Salma Hale

Salma Hale (March 7, 1787 – November 19, 1866) was an American politician, author, editor, and United States representative from New Hampshire. He was born in Alstead, Cheshire County, New Hampshire, and in early adolescence was placed in a trade that would shape his later public career. At the age of thirteen he became an apprentice printer, gaining practical experience in the world of letters and public discourse that would later inform both his editorial work and his authorship.

By 1805, Hale had advanced sufficiently in his craft to edit the Walpole Political Observatory, a New Hampshire newspaper, reflecting his early engagement with politics and public affairs. While working in printing and journalism, he pursued the study of law under several prominent New Hampshire lawyers, including Roger Vose, Samuel Dinsmoor, and Phineas Handerson. This combination of legal training and editorial experience prepared him for a career that would span the judiciary, state politics, and national office.

Hale entered public service in the judiciary as clerk of the court of common pleas of Cheshire County, New Hampshire. In 1813 he moved to Keene, also in Cheshire County, which became the principal base of his professional and political life. His abilities were recognized at the national level when, in 1814, he was appointed secretary to the commission created under the Treaty of Ghent to determine the northeastern boundary line of the United States, a technically and diplomatically significant assignment in the aftermath of the War of 1812.

Elected as a Democratic-Republican to the Fifteenth Congress, Hale served as a United States representative for the state of New Hampshire from March 4, 1817, to March 3, 1819. As a member of the Republican Party representing New Hampshire, he contributed to the legislative process during his single term in office, participating in the democratic process and representing the interests of his constituents during a formative period in the early republic. He was not a candidate for renomination in 1818, and his service in the House of Representatives concluded at the end of the Fifteenth Congress.

After leaving Congress, Hale continued a long career in public service and the law. He served as clerk of the New Hampshire Supreme Court from 1817 to 1834, a position that placed him at the administrative center of the state’s highest tribunal for nearly two decades. He was admitted to the bar in October 1834, formalizing his standing as an attorney after years of legal study and judicial experience. In addition to his judicial responsibilities, he remained active in state politics. He was a member of the New Hampshire House of Representatives in 1823, 1828, and again in 1844, and he served in the New Hampshire Senate in 1824, 1825, and again in 1845 and 1846, thus maintaining an influential role in the legislative affairs of the state over several decades.

Parallel to his legal and political work, Hale pursued a significant literary career. He was the author of a widely used early American history textbook, History of the United States of America, which appeared in multiple editions between 1820 and 1848. The earlier editions were published under the pseudonym “A Citizen of Massachusetts,” while in the 1846 and later editions his own name was printed as the author. Through this work he contributed to the education of a generation of American students and helped shape popular understanding of the nation’s past.

In his personal life, Hale married Sarah Kellogg King on January 20, 1820. The couple had three children: William King Hale, Sarah King Hale, and George Silsbee Hale. His family life in Keene accompanied his sustained engagement in public service, authorship, and the law. In his later years he resided in Massachusetts, while retaining his ties to New Hampshire through his long record of service and his burial place.

Salma Hale died in Somerville, Middlesex County, Massachusetts, on November 19, 1866, at the age of seventy-nine. He was interred at Woodland Cemetery in Keene, Cheshire County, New Hampshire, returning in death to the community that had been central to his professional, political, and literary life.