John Hay papers microfilm (Ms.Hay microfilm)

Biographical/Historical note

John Milton Hay was born Oct. 8, 1838, in Salem, Indiana, and raised in Illinois, the third son of Dr. Charles Hay and his wife Helen (nee Leonard). In 1851 John went to an academy at Pittsfield in Pike County, where he met an older student, John G. Nicolay, who would play an important role in Hay's later career.

In 1852, John Hay attended Concordia College at Springfield, Illinois (later Illinois State University); but three years later he was sent to Brown, from which his maternal grandfather, David Augustus Leonard, had graduated as a member of the Class of 1792. At Brown, Hay was admitted to advanced standing and could have finished college in 1857, but finding himself behind in some areas, he wrote home that he preferred to pursue a more leisurely pace so as "to avail myself of the literary treasures of the libraries." While at Brown, Hay came under the influence of Sarah Helen Whitman and Nora Perry, and was received into their literary circle. Appointed Class Poet, he read a poem of his own composition entitled "Erato" at Class Day (June 10, 1858) of his senior year, captivating his audience.

Following his graduation from Brown that year with an M.A. degree, Hay found himself in Springfield, studying law in the office of his uncle Milton Hay. Fortuitously, Milton Hay's office was next door to the law office of Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln was persuaded by his secretary, John Nicolay, to hire Hay as an assistant private secretary, and Hay thus became a member of the White House household. Early in 1864, Hay was named Assistant Adjutant-general in the Army and detailed to the White House with the successive ranks of major, lieutenant colonel, and colonel.

In March 1865, Hay was appointed by Lincoln as secretary to the American legation in Paris, where he remained until 1867. In 1867, he moved on to Vienna as Chargé d'Affaires, and in 1869 he became Secretary of Legation in Madrid. Returning to the United States in 1870, he went to work for Whitelaw Reid as editorial writer and night editor for the New York Tribune. During the next 5 years, Hay's popularity as a literary figure and public speaker rose. Two of his best known poems, "Little breeches" (1870) and "Jim Bludso" (1871), were well-received features in the Tribune. In 1871 Hay published two popular booklength works, Pike County ballads and other pieces and Castilian days. His editorials on political affairs, both domestic and foreign, were widely read.

Hay's marriage in 1874 to Clara L. Stone, daughter of wealthy Amasa Stone of Cleveland, would assure him financial independence and changed his life. He resigned from the Tribune and moved to Cleveland to conduct the financial affairs of his father-in-law, and found himself free to resume writing. He and John Nicolay began their monumental ten volume work, Abraham Lincoln: a History which was finally published in 1890. He also authored the novel The Breadwinners (1884) which attacked the rising trade union movement. In 1878, however, he moved back to Washington to join the State Department as Assistant Secretary of State during the Hayes administration. There, he and Henry Adams occupied adjoining town houses designed by H. H. Richardson at 800 Sixteenth Street, N.W., across from the White House. In 1881, while Whitelaw Reid was in Europe, Hay served as editor of the Tribune; then, having decided to give up politics, he began his own travels. For the next dozen years, Hay continued to be involved in domestic political affairs as a private citizen.

When his friend William McKinley was elected president in 1896, Hay's political star grew brighter; he was appointed ambassador to Great Britain the following year, where he was much admired and succeeded in improving American relations with Britain. In September 1898, he was brought back to Washington to take up the post of Secretary of State, which he held until his death.

The stressful events of the next few years - the end of the Spanish-American War, the "Open Door" policy in China, the Boxer Rebellion, the Russo-Japanese War, the Alaska boundary treaty, and the Panama Canal treaty - eventually took their toll, and Hay, who had been in ill health for most of this time, died at his summer home, "The Fells," on the shores of Lake Sunapee, New Hampshire, on July 1, 1905.