Stephen Henry Phillips

Stephen Henry Phillips (August 16, 1823 – April 9, 1897) was an American lawyer who served as the Attorney General of Massachusetts and the Kingdom of Hawaii and as the Minister of Foreign Affairs and on King Kamehameha V's Privy Council.

Early life Phillips was born August 16, 1823, in Salem, Massachusetts. He was the eldest son of Jane Appleton (Peele) Phillips and politician Stephen C. Phillips (1801–1857). Phillips was a descendant of Rev. George Phillips of Watertown, the progenitor of the New England Phillips family in America.

Phillips studied at various private schools in Salem, New York, and Washington, D.C. He entered Harvard University in 1838 when only 15 years old, graduating in 1842, as a member of Alpha Delta Phi and Phi Beta Kappa. Phillips then studied law at the Harvard Law School. One of his teachers there was Joseph Story, who was on the Supreme Court of the United States at the time.

Massachusetts politics From 1851 to 1853, Phillips was the district attorneys of Essex County, Massachusetts. He was a delegate to the 1856 Republican National Convention, its first, which was held in Philadelphia. He was Attorney-General of the state of Massachusetts from 1858 to 1861. Phillips was also a delegate to the 1864 Republican National Convention which re-nominated Abraham Lincoln for president.

Phillips temporarily acted as minister of foreign affairs in the cabinet from July 18, 1868, to December 31, 1869, while Charles de Varigny was in France trying to negotiate a treaty. On December 31, 1869, Charles Coffin Harris became minister of foreign affairs. Phillips returned to marry Margaret Duncan on October 3, 1871, in Haverhill, Massachusetts. She was daughter of another politician, James H. Duncan (1793–1869). In San Francisco he practiced law for the Equitable Life Insurance company and the California state board of railroad commissioners. In 1881 he moved back to his home state in Danvers, Massachusetts. He died on April 8, 1897.