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One of the most entertaining and interesting letter writers who ever ran the State Department, the witty, dapper, and bearded Hay left behind an abundance of documentary evidence on his public career. His name is indelibly linked with that verity of the nation's Asian policy, the Open Door, and he contributed much to the resolution of the longstanding problems with the British. Patient, discreet, and judicious, Hay deserves to stand in the front rank of secretaries of state.[234]
According to historian Lewis L. Gould, in his account of McKinley's presidency,
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Hay brought about more than 50 treaties, including the Canal-related treaties,[229] and settlement of the Samoan dispute, as a result of which the United States secured Tutuila, with its harbor at Pago Pago.[162] In 1900, Hay negotiated of a treaty with Denmark for the cession of the Danish West Indies. That treaty failed in the Danish parliament on a tied vote.[230]
Hay's efforts to shape Lincoln's image increased his own prominence and reputation in making his association (and that of Nicolay) with the assassinated president ever more remarkable and noteworthy. According to Zeitz, "the greater Lincoln grew in death, the greater they grew for having known him so well, and so intimately, in life. Everyone wanted to know them, if only to ask what it had been like—what he had been like."[226] Their answer to that, expressed in ten volumes of biography, Gale wrote, "has been incredibly influential".[224] In 1974, Lincoln scholar Roy P. Basler stated that later biographers such as Carl Sandburg, did not "ma[k]e revisions of the essential story told by N.[icolay] & H.[ay].[227] Zeitz concurs, "Americans today understand Abraham Lincoln much as Nicolay and Hay hoped that they would."[228]
Taliaferro suggests that "if Hay put any ... indelible stamp on history, perhaps it was that he demonstrated how the United States ought to comport itself. He, not Roosevelt, was the adult in charge when the nation and the State Department attained global maturity."[225] He quotes John St. Loe Strachey, "All that the world saw was a great gentleman and a great statesman doing his work for the State and for the President with perfect taste, perfect good sense, and perfect good humour".[225]
Gale pointed out that Hay "accomplished a great deal in the realm of international statesmanship, and the world may be a better place because of his efforts as secretary of state ... the man was a scintillating ambassador". Yet, Gale felt, any assessment of Hay must include negatives as well, that after his marriage to the wealthy Clara Stone, Hay "allowed his deep-seated love of ease triumph over his Middle Western devotion to work and a fair shake for all." Despite his literary accomplishments, Hay "was often lazy. His first poetry was his best."[224]
In 1902, Hay wrote that when he died, "I shall not be much missed except by my wife."[221] Nevertheless, due to his premature death at age 66, he was survived by most of his friends.[222] These included Adams, who although he blamed the pressures of Hay's office, where he was badgered by Roosevelt and many senators, for the Secretary of State's death, admitted that Hay had remained in the position because he feared being bored. He memorialized his friend in the final pages of his autobiography, The Education of Henry Adams: with Hay's death, his own education had ended.[223]
The published work, Abraham Lincoln: A History, alternates parts in which Lincoln is at center with discussions of contextual matters, such as legislative events or battles.[219] The first serial installment, published in November 1886, received positive reviews.[220] When the ten-volume set emerged in 1890, it was not sold in bookstores, but instead door-to-door, then a common practice. Despite a price of $50, and the fact that a good part of the work had been serialized, five thousand copies were quickly sold. The books helped forge the modern view of Lincoln as great war leader, against other competing narratives that gave more credit to subordinates such as Seward. According to historian Joshua Zeitz, "it is easy to forget how widely underrated Lincoln the president and Lincoln the man were at the time of his death and how successful Hay and Nicolay were in elevating his place in the nation's collective historical memory."[214]
Hay began his part of the writing in 1876;[215] the work was interrupted by illnesses of Hay, Nicolay, or family members,[214] or by Hay's writing of The Bread-Winners.[215] By 1885, Hay had completed the chapters on Lincoln's early life,[216] and they were submitted to Robert Lincoln for approval.[217] Sale of the serialization rights to The Century magazine, edited by Hay's friend Richard Gilder, helped give the pair the impetus to bring what had become a massive project to an end.[218]
Early in his presidency, Hay and Nicolay requested and received permission from Lincoln to write his biography.[23] By 1872, Hay was "convinced that we ought to be at work on our 'Lincoln.' I don't think the time for publication has come, but the time for preparation is slipping away."[214] Robert Lincoln in 1874 formally agreed to let Hay and Nicolay use his father's papers; by 1875, they were engaged in research. Hay and Nicolay enjoyed exclusive access to Lincoln's papers, which were not opened to other researchers until 1947. They gathered documents written by others, as well as many of the Civil War books already being published. They at rare times relied on memory, such as Nicolay's recollection of the moment at the 1860 Republican convention when Lincoln was nominated, but for much of the rest relied on research.[214]
Although unusual among the many books inspired by the labor unrest of the late 1870s in taking the perspective of the wealthy, it was the most successful of them, and was a sensation, gaining many favorable reviews.[212] It was also attacked as an anti-labor polemic with an upper-class bias.[213] There were many guesses as to authorship, with the supposed authors ranging from Hay's friend Henry Adams to New York Governor Grover Cleveland, and the speculation fueled sales.[209]
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William Howard Taft, Abraham Lincoln, William McKinley, Republican Party (United States), Franklin D. Roosevelt
John Quincy Adams, James Madison, Thomas Jefferson, Virginia, New York City
Frederick W. Dallinger, Samuel Lathrop, Isaac C. Bates, William B. Calhoun, Horace Mann
Library of Congress, Diana, Princess of Wales, Latin, Oclc, Integrated Authority File
Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, New York City, Hillary Clinton, Nobel Peace Prize
New York, Massachusetts, Grover Cleveland, Theodore Roosevelt, Ulysses S. Grant
Robert Byrd, Grover Cleveland, American Civil War, James G. Blaine, Delaware
Theodore Roosevelt, Republican Party (United States), Ohio, Rutherford B. Hayes, Ulysses S. Grant
Boxer Rebellion, History of China, Manchuria, Deng Xiaoping, United States