Hamilton Fish, an American statesman, born in New York city, Aug. 3, 1808. His father, Col. Nicholas Fish, was a distinguished officer of the revolutionary army. He graduated at Columbia college in 1827, and was admitted to the bar in 1830. In politics he was a whig, and was repeatedly nominated by that party as a candidate for the state assembly, but was defeated by the democratic majority. In 1842 he was elected a representative in congress from the sixth district of New York. In 1846 he was a candidate for lieutenant governor. The whig candidate for governor, John Young, was elected, but Mr. Fish, who had incurred the hostility of the anti-renters by his warm denunciation of their principles, was defeated. But his successful competitor, Addison Gardiner, a democrat who had received the support of the anti-renters, resigned the office in 1847 on becoming a judge of the court of appeals, and Mr. Fish was elected in his place. In 1848 he was chosen governor by about 30,000 majority, and in 1851 he was chosen United States senator in place of Daniel S. Dickinson. In the senate he opposed the repeal of the Missouri compromise, and acted with the republican party from its formation to the end of his term in 1857. In that year he went to Europe with his family, and remained till shortly before the commencement of the civil war.

During that contest he contributed in money to the support of the government. In January, 1862, in conjunction with Bishop Ames, he was appointed by Secretary Stanton a commissioner to visit the United States soldiers imprisoned at Richmond and elsewhere,to relieve their necessities and provide for their comfort.'" The confederate government declined to admit the commissioners within their lines, but intimated a readiness to negotiate for a general exchange of prisoners. The result was an agreement for an equal exchange, which was carried out substantially to the end of the war. In March, 1869, Mr. Fish was appointed by President Grant secretary of state, and was reappointed by him at the commencement of his second term in March, 1873. On Feb. 9, 1871, the president appointed him one of the commissioners on the part of the United States to negotiate the treaty of Washington, which was signed by him on May 8 of that year. In November, 1873, he negotiated with Admiral Polo, Spanish minister at Washington, the settlement of the Virginius question.