Hay grad­u­at­ed from Brown Un­i­ver­si­ty in 1858, then stu­died law with fu­ture Amer­i­can Pres­i­dent Abra­ham Lin­coln; he be­came an at­tor­ney in Spring­field, Il­li­nois, in 1861. He was Lin­coln’s as­sist­ant pri­vate sec­re­tary un­til Lincoln’s death in 1865. Hay then served as sec­re­ta­ry of the Amer­i­can le­ga­tion in Par­is (1865-67), Vi­en­na (1867-69), and Ma­drid (1869-70). Up­on re­turn­ing home, he be­came an ed­i­tor­i­al writ­er at the New York Herald Tribune. He re-entered pub­lic ser­vice as First As­sist­ant Sec­re­tary of State (1879-1881), and up­on Wil­liam McKin­ley’s in­au­gu­ra­tion, Hay was ap­point­ed Amer­i­can am­bass­a­dor to Bri­tain. In 1898, he be­came Sec­re­tary of State, hold­ing that post un­til his death. He is per­haps best re­mem­bered for his “Open Door” po­li­cy to­ward Chi­na. His works in­clude:

• Pike Coun­ty Ballads, 1871
• Castilian Days, 1871
• Po­ems, 1890
• Abraham Lincoln: A History, 1890 (with John G. Ni­co­lay)

Sources

Hymns

1. Defend Us, Lord, from Ev­ery Ill
2. From Sinai’s Cloud of Darkness
3. Lord, from Far-Severed Climes We Come
4. Not in Dumb Resignation