Lewis & Clark College

Fish, Hamilton

Hamilton Fish was an American statesman and politician who served as the 16th Governor of New York, a United States Senator and United States Secretary of State. Fish has been considered one of the best Secretaries of State in the United States' history. Fish came from a prominent wealthy New York family and attended Columbia College of Columbia University. Upon graduation, Fish worked as New York's commissioner of deeds, and ran unsuccessfully for New York State Assembly as a Whig candidate in 1834. After his marriage, Fish returned to New York politics in 1843 and was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives. Fish settled the controversial Alabama Claims with Great Britain through his development of the concept of international arbitration. Fish kept the United States out of war with Spain over Cuban independence by handeling the Virginius Incident. In 1875, Fish initiated the process for Hawaiian statehood, by having negotiated a reciprocal trade treaty for the island nation's sugar production. Fish organized a peace conference and treaty in Washington D.C. between South American countries and Spain. Fish settled the Liberian-Grebo war. Fish supported Abraham Lincoln as the Republican candidate for President in 1860. During the American Civil War Fish raised money for the Union war effort and served on Lincoln's presidential commission that made successful arrangements for Union and Confederate troop prisoner exchanges. When Ulysses S. Grant was elected President in 1868, he appointed Fish as U.S. Secretary of State in 1869. Fish implemented a new concept of international arbitration, where disputes between countries were settled by negotiations, rather than military conflicts. Fish was involved in a political feud between Sen. Charles Sumner and President Grant's unsuccessful controversial attempt for the annexation of the Dominican Republic. Fish organized a naval expedition in an unsuccessful attempt to open trade with Korea in 1871. Leaving office and politics in 1877, Fish returned to private life and continued to serve on various historical associations. Fish's male descendants would later serve in the U.S. House of Representatives for three generations.

Politicians

1877

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Nineteenth Century Political Party Photograph Collection