The Maine State Legislature voted to request permission to replace Maine’s statues of William King and Hannibal Hamlin with statues of Joshua Chamberlain and Margaret Chase Smith in Statuary Hall at the U.S. Capital. Statuary Hall displays statues of two important leaders from each of the 50 states, except for Virginia which displays only George Washington.

In 2020, Virginia removed its statue of Robert E. Lee and will replace it with a statue of a civil rights activist. As a lover of history, I hope the Maine Legislature will reconsider its request and maintain Hannibal Hamlin in Statuary Hall as the greatest national leader to come from Maine.

William King, campaigned for Maine to become a state and was our first governor.

Joshua Chamberlain led Maine soldiers defending Little Round Top during the Battle of Gettysburg. He served as governor of Maine and president of Bowdoin College. 

Margaret Chase Smith was the first woman to serve in both houses of Congress and the first member of Congress to criticize the tactics of Joseph McCarthy in her “Declaration of Conscience” speech in 1950. 

Those are three Mainers to be proud of. However, Hannibal Hamlin should remain one of the two Mainers to be represented in Statuary Hall. 

Hamlin was born in 1809, in Paris Hill, the sixth of seven children born to Dr. Cyrus Hamlin and Anna Livermore, whose father founded the town of Livermore, Maine.

Dr. Hamlin, a founder of Waterville College (now Colby College), sent Hannibal to Hebron Academy to prepare for college. But when his older brother, Cyrus, became ill, Hannibal returned home to work on the family farm. By age 20, Hannibal had found time to own a local newspaper and study law.

In 1832, Hamlin moved to Portland to clerk in the law office of General Samuel Fessenden, an abolitionist whose sons served in the Senate and House of Representatives during the Civil War.

In 1833, Hamlin married Sarah Emery, and they moved to Hampden, below Bangor on the Penobscot River. Hamlin opened a law office and was so popular that crowds came to hear him try a case. He served in the state legislature for five years, becoming Speaker of the Maine legislature when he was 28.

Hamlin was elected to Congress in 1843. Congress was so contentious that many congressmen carried pistols. Issues included: pensions for veterans of the American Revolution, making the territories of Texas and Oregon states, and outlawing dueling after the death of Congressman Jonathan Cilley, of Thomaston.

Hamlin was elected to the US Senate in 1848 and served alongside Henry Clay, John C. Calhoun, Daniel Webster, Jefferson Davis, and Thomas Hart Benton. At no time, before or since, has the membership of the Senate been so illustrious. Hamlin supported California’s admission as a free state and promoted shipping interests, important to Maine. 

When the Democratic Party indorsed the repeal of the Missouri Compromise and nominated pro-slavery James Buchanan for president, Hamlin joined the new Republican Party, saying: “I love my country more than I love my party.” He considered it the most important act of his life.

In 1856, delegates to the Republican National Convention in Philadelphia proposed Hamlin to be the first Republican candidate for president. Hamlin withdrew his name from consideration because he did not want to give up his seat in the Senate. John C. Fremont became the first Republican nominee for president. 

In 1860, Hamlin was shocked when men came to his Washington hotel to tell him he had been chosen to run as Abraham Lincoln’s Vice President. After the election, as Southern states seceded from the Union, Lincoln proceeded cautiously, hoping war could be avoided. Hamlin assumed war was inevitable and recruited many soldiers from Maine.

Maine furnished more troops than any other state in the Union.

When Lincoln decided that emancipation was inevitable, Hamlin was the first person with whom he shared his proclamation. After the slaves in Confederate states were emancipated in 1863, Hamlin introduced Lincoln to enlisted officers from Maine, including his sons Charles and Cyrus, who were willing to command colored troops. Hamlin persuaded Lincoln to have the Secretary of War form a brigade of colored troops. 

During the Civil War, Hamlin visited soldiers in the hospital to get them the care they needed and to cheer them. He campaigned against Copperheads in the North who wanted to end the war to pursue shipping interests in the South. He recommended McClellan be replaced by someone like Ulysses S. Grant, Joseph Hooker, or local Rockland hero Hiram G. Berry. But Berry was killed at Chancellorsville at the front of his division in 1863. 

At the 1864 Republican National Convention, the delegates renominated Abraham Lincoln to run for a second term with Andrew Johnson, of Tennessee, as his Vice President.

Lincoln was disappointed, but in those days the candidate had no say in who his running mate would be. At Johnson’s inauguration, Hamlin had to introduce him in the Senate.

Johnson gave an incoherent, drunken harangue, and, as senators covered their faces in embarrassment, President Lincoln entered the chamber. Hamlin quickly administered the oath of office and led Johnson off the stage.

On April 9, 1865, General Robert E. Lee surrendered at Appomattox; and five days later, on April 14, President Abraham Lincoln was assassinated. The next morning, Hamlin walked into Bangor to read the news on the newspaper bulletin board with tears streaming down his face. 

Hamlin helped establish the Maine College of Agriculture and Mechanical Arts which became the University of Maine. As President of the Board of Trustees, he located the college in Orono. 

In 1870, Hamlin returned to the Senate. As chairman of the Committee on Foreign Relations, he negotiated the North Atlantic fisheries boundaries and worked against the Chinese Exclusion Act. He secured funding to transform the District of Columbia into a beautiful city, and he campaigned for the creation of Civil Service Reform. 

In 1881, President Garfield appointed Hamlin minister to Spain. Upon his retirement in 1882, Hamlin entered the social life of Bangor. He spoke at campaigns, attended Grand Army of the Republic encampments, and served as president of the Unitarian Society of Maine. 

In February of 1891, Hamlin traveled to the Republican Club’s Lincoln Dinner in New York, for his last public act. He proposed making the birthday of Abraham Lincoln a national holiday. Men cheered and wept as he left the hall. He stood in the doorway, lifted his hands, and said, “Good-bye. God bless you all.” Five months later, Hamlin’s heart gave out during a card game.

Lincoln’s vice president faced the challenges of his day with optimism and service to his country. Hannibal Hamlin believed that every age grew better as it grew older. He believed that every age produced strong men to solve its problems.

Hannibal Hamlin must continue to represent Maine to the nation in Statuary Hall.

Ann Morris lives in Rockland