John Milton Hay

Hay, John Milton (1838–1905), U.S. politician and author, secretary to President Lincoln (1860–65). As secretary of state under Presidents William McKinley and Theodore Roosevelt (1898–1905), he established U.S. sovereignty over Hawaii and the Philippines, and negotiated the Hay-Pauncefote Treaties (1899, 1901) and the Hay-Bunau-Varilla Treaty (1903), which together ensured U.S. control of the Panama Canal. He was also an architect of the so-called Open Door policy toward China. His writings include Pike County Ballads (1871) and (with J.G. Nicolay) Abraham Lincoln: A History (l0 vols., 1890).

See also: Hay-Pauncefote Treaties; Open-Door Policy.