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Benjamin F. Hallett

American lawyer and politician, Democratic National Committee chair

Summary

American lawyer and politician, Democratic National Committee chair

Field	Value
name	Benjamin F. Hallett
birth_date
birth_place	Barnstable, Massachusetts, US
death_date
death_place	Boston, Massachusetts, US
restingplace	Mount Auburn Cemetery
occupation	Attorney
party	Anti-Masonic Party
Democratic Party
alma_mater	Brown University
title1	United States Attorney for the District of Massachusetts
term_start1	1853
term_end1	1857
predecessor1	George Lunt
successor1	Charles L. Woodbury
title2	1st Chair of the Democratic National Committee
term_start2	1848
term_end2	1852
predecessor2	Position established
successor2	Robert Milligan McLane

Democratic Party |}} Benjamin Franklin Hallett (December 2, 1797 – September 30, 1862) was a Massachusetts lawyer and Democratic Party activist, most notable as the first chairman of the Democratic National Committee.

Early life and education

Benjamin Franklin Hallett was born in Barnstable, Massachusetts. After graduating from Brown University in 1816, he studied law and began a journalistic career in Providence, Rhode Island. He soon moved to Boston, where he began with the Boston Advocate, shifting to the Boston Daily Advertiser in 1827. At that time he espoused the views of the Anti-Masonic Party, but when that particular group went out of fashion he switched to the Democratic Party as an enemy of Henry Clay. He joined and became a prominent member of the Suffolk County, Massachusetts bar.

Political career

As a candidate for Congress in 1844 and 1848 he was defeated both times by Whig Robert C. Winthrop. In the latter race Charles Sumner was also a candidate, representing the Free-Soil Party. In 1848 he became, for four years, the first Chairman of the Democratic National Committee.

In March 1853, President Franklin Pierce appointed Hallett to succeed George Lunt for a four-year term as United States District Attorney for the District of Massachusetts. At the 1856 Democratic National Convention, Hallett was chairman of the Platform Committee.

Role in the splintering of the 1860 Democratic Convention

In 1860 he was chosen as a delegate, but skipped the Charleston, South Carolina, meeting (the convention, scheduled April 23-May 3, 1860, coincided with the death of Hallett's wife, Laura Smith Larned, of bilious fever, on May 3, 1860). Trying to regain the seat he had vacated, the convention at Baltimore voted 138 to 112 to deny Hallett the seat. He then joined the walk-out Convention that nominated John C. Breckinridge and Joseph Lane.

Death

Hallett died at his home in Boston on September 30, 1862.

References

(1862-10-03). "Death of Benjamin F. Hallett". [[Chicago Tribune]].

Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

1797-births 1862-deaths brown-university-alumni massachusetts-lawyers democratic-national-committee-chairs people-from-barnstable,-massachusetts anti-masonic-party-politicians-from-massachusetts massachusetts-democrats united-states-attorneys-for-the-district-of-massachusetts 19th-century-american-lawyers

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