Eugene Hale was born in Turner, Oxford County, in 1836. He studied law in Portland and was admitted to the bar in 1857. He was a member of the legislature of Maine (1867-1880), and was then elected a U.S. Representative (1869-1879). He succeeded Hannibal Hamlin in the U.S. Senate 1881, and was re-elected in 1887.

He was a founding member of the Anti-Imperialism League in 1898 which opposed the American acquisition of territory and the suppression of popular insurrections in the Philippines and Cuba. He was the father of Senator Fred Hale. He died in Washington D. C. on October 27, 1918.