The New International Encyclopædia/Fish, Hamilton

FISH, Hamilton (1808-93). An American statesman. He was born in New York City, graduated at Columbia College in 1827, studied law, and was admitted to the bar in 1830. In 1842 he was elected to Congress as a Whig. In 1846 he was the Whig nominee for Lieutenant-Governor on the same ticket with John Young for Governor. During the campaign Fish antagonized the 'anti-renters' (see Anti-Rentism), with the result that, although the Whig ticket was generally successful, he himself was defeated. In the year following, however, on the appointment of his successful Democratic competitor, Addison Gardiner, as a judge of the State Court of Appeals, a special election was held to fill the vacancy, at which Fish was elected. In 1848 he was nominated by the Whigs for Governor, and the result was a sweeping victory for Fish. In 1851 he was elected United States Senator to succeed Daniel S. Dickinson. The years 1857-60 he spent in Europe, returning in the latter year to take an active part in the campaign in behalf of the Lincoln ticket. Early in 1862 he was appointed, with Bishop Ames, a commissioner to proceed to Richmond and other Southern cities within the Confederate lines to relieve Federal prisoners; and although the Confederate authorities refused to allow them to proceed, the negotiations that followed resulted in an arrangement for the exchange of prisoners that was continued throughout the Civil War. In March, 1869, Fish was appointed Secretary of State, and served through both of Grant's administrations, retiring in 1877. In 1871 he was one of the commissioners who negotiated and signed the Treaty of Washington with Great Britain. During the ‘Alabama Claims’ arbitration he was successful in securing the adoption by the tribunal of a provision which relieved the United States from responsibility for indirect damages arising out of the Fenian raids and Cuban filibustering expeditions. He also brought about the settlement of the longstanding Northwestern boundary dispute with Great Britain, which resulted in the cession to the United States of the island of San Juan (see San Juan Boundary Dispute), and the satisfactory settlement of the complications growing out of the Virginius massacre (q.v.). Under his direction, also, extensive reforms were undertaken in the consular service, by which civil-service examinations were required of candidates.