| Transcript |
| 0:00 | · | [Music] |
| 0:09 | · | the latter half of the 19th century was |
| 0:12 | · | a dynamic time in world and u.s. |
| 0:13 | · | politics and for the United States it |
| 0:15 | · | marked that shift from always looking |
| 0:17 | · | inward to starting to play a much more |
| 0:19 | · | robust role on the international stage |
| 0:21 | · | and that would set the stage for the |
| 0:23 | · | role that the u.s. played in the |
| 0:24 | · | monumental events of the 20th century |
| 0:27 | · | and one person played an outsized role |
| 0:30 | · | in the development of that new character |
| 0:33 | · | in his 50-year career of public service |
| 0:35 | · | he perhaps defined the national |
| 0:37 | · | character more than any single US |
| 0:40 | · | president and you've probably never |
| 0:43 | · | heard his name John Hay was Abraham |
| 0:46 | · | Lincoln's personal secretary he was a |
| 0:47 | · | poet he was a diplomat he was the string |
| 0:51 | · | that tied together the u.s. |
| 0:52 | · | administration's from the Civil War to |
| 0:54 | · | the 20th century and he is quite |
| 0:57 | · | possibly the most important person you |
| 1:00 | · | never heard of and his history deserves |
| 1:03 | · | to be remembered John Milton hay was |
| 1:07 | · | born in Salem Indiana in 1838 when he |
| 1:10 | · | was three his family moved to Warsaw |
| 1:11 | · | Illinois in 18-49 he went to live with |
| 1:14 | · | his uncle Milton hay in Pittsfield to |
| 1:16 | · | attend a better school Milton was a |
| 1:18 | · | friend of fellow illinoisians lawyer |
| 1:20 | · | Abraham Lincoln and had done some of his |
| 1:22 | · | law training at Lincoln's firm he |
| 1:24 | · | attended Brown University where he |
| 1:26 | · | became an excellent student and writer |
| 1:27 | · | when he graduated with a Master of Arts |
| 1:29 | · | in 1858 he was named class poet John |
| 1:33 | · | returned to Illinois to clerk at his |
| 1:34 | · | uncle's law firm in Springfield located |
| 1:36 | · | nearby Lincoln's own firm the young John |
| 1:38 | · | Hay was not interested in politics but |
| 1:40 | · | after Lincoln became the nominee became |
| 1:42 | · | an ardent supporter he had years earlier |
| 1:44 | · | first befriended the older John Nicolay |
| 1:46 | · | who worked as Lincoln's campaign |
| 1:48 | · | secretary when Nick Lake found that he |
| 1:50 | · | could not do all the work he enlisted |
| 1:52 | · | hey we worked full time for the Lincoln |
| 1:54 | · | campaign for six months when Lincoln was |
| 1:57 | · | elected Nicolay encouraged him to retain |
| 1:59 | · | his services and both of them followed |
| 2:01 | · | Lincoln to Washington as his secretary |
| 2:03 | · | they shared a single bedroom in the |
| 2:05 | · | White House Lincoln worked long hours |
| 2:07 | · | sometimes 14-hour days and so did his |
| 2:09 | · | secretaries they combined the role of |
| 2:11 | · | chief of staff press secretary and |
| 2:13 | · | gatekeeper to the president office |
| 2:16 | · | seekers swarmed the White House so much |
| 2:17 | · | so that hey once remarked the number of |
| 2:20 | · | people in the United States |
| 2:21 | · | who find it impossible to earn an honest |
| 2:23 | · | living must be appalling Nicolay was |
| 2:26 | · | known for his ill-tempered and called |
| 2:28 | · | the Bulldog in the White House but hey |
| 2:30 | · | was friendly a great conversationalist |
| 2:31 | · | and often smiling one observer described |
| 2:34 | · | hey is a nice young fellow who |
| 2:35 | · | unfortunately looks about 17 and is |
| 2:37 | · | oppressed by the necessity of behaving |
| 2:39 | · | like 70 he became a close friend of |
| 2:42 | · | Lincoln's 17 year old son Robert one |
| 2:45 | · | historian described hey is Lincoln's |
| 2:46 | · | propagandists and he often wrote the |
| 2:48 | · | nonnamous articles and supported the |
| 2:49 | · | administration's views or spun bad news |
| 2:51 | · | after the Union loss in the Battle of |
| 2:53 | · | first Manassas in July 1861 he was in |
| 2:56 | · | Washington to watch crowds of soldiers |
| 2:58 | · | some without anything but their soiled |
| 3:00 | · | and dirty uniforms reached to Washington |
| 3:01 | · | but in the papers he said it was only a |
| 3:04 | · | victory of vastly superior numbers over |
| 3:06 | · | a few cementary regiments and that there |
| 3:08 | · | is nothing in this but the lives lost |
| 3:09 | · | and the lives which must be lost to make |
| 3:12 | · | it good Willie Lincoln died in early |
| 3:14 | · | 1862 and Abraham's grief was enormous he |
| 3:17 | · | found some solace in his young secretary |
| 3:18 | · | Hey thinking of him if not a surrogate |
| 3:20 | · | son then the young man who stirred a |
| 3:22 | · | higher form of parental nurturing in the |
| 3:24 | · | president contemporaries agreed with one |
| 3:27 | · | saying that Lincoln loved him as a son |
| 3:28 | · | Lincoln was close with his secretaries |
| 3:30 | · | and he spent every minute with one or |
| 3:31 | · | both he visited them and told stories |
| 3:34 | · | when he was up at night and what little |
| 3:35 | · | levity could enter the White House often |
| 3:37 | · | came from Hey telling jokes and |
| 3:38 | · | Lincoln's booming laugh hey and Nicolay |
| 3:41 | · | were with Lincoln when he gave the |
| 3:42 | · | Gettysburg Address Lincoln Cent hey all |
| 3:44 | · | over the country during the war on |
| 3:46 | · | missions for himself from the military |
| 3:47 | · | by the end of the war he was a brevet |
| 3:49 | · | colonel |
| 3:50 | · | once Lincoln was safely reelected in the |
| 3:52 | · | war seemed likely to end soon hey and |
| 3:54 | · | Nicolay petitioned the president for new |
| 3:56 | · | jobs |
| 3:56 | · | Nicolay wished to marry and hey to find |
| 3:59 | · | new experiences Mary Lincoln also sought |
| 4:01 | · | their I'll stir as they often bump heads |
| 4:03 | · | the secretaries called her the Hellcat |
| 4:05 | · | Lincoln appointed them both to the US |
| 4:07 | · | delegation to France he was at the White |
| 4:10 | · | House with Robert when Abraham and Mary |
| 4:12 | · | went to Ford's Theatre on April 14th |
| 4:14 | · | 1865 they hurried to aside after he was |
| 4:17 | · | shot and remain there all night until he |
| 4:19 | · | died they said that a look of |
| 4:22 | · | unspeakable peace came across his worn |
| 4:24 | · | features at the moment of death |
| 4:26 | · | he took the loss very hard in an 1866 |
| 4:29 | · | letter he said that Lincoln was the |
| 4:30 | · | greatest character since Christ he would |
| 4:33 | · | stood much of the rest of his life |
| 4:34 | · | warning the man who had put him on a |
| 4:36 | · | course for the rest of his life for a |
| 4:38 | · | few years hey served in diplomatic teams |
| 4:40 | · | in Europe in France Vienna with light |
| 4:42 | · | workloads that allowed him to travel in |
| 4:44 | · | 1871 he served in Spain under President |
| 4:46 | · | Grant |
| 4:47 | · | yes began working with Horace Greeley's |
| 4:49 | · | New York Tribune than the largest |
| 4:51 | · | circulating paper in the country Ralph |
| 4:53 | · | Waldo Emerson joked that gravely did all |
| 4:55 | · | his readers thinking in theory for them |
| 4:56 | · | for two dollars a year he began by |
| 4:59 | · | writing editorials and Greely Stern |
| 5:01 | · | pronounced him the best he'd ever hired |
| 5:02 | · | he reported on the Great Chicago Fire |
| 5:05 | · | and interviewed mrs. O'Leary whose cows |
| 5:07 | · | supposedly kicked the layout that |
| 5:08 | · | spilled the kerosene that fired the |
| 5:09 | · | straw that burned Chicago simultaneously |
| 5:12 | · | he was gaining fame as a poet was |
| 5:14 | · | published eleven times in 1871 became |
| 5:17 | · | famous is a literary realist writing |
| 5:19 | · | down to earth poetry when he mimicked |
| 5:20 | · | the peculiar dialect of his childhood |
| 5:22 | · | home Pike County Illinois one of his |
| 5:25 | · | most popular was called Jim blood so |
| 5:27 | · | we've got a steamboat engineer with two |
| 5:29 | · | wives who weren't no saint but who |
| 5:31 | · | sacrificed his life fighting fire in the |
| 5:33 | · | boiler room to save the lives of the |
| 5:34 | · | boat's passengers he weren't no saint |
| 5:37 | · | but a judgement I'd run my chance with |
| 5:38 | · | Jim alongside of some pious and |
| 5:40 | · | gentlemen that when the shook hands with |
| 5:42 | · | him he seen his duty a dead sure thing |
| 5:44 | · | and he went for it there and then and |
| 5:46 | · | Christ in a gonna be too hard on a man |
| 5:49 | · | that died for men though he was known as |
| 5:53 | · | an immense favorite of the ladies he |
| 5:54 | · | remained a bachelor until he met Clara |
| 5:56 | · | stone in 1872 |
| 5:57 | · | the daughter of a wealthy railroad |
| 5:59 | · | magnate from Ohio it was love at first |
| 6:01 | · | sight I had been struck down he wrote |
| 6:03 | · | there's only one and one is enough |
| 6:06 | · | her father Amasa stone had begun as a |
| 6:09 | · | railroad engineer and amassed a fortune |
| 6:10 | · | eventually becoming a board member of |
| 6:12 | · | Western Union in Standard Oil |
| 6:14 | · | he proposed to her in 1873 and they |
| 6:16 | · | married in February of 1874 thanks to a |
| 6:19 | · | Massa he became a rich man running his |
| 6:21 | · | father-in-law's |
| 6:22 | · | investments which were so safe they |
| 6:24 | · | require no care a mess have built a |
| 6:26 | · | lavish home and hay was soon worth three |
| 6:28 | · | million dollars over sixty million |
| 6:29 | · | dollars in two thousand twenty dollars |
| 6:30 | · | the couple had four children two boys |
| 6:33 | · | and two girls the girls remembered him |
| 6:35 | · | as a tender-hearted father who spoiled |
| 6:37 | · | them shamefully when a mess had |
| 6:39 | · | committed suicide fog a train accident |
| 6:40 | · | was blamed on his company hay became |
| 6:43 | · | even wealthier helping to run the |
| 6:45 | · | companies helped to make hay anti-labor |
| 6:46 | · | and Amasa was in Europe |
| 6:48 | · | where |
| 6:48 | · | he dealt with a great strike of 1877 he |
| 6:51 | · | was frustrated that the lower classes |
| 6:53 | · | and wrote that the country is at the |
| 6:54 | · | mercy of the mob he wrote his only novel |
| 6:56 | · | in response the breadwinners in which he |
| 6:59 | · | lambasted organized labor |
| 7:00 | · | perhaps wisely he chose to publish it |
| 7:02 | · | anonymously he reinterred politics in |
| 7:05 | · | 1879 when President Hayes appointed him |
| 7:07 | · | Assistant Secretary of State he |
| 7:08 | · | supported James Garfield in the election |
| 7:10 | · | of 1880 and advised the president and |
| 7:12 | · | friend on appointments upon election but |
| 7:15 | · | did not join the administration he |
| 7:17 | · | grieved for her a second president when |
| 7:18 | · | Garfield was shot and died in 1881 his |
| 7:22 | · | family spent several months of every |
| 7:23 | · | year in Europe and built two new homes |
| 7:25 | · | and a Norma's mansion in Washington and |
| 7:27 | · | a more modest cottage in New Hampshire |
| 7:29 | · | that he called the fells in Washington |
| 7:32 | · | they joined historian Henry Adams |
| 7:33 | · | grandson of President John Quincy Adams |
| 7:35 | · | Adams wife clover and Fame geologist |
| 7:37 | · | Clarence King to form a tight knit Club |
| 7:39 | · | they called the five of hearts |
| 7:41 | · | unfortunately clover committed suicide |
| 7:43 | · | in 1885 it was during this time that he |
| 7:47 | · | and John Nicolay began writing the ten |
| 7:48 | · | volume Abraham Lincoln a history using |
| 7:51 | · | papers Robert Lincoln held their primary |
| 7:54 | · | goal was to reveal the real Lincoln his |
| 7:55 | · | former acquaintances like Lincoln's law |
| 7:57 | · | partner William Herndon were making a |
| 7:59 | · | living selling their own versions and |
| 8:00 | · | Lincoln's reputation still hung in the |
| 8:02 | · | balance |
| 8:02 | · | the two secretaries rep more than 1.2 |
| 8:04 | · | million words about the former president |
| 8:06 | · | his time over the next 15 years it began |
| 8:08 | · | publishing in 1890 at first a chapter at |
| 8:11 | · | the time and cereal form and century |
| 8:12 | · | magazine but eventually as a 10 volume |
| 8:14 | · | work they were accused of aggressive |
| 8:17 | · | northern ISM but it came at a time when |
| 8:19 | · | southern apologists were engaging in |
| 8:20 | · | what hay and nickel a believed to be |
| 8:22 | · | revisionist history the work would |
| 8:25 | · | become the basis of the image of Lincoln |
| 8:26 | · | we know today the great orator the sage |
| 8:28 | · | father figure and the master of a team |
| 8:30 | · | of rivals hay was an early supporter of |
| 8:33 | · | William McKinley for first Speaker of |
| 8:34 | · | the House in 1889 and then his nominee |
| 8:36 | · | for president in 1896 he had been among |
| 8:39 | · | the first to send money when McKinley |
| 8:40 | · | was nearly bankrupted in the 1893 panic |
| 8:43 | · | and he helped her on the nomination |
| 8:44 | · | campaign as early as 1894 he admired |
| 8:47 | · | McKinley who he called awfully like |
| 8:49 | · | Lincoln in many respects hay donated so |
| 8:52 | · | much to McKinley's campaign that Henry |
| 8:53 | · | Adams later wondered I would give |
| 8:55 | · | sixpence to know how much he paid for |
| 8:56 | · | McKinley |
| 8:57 | · | his politics must have cost for his |
| 9:00 | · | services McKinley appointed Heyman |
| 9:02 | · | to England he was well-liked in the |
| 9:04 | · | capital in Queen Victoria called him the |
| 9:06 | · | most interesting of all ambassadors I |
| 9:08 | · | have known when John Sherman left his |
| 9:10 | · | position as Secretary of State |
| 9:11 | · | McKinley happily invited hate to take |
| 9:12 | · | his place the US had just won the |
| 9:14 | · | spanish-american war quickly and easily |
| 9:16 | · | and what was left was to dismantle |
| 9:18 | · | Spain's Empire as Secretary Hague |
| 9:20 | · | completed treaties that gave us control |
| 9:22 | · | over the Philippines Guam and Puerto |
| 9:24 | · | Rico NASA came to an agreement with |
| 9:26 | · | England and Germany to secure American |
| 9:28 | · | Samoa he also supported a China free of |
| 9:30 | · | colonialism and submitted the open door |
| 9:32 | · | note in September 1899 which demanded |
| 9:35 | · | unhindered trade for all the Pacific |
| 9:37 | · | nation the open door policy protected |
| 9:40 | · | trade but also Chinese sovereignty |
| 9:41 | · | looking for a middle path that kept |
| 9:43 | · | Jennifer been controlled by any single |
| 9:45 | · | European power the Chinese weren't |
| 9:47 | · | accommodating anti-foreign sentiment was |
| 9:49 | · | rife especially with the fists of |
| 9:51 | · | righteous harmony or the boxers the |
| 9:54 | · | Boxer Rebellion grew quickly and soon |
| 9:55 | · | missionaries had been killed in the |
| 9:57 | · | foreign legations besieged when the |
| 9:59 | · | multinational relief force was sent a |
| 10:00 | · | feared that Europe had decided to |
| 10:02 | · | conquer the country he worked with the |
| 10:04 | · | Chinese Minister in Washington to help |
| 10:05 | · | establish a resolution to the conflict |
| 10:07 | · | in which China lost no territory to |
| 10:09 | · | Europe Theodore Roosevelt replaced |
| 10:12 | · | McKinley's dead vice president for the |
| 10:13 | · | 1900 election which they won handily but |
| 10:16 | · | the new century would bring tragedy for |
| 10:18 | · | John Hay first in 1901 his oldest son |
| 10:21 | · | Albert accidentally fell from a six |
| 10:23 | · | floor window in Connecticut and died it |
| 10:25 | · | hit a hard and collapsed when he reached |
| 10:27 | · | New Haven simply overwhelmed hay was at |
| 10:30 | · | the fells in September when he learned |
| 10:31 | · | that McKinley had been shot at the |
| 10:32 | · | Chicago World's Fair doctors thought |
| 10:34 | · | they had saved the president was surgery |
| 10:36 | · | so he went to Washington to manage the |
| 10:37 | · | government McKinley's condition quickly |
| 10:39 | · | became grave in the early hours of |
| 10:41 | · | September 14th hay was alone in |
| 10:43 | · | Washington weeping while he waited the |
| 10:45 | · | inevitable news it was hey who telegram |
| 10:48 | · | the news of the president's death the |
| 10:49 | · | Vice President Roosevelt who is |
| 10:51 | · | traveling in the dead of night out of |
| 10:52 | · | the Adirondacks he visited John Nicolay |
| 10:55 | · | on his deathbed only a few days later |
| 10:57 | · | and left that meeting stricken with |
| 10:59 | · | grief in December clans king died |
| 11:01 | · | leaving only three and the five of |
| 11:03 | · | hearts what a strange and tragic fate it |
| 11:06 | · | has been of mine he said to stand by the |
| 11:09 | · | bier of three of my dearest friends |
| 11:11 | · | Lincoln Garfield and McKinley three of |
| 11:15 | · | the gentlest |
| 11:16 | · | of men all risen to be head of state and |
| 11:18 | · | all done to death by assassins Roosevelt |
| 11:23 | · | insisted that McKinley's cabinet stay on |
| 11:25 | · | especially the venerated hey and so he |
| 11:27 | · | did he negotiated a treaty that within |
| 11:30 | · | disagreements over Alaska's southernmost |
| 11:31 | · | borders and worked on finally securing |
| 11:33 | · | American rights to what became the |
| 11:34 | · | Panama Canal for years the preferred |
| 11:37 | · | right had been through Nicaragua but |
| 11:38 | · | Roosevelt said his eyes instead on |
| 11:40 | · | Panama in part of Colombia first |
| 11:42 | · | negotiations with the British failed and |
| 11:44 | · | then when he negotiated with Colombia |
| 11:45 | · | the Foreign Congress rejected it hey and |
| 11:48 | · | Roosevelt decided that they had played |
| 11:49 | · | nice long enough he predicted an |
| 11:51 | · | insurrection on the Isthmus of Panama |
| 11:52 | · | against the regime of folly and graft of |
| 11:55 | · | Bogota a production that came true with |
| 11:57 | · | the help of Panamanian agent in |
| 11:59 | · | Washington and the islands presence of |
| 12:01 | · | US ships off the Panamanian coast |
| 12:02 | · | America had its canal he never overcame |
| 12:06 | · | his grief for the loss of his son three |
| 12:08 | · | years after his death he wrote the death |
| 12:10 | · | of our boy made my wife and me old at |
| 12:12 | · | once and for the rest of our lives |
| 12:14 | · | result insisted hey stay on for a second |
| 12:16 | · | term but the ailing he went to Europe on |
| 12:18 | · | leave hoping to restore his health he |
| 12:21 | · | went with his wife and Henry Adams and |
| 12:22 | · | visited medicinal baths a little of his |
| 12:25 | · | humor remained as he wrote to a friend |
| 12:26 | · | that there is nothing the matter with me |
| 12:28 | · | except old age the Senate and one or two |
| 12:31 | · | other mortal maladies he visited |
| 12:33 | · | Washington once more in June before |
| 12:35 | · | leaving for the fells where he died on |
| 12:37 | · | July 1st John Hay would be considered to |
| 12:39 | · | be important he would deserve to be |
| 12:41 | · | remembered merely for the role that he |
| 12:43 | · | played in the historical understanding |
| 12:44 | · | of the humanity of Abraham Lincoln one |
| 12:47 | · | historian said that Americans today |
| 12:49 | · | understand Lincoln in much the way that |
| 12:50 | · | Nicolay and hay hoped that they would |
| 12:52 | · | but it's difficult to overstate the role |
| 12:55 | · | that he played in u.s. foreign policy |
| 12:57 | · | his actions weren't always without |
| 12:59 | · | controversy but he brought about more |
| 13:01 | · | than 50 treaties in one of the most |
| 13:04 | · | important times in US diplomatic history |
| 13:06 | · | he played an outsized role in the |
| 13:09 | · | development of US policy towards Asia |
| 13:11 | · | and in the redevelopment of our special |
| 13:13 | · | relationship with the United Kingdom and |
| 13:15 | · | those would be defining factors in the |
| 13:17 | · | role that the u.s. would play in the |
| 13:19 | · | defining events of the 20th century and |
| 13:22 | · | yet his name is nearly forgotten he once |
| 13:25 | · | said that when he died I shall not be |
| 13:26 | · | much missed except for by my wife he |
| 13:29 | · | died at just the |
| 13:30 | · | of 66 and yet he had outlived so many of |
| 13:32 | · | his friends and in his 50-year career in |
| 13:35 | · | public service he impacted both |
| 13:38 | · | presidents and policy with the great |
| 13:41 | · | personalities of Abraham Lincoln and |
| 13:43 | · | Theodore Roosevelt John Hay was an arrow |
| 13:47 | · | that ran through both I hope you enjoyed |
| 13:51 | · | this episode of the history guy short |
| 13:53 | · | snippets a forgotten history between 10 |
| 13:54 | · | and 15 minutes long and if you did enjoy |
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