The New Student's Reference Work/Hay, John

Hay, John, an American writer and diplomat, was born at Salem, Ind., Oct. 8, 1838, and was educated at Brown University. He was admitted to the bar in Illinois in 1861, and became secretary to President Lincoln. He also held the military rank of major and was brevetted lieutenant-colonel. After the war he was successively secretary of legation at Paris, chargé
JOHN HAY d'affaires at Vienna and secretary of legation at Madrid. From 1870 to 1875 he was on the staff of the New York Tribune. He published Pike County Ballads and Castilian Days. With John G. Nicolay he wrote The Life of Abraham Lincoln. He became ambassador to Great Britain in 1897, and in 1898 was made secretary of state by McKinley. He helped negotiate the Hay-Pauncefote (see Clayton-Bulwer) treaty giving the United States sole authority to build the Panama Canal. He won for American diplomacy a commanding position, and for himself a high place as an advocate for peace based upon international candor and fair dealing. He died July 1, 1905.