Hallett, Benjamin Franklin

Benjamin Franklin Hallett (December 2, 1797-September 30, 1862) was the son of Benjamin Hallett and Abigail Lovell from Barnstable, Massachusetts.  A graduate of Brown University (1816), he pursued journalism and law in Providence, Rhode Island and removed to Boston where, by 1827, he worked at the Boston Daily Advertiser.  In 1834, he served as the attorney for the Mashpee in their case to the Massachusetts General Court.  While his runs for Congress in 1844 and 1848 were not successful, Hallett became the first chairman of the Democrat National Committee (1848-1852) and in 1853 as District Attorney for the District of Massachusetts.  Wikipedia.  Benjamin F. Hallett, Rights of the Marshpee Indians: argument of Benjamin F. Hallett, counsel for the memorialists of the Marshpee tribe before a joint committee of the Legislature of Massachusetts (Boston, MA: J. Howe, 1834).  Image courtesy of Roberto Poli, "Chester Square, A Social History," Old Boston.