During the 1876 United States presidential election, Hale, along with future senatorial colleague William P. Frye, served as campaign managers for James G. Blaine at the Republican National Convention.

At the house of John Sherman, Blaine called for President Hayes to nominate Frye as United States Attorney General.

The faction, a part of the conservative wing of the Republican Party, particularly opposed Hayes' nomination of staunch reformer Carl Schurz to the position of United States Secretary of the Interior.

Much later in his career, he opposed the building of large numbers of capital ships, which he regarded as less effective in proportion to cost and subject to rapid obsolescence.

Hale, who left Congress following defeat at the hands of the Greenback Party previously in 1878,[4] competed with Frye for the open seat.

[7] During the late 1890s, Hale and Senator George F. Hoar of Massachusetts were the most vocal opponents of American intervention into the ongoing insurrection in Cuba.

Hale disdained expansionism and jingoism and often challenged claims made by senators on Cuban military victories and Spanish atrocities.