Elijah Hise

Elijah Hise (July 4, 1802 – May 8, 1867) was a United States diplomat, jurist, and U.S. Representative from the 3rd District of Kentucky. He was born on July 4, 1802, in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, and moved in childhood with his parents, Frederick and Nancy (Eckstein) Hise, to Russellville, Logan County, Kentucky. Raised on the Kentucky frontier, he received his early education in local schools and completed preparatory studies before pursuing higher education.

Hise attended Transylvania University in Lexington, Kentucky, one of the leading institutions of the region in the early nineteenth century. After his studies there, he read law, was admitted to the bar, and commenced the practice of law in Kentucky. His legal training and growing reputation at the bar laid the foundation for a public career that would encompass legislative service, diplomatic work, and high judicial office in his adopted state.

Hise entered public life as a member of the Kentucky House of Representatives in 1829, representing his constituency in the state legislature at a comparatively young age. A Democrat, he remained active in party affairs and, in 1836, was an unsuccessful Democratic candidate for lieutenant governor of Kentucky. Despite this electoral setback, he continued to build his standing in state politics and the legal community, eventually rising to serve as chief justice of the Court of Appeals of Kentucky, the state’s highest court, where he played a significant role in interpreting Kentucky law during a period of political and economic change.

In addition to his judicial service, Hise held a federal diplomatic post. He was appointed Chargé d’Affaires to Guatemala and served in that capacity from January 31, 1849, to June 23, 1849. His brief tenure as a United States diplomat placed him in the midst of evolving U.S. interests in Central America in the mid-nineteenth century, although he soon returned to Kentucky and resumed his legal and political activities there.

Hise’s national political career came late in his life. A Democrat aligned with his party’s post–Civil War opposition to many of the Reconstruction policies of the Republican majority, he was elected to the Thirty-ninth Congress to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Representative Henry Grider of Kentucky’s 3rd District. He took his seat on December 3, 1866. He was also reelected to the Fortieth Congress, reflecting the confidence of his constituents in his representation during a turbulent period in national politics. His service in the House of Representatives, however, was cut short before the Fortieth Congress convened.

On May 8, 1867, while still in office, Elijah Hise died by suicide in Russellville, Kentucky. He left a suicide note in which he lamented “the impending disaster and ruin [of the country] in which despotic and unconstitutional rule has involved her,” a statement that reflected his deep disillusionment with the political direction of the nation during Reconstruction. He was interred in Maple Grove Cemetery in Russellville. His death placed him among the members of the United States Congress who died in office in the nineteenth century. In recognition of his public service, the town of Hiseville, Kentucky, was named in his honor.