavery grounds, he was declared 

 a traitor to his party; another convention 

 was called, and a regular Democratic candi- 

 date placed in nomination. In the election 

 that followed, Mr. Hale having run as an in- 

 dependent candidate, there were three candi- 

 dates in the field ; but, as there was no major- 

 ity, there was no choice, and the district was 

 not represented in that Congress. In 1846, he 

 was chosen a member of the Legislature, was 

 made Speaker, and in 1847, by a combination 

 of votes from different parties, he was elected 

 to the United States Sena'te. He opposed, in 

 the Senate, Mr. Clay's compromise measures, 

 and showed the same resolute, defiant spirit 

 that he had evinced in the early period of his 

 public career. Mr. Hale was engaged as 

 counsel, in 1851, in the important trials which 

 arose out of the forcible rescue of the fugi- 

 tive slave Shadrach from the custody of the 

 United States Marshal, at Boston. In August, 

 1852, the Free-Soil Democracy, who professed 

 open and thorough hostility to slavery exten- 

 sion, and all pro-slavery compromises, held 

 their nominating convention at Pittsbnrg, and 

 presented his name for President, with that 

 or" (ri-orge W. Julian, of Indiana, for Vice- 

 ProiiK-nt. At the succeeding election, where- 

 in Scott, the Whig nominee, carried only four 

 States, and Pierce carried the remainder, the 

 Hale and Julian electors received, in all, 187,- 

 IH", votes, of which 440 were from the slave 

 States. At the close of his term, in 1853, the 

 Democrats were in power, and he was not re- 

 elected. He devoted the ensuing two years 

 to professional duties in Dover, and in 1855 

 was elected again to the United States Senate, 

 for the short term, which ended in 1859, when 

 lie was reflected and served until 1865. Mr. 

 Hale was, in all, sixteen years a member,of the 

 Senate, including the war-period, except the 

 lust five weeks of active hostilities. He zeal- 

 ously supported President Lincoln's Adminis- 

 tration, sustained the leading measures, spoke 

 frequently on public questions, and was, in all 

 respects, an able and valuable member. A 

 few days after retiring from the Senate, in 

 1865, he was appointed minister to Spain by 

 President Lincoln, and held that post until 

 July, 1869, a period of four years, during 

 which time he acted judiciously in dealing 

 with the complications arising from the over- 

 throw of the monarchy and the revolt in Cuba. 

 The latter part of his diplomatic career was 

 clouded by protracted ill-health, a legacy, as 

 he supposed, from the mysterious attacks of 

 p'iM'inins, at the National Hotel, in Washing- 

 ton, in tlie winter of 1864-'65. A quarrel, 

 which proved singularly malignant, between 



Mr. Hale and his secretary of legation, also 

 embittered his life at this time ; and, when both 

 were recalled hy President Grant at the com- 

 mencement of his first term, Mr. Hale retired 

 to his home with broken health, and his spirits 

 deeply depressed. He had since taken no 

 part in public affairs. His always active brain 

 showed signs of overwork, and to great bodily 

 suffering there was added an impairment of 

 his mental faculties, which rendered the clos- 

 ing years of his life somewhat gloomy, though 

 surrounded by a devoted family, and hosts of 

 loving friends. Within little more than a year 

 before his death he twice met with severe ac- 

 cidents, one of them in July, 1873, being the 

 proximate cause of his death. There is a high 

 place reserved for him among those thinking 

 and talking men who founded the Antislavery 

 party, and educated the public mind in Amer- 

 ica to the point of resistance to the claims of 

 the slave power. This is his honorable pub- 

 lic record. The memory of his private virtues 

 will long remain green among his native hills. 

 HARDEE, WILLIAM J., Lieutenant-General 

 in the Confederate Army, an American soldier 

 and author, born in Savannah, Ga., in 1817; 

 died in AVytheville, Va., November 6, 1873. 

 He entered the Military Academy at West 

 Point in 1834, from Georgia, and graduated in 

 1838, ranking twenty-sixth in a class of forty- 

 five. He was commissioned second-lieutenant 

 of dragoons and served in the Florida War until 

 1840, having been made first-lieutenant of 

 dragoons in December, 1889. Mr. Poinsett, 

 who was Secretary of War at that time, had 

 taken an interest in young Hardee, and sent 

 him to the celebrated French Cavalry School 

 of Saumur, about eighty leagues from Paris, 

 that he might be more thoroughly trained as a 

 cavalry officer than he could be at home. He 

 remained there two years, and became very 

 accomplished in the theory and practice of 

 cavalry tactics. He was next put on garrison 

 and frontier duty in Louisiana, promoted to a 

 captaincy in the Second Dragoons, September 

 13, 1844, and took part in the military occupa- 

 tion of Texas under General Taylor, was cap- 

 tured and held a prisoner by the Mexicans 

 from April 25th to May 10, 1840, and sub- 

 sequently took part in most of the battles of 

 the Mexican War, being brevetted major and 

 lieutenant-colonel for gallant and meritorious 

 conduct in several engagements. Forthe next 

 five years he was most of the time (except 

 when on leave of absence) on frontier duty 

 in Texas. From 1853 to 1855 he was engaged 

 witli Lieutenant Benet, of the Ordnance Corps, 

 hy order of Jefferson Davis, then Secretary of 

 War, in translating and compiling " Rifle and 

 Light Infantry Tactics," from a French tactical 

 work, " V Exercice et Manceuvres de Bataillons 

 de Chasseurs d Pied," a work which, after fur- 

 ther revision by a board of army officers, was 

 adopted in March, 1855, for the use of the army 

 and militia of the United States. In March, 

 1855, Captain Hardee was promoted to be major 



