HAY, JOHN (1838-1905 ), American statesman and author, was born at Salem, Ind., on Oct. 8, 1838. He graduated at Brown university in 1858, studied law in the office of Abraham Lincoln, was admitted to the bar in Springfield, Ill., in 1861, and soon afterwards was selected by President Lincoln as assistant private secretary, in which capacity he served till the president's death, being associated with John George Nicolay (I 83 2-1901) . Hay was secretary of the U.S. legation at Paris in 1865-67, at Vienna in 1867-69, and at Madrid in 1869-7o. After his return he was for five years an editorial writer on the New York Tribune; in 81 he was first assistant secretary of State to W. M. Evarts. Upon the inauguration of President McKinley in 1897 Hay was ap pointed ambassador to Great Britain, from which post he was transferred in 1898 to that of secretary of State, succeeding W. R. Day, who was sent to Paris as a member of the Peace Con ference. He remained in this office until his death at Newburg, N.H., on July I, 1905. Hay directed the peace negotiations with Spain after the war of 1898, and not only secured American in terests in the imbroglio caused by the Boxers in China, but grasped the opportunity to insist on "the administrative entity" of China; influenced the Powers to declare publicly for the "open door" in China ; challenged Russia as to her intentions in Man churia, securing a promise to evacuate the country on Oct. 8, 1903. In 1904 he again urged "the administrative entity" of China and took the initiative in inducing Russia and Japan to "localize and limit" the area of hostilities. It was due largely to his manage ment, in concert with Lord Pauncefote, the British ambassador, that negotiations for abrogating the Clayton-Bulwer treaty and for making a new treaty with Great Britain regarding the Isth mian canal were successfully concluded at the end of 1901 ; sub sequently he negotiated treaties with Colombia and Panama, looking towards the construction by the United States of a trans isthmian canal. He arranged the settlement of difficulties with Germany over Samoa in 1899, and the settlement, by joint com mission, of the disputed Alaskan boundary in 1903. As secretary of State under Presidents McKinley and Roosevelt his guidance was invaluable during a critical period in foreign affairs, and no man of his time did more to create confidence in the increased in terest taken by the United States in international matters. He also represented the best American traditions in literature. He pub lished Pike County Ballads (1871)—the most famous being "Little Breeches"—a volume worthy to rank with Bret Harte; Castilian Days (1871), recording his observations in Spain; and a volume of Poems (189o) ; with John G. Nicolay he wrote Abraham Lincoln: A History (189o), a monumental work indispensable to the stu dent of the Civil War period in America, and published an edi tion of Lincoln's Complete Works (1894) . The authorship of the brilliant novel The e Breadwinners (1883) is now certainly attributed to him. Hay was an excellent public speaker; some of his best addresses are In Praise of Omar; On the Unveiling of the Bust of Sir Walter Scott in Westminster Abbey, May 21, 1897; and a memorial address in honour of President McKinley. The best of his previously unpublished speeches appeared in Address es of John Hay (1906) ; his correspondence in Letters of John Hay and Extracts from His Diary (1908) and in A Poet in Exile: Early Letters of John Hay, ed. Caroline Ticknor (191o) ; and his poems in Complete Poetical Works of John Hay (1916).
See Lorenzo Sears, John Hay, Author and Statesman (1914) ; William Roscoe Thayer, The Life and Letters of John Hay (1915) ; James Brander Mathews, Commemorative Tributes (1922) ; Alfred L. Dennis, Adventures in American Diplomacy 1896-1906 (1928).