FISH, Hamilton, American diplomatist: b. New York, 3 Aug. 1808; d. Garrison, N. Y., 7 Sept. 1893. He was the son of Nicholas Fish (q.v.). In 1827 he was graduated at•Cohnnbia College, and admitted to the bar in 1830. A Whig in politics, he was elected a congressman in 1842, lieutenant-governor of New York in 1847 and governor in 1848. In 1851 he was returned to the United States Senate, where he opposed the repeal of the Missouri Compromise and joined the Republican party on its forma tion. During the Civil War he acted as chair man of the Union Defense Committee of New York city and later was appointed by President Lincoln as a member of the commission on the exchange of prisoners. He was Secretary of State under Grant 1869-77, signing, as one of the commissioners, the Washington Treaty of 1871 with Great Britain in the formulation of which he took an important part, and carrying through the settlement of the °Alabama ques tion.° He was also instrumental in settling the so-called °San Juan Boundary Dispute) (q.v.) with Great Britain and in adjusting in 1873 the difficulties between Spain and the United States arising from the °Virginius affair"' (q.v.).
From 1848-54 he was vice-president, and from 1854-93 president-general of the Society of the Cincinnati. He was also president of the board of trustees of Columbia University from 1859— 93. This institution, as well as Union College and Harvard University, conferred honorary degrees on him. Consult Davis, J. C. B., ilton Fish ( in Atlantic Monthly, Vol. LX X III, p. 215, Boston 1884); Gardiner, A. B., ton Fish' (in New York Genealogical and Bio graphical Record, Vol. XXV, p. 1, New York 1894); Hunt, G., Department of State of the United States, etc.' (New Haven 1914); New York State Legislature, 'Proceedings in Memory of the Honorable Hamilton Fish" (Al bany 1894); Spring, A., Fish, Sec retary of State> (in American Law Review, Vol. XL, p. 801, Saint Louis 1906) ; United States State Department, 'Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, etc.' (Washington 1869-78).