Scope and Content Note
The papers of Eugene Gano Hay (1853-1933) span the period 1770-1933, with the bulk of the material concentrated in the years 1877-1933. The papers consist of general correspondence, diaries, financial papers, family papers, speeches, writings and related material, printed matter, and miscellaneous material. The collection documents Hay's career as a prosecuting attorney, temporary secretary to Benjamin Harrison, United States district attorney of Minnesota, unsuccessful congressional candidate, general appraiser of Merchandise on the Board of United States General Appraisers, and advocate and worker for the Republican Party. The collection is organized into seven series: General Correspondence; Diaries and Daily Record Books; Financial Papers; Family Papers; Speeches, Writings, and Related Material; Printed Matter; and Miscellany.
Hay was a prolific letter writer who corresponded with leading political figures of his era. Included among the state and national officials represented in the General Correspondence are Calvin Coolidge, Albert Baird Cummins, Warren G. Harding, Benjamin Harrison, John Hay, Frank B. Kellogg, Philander C. Knox, John Lind, Henry Cabot Lodge, Theodore Roosevelt, Elihu Root, Henry L. Stimson, William H. Taft, and Woodrow Wilson. The General Correspondence also contains family and personal correspondence illustrating Hay's political views and social perspective from the 1870s to the 1920s. A small number of letters belonging to Hay, his wife, and his wife's family, the Farquhars, is in the Financial Papers and the Family Papers.
The Speeches, Writings, and Related Material series reveals Hay as a man of broad intellectual interests. Material of an autobiographical nature is especially valuable in describing political events of which he had personal knowledge, including his account of Benjamin Harrison's campaign in 1888 to win the presidential nomination of the Republican Party.
Of particular interest in the collection is material concerning two early anti-trust cases in which Hay was involved as a district attorney and private lawyer. He participated in the Interstate Commerce Commission v. the Chicago, Milwaukee, & St. Paul Railway Co. case in 1893, and the early stages of the Northern Securities Company antitrust case in 1898-1899. Information on the cases is contained in the General Correspondence and Speeches, Writings, and Related Material series, as well as in the Printed Matter file.
Trade reciprocity between the United States and other countries, particularly Canada, is also a topic of importance. Hay was an enthusiastic advocate of reciprocity, especially in his unsuccessful bid for the Republican nomination for a congressional seat from Minnesota in 1902.
The collection contains a large number of printed pamphlets, booklets, magazines, and journals, as well as many newspaper clippings. Of particular interest in the printed matter is a medical handbook dating to approximately 1770.