The Maine State Legislature voted to request permission to replace Maine’s statues of William King and Hannibal Hamlin with statues of Joshua Chamberlain and Margaret Chase Smith in Statuary Hall at the U.S. Capital. Statuary Hall displays statues of two important leaders from each of the 50 states, except for Virginia which displays only George Washington.

In 2020, Virginia removed its statue of Robert E. Lee and will replace it with a statue of a civil rights activist. As a lover of history, I hope the Maine Legislature will reconsider its request and maintain Hannibal Hamlin in Statuary Hall as the greatest national leader to come from Maine.

William King, campaigned for Maine to become a state and was our first governor.

Joshua Chamberlain led Maine soldiers defending Little Round Top during the Battle of Gettysburg. He served as governor of Maine and president of Bowdoin College.

Margaret Chase Smith was the first woman to serve in both houses of Congress and the first member of Congress to criticize the tactics of Joseph McCarthy in her “Declaration of Conscience” speech in 1950.

Those are three Mainers to be proud of. However, Hannibal Hamlin should remain one of the two Mainers to be represented in Statuary Hall.

Hamlin was born in 1809, in Paris Hill, the sixth of seven children born to Dr. Cyrus Hamlin and Anna Livermore, whose father founded the town of Livermore, Maine.

Dr. Hamlin, a founder of Waterville College (now Colby College), sent Hannibal to Hebron Academy to prepare for college. But when his older brother, Cyrus, became ill, Hannibal returned home to work on the family farm. By age 20, Hannibal had found time to own a local newspaper and study law.

In 1832, Hamlin moved to Portland to clerk in the law office of General Samuel Fessenden, an abolitionist whose sons served in the Senate and House of Representatives during the Civil War.

In 1833, Hamlin married Sarah Emery, and they moved to Hampden, below Bangor on the Penobscot River. Hamlin opened a law office and was so popular that crowds came to hear him try a case. He served in the state legislature for five years, becoming Speaker of the Maine legislature when he was 28.