Ashley Miller shares this month’s story with ConcordTV. Watch the episode on YouTube.

Upon a visit to the capital, passersby are greeted by the prominent figure of Rochester, New Hampshire, native John Parker Hale.

His statue stands a towering eight feet, four inches on top of the imposing nine-foot, eight-inch pedestal, for a heroic eighteen-foot monument. He is frozen in action, an outstretched right hand, a rolled document clutched in his left, his positioning and stoic gaze pointed towards the future.

His legacy is forever engraved on its base: “First anti-slavery U.S. senator. He secured the abolition of flogging and the spirit ration in the navy. Born at Rochester 1806. Died at Dover 1873.”

His storied career is rightfully enshrined in front of our State House, joining the ranks of Daniel Webster and John Stark. Hale served as a member of the New Hampshire and U.S. House of Representatives. However, he was removed from his party when he rebelled against it and resisted an unjust war with Mexico and the forcible annexation of Texas to quell the expansion of slavery.

His “Hale Storm of 1845” brought him to every New Hampshire town and city to address meetings on the issue, including a debate with Franklin Pierce. Hale was elected three times to the U.S. Senate and was the first openly anti-slavery senator.

The statue was erected as a labor of love by his son-in-law, William E. Chandler, who felt that “statues of the illustrious dead and memorial arches and monuments are principally valuable for the lessons which they teach to new generations.”

Chandler commissioned the statue and wrote to the state in April 1890 to request its acceptance. The donation was immediately accepted by the governor and Executive Council, and the Hale statue’s place on the State House lawn was secured.

The unveiling ceremony was set for August 3, 1892. No special invitations were sent, but attendance at the dedication was unexpectedly large. Famed speakers, including Frederick Douglass, treated the audience to their orations.

Douglass praised Hale but did not shy away from discussing the realities of racism in the Granite State. He spoke of his presence giving “color to the occasion,” his status as a slave in New Hampshire fifty years prior, and how Noyes Academy, an integrated school in Canaan, was demolished by hundreds of white men in 1835.

In contrast, he reverently declared his feelings towards Hale: “I wanted to be here because I am one of the vast multitude of emancipated ones whom John P. Hale devoted his heart and his transcendent abilities to liberate. I wanted to be here to represent those millions; to show you that one, at least, of those millions appreciates the greatness, the grandeur, and the devotion and the courage of John P. Hale. We, in this day, can hardly understand the measure of the greatness of that man’s courage, the greatness of the sacrifice he made, the greatness of his faith in the ultimate triumph of great principles.”

John P. Hale’s statue reminds us of the impact of a great man, and that one individual can create change.

From the Archives is a monthly column highlighting the history and collection of the New Hampshire State Archives, written by Ashley Miller, New Hampshire State Archivist. Miller studied history as  an undergraduate at Penn State University and has a master’s degree in history and a master’s degree in archival management from Simmons College.

]]>