Hannibal Hamlin
Hannibal Hamlin | |
---|---|
![]() | |
15th Vice President of the United States | |
In office March 4, 1861 – March 4, 1865 | |
President | Abraham Lincoln |
Preceded by | John C. Breckinridge |
Succeeded by | Andrew Johnson |
United States Senator from Maine | |
In office June 8, 1848 – January 7, 1857 | |
Preceded by | Wyman B. S. Moor |
Succeeded by | Amos Nourse |
In office March 4, 1857 – January 17, 1861 | |
Preceded by | Amos Nourse |
Succeeded by | Lot M. Morrill |
In office March 4, 1869 – March 3, 1881 | |
Preceded by | Lot M. Morrill |
Succeeded by | Eugene Hale |
26th Governor of Maine | |
In office January 8, 1857 – February 25, 1857 | |
Preceded by | Samuel Wells |
Succeeded by | Joseph H. Williams |
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Maine's 6th district | |
In office March 4, 1843 – March 3, 1847 | |
Preceded by | Alfred Marshall |
Succeeded by | James S. Wiley |
United States Minister to Spain | |
In office June 30, 1881 – October 17, 1882 | |
Appointed by | James Garfield |
Preceded by | Lucius Fairchild |
Succeeded by | John W. Foster |
Personal details | |
Born | August 27, 1809 Paris, Maine |
Died | July 4, 1891 (aged 81) Bangor, Maine |
Political party | Democratic Republican |
Spouse(s) | Ellen Vesta Emery Hamlin |
Hannibal Hamlin (August 27, 1809 – July 4, 1891) was a politician from Maine. Hamlin served as a lawmaker in Maine, governor of Maine, in the U.S. House of Representatives, and in the U.S. Senate. He began his career as a Democrat but later became a Republican. He was the first Republican to serve as Vice President of the United States, elected as Abraham Lincoln's vice president in the 1860 presidential election.
Early life
[change | change source]Hamlin was born in Paris, Maine. He was a descendant of James Hamlin who had lived in the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1639. He attended the area's schools, and later managed his father's farm. For the next few years he worked at several jobs. He studied law. He lived in Hampden, where he practiced law until 1848, when he moved away.
Political life
[change | change source]Hamlin studied law. He was admitted to the legal profession in 1833, and quickly became known as a good lawyer and a good speaker. In politics, he began as an against slavery Democrat. He was a member of the state House of Representatives from 1836-1840, in charge of the House during the last four years. He was a representative in Congress from 1843 to 1847, and a Senator of the United States Senate from 1848 to 1856. From the very beginning of his service in Congress he was a well-known opponent of the extension of slavery; a notable supporter of the Wilmot Proviso, an opponent of the Missouri Compromise, and in 1856, he left the Democrats and joined the new Republican party.
The Republicans in Maine supported him for governor in the same year, and he won a landslide victory. He was inaugurated as governor on the 8th of January 1857. In late February, however, he gave up the governorship, and was in the Senate from 1857 to 1861. From 1861 to 1865, during the Civil War, he was Vice-President of the United States. While in this office he gave a large amount of advice to then President Lincoln, and supported both the Emancipation Proclamation and the arming of the slaves. After the war he served in the Senate (1869-1881), was minister to Spain (1881-1883), and then left public life. He died at Bangor, Maine, on the 4th of July 1891.[1]
References
[change | change source]- ↑ 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica In the Public Domain
- 1809 births
- 1891 deaths
- Ambassadors of the United States to Spain
- Lawyers from Maine
- Governors of Maine
- United States representatives from Maine
- United States senators from Maine
- Democratic Party (United States) politicians
- Republican Party (United States) politicians
- Politicians from Bangor, Maine
- 19th-century American politicians
- Vice presidents of the United States