At VicePresidents.com (www.VicePresidents.com) we can’t get enough of Hannibal Hamlin, probably because there is so little written about Hannibal Hamlin. The truth is some players are bigger during their time than after, and their legacy is assumed to be larger while they are alive than after they die.
We can’t get our arms around Hannibal Hamlin. We know for sure he was Veep during the Civil War and nobody really knows that. We know for sure he was dropped by President Lincoln as Lincoln’s Vice Presidential running mate, and thereby he missed being President after Lincoln was murdered, and few know that. We also know Hannibal Hamlin was a well respect Senator, a deeply committed statesman, and that he lived a long and full life. Why not more journalism on Hamlin? The guy was Veep during the Civil War and nobody knows? A different time, a different place, for sure.
Oh, a few more things. We also know that, barring something crazy, nobody in the country may ever be named Hannibal Hamlin again. We also know he wasn’t a big player on the Civil War scene, rarely if ever consulted by President Lincoln. We know Hamlin spent lots of time during the Civil War, as Veep, in his home state of Maine, far away from Washington DC. Just some more stuff.
