Secretaries of State: John Hay
John Hay first came to prominence as one of Abraham Lincoln's two secretaries (the other being John Nicolay). Hay was only 22 years old when Lincoln was elected President in 1860, but the young man proved to be very valuable to the President during what was perhaps the most difficult time in the nation's history. His mentoring would cultivate wisdom and good judgement that would prove valuable in later life, as Hay went on to become a prominent American diplomat and ultimately Secretary of State for two Presidents.
His full name was John Milton Hay and he was born in Salem, Indiana, on October 8, 1838, the third son of Dr. Charles Hay and the former Helen Leonard. His father, who was born in Lexington, Kentucky, was an abolitionist and and moved North in the early 1830s. He practiced medicine with his father-in-law. Charles was not successful in Salem, and moved, with his wife and children, to Warsaw, Illinois, in 1841.
John Hay attended the the John D. Thomson Academy in 1849 in Pittsfield, Illinois. He lived with his paternal uncle Milton Hay, who was a friend of Springfield attorney Abraham Lincoln. In Pittsfield, Hay met John Nicolay, a 20-year-old newspaperman. After completing his studies in Pittsfield, Hay was sent to live with his grandfather in Springfield. He later attended Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, his maternal grandfather's alma mater. He was an excellent student, though while at Brown he experimented with hashish. Hay received his Master of Arts degree in 1858. He returned to Springfield, and became a clerk in his uncle's law firm, where he studied law.
Hay was not a supporter of Lincoln for president at first, but after Lincoln's nomination in 1860, Hay made speeches and wrote newspaper articles in support of Lincoln's candidacy. He also worked with John Nicolay in addressing the huge amounts of correspondence that the campaign received. After Lincoln was elected, Nicolay continued as Lincoln's private secretary and he recommended that Hay be hired to assist him at the White House.
John Hay was admitted to the bar in Illinois on February 4, 1861 and one week later he left with President-elect Lincoln for Washington. By this time, several Southern states had seceded. When Lincoln was inaugurated on March 4, Hay and Nicolay moved into the White House, sharing a room. There was only funding for payment of one presidential secretary (Nicolay), so Hay was appointed to a post in the Interior Department and seconded to service at the White House. They worked long hours for Lincoln, who never took a vacation as president. Hay dealt with the large volume of correspondence, and also tried to shield Lincoln from office-seekers and others who wanted to meet with the President.
Hay and Nicolay accompanied Lincoln to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, for the dedication of the cemetery there, where Lincoln gave his Gettysburg Address. Lincoln sometimes sent Hay on various missions. In September of 1861, Lincoln sent him to Missouri to deliver a critical letter to Union General John C. Frémont. In April 1863, Lincoln sent Hay to the Union-occupied South Carolina coast to report back on the ironclad vessels being used in an attempt to recapture Charleston Harbor. Hay also went on missions to Florida. In July 1864, New York publisher Horace Greeley sent word to Lincoln that there were Southern peace emissaries in Canada. Lincoln was skeptical, but sent Hay to New York to persuade the publisher to go to Niagara Falls, Ontario. Later Lincoln sent Hay to Ontario to deliver what became known as the Niagara Manifesto: the proposal that if the South laid down its arms, freed the slaves, and reentered the Union, it could expect liberal terms on other points. The Southerners refused to come to Washington to negotiate.
By the end of 1864, with Lincoln reelected and the victorious war winding down, Hay looked for other work. Soon after Lincoln's second inauguration in March 1865, both Nicolay and Hay were appointed to the US delegation in Paris, Nicolay as consul and Hay as secretary of legation. Hay did not accompany the Lincolns to Ford's Theatre on the night of April 14, 1865, but remained at the White House, with Robert Lincoln. When the two were informed that the President had been shot, they rushed to the Petersen House, a boarding house where the stricken Lincoln had been taken. Hay remained by Lincoln's deathbed through the night and was present when he died.
Hay sailed for Paris at the end of June 1865. There, he served under U.S. Minister to France John Bigelow. When Bigelow resigned in mid-1866, Hay followed protocol and submitted his resignation, but was asked to remain until Bigelow's successor was in place, and stayed until January 1867. Hay returned home to Warsaw, Illinois. His stay was brief as in early June 1867, he was appointed secretary of legation to act as chargé d'affaires at Vienna. He sailed for Europe the same month, and while in England visited the House of Commons. The Vienna post was only temporary and in July 1868 that Henry Watts became Hay's replacement. Hay resigned, spent the remainder of the summer in Europe before returning home to Illinois.
In May, Hay went back to Washington to seek an office from the new Grant administration. He was given the post of secretary of legation in Spain. The U.S. Minister was controversial former congressman, General Daniel Sickles. Hay hoped to assist Sickles in gaining U.S. control over Cuba, then a Spanish colony, but Sickles was unsuccessful. Hay resigned in May 1870, but remained in the job until September.
While still in Spain, Hay had been offered the position of assistant editor at the New-York Tribune. He joined the staff in October 1870. The Tribune was the largest-circulating newspaper in the nation. Hay wrote editorials for the Tribune, and greatly impressed his editor Horace Greeley. In October 1871, Hay journeyed to Chicago after the great fire. He interviewed Mrs. O'Leary, whose cow was said to have started the blaze. Hay was signed by the prestigious Boston Lyceum Bureau, whose clients included Mark Twain and Susan B. Anthony, to give lectures on the prospects for democracy in Europe, and on his years in the Lincoln White House.
Grant ran for reelection in 1872. His administration had been rocked by scandal, and some disaffected members of his party formed the Liberal Republicans, naming Greeley as their candidate for president. Hay was unenthusiastic about either candidate. Grant won a landslide victory in the election and Greeley died weeks later. In 1874 Hay married Clara Stone, daughter of Cleveland multimillionaire railroad and banking mogul Amasa Stone. The Hays had four children, Helen Hay Whitney, Adelbert Barnes Hay, Alice Evelyn Hay Wadsworth Boyd, and Clarence Leonard Hay.
On December 29, 1876, a bridge over Ohio's Ashtabula River collapsed. Amasa Stone was blamed for the collapse because of labor disputes that were seen as the cause of negligent construction. Stone, who departed for Europe and left Hay in charge of his businesses. The summer of 1877 was marked by more labor disputes. Hay blamed foreign agitators for the dispute
Hay remained disaffected from the Republican Party in the mid-1870s. He spent time working with Nicolay on their joint biography of Lincoln, and traveling in Europe. In October, 1879, Hay was appointed Assistant Secretary of State. He oversaw a staff of eighty employees. In 1880, he campaigned for James A. Garfield. Garfield offered Hay the post of private secretary (though he promised to increase its pay and power). Hay declined and resigned as assistant secretary effective March 31, 1881. He spent the next seven months as acting editor of the Tribune during Whitlaw Reid's extended absence in Europe.
After 1881, Hay did not again hold public office until 1897. Amasa Stone committed suicide in 1883. His death left the Hays very wealthy and the couple spent several months in most years traveling in Europe.
Hay was an early supporter of Ohio's William McKinley and worked closely with McKinley's political manager,Mark Hanna. When McKinley was elected President, Hay was appointed as the ambassador to the Court of St. James's in London. During his service as ambassador, Hay attempted to advance the relationship between the U.S. and Britain. Resentment persisted over the British role in the Civil War, when British-built raiders such as the Alabama preyed on US-flagged ships. Hay's 16 months in the position was regarded as a success, because of the advancement of good feelings and cooperation between the two nations.
An ongoing dispute between the U.S. and Britain was taking place over the practice of seal hunting. The U.S. considered them American resources, while Canadians disagreed. (Britain was still responsible for Canada's foreign policy). McKinley sent former Secretary of State John W. Foster to London to negotiate the issue. Foster issued an accusatory note to the British that was printed in the newspapers. This damaged Hay's efforts at negotiation of a settlement of the issue.
Hay had little involvement in the crisis led to the Spanish–American War. He met with Lord Salisbury in October 1897 and gained assurances Britain would not intervene if the U.S. found it necessary to go to war with Spain. Hay spent much of early 1898 on an extended trip to the Middle East, and did not return to London until the last week of March, by which time the USS Maine had exploded in Havana harbor.
Secretary of State John Sherman was in poor health and had resigned when war broke out. He was replaced by his first assistant, William R. Day, a man with little experience of statecraft. McKinley looked for a secretary of state with stronger credentials. On August 14, 1898, Hay received a telegram from McKinley that Day would head the American delegation to the peace talks with Spain, and that Hay would be the new Secretary of State. Hay accepted his new assignment. He was sworn in as Secretary of State on September 30, 1898. He was now responsible for 1,300 federal employees.
By the time Hay took office, the war was effectively over. At the time of Hay's swearing-in, McKinley was still undecided whether to take the Philippines as part of the settlement, but in October he decided to do so. Hay sent instructions to the peace commissioners to insist on it. Spain yielded, and the Treaty of Paris was signed and later narrowly ratified by the Senate in February 1899.
By the 1890s, China had become a major trading partner for Western nations, and for Japan. China lacked the military might to resist these countries, and several, including Russia, Britain, and Germany, had carved off pieces of China, known as treaty ports, but in reality trading or military bases. The United States did not claim any parts of China, but a third of the China trade was carried in American ships. In March 1898, Hay warned that Russia, Germany, and France were seeking to exclude Britain and America from the China trade. McKinley agreed that equality of opportunity for American trade in China was key to success there. But in his annual message to Congress in December 1898, McKinley said that as long as Americans were not discriminated against, he saw no need for the United States to become "an actor in the scene".
In 1899, Hay promoted a policy that the United States and other powers agree to uniform Chinese tariffs. He issued what he called his "Open Door Note" on September 6, 1899. This was not a treaty, and did not require the approval of the Senate. On March 20, 1900, Hay announced that all powers had agreed. Many in China opposed Western influence. A movement in Shantung Province, in the north, became known as the Fists of Righteous Harmony, or Boxers. The Boxers were especially angered by missionaries attempts to introduce western religions and win converts. By June 1900, the Boxers, joined by imperial troops, had cut the railroad between Peking and the coast, killed many missionaries and converts, and attacking foreign legations. Hay worked to rescue the Americans trapped in Peking, in such a manner as not to lead to further appearance of American imperialism. American troops were sent to China to protect the nation's legation. Hay sent a letter to foreign powers on July 3, 1900 stating while the United States wanted to see lives preserved and the guilty punished, but not take over any part of China. He as worried that the powers were quietly making private arrangements to divide up China. Communication between the foreign legations and the outside world had been cut off. Hay called on the Chinese government that it now cooperate for its own good. The foreign relief force, principally Japanese but including 2,000 Americans, relieved the legations. China was made to pay a huge indemnity but there was no cession of land.
McKinley's vice president, Garret Hobart, had died in November 1899. Under the laws then in force, this made Hay next in line to the presidency should anything happen to McKinley. There was a presidential election in 1900, and McKinley was unanimously renominated at the Republican National Convention that year. He allowed the convention to make its own choice of running mate, and it selected Theodore Roosevelt, the Governor of New York. In 1901 Hay accompanied McKinley on his nationwide train tour. They visited California and saw the Pacific Ocean for the only times in their lives. That summer, Hay's older son Adelbert, who had been consul in Pretoria during the Boer War and was about to become McKinley's personal secretary, died in a fall from a New Haven hotel window.
McKinley was shot by Leon Czolgosz, an anarchist, on September 6 in Buffalo. Hay planned to go to Washington to manage the communication with foreign governments, but presidential secretary George Cortelyou urged him to come to Buffalo. He traveled to Buffalo on September 10. After visiting McKinley, he went to Washington. He later learned of McKinley's death.
Hay, again next in line to the presidency. He remained in Washington as McKinley's body was transported to the capital by funeral train, and stayed there as the late president was taken to Canton for interment. He described McKinley as "awfully like Lincoln in many respects". By letter, Hay offered his resignation to Roosevelt. When Hay met the funeral train in Washington, Roosevelt greeted him at the station and immediately told him he must stay on as Secretary.
Hay's involvement in the efforts to have a canal joining the oceans in Central America went back to his time as Assistant Secretary of State. With Congress anxious to begin work on a canal bill, Hay and British Ambassador Julian Pauncefote began work on a new treaty in January 1900. The first Hay-Pauncefote Treaty was sent to the Senate the following month, where it was rejected because its terms forbade the United States from blockading or fortifying the canal. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee added an amendment allowing the U.S. to fortify the canal. In March the senate postponed further consideration until after the 1900 election. The treaty, as amended, was ratified by the Senate in December, but the British would not agree to the changes.[
Despite the lack of agreement, Congress was still supportive of the construction of the canal. Negotiation of a revised treaty, allowing the U.S. to fortify the canal, took place and the second Hay-Pauncefote Treaty was ratified by the Senate by a large margin on December 6, 1901. In June, 1902, Roosevelt told Hay to take personal charge of the negotiations with Colombia. Hay began talks with Colombia's acting minister in Washington, Tomás Herrán. The Hay-Herrán Treaty, granting $10 million to Colombia for the right to build a canal, plus $250,000 annually, was signed on January 22, 1903, and ratified by the United States Senate two months later. In August, however, the treaty was rejected by the Colombian Senate.
Roosevelt and Hay came to learn that an insurrection in Panama would lead to a Panamanian government more friendly to a canal. In October, Roosevelt ordered Navy ships to be stationed near Panama. The Panamanians revolted in early November 1903, with Colombian interference deterred by the presence of U.S. forces. The new government in Panama quickly negotiated the Hay–Bunau-Varilla Treaty, which was signed on November 18, giving the United States the right to build the canal in a zone 10 miles (16 km) wide, over which the U.S. would exercise full jurisdiction. The treaty was approved by the two nations, and work on the Panama Canal began in 1904.
Hay and Roosevelt were complimentary to one other directly. Privately, and in correspondence with others, they were more critical of one another. Hay complained that while McKinley would give him his full attention, Roosevelt was always busy with others, and it would be "an hour's wait for a minute's talk". Roosevelt wrote to Senator Lodge in 1905 that that Hay had not been "a great Secretary of State. Ynder me he accomplished little. His usefulness to me was almost exclusively the usefulness of a fine figurehead". When Roosevelt successfully sought election in his own right in 1904, he persuaded Hay, who was in poor health, to campaign for him, and Hay gave a speech linking the administration's policies with those of Lincoln.
In December 1902, the German government asked Roosevelt to arbitrate its dispute with Venezuela over unpaid debts. Hay did not think this appropriate, as Venezuela also owed the U.S. money, and quickly arranged for the International Court of Arbitration in The Hague to step in. Hay and Roosevelt also differed over the composition of the Joint High Commission that was to settle the Alaska boundary dispute. The commission was to be composed of "impartial jurists". The British and Canadians duly appointed notable judges, while Roosevelt appointed politicians.
After the election of 1904, Roosevelt asked Hay to remain another four years. Hay asked for time to consider, but the President did not allow it, announcing to the press two days later that Hay would stay at his post. By early 1905, a number of treaties Hay had negotiated were defeated or amended by the Senate. By Roosevelt's inauguration on March 4, 1905, Hay's health was very bad. Presidential doctor Presley Rixey issued a statement that Hay was suffering from overwork. Hay went to Europe for medical treatment. On his return to the United States, he went to Washington to deal with departmental business. He was happy to learn that Roosevelt was well on his way to settling the Russo-Japanese War, an action for which the President would win the Nobel Peace Prize.
Hay left Washington for the last time on June 23, 1905, arriving in New Hampshire the following day. He died there on July 1 of his heart ailment and complications. Hay was interred in Lake View Cemetery in Cleveland, near the grave of Garfield.
His full name was John Milton Hay and he was born in Salem, Indiana, on October 8, 1838, the third son of Dr. Charles Hay and the former Helen Leonard. His father, who was born in Lexington, Kentucky, was an abolitionist and and moved North in the early 1830s. He practiced medicine with his father-in-law. Charles was not successful in Salem, and moved, with his wife and children, to Warsaw, Illinois, in 1841.
John Hay attended the the John D. Thomson Academy in 1849 in Pittsfield, Illinois. He lived with his paternal uncle Milton Hay, who was a friend of Springfield attorney Abraham Lincoln. In Pittsfield, Hay met John Nicolay, a 20-year-old newspaperman. After completing his studies in Pittsfield, Hay was sent to live with his grandfather in Springfield. He later attended Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, his maternal grandfather's alma mater. He was an excellent student, though while at Brown he experimented with hashish. Hay received his Master of Arts degree in 1858. He returned to Springfield, and became a clerk in his uncle's law firm, where he studied law.
Hay was not a supporter of Lincoln for president at first, but after Lincoln's nomination in 1860, Hay made speeches and wrote newspaper articles in support of Lincoln's candidacy. He also worked with John Nicolay in addressing the huge amounts of correspondence that the campaign received. After Lincoln was elected, Nicolay continued as Lincoln's private secretary and he recommended that Hay be hired to assist him at the White House.
John Hay was admitted to the bar in Illinois on February 4, 1861 and one week later he left with President-elect Lincoln for Washington. By this time, several Southern states had seceded. When Lincoln was inaugurated on March 4, Hay and Nicolay moved into the White House, sharing a room. There was only funding for payment of one presidential secretary (Nicolay), so Hay was appointed to a post in the Interior Department and seconded to service at the White House. They worked long hours for Lincoln, who never took a vacation as president. Hay dealt with the large volume of correspondence, and also tried to shield Lincoln from office-seekers and others who wanted to meet with the President.
Hay and Nicolay accompanied Lincoln to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, for the dedication of the cemetery there, where Lincoln gave his Gettysburg Address. Lincoln sometimes sent Hay on various missions. In September of 1861, Lincoln sent him to Missouri to deliver a critical letter to Union General John C. Frémont. In April 1863, Lincoln sent Hay to the Union-occupied South Carolina coast to report back on the ironclad vessels being used in an attempt to recapture Charleston Harbor. Hay also went on missions to Florida. In July 1864, New York publisher Horace Greeley sent word to Lincoln that there were Southern peace emissaries in Canada. Lincoln was skeptical, but sent Hay to New York to persuade the publisher to go to Niagara Falls, Ontario. Later Lincoln sent Hay to Ontario to deliver what became known as the Niagara Manifesto: the proposal that if the South laid down its arms, freed the slaves, and reentered the Union, it could expect liberal terms on other points. The Southerners refused to come to Washington to negotiate.
By the end of 1864, with Lincoln reelected and the victorious war winding down, Hay looked for other work. Soon after Lincoln's second inauguration in March 1865, both Nicolay and Hay were appointed to the US delegation in Paris, Nicolay as consul and Hay as secretary of legation. Hay did not accompany the Lincolns to Ford's Theatre on the night of April 14, 1865, but remained at the White House, with Robert Lincoln. When the two were informed that the President had been shot, they rushed to the Petersen House, a boarding house where the stricken Lincoln had been taken. Hay remained by Lincoln's deathbed through the night and was present when he died.
Hay sailed for Paris at the end of June 1865. There, he served under U.S. Minister to France John Bigelow. When Bigelow resigned in mid-1866, Hay followed protocol and submitted his resignation, but was asked to remain until Bigelow's successor was in place, and stayed until January 1867. Hay returned home to Warsaw, Illinois. His stay was brief as in early June 1867, he was appointed secretary of legation to act as chargé d'affaires at Vienna. He sailed for Europe the same month, and while in England visited the House of Commons. The Vienna post was only temporary and in July 1868 that Henry Watts became Hay's replacement. Hay resigned, spent the remainder of the summer in Europe before returning home to Illinois.
In May, Hay went back to Washington to seek an office from the new Grant administration. He was given the post of secretary of legation in Spain. The U.S. Minister was controversial former congressman, General Daniel Sickles. Hay hoped to assist Sickles in gaining U.S. control over Cuba, then a Spanish colony, but Sickles was unsuccessful. Hay resigned in May 1870, but remained in the job until September.
While still in Spain, Hay had been offered the position of assistant editor at the New-York Tribune. He joined the staff in October 1870. The Tribune was the largest-circulating newspaper in the nation. Hay wrote editorials for the Tribune, and greatly impressed his editor Horace Greeley. In October 1871, Hay journeyed to Chicago after the great fire. He interviewed Mrs. O'Leary, whose cow was said to have started the blaze. Hay was signed by the prestigious Boston Lyceum Bureau, whose clients included Mark Twain and Susan B. Anthony, to give lectures on the prospects for democracy in Europe, and on his years in the Lincoln White House.
Grant ran for reelection in 1872. His administration had been rocked by scandal, and some disaffected members of his party formed the Liberal Republicans, naming Greeley as their candidate for president. Hay was unenthusiastic about either candidate. Grant won a landslide victory in the election and Greeley died weeks later. In 1874 Hay married Clara Stone, daughter of Cleveland multimillionaire railroad and banking mogul Amasa Stone. The Hays had four children, Helen Hay Whitney, Adelbert Barnes Hay, Alice Evelyn Hay Wadsworth Boyd, and Clarence Leonard Hay.
On December 29, 1876, a bridge over Ohio's Ashtabula River collapsed. Amasa Stone was blamed for the collapse because of labor disputes that were seen as the cause of negligent construction. Stone, who departed for Europe and left Hay in charge of his businesses. The summer of 1877 was marked by more labor disputes. Hay blamed foreign agitators for the dispute
Hay remained disaffected from the Republican Party in the mid-1870s. He spent time working with Nicolay on their joint biography of Lincoln, and traveling in Europe. In October, 1879, Hay was appointed Assistant Secretary of State. He oversaw a staff of eighty employees. In 1880, he campaigned for James A. Garfield. Garfield offered Hay the post of private secretary (though he promised to increase its pay and power). Hay declined and resigned as assistant secretary effective March 31, 1881. He spent the next seven months as acting editor of the Tribune during Whitlaw Reid's extended absence in Europe.
After 1881, Hay did not again hold public office until 1897. Amasa Stone committed suicide in 1883. His death left the Hays very wealthy and the couple spent several months in most years traveling in Europe.
Hay was an early supporter of Ohio's William McKinley and worked closely with McKinley's political manager,Mark Hanna. When McKinley was elected President, Hay was appointed as the ambassador to the Court of St. James's in London. During his service as ambassador, Hay attempted to advance the relationship between the U.S. and Britain. Resentment persisted over the British role in the Civil War, when British-built raiders such as the Alabama preyed on US-flagged ships. Hay's 16 months in the position was regarded as a success, because of the advancement of good feelings and cooperation between the two nations.
An ongoing dispute between the U.S. and Britain was taking place over the practice of seal hunting. The U.S. considered them American resources, while Canadians disagreed. (Britain was still responsible for Canada's foreign policy). McKinley sent former Secretary of State John W. Foster to London to negotiate the issue. Foster issued an accusatory note to the British that was printed in the newspapers. This damaged Hay's efforts at negotiation of a settlement of the issue.
Hay had little involvement in the crisis led to the Spanish–American War. He met with Lord Salisbury in October 1897 and gained assurances Britain would not intervene if the U.S. found it necessary to go to war with Spain. Hay spent much of early 1898 on an extended trip to the Middle East, and did not return to London until the last week of March, by which time the USS Maine had exploded in Havana harbor.
Secretary of State John Sherman was in poor health and had resigned when war broke out. He was replaced by his first assistant, William R. Day, a man with little experience of statecraft. McKinley looked for a secretary of state with stronger credentials. On August 14, 1898, Hay received a telegram from McKinley that Day would head the American delegation to the peace talks with Spain, and that Hay would be the new Secretary of State. Hay accepted his new assignment. He was sworn in as Secretary of State on September 30, 1898. He was now responsible for 1,300 federal employees.
By the time Hay took office, the war was effectively over. At the time of Hay's swearing-in, McKinley was still undecided whether to take the Philippines as part of the settlement, but in October he decided to do so. Hay sent instructions to the peace commissioners to insist on it. Spain yielded, and the Treaty of Paris was signed and later narrowly ratified by the Senate in February 1899.
By the 1890s, China had become a major trading partner for Western nations, and for Japan. China lacked the military might to resist these countries, and several, including Russia, Britain, and Germany, had carved off pieces of China, known as treaty ports, but in reality trading or military bases. The United States did not claim any parts of China, but a third of the China trade was carried in American ships. In March 1898, Hay warned that Russia, Germany, and France were seeking to exclude Britain and America from the China trade. McKinley agreed that equality of opportunity for American trade in China was key to success there. But in his annual message to Congress in December 1898, McKinley said that as long as Americans were not discriminated against, he saw no need for the United States to become "an actor in the scene".
In 1899, Hay promoted a policy that the United States and other powers agree to uniform Chinese tariffs. He issued what he called his "Open Door Note" on September 6, 1899. This was not a treaty, and did not require the approval of the Senate. On March 20, 1900, Hay announced that all powers had agreed. Many in China opposed Western influence. A movement in Shantung Province, in the north, became known as the Fists of Righteous Harmony, or Boxers. The Boxers were especially angered by missionaries attempts to introduce western religions and win converts. By June 1900, the Boxers, joined by imperial troops, had cut the railroad between Peking and the coast, killed many missionaries and converts, and attacking foreign legations. Hay worked to rescue the Americans trapped in Peking, in such a manner as not to lead to further appearance of American imperialism. American troops were sent to China to protect the nation's legation. Hay sent a letter to foreign powers on July 3, 1900 stating while the United States wanted to see lives preserved and the guilty punished, but not take over any part of China. He as worried that the powers were quietly making private arrangements to divide up China. Communication between the foreign legations and the outside world had been cut off. Hay called on the Chinese government that it now cooperate for its own good. The foreign relief force, principally Japanese but including 2,000 Americans, relieved the legations. China was made to pay a huge indemnity but there was no cession of land.
McKinley's vice president, Garret Hobart, had died in November 1899. Under the laws then in force, this made Hay next in line to the presidency should anything happen to McKinley. There was a presidential election in 1900, and McKinley was unanimously renominated at the Republican National Convention that year. He allowed the convention to make its own choice of running mate, and it selected Theodore Roosevelt, the Governor of New York. In 1901 Hay accompanied McKinley on his nationwide train tour. They visited California and saw the Pacific Ocean for the only times in their lives. That summer, Hay's older son Adelbert, who had been consul in Pretoria during the Boer War and was about to become McKinley's personal secretary, died in a fall from a New Haven hotel window.
McKinley was shot by Leon Czolgosz, an anarchist, on September 6 in Buffalo. Hay planned to go to Washington to manage the communication with foreign governments, but presidential secretary George Cortelyou urged him to come to Buffalo. He traveled to Buffalo on September 10. After visiting McKinley, he went to Washington. He later learned of McKinley's death.
Hay, again next in line to the presidency. He remained in Washington as McKinley's body was transported to the capital by funeral train, and stayed there as the late president was taken to Canton for interment. He described McKinley as "awfully like Lincoln in many respects". By letter, Hay offered his resignation to Roosevelt. When Hay met the funeral train in Washington, Roosevelt greeted him at the station and immediately told him he must stay on as Secretary.
Hay's involvement in the efforts to have a canal joining the oceans in Central America went back to his time as Assistant Secretary of State. With Congress anxious to begin work on a canal bill, Hay and British Ambassador Julian Pauncefote began work on a new treaty in January 1900. The first Hay-Pauncefote Treaty was sent to the Senate the following month, where it was rejected because its terms forbade the United States from blockading or fortifying the canal. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee added an amendment allowing the U.S. to fortify the canal. In March the senate postponed further consideration until after the 1900 election. The treaty, as amended, was ratified by the Senate in December, but the British would not agree to the changes.[
Despite the lack of agreement, Congress was still supportive of the construction of the canal. Negotiation of a revised treaty, allowing the U.S. to fortify the canal, took place and the second Hay-Pauncefote Treaty was ratified by the Senate by a large margin on December 6, 1901. In June, 1902, Roosevelt told Hay to take personal charge of the negotiations with Colombia. Hay began talks with Colombia's acting minister in Washington, Tomás Herrán. The Hay-Herrán Treaty, granting $10 million to Colombia for the right to build a canal, plus $250,000 annually, was signed on January 22, 1903, and ratified by the United States Senate two months later. In August, however, the treaty was rejected by the Colombian Senate.
Roosevelt and Hay came to learn that an insurrection in Panama would lead to a Panamanian government more friendly to a canal. In October, Roosevelt ordered Navy ships to be stationed near Panama. The Panamanians revolted in early November 1903, with Colombian interference deterred by the presence of U.S. forces. The new government in Panama quickly negotiated the Hay–Bunau-Varilla Treaty, which was signed on November 18, giving the United States the right to build the canal in a zone 10 miles (16 km) wide, over which the U.S. would exercise full jurisdiction. The treaty was approved by the two nations, and work on the Panama Canal began in 1904.
Hay and Roosevelt were complimentary to one other directly. Privately, and in correspondence with others, they were more critical of one another. Hay complained that while McKinley would give him his full attention, Roosevelt was always busy with others, and it would be "an hour's wait for a minute's talk". Roosevelt wrote to Senator Lodge in 1905 that that Hay had not been "a great Secretary of State. Ynder me he accomplished little. His usefulness to me was almost exclusively the usefulness of a fine figurehead". When Roosevelt successfully sought election in his own right in 1904, he persuaded Hay, who was in poor health, to campaign for him, and Hay gave a speech linking the administration's policies with those of Lincoln.
In December 1902, the German government asked Roosevelt to arbitrate its dispute with Venezuela over unpaid debts. Hay did not think this appropriate, as Venezuela also owed the U.S. money, and quickly arranged for the International Court of Arbitration in The Hague to step in. Hay and Roosevelt also differed over the composition of the Joint High Commission that was to settle the Alaska boundary dispute. The commission was to be composed of "impartial jurists". The British and Canadians duly appointed notable judges, while Roosevelt appointed politicians.
After the election of 1904, Roosevelt asked Hay to remain another four years. Hay asked for time to consider, but the President did not allow it, announcing to the press two days later that Hay would stay at his post. By early 1905, a number of treaties Hay had negotiated were defeated or amended by the Senate. By Roosevelt's inauguration on March 4, 1905, Hay's health was very bad. Presidential doctor Presley Rixey issued a statement that Hay was suffering from overwork. Hay went to Europe for medical treatment. On his return to the United States, he went to Washington to deal with departmental business. He was happy to learn that Roosevelt was well on his way to settling the Russo-Japanese War, an action for which the President would win the Nobel Peace Prize.
Hay left Washington for the last time on June 23, 1905, arriving in New Hampshire the following day. He died there on July 1 of his heart ailment and complications. Hay was interred in Lake View Cemetery in Cleveland, near the grave of Garfield.