[1][2][3] He settled the controversial Alabama Claims with the United Kingdom, developing the concept of international arbitration and avoided war with Spain over Cuban independence by coolly handling the volatile Virginius incident.

[4] In 1875, Fish negotiated a reciprocal trade treaty for sugar production with the Kingdom of Hawai'i, initiating the process which ended in the 1893 overthrow of the House of Kalākaua and statehood.

After traveling to Europe, Fish returned to the United States and supported Abraham Lincoln, the Republican nominee for president in the 1860 U.S. presidential election.

Fish was involved in a political feud between U.S. senator Charles Sumner and President Grant in the latter's unsuccessful efforts to annex the Dominican Republic.

[15] Leasing farmers in New York refused to pay rent to large land tract owners and sometimes resorted to violence and intimidation.

[22] Fish became friends with President Franklin Pierce's Secretary of State William L. Marcy and Attorney General Caleb Cushing.

[26] At the expiration of his term, he traveled with his family to Europe and remained there until shortly before the opening of the American Civil War, when he returned to begin actively campaigning for the election of Abraham Lincoln.

[18] While in France, Fish studied foreign policy with diplomats and distinguished Americans, and gained valuable experience that would eventually benefit his tenure as U.S. Secretary of State.

Fish's private secretary was involved in the attempt of the merchant ship Star of the West to bring relief supplies to Fort Sumter in Charleston harbor.

Upon assuming office in 1869, Fish was initially underrated by some statesmen including former Secretaries of State William H. Seward and John Bigelow.

[29] Fish's tenure as Secretary of State was lengthy, almost eight years, and he had to contend with many foreign policy issues including the Cuban insurrection, the Alabama Claims, and the Franco-Prussian War.

[30] During Reconstruction, Fish was not known to sympathize with Grant's policy to eradicate the Ku Klux Klan, racism in the Southern states, and promote African American equality.

[32] After appropriations were given to his office by Congress, Fish cataloged and organized 700 volumes of miscellaneous State Department documents and created the Bureau of Indexes and Archives.

[32] Fish implemented civil service reform by having State Department applicants be required to pass an entry examination before being appointed consultant.

[33] Rather than world regions, countries were listed in alphabetical order; the correspondence was embedded in bound diplomatic and consular category archives, rather than by subject matter.

The resolution went to the House of Representatives and was ready to pass, however, Fish worked out an agreement with President Grant to send a special message to Congress that urged not to acknowledge the Cuban rebels.

[36] After President Grant assumed office on March 4, 1869, one of his immediate foreign policy interests was the annexation of the Caribbean island nation of the Dominican Republic, at that time referred to as Santo Domingo, to the United States.

[37] Grant believed the annexation of Santo Domingo would increase the United States' mineral resources and alleviate the effects of racism against African Americans in the South.

In September 1869, Babcock made a preliminary treaty that would annex Santo Domingo to the United States and give it the opportunity to apply for statehood.

[30] Secretary Fish organized a treaty signing on January 26, 1870, in Bogota between the United States and Colombia that established a Panama route for the inter-oceanic canal.

[30] During the previous administration of President Andrew Johnson, Secretary of State Seward attempted to resolve the Alabama Claims with the Johnson-Clarendon convention and treaty.

[54] On August 25, 1872, the settlement for the Alabama claims was made by an international arbitration committee meeting in Geneva and the United States was awarded $15,500,000 (~$352 million in 2023) in gold only for damage done by the Confederate warships.

[55] On April 11, 1871, a peace-trade conference, presided over by Hamilton Fish, was held in Washington D.C., between Spain and the South American republics of Peru, Chile, Ecuador, and Bolivia, which resulted in an armistice between the countries.

[56] In 1866, U.S. relations with Korea were troubled when Christian missionaries were beheaded by the Korean Daewongun, regent to King Kojong, and the crew of the General Sherman, a U.S. trading ship, were massacred.

[56] On May 8, 1871, Low and Rear Admiral John Rodgers, commander of the Asiatic Squadron, voyaged to Korea with five warships, 85 guns, and 1,230 sailors and marines.

[56] The "Citadel" fortress, on a steep 115-foot hillside, put up the stiffest resistance to the American troops, who fought in hand-to-hand combat with the Korean Tiger Hunters.

[57] Fish coolly handled the situation, calling upon Spanish minister, Admiral José Polo de Bernabé in Washington D.C., and holding a conference.

Turner, bolstered by U.S. naval presence in harbor and support of the USS Alaska captain, negotiated the incorporation of Grebo people into Liberian society and the ousting of foreign traders from Liberia.

[30] After leaving the Grant Cabinet in 1877 and briefly serving under President Hayes, Fish retired from public office and returned to private life practicing law and managing his real estate in New York City.

[60] On September 11, 1893, Fish was buried in Garrison at St. Philip's Church in the Highlands Cemetery under waving trees on the hills along the Hudson River shoreline.