Editing John Hay (section)

==Assessment and legacy==
[[File:John Hay by John Singer Sargent.jpg|thumb|upright=0.6|left|Hay in portrait by [[John Singer Sargent]]]]
In 1902, Hay wrote that when he died, "I shall not be much missed except by my wife."{{sfn|Gale|p=40}} Nevertheless, due to his premature death at age 66, he was survived by most of his friends.{{sfn|Gale|p=41}} These included Adams, who although he blamed the pressures of Hay's office, where he was badgered by Roosevelt and many senators, for the Secretary of State's death, admitted that Hay had remained in the position because he feared being bored. He memorialized his friend in the final pages of his autobiographical ''[[The Education of Henry Adams]]'': with Hay's death, his own education had ended.{{sfn|Gale|p=42}}

Gale pointed out that Hay "accomplished a great deal in the realm of international statesmanship, and the world may be a better place because of his efforts as secretary of state&nbsp;... the man was a scintillating ambassador".{{sfn|Gale|p=125}} Yet, Gale felt, any assessment of Hay must include negatives as well, that after his marriage to the wealthy Clara Stone, Hay "allowed his deep-seated love of ease triumph over his Middle Western devotion to work and a fair shake for all."{{sfn|Gale|p=125}} Despite his literary accomplishments, Hay "was often lazy. His first poetry was his best."{{sfn|Gale|p=125}}
{{external media| float = right| video1 = [https://www.c-span.org/video/?313620-1/qa-john-taliaferro ''Q&A'' interview with John Taliaferro on ''All the Great Prizes: The Life of John Hay, from Lincoln to Roosevelt'', July 21, 2013], [[C-SPAN]]| video2 = [https://www.c-span.org/video/?317726-1/lincolns-boys Presentation by Joshua Zeitz on ''Lincoln’s Boys: John Hay, John Nicolay, and the War for Lincoln's Image'', February 4, 2014], [[C-SPAN]]}} 
Taliaferro suggests that "if Hay put any&nbsp;... indelible stamp on history, perhaps it was that he demonstrated how the United States ought to comport itself. He, not Roosevelt, was the adult in charge when the nation and the State Department attained global maturity."{{sfn|Taliaferro|p=548}} He quotes [[John St. Loe Strachey]], "All that the world saw was a great gentleman and a great statesman doing his work for the State and for the President with perfect taste, perfect good sense, and perfect good humour".{{sfn|Taliaferro|p=548}}

[[File:John Hay Bust.jpg|thumb|upright|''Posthumous bust of John Hay'' (1915–17), by [[J. Massey Rhind]], inside the [[National McKinley Birthplace Memorial]]]]
Hay's efforts to shape Lincoln's image increased his own prominence and reputation in making his association (and that of Nicolay) with the assassinated president ever more remarkable and noteworthy. According to Zeitz, "the greater Lincoln grew in death, the greater they grew for having known him so well, and so intimately, in life. Everyone wanted to know them if only to ask what it had been like—what ''he'' had been like."{{sfn|Zeitz 2014a|p=3}} Their answer to that, expressed in ten volumes of biography, Gale wrote, "has been incredibly influential".{{sfn|Gale|p=125}} In 1974, Lincoln scholar [[Roy P. Basler]] stated that later biographers such as [[Carl Sandburg]] did not "ma[k]e revisions of the essential story told by N.[icolay] & H.[ay].{{sfn|Zeitz 2014a|pp=338–39}} Zeitz concurs, "Americans today understand Abraham Lincoln much as Nicolay and Hay hoped that they would."{{sfn|Zeitz 2014a|p=6}}

Hay brought about more than 50 treaties, including the Canal-related treaties,<ref>{{cite web|title=John Hay|url=http://www.nps.gov/resources/person.htm?id=154|publisher=[[National Park Service]]|access-date=July 17, 2014|archive-date=July 26, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140726043623/http://www.nps.gov/resources/person.htm?id=154|url-status=live}}</ref> and settlement of the [[Tripartite Convention|Samoan dispute]], as a result of which the United States secured what became known as [[American Samoa]].<ref>Ryden, George Herbert. ''The Foreign Policy of the United States in Relation to Samoa''. New York: Octagon Books, 1975. (Reprint by special arrangement with Yale University Press. Originally published at New Haven: Yale University Press, 1928), p. 574</ref> In 1900, Hay negotiated a treaty with Denmark for the cession of the [[Danish West Indies]]. That treaty failed in the [[Landsting (Denmark)|Danish parliament]] on a tied vote.<ref>{{cite web|title=Purchase of the United States Virgin Islands, 1917|date=July 21, 2008|publisher=United States Department of State|url=http://2001-2009.state.gov/r/pa/ho/time/wwi/107293.htm|access-date=July 29, 2014|archive-date=October 21, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141021235711/http://2001-2009.state.gov/r/pa/ho/time/wwi/107293.htm|url-status=live}}</ref>

In 1923 [[Mount Hay (Yakutat)|Mount Hay]], also known as ''Boundary Peak 167'' on the [[Canada–United States border]], was named after John Hay in recognition of his role in negotiating the US-Canada treaty resulting in the [[Alaska Boundary Tribunal]].<ref name="gnis">{{cite gnis |id=1420629 |name=Mount Herbert |access-date=May 16, 2018}}</ref> Brown University's [[John Hay Library]] is named for him as well.<ref>{{cite web|title=John Hay Library|url=https://www.brown.edu/Administration/News_Bureau/Databases/Encyclopedia/search.php?serial=J0080|publisher=Brown University|last=Mitchell|first=Martha|access-date=July 17, 2014|archive-date=February 17, 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120217214933/http://www.brown.edu/Administration/News_Bureau/Databases/Encyclopedia/search.php?serial=J0080|url-status=dead}}</ref> Hay's New Hampshire estate has been conserved by various organizations.<ref>{{cite web|title=About the Refuge|url=http://www.fws.gov/refuge/John_Hay/about.html|date=October 21, 2014|access-date=October 8, 2015|author=United States Fish and Wildlife Service|archive-date=August 15, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150815110512/http://www.fws.gov/refuge/John_Hay/about.html|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=John Hay Land Studies Center|author=Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests|url=http://www.forestsociety.org/ourproperties/ac-hay-reservation.asp|access-date=July 17, 2014|archive-date=October 12, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141012022404/http://www.forestsociety.org/ourproperties/ac-hay-reservation.asp|url-status=dead}}</ref> Although he and his family never lived there (Hay died while it was under construction), the Hay-McKinney House, home to the Cleveland History Center and thousands of artifacts, serves to remind Clevelanders of John Hay's lengthy service.<ref>{{cite news|last1=Washington|first1=Julie|title=Hay-McKinney Mansion a perfect spot to tour history|url=http://www.cleveland.com/insideout/index.ssf/2011/09/full_house_hay-mckinney_mansio.html|access-date=July 19, 2016|newspaper=The Plain Dealer|publisher=AdvanceOhio|date=September 1, 2011|archive-date=July 22, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160722224643/http://www.cleveland.com/insideout/index.ssf/2011/09/full_house_hay-mckinney_mansio.html|url-status=live}}</ref> During World War II the [[Liberty ship]] {{SS|John Hay}} was built in [[Panama City, Florida]], and named in his honor.<ref>{{cite book
  |last= Williams
  |first= Greg H.
  |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=A5oWBAAAQBAJ
  |title= The Liberty Ships of World War II: A Record of the 2,710 Vessels and Their Builders, Operators and Namesakes, with a History of the Jeremiah O'Brien
  |date= July 25, 2014
  |publisher= McFarland, Inc.
  |isbn= 978-1476617541
  |access-date= December 7, 2017
  |archive-date= July 8, 2023
  |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20230708125156/https://books.google.com/books?id=A5oWBAAAQBAJ
  |url-status= live
  }}</ref> [[Camp John Hay (1903–1955)|Camp John Hay]] a United States military base established in 1903 in [[Baguio]], Philippines, was named for John Hay, and the base name was maintained by the Philippine government even after its 1991 turnover to Philippine authorities.<ref>Halsema, James J. E. J. Halsema: Colonial Engineer A Biography. Quezon City: New Day Publishers, 1991; pp 292–295; Mansell, Donald E. Under the Shadow of the Rising Sun. Nampa, ID: Pacific Press, 2003 pp. 41–48.</ref>

According to historian Lewis L. Gould, in his account of McKinley's presidency,

{{quote|One of the most entertaining and interesting letter writers who ever ran the State Department, the witty, dapper, and bearded Hay left behind an abundance of documentary evidence on his public career. His name is indelibly linked with that verity of the nation's Asian policy, the Open Door, and he contributed much to the resolution of the longstanding problems with the British. Patient, discreet, and judicious, Hay deserves to stand in the front rank of secretaries of state.{{sfn|Gould|p=130}}}}