Hale was born in Rochester, Strafford County, New Hampshire. He attended Phillips Exeter Academy and graduated from Bowdoin College in 1827. He was elected as a Democrat to the Twenty-eighth Congress, serving from March 4, 1843 to March 3, 1845. He was later elected as a Free Soil candidate to the United States Senate in 1846 and served from March 4, 1847, to March 3, 1853.
Hale was an unsuccessful candidate for President of the United States on the Free Soil ticket in 1852. (See U.S. presidential election, 1852.)
He was again elected to the Senate in 1855 to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Charles G. Atherton. He was re-elected in 1859, in total serving from July 30, 1855, to March 3, 1865.