Hill

States Senate for the six-year term beginning
Mar. 4, 1831. It was a triumph which was es-
pecially sweet to him in view of his rejection for
the comptrollership a few months before. He
held office until May 30, 1836, when he resigned
to accept the governorship of New Hampshire.
As a personal friend of President Jackson he
attracted some attention but he was not an es-
pecially effective public speaker. His position
as a member of the famous "kitchen cabinet,"
however, made him a power in the land and un-
doubtedly contributed greatly to strengthen his
political hold on New Hampshire. In 1836 he
was elected governor by a remarkably large
majority, a performance repeated in the two fol-
lowing years. As governor he was popular and
successful. His official messages, much better
than his Senate speeches, explain his political
philosophy and his attitude on many concrete
public issues. His message of June 3, 1836, was
a distinct innovation in New Hampshire prac-
tice, offering, in place of the brief generaliza-
tions on state matters presented by former ex-
ecutives, a lengthy and vigorous commentary on
the trend of national affairs in support of strict
construction, rotation in office, economy, and
democratic simplicity, and denouncing the tariff,
the collection and disbursement of surplus reve-
nue, the operations of the United States Bank,
and the use of national funds for internal im-
provements. He was an earnest advocate of the
construction of railroads, though he was em-
phatic in his belief that railroads, canals, and all
similar improvements should be left to private
enterprise. He urged repeatedly that public pro-
vision be made for the adequate care of the in-
sane, a matter then grossly neglected, and also
deserves credit for his insistence on the impor-
tance of preserving the early records of New
Hampshire. While denouncing the Abolitionist
agitation, he declared that mob law was still
more dangerous and urged that there be no in-
terference with the right of free speech and
assembly.

After his retirement from the governorship
he served, 1840-41, as head of the Boston sub-
treasury but was removed with the incoming
of the Harrison administration. In partnership
with his sons he established another newspaper
at Concord, Hill's New Hampshire Patriot, but
this production failed to recapture some of the
qualities that had made his earlier venture so
successful. He had already established an agri-
cultural journal, the Farmers' Monthly Visitor,
maintaining his interest in this publication for
the last fifteen years of his life. Hill's Patriot
was merged with the original New Hampshire

Hill

Patriot in 1847, and his newspaper career was
over. Hill was a shrewd and successful business
man and developed a successful publishing and
bookselling business in addition to his newspaper
ventures. He was also interested in various
banking and manufacturing enterprises and ac-
cumulated a considerable estate. In his later
years he was active in the promotion of agricul-
tural improvements. He was never robust and
in his last years suffered constantly from asthma.
He died in Washington, D. C.

[Sources include: Nathaniel Bouton, The Hist, of
Concord (1856); E. S. Stackpole, Hist, of N. H.
(1916), III, 95-99; E. S. Stearns and others, Geneal
and Family Hist, of the State of N. H.t IV (1908),
1981-83; N. H. Patriot and State Gazette, Mar. 27,
1851; Farmer's Cabinet (Amherst, N. H.), Apr. 3,
1851; and Vital Records of Cambridge, Mass., to the
Year 1850, I (1914), 354. Cyrus P. Bradley, Biog. of
Isaac Hill, of N.-H.: With an Appendix, Comprising
Selections from his Speeches, and Miscellaneous Writ-
ings (1835), is a typical campaign biography prepared
for the election of 1836, but the appendix contains use-
ful and suggestive material. ] -yy. ^. R.

HILL, JAMES (Dec. 20, i;34-Aug. 22,1811),
Revolutionary soldier, ship-builder, legislator,
was born in Kittery, Me., the fourth child of
Benjamin and Mary (Neal) Hill. His father
was grandson of John Hill, an early settler in
Dover, N. H. Here and in the near-by town of
Newbury, Mass., James learned ship-building.
At twenty he enlisted for the expedition of 1755
against the French at Crown Point. Besides
working on boats for the ascent of the Hudson
and Lake George, Hill helped to build Fort Ed-
ward and Fort William Henry and fought in the
battle of Sept. 8, when the French under Dies-
kau were defeated. The diary which he kept
at that time gives brief but graphic notes con-
cerning this first campaign of the French and
Indian War. It is remarkably accurate in its
account of the operations of the troops under
Gen. William Johnson, and of the movements of
the ranger Robert Rogers [#.£>.], as well as of
the daily life in camp. In 1758, as shipwright
on the warship Achilles, he went to Jamaica and
to England, whence he returned to America. In
1761 he settled in Newmarket, N. H. Here he
soon became prominent as a land-owner and
ship-builder, and held numerous public offices.

When the colonies broke away from England,
Hill was a warm patriot. He signed the "Asso-
ciation Test" of 1776, and also a petition to the
Committee of Safety for drastic action against
"those abandoned wretches well known by the -
name of Tories/' His military services in the
Revolution began with his captaincy of a com-
pany stationed in 1775 on Pierce's Island as part
of General Sullivan's defense of Portsmouth
Harbor. In 1777 he was made lieutenant-colonel

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