William E . Chandler William Eaton Chandler ( December 28 , 1835November 30 , 1917 ) was a lawyer who served as United States Secretary of the Navy and as a U . S . Senator from New Hampshire . Early life . William E . Chandler was born in Concord , New Hampshire to Nathan S . Chandler and Mary Ann ( Tucker ) Chandler . William ' s elder brother , John Chandler , was a successful East India merchant and his younger brother George Chandler , an attorney who served as a major during the Civil War . William Chandler attended the common schools , Thetford Academy and Pembroke Academy before attending Harvard Law School , where he began a romantic correspondence with Lucy Lambert Hale , daughter of Senator John Parker Hale . He graduated in 1854 , was admitted to the bar in 1855 , and commenced practice in Concord . In 1859 Chandler married Ann Gilmore , the daughter of Governor Joseph A . Gilmore . In 1874 , after his first wife ' s death , Chandler resumed his romance with Lucy Hale , who had been secretly betrothed in 1865 to John Wilkes Booth , Abraham Lincoln ' s assassin . Chandler and Hale were married in 1874 , and in March 1885 , their only son , John Parker Hall Chandler , was born . Political career . In 1859 , Chandler was appointed reporter of the decisions of the Supreme Court of New Hampshire . He then served in the New Hampshire House of Representatives from 1862 – 1864 and was the Speaker during the last two years . In 1865 , Chandler was appointed by President Abraham Lincoln solicitor and judge advocate general of the Navy Department . Subsequently , he was appointed First Assistant Secretary of the Treasury , until he resigned in 1867 . Chandler returned to New Hampshire and became a newspaper publisher and editor during the 1870s and 1880s . Continuing in politics , he was a member of the State constitutional convention in 1876 and a member of the State house of representatives in 1881 . Chandler was appointed by President Chester A . Arthur as Secretary of the Navy in 1882 . He took charge in 1883 in planning for the rescue of Lt . Adolphus Greely ' s Lady Franklin Bay Expedition . Chandler served until 1885 . As a Republican , he was elected to the United States Senate to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Austin F . Pike and served from June 14 , 1887 , to March 4 , 1889 . Subsequently elected for the term beginning March 4 , 1889 , he was reelected in 1895 and served from June 18 , 1889 , to March 4 , 1901 . He was an unsuccessful candidate for renomination . He served as chairman of the Committee on Immigration ( Fifty - first and Fifty - second Congresses ) , Committee on Census ( Fifty - fourth Congress ) , Committee on Privileges and Elections ( Fifty - fifth and Fifty - sixth Congresses ) . In 1892 , Chandler proposed a one - year ban on immigration , to keep out undesirables , which included cholera carriers , Anarchists , Nihilists , polygamists , Mafia members , illiterates , " blind or crippled " persons , persons without means , etc . The strongest opponents of the bill were the steamship companies , who stood to lose a major portion of their business . A watered - down version of The Chandler Immigration and Contract Labor Bill became law on March 3 , 1893 . It simply required steamship companies to prepare lists of their passengers containing full information , and thus very likely served as a compromise to get the steamship companies to back down on Immigration Reform at this time . Chandler was appointed by President William McKinley to the Spanish Treaty Claims Commission in 1901 . He was the president of the Commission from its inception until 1907 , when its work was nearly complete . Leaving public office , Chandler resumed the practice of law in Concord and Washington , D . C . . He died at Concord in 1917 and was buried in Blossom Hill Cemetery in Concord . Legacy . USS " Chandler " ( DD - 206 ) was named for him . Chandler ' s grandson , Theodore E . Chandler joined the U . S . Navy in 1911 while his grandparents were both still alive and later distinguished himself as a Rear Admiral in World War II , and was killed in action by a Japanese kamikaze aircraft .