After the failure of the Vienna Rebellion in 1848, he came to the United States, settled in Cincinnati, Ohio, and engaged in journalism, politics, and the practice of law.

Hassaurek was prominent among campaigners for Abraham Lincoln during the 1860 Presidential election.

At another time, being abused and pelted with stones and missiles of all kinds, he laid down a revolver, and threatened to shoot any one that advanced upon him.

[1] On his non-career appointment by Lincoln as U. S. minister to Ecuador, Hassaurek went to thank the President “for appointing him to the highest position the administration had the power to give.” (The capital city of Ecuador, Quito, is over 9,000 feet (2,700 m) above sea level.

He was a Liberal Republican for Horace Greeley in 1872, and in 1876 campaigned for Samuel J. Tilden.