Editing John Hay (section)

====Final months and death====
Hay never fully recovered from the death of his son Adelbert, writing in 1904 to his close friend Lizzie Cameron that "the death of our boy made my wife and me old, at once and for the rest of our lives".{{sfn|Taliaferro|pp=522–23}} Gale described Hay in his final years as a "saddened, slowly dying old man".{{sfn|Gale|p=36}}

Although Hay gave speeches in support of Roosevelt, he spent much of the fall of 1904 at his New Hampshire house or with his younger brother Charles, who was ill in Boston. After the election, Roosevelt asked Hay to remain another four years. Hay asked for time to consider, but the President did not allow it, announcing to the press two days later that Hay would stay at his post. Early 1905 saw futility for Hay, as a number of treaties he had negotiated were defeated or amended by the Senate—one involving the British dominion of [[Newfoundland]] due to Senator Lodge's fears it would harm his fisherman constituents. Others, promoting arbitration, were voted down or amended because the Senate did not want to be bypassed in the settlement of international disputes.{{sfn|Taliaferro|pp=523–28}}

By [[Second inauguration of Theodore Roosevelt|Roosevelt's inauguration]] on March 4, 1905, Hay's health was so bad that both his wife and his friend Henry Adams insisted on his going to Europe, where he could rest and get medical treatment. Presidential doctor [[Presley Rixey]] issued a statement that Hay was suffering from overwork, but in letters the secretary hinted his conviction that he did not have long to live.{{sfn|Taliaferro|pp=533–34}} An eminent physician in Italy prescribed medicinal baths for Hay's heart condition, and he duly journeyed to [[Bad Nauheim]], near [[Frankfurt]], Germany. Kaiser [[Wilhelm II]] was among the monarchs who wrote to Hay asking him to visit, though he declined; Belgian King [[Leopold II of Belgium|Leopold II]] succeeded in seeing him by showing up at his hotel, unannounced.{{sfn|Thayer II|p=400}} Adams suggested that Hay retire while there was still enough life left in him to do so, and that Roosevelt would be delighted to act as his own Secretary of State.{{sfn|Taliaferro|p=538}} Hay jokingly wrote to sculptor [[Augustus Saint-Gaudens]] that "there is nothing the matter with me except old age, the Senate, and one or two other mortal maladies".{{sfn|Thayer II|p=401}}

After the course of treatment, Hay went to Paris and began to take on his workload again by meeting with the French foreign minister, [[Théophile Delcassé]]. In London, King [[Edward VII]] broke protocol by meeting with Hay in a small drawing room, and Hay lunched with Whitelaw Reid, ambassador in London at last. There was not time to see all who wished to see Hay on what he knew was his final visit.{{sfn|Taliaferro|pp=538–39}}

On his return to the United States, despite his family's desire to take him to New Hampshire, the secretary went to Washington to deal with departmental business and "say ''[[Ave Caesar]]!'' to the President", as Hay put it.{{sfn|Taliaferro|p=539}} He was pleased to learn that Roosevelt was well on his way to settling the [[Russo-Japanese War]], an action for which the President would win the [[Nobel Peace Prize]].{{sfn|Taliaferro|pp=539–41}} Hay left Washington for the last time on June 23, 1905, arriving in New Hampshire the following day. He died there on July 1 of his heart ailment and complications. Hay was interred in [[Lake View Cemetery]] in Cleveland, near the grave of Garfield, in the presence of Roosevelt and many dignitaries, including Robert Lincoln.{{sfn|Taliaferro|pp=541–44}}