Hay, JOHN

Hay, JOHN, an American author, was born at Salem, Indiana, 8th October 1838, graduated at Brown University in 1858, and was admitted to the Illinois bar in 1861. Almost immediately after he became assistant private secretary to President Lincoln; and during the war he served for some months in the field, retiring with the brevet of colonel. He was afterwards first secretary of legation at Paris (1865-67) and Madrid (1868-70), and chargé d'affaires at Vienna (1867-68); and in 1870-75 he was on the staff of the New York Tribune. In 1879-81 he was first assistant-secretary of state. His Pike County Ballads (1871) include 'Little Breeches' and 'Jim Bludso'; he has also published Castilian Days, and, with J. G. Nicolay, a Life of Lincoln (1891). In 1897 he was United States ambassador to Britain, from 1898 secretary of state to President McKinley.