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Fish, Hamilton, 1808–93, American statesman,
b. New York City, grad. Columbia, 1827; son of Nicholas Fish (1758–1833).
He studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1830.
Named for his father's friend Alexander Hamilton, and heir to the
Federalist tradition, Fish naturally gravitated to politics as a
Whig. He served as U.S. Representative (1843–45) and was elected
lieutenant governor of New York in 1847 and governor, for a two-year
term, in 1848. From 1851 to 1857, Fish was a U.S. Senator, serving
on the foreign relations committee in 1855–57. A moderate
antislavery man, he opposed both abolitionist and proslavery excesses
and deplored the breakup of the Whigs as a national party. Slow
to join the new Republican party, he lost his national political
standing but became prominent in civic activities in New York.
Fish was one of many to lionize the victorious Civil War general
Ulysses S. Grant, but his appointment (Mar., 1869) as Grant's Secretary
of State, to succeed the grossly miscast Elihu B. Washburne, came
as a surprise. He accepted reluctantly and expected to hold the
office for only a few months, but actually remained in the cabinet
longer than any other member, serving through both of Grant's administrations.
Fish was one of the ablest of U.S. Secretaries of State. Grant
was much impressed with Fish's character and ability, and he called
upon Fish's aid in the administration of domestic affairs as well.
Fish's greatest achievement as Secretary was bringing about the
treaty (see Washington, Treaty of) that paved the way for settlement
of the Alabama claims and other long-standing disputes with Great
Britain. This was accomplished amid great difficulties, especially
those offered by the vigorously anti-British chairman of the Senate
foreign relations committee, Charles Sumner.
The period was one of constant trouble with Spain, arising out
of the Ten Years War, and Fish was hard pressed to persuade Grant
not to recognize the belligerency of Cuba. Under Fish's vigilant
eye filibustering expeditions from the United States to Cuba were
kept to a minimum, but the Virginius affair in 1873 nearly brought
the nation, long sympathetic to the Cuban cause, to war with Spain.
To secure Grant's support of other policies Fish supported without
enthusiasm the President's unsuccessful project to annex the Dominican
Republic.
From The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed.
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