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Hannibal Hamlin Poker Player, Politician, Vice President

Hannibal Hamlin was named after the brilliant Carthaginian general who used elephants to get his army across the Alps and attack the surprised Romans about 200 B.C.

Born in 1809 in Maine, Hannibal grew up in a prosperous family. His father was a Harvard-trained physician. He excelled both academically and athletically.

Young Hannibal pursued a career in law. He established a successful practice and joined the Democratic Party. In 1835 he was elected to the State Legislature. Very popular, he successfully ran for the U.S. House of Representatives in 1843. Five years later, he went to the Senate.

During his forty years in public office, Hannibal Hamlin became one of the most important political figures during 19th Century America’s Great Gambling Age.

The Louisiana Purchase in 1803 doubled the size of the country. Rivers became major avenues of transportation and commerce. Gambling thrived. By 1835 there were more than 250 riverboats and some 2,000 professional gamblers working the rivers and settlements. The U.S victory over Mexico in the mid-1840s added Texas, the Southwest and California to the new nation. The Oregon Territory soon followed. Now, with her Manifest Destiny fulfilled, America’s “Westward Movement” would be led by gamblers, gunslingers, and gold hunters.

Gambling was commonplace throughout the country. From the earliest years as the nation’s capitol, Washington D.C. was a notorious gambling center. It was said that when Congress was in session the Capitol attracted as many professional gamblers as elected officials.

Pennsylvania Avenue became a gambling strip, lined with taverns, clubs and houses of entertainment. The most luxurious among them was The Palace of Fortune, a favorite gathering place of the powerful, including Hamlin.

One gentleman described The Palace of Fortune patrons “who nightly assembled… to take part in the entertainments of the house consisted of candidates for the Presidency, Senators and Representatives, members of the Cabinet, editors and journalists….”

The Palace of Fortune was operated by Edward Pendleton. President Buchanan, a frequent patron, was thought to have “a thing” for Mrs. Pendleton. It’s known that Edward Pendleton employed the services of women, who were politely referred to as “lady lobbyists”, for his high-ranking government guests.

Faro, Brag and Poker were favorite games of the governing class. Senator Henry Clay, of Kentucky, a passionate player, is credited with making the modifications to Brag which then became known as Poker. Draw was the game Senators Clay, Daniel Webster and Hannibal Hamlin chose to play. Stud Poker developed later, during or after the Civil War. Stud was popular in throughout the West long before it became known in the East.

The first detailed explanation of the Rules of Poker was written by Ohio Representative Robert C. Schenck, Hamlin’s colleague in Congress. Schenck was one of the foremost players of the period.

The gravest issue facing the Republic during Hamlin’s long career in Congress was whether or where should slavery be permitted to expand into the new territories. An ardent abolitionist, Hannibal fought every attempt at compromise. He prophetically declared during one heated debate, “I have no doubt that the whole North will come to the position I have taken.”

So volatile did the debate over the extension of slavery become between Senator Hamlin and Mississippi Senator Jefferson Davis, that the Senator from Maine started wearing a pistol to the Senate for protection! The slavery issue split the Democratic Party. Finally, in 1856 in a dramatic speech on the floor of the Senate, Hamlin declared, “I love my country more than I love my party.” Then Hamlin denounced the Democratic Party, joined the new anti-slavery Republican Party and was immediately returned to the Senate by the Maine majority.

Hamlin’s switch to the Republican Party caused a national sensation. When the party met to nominate abolitionist Abe Lincoln in 1860, Hamlin was picked as his running mate. The nomination for Vice President came as a shock to Hamlin. He was playing poker in his Washington hotel when a noisy crowd burst into the room. The Senator from Maine was more concerned about his game than his gain. He told the group, “You people have spoiled a good hand.” Hamlin didn’t want to be VP, but was pressured to accept it.

Six weeks after Lincoln and Hamlin were elected, South Carolina succeeded from the Union and the other cotton states quickly followed. Soon, the country was locked in a Civil War no-limit showdown. Hamlin didn’t think much of being Vice President. He had much more power in the Senate.

He showed his contempt for the office by joining the Maine Coast Guard as a corporal. It got him out of Washington and back to Maine, even if it was only to stand guard or peel potatoes.

In President Lincoln’s 1864 re-election campaign, Republican Party powers decided to drop Hamlin from the ticket in favor of Tennessee Governor Andrew Johnson. The new Vice President appeared drunk at the Inaugural and made a spectacle of himself. A month later, Lincoln was shot and Johnson moved into the White House.

Hamlin returned to the Senate where he served Maine for another dozen years. On the 4th of July 1891, he walked to the Tarratine Club of Bangor. He founded the club, served as its President and went there every afternoon (except Sunday) to play poker. While seated at the table, he collapsed. Hannibal Hamlin died that night at the age of 81.

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