Hiland Hall

Hiland Hall (July 20, 1795 – December 18, 1885) was an American lawyer, jurist, and politician who served as the 25th governor of Vermont from 1858 to 1860 and as a United States representative from 1833 to 1843. He was born in Bennington, Vermont, then part of the independent Vermont Republic, to John Hall and Prudence (Hiland) Hall. Raised in a rural New England community in the early years of the American republic, he grew up in an environment shaped by the legacy of the Revolutionary era and the evolving political institutions of the new nation.

Hall received his early education in local schools in Bennington. He did not attend college, but, following the common professional path of the period, he studied law in a local attorney’s office. After reading law and completing the customary period of apprenticeship, he was admitted to the bar in 1819. He commenced the practice of law in Bennington, where he quickly established himself as a capable attorney and became involved in local civic and political affairs.

Hall’s public career began at the state level. He served as a member of the Vermont House of Representatives in 1827 and 1828, representing Bennington. In 1828 he was appointed state’s attorney for Bennington County, a position he held until 1831. His work as a prosecutor and legislator brought him increasing recognition within Vermont’s emerging political leadership. In 1831 he was elected to the executive council of Vermont, serving until 1832. During these years he became associated with the National Republican and, subsequently, the Whig Party, aligning himself with the advocates of internal improvements, a strong legislative role in governance, and a cautious approach to executive power.

In 1833 Hall was elected as an Anti-Jacksonian to the Twenty-third Congress and was subsequently reelected as a Whig to the Twenty-fourth, Twenty-fifth, Twenty-sixth, and Twenty-seventh Congresses, serving five consecutive terms as a United States representative from March 4, 1833, to March 3, 1843. As a member of the Whig Party representing Vermont, Hiland Hall contributed to the legislative process during six terms in office as that period was counted across changing party labels, participating in the democratic process and representing the interests of his constituents during a significant period in American history marked by debates over the national bank, tariffs, internal improvements, and the expansion of slavery. In Congress he served on several committees, including those dealing with public lands and financial matters, and was known as a diligent, if not flamboyant, legislator. After choosing not to seek reelection in 1842, he returned to Vermont and resumed the practice of law.

Hall’s national service continued in appointed positions. In 1846 President James K. Polk appointed him a land commissioner for California, a role of considerable importance in the aftermath of the Mexican–American War as the federal government sought to adjudicate land titles in the newly acquired territory. He served in California from 1849 to 1851, helping to resolve complex legal disputes arising from Spanish and Mexican land grants. Upon returning to Vermont, he was appointed an associate justice of the Vermont Supreme Court, serving from 1851 to 1858. On the bench he developed a reputation for careful legal reasoning and contributed to the development of Vermont’s jurisprudence in a period of rapid economic and social change.

In 1858 Hall was elected governor of Vermont as a Republican, reflecting the state’s and his own transition from the Whig Party to the new antislavery coalition. He served as the 25th governor from October 14, 1858, to October 12, 1860. His administration coincided with the mounting sectional crisis that preceded the Civil War. As governor, he supported measures to strengthen Vermont’s militia, endorsed improvements in public education and infrastructure, and aligned the state firmly with the emerging Republican opposition to the expansion of slavery. His term helped position Vermont as a reliable supporter of the Union cause in the years immediately following his governorship.

After leaving the governorship, Hall remained active in public life and historical scholarship. He served as a delegate to the Peace Conference of 1861 in Washington, D.C., an unsuccessful last effort by prominent leaders to avert civil war. In his later years he devoted considerable attention to the history of Vermont, particularly the early settlement and political development of the state. He was appointed by the state to prepare a history of Vermont’s land titles and political origins, work that culminated in his notable volume “History of Vermont, from Its Discovery to Its Admission into the Union in 1791,” published in 1868. This study, grounded in extensive documentary research, became an important reference on Vermont’s colonial and revolutionary-era history and on the long-standing controversy over the New Hampshire Grants.

Hiland Hall spent his final years in Bennington, where he continued to be regarded as an elder statesman and a respected authority on Vermont’s past. He lived to see the Civil War, Reconstruction, and the nation’s centennial, his life spanning from the early republic to the late nineteenth century. He died in Bennington on December 18, 1885, at the age of ninety, and was interred in Old Bennington Cemetery. His long career as lawyer, legislator, judge, governor, and historian left a durable imprint on the legal and political institutions of Vermont and on the historical understanding of the state’s formative years.