Benjamin F. Hallett

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Benjamin F. Hallett (December 2, 1797-September 30, 1861) Longtime prominent member of the Suffolk County, Massachusetts bar and Democratic activist. Benjamin Franklin Hallett was born in Barnstable, Mass. After graduating from Brown in 1816, he studied law and began a jounalistic career in Providence, R.I. He soon moved to Boston where he began with the "Boston Advocate" shifting to the "Boston Dailey Advertiser" in 1827. At that time he espoused the views of the Anti-Masonic Party, but when that particular group went out of fashion he switched to the Democratic Party as an enemy of Henry Clay. In 1848 he became, for four years, the first Chairman of the Democratic National Committee. As a candidate for Congress in 1844 and 1848 he was defeated both times by Whig Robert C. Winthrop. In the latter race Charles Sumner was also a candidate of the Free-Soil Party. In March of 1853, President Franklin Pierce appointed Hallett to succeed George Lunt for a four year term as United States District Attorney for the District of Massachusetts. At the 1856 Democratic National Convention he was chairman of the Platform Committee. In 1860 he was chosen as a delegate, but skipped the Charleston, S.C. meeting. Trying to regain the seat he had vacated, the convention at Baltimore voted 138 to 112 1/2 deny Hallett the seat. He then joined the walk-out Convention that nominated John C. Breckinridge and Joseph Lane. B. F. Hallett died in Boston, September 30, 1862.