
Hannibal Hamlin
Former Vice President of the United States
Education
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Overview
Hannibal Hamlin was an American attorney and politician who served as the 15th vice president of the United States from 1861 to 1865, during President Abraham Lincoln's first term. He was the first Republican vice president.
An attorney by background, Hamlin began his political career as a Democrat in the Maine House of Representatives before being elected twice to the United States House of Representatives, and then to the United States Senate. With his strong abolitionist views, he left the Democratic Party for the newly formed Republican Party in 1856. In the 1860 general election, Hamlin balanced the successful Republican ticket as a New Englander partnering the Northwesterner Lincoln. Although not a close friend of the president, he lent loyal support to his key projects such as the Emancipation Proclamation.
In the 1864 election, Hamlin was replaced as vice-presidential nominee by Andrew Johnson, a Southern Democrat chosen for his appeal to Southern Unionists. After being appointed Collector of the Port of Boston, Hamlin was elected to two more terms in the Senate, and finally served as U.S. Minister to Spain before retiring in 1882.
Early Life
Hamlin was born on August 27, 1809 to Cyrus Hamlin and his wife Anna (née Livermore) in Paris (now in Maine, then a part of Massachusetts). He was a descendant in the sixth generation of English colonist James Hamlin, who had settled in Barnstable, part of the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1639. He was a grandnephew of U.S. Senator Samuel Livermore II of New Hampshire.
According to folklore, Hamlin's life was saved when he was an infant by a Native American medicine woman named Molly Ockett. Hamlin was gravely ill and Ockett prescribed that he be given warm cow's milk, after which he recovered.
Hamlin attended the district schools and Hebron Academy and later managed his father's farm. From 1827 to 1830 he published the Oxford Jeffersonian newspaper in partnership with Horatio King.
He studied law with the firm headed by Samuel Fessenden, was admitted to the bar in 1833, and began practicing in Hampden, Maine, where he lived until 1848.
Hamlin married Sarah Jane Emery of Paris Hill in 1833. Her father was Stephen Emery, who was appointed as Maine's Attorney General in 1839–1840. Hamlin and Sarah had four children together: George, Charles, Cyrus, and Sarah.
His wife died in 1855. The next year, Hamlin married Sarah's half-sister, Ellen Vesta Emery. They had two children together: Hannibal E. and Frank. Ellen Hamlin died in 1925.
Career
- United States - Former Vice President
Recognition
Hamlin County, South Dakota is named in his honor, as are Hamlin, Kansas; Hamlin, New York; Hamlin, West Virginia; Hamlin Township; Hamlin Lake in Mason County, Michigan; Hamlin Peak, a mountain in Piscataquis County, Maine; and Hamlin, a small Maine village that is a U.S.–Canada border crossing with Grand Falls, New Brunswick. There are statues in Hamlin's likeness in the United States Capitol and in a public park (Norumbega Mall) in Bangor, Maine.
There is also a building on the University of Maine Campus, in Orono, named Hannibal Hamlin Hall. A fire broke out there on February 13, 1944, in which two students died and one was severely injured. The building was later rebuilt. Hannibal Hamlin Memorial Library is next to his birthplace in Paris, Maine.
The Hampden Maine Historical Society exhibits a restoration of his first law office at its Kinsley House Museum grounds.
Hamlin's house in Bangor subsequently housed the presidents of the adjacent Bangor Theological Seminary. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, as is Hamlin's birthplace in Paris, Maine (as part of the Paris Hill Historic District).
Hamlin Park in Chicago is named in his honor.