Ebenezer R. Hoar

Ebenezer Rockwood Hoar

30th United States Attorney General
In office March 5, 1869 – November 22, 1870
President	Ulysses S. Grant
Preceded by	William M. Evarts
Succeeded by	Amos T. Akerman
Personal details
Born	February 21, 1816(1816-02-21) Concord, Massachusetts, U.S.
Died	January 31, 1895(1895-01-31) (aged 78) Concord, Massachusetts, U.S.
Political party	Whig, Republican
Spouse(s)	Caroline Brooks Hoar
Alma mater	Harvard University
Profession	Lawyer, Judge, Politician
Religion	Unitarian

Ebenezer Rockwood Hoar (February 21, 1816 – January 31, 1895) was an influential American politician and lawyer from Massachusetts.

1 Early life
2 Political and legal career
3 Hoar family relations
4 See also
5 Notes
6 References
7 External links

Early life

Born in Concord, Massachusetts, he graduated from Harvard University in 1835 and became a lawyer. Beginning in 1840 he practiced in Concord and Boston, Massachusetts. That same year he married Caroline Downes Brooks (1820–1892), of Concord.

Political and legal career

In 1846 Hoar was elected to the Massachusetts Senate as an anti-slavery Whig. He was a Judge of the Court of Common Pleas in Boston from 1849 until 1855 and then an Associate Justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court from 1859 to 1869.

He was appointed 30th Attorney General of the United States by President Ulysses S. Grant in 1869 and served for a little over a year. The US Department of Justice was created during his term. During the same period, he was nominated by Grant to be an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court but was not confirmed by the United States Senate.

He was one of five members of a commission on Civil War claims against England. The commission's work led to the signing of the Treaty of Washington in 1871.^[1]

He was an Alabama Claims commissioner in 1871 and was elected as a Republican to the 43rd Congress (1873–75). He was not a candidate for renomination in 1874 and returned to practicing law. He chaired the 1875 U.S. Centennial celebration of the Battles of Lexington and Concord, held in Concord and attended by many leading individuals of the day, including President Grant.^[1]

He served on the board of overseers of Harvard University from 1868 through 1882 and died in Concord in 1895. He is interred in Sleepy Hollow Cemetery in Concord, Massachusetts.

Hoar family relations

His brother was influential U.S. Congressman and Senator for Massachusetts, George Frisbie Hoar. His father was influential lawyer and politician Samuel Hoar (1778–1856). Through his mother, Sarah Sherman, he was the grandson of American founding father Roger Sherman and Rebecca Minot Prescott. His children include Sherman Hoar (1860–1898) and Samuel Hoar (1845–1904).

Hoar's first cousin Roger Sherman Baldwin was Governor of Connecticut and a US Senator.
Another first cousin William Maxwell Evarts was US Secretary of State, US Attorney General immediately preceding Hoar, and a US Senator.

Notes

^ ^a ^b Robbins, Paula The Hoar Family Dictionary of Unitarian & Universalist Biography. Unitarian Universalist Historical Society. Retrieved January 30, 2007.

References

Ebenezer R. Hoar at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress "HOAR, Ebenezer Rockwood, (1816–1895)"
Butler, Benjamin Franklin. Letter of General Benj. F. Butler, to Hon. E. R. Hoar . [Lowell?, Mass.]: N.p., 1876.
Cox, Jacob Dolson. How Judge Hoar Ceased to be Attorney General. Atlantic Monthly July 1895, p 162-173. (Available online: Making of America. Cornell University Library)
Hoar, Ebenezer Rockwood. Address at the laying of the corner stone of the Memorial Hall . Boston: Tolman & White, printers, 1870.
Hoar, Ebenezer Rockwood. Address in the old Concord Meeting House, April 19, 1894 . Boston: Beacon Press, T. Todd, printer, 1894.
Hoar, George Frisbie. The charge against President Grant and Attorney General Hoar of packing the Supreme Court of the United States . Worcester, Mass.: Press of C. Hamilton, [1896?]
Massachusetts. Bar. Tributes to the Bar and of the Supreme Judicial Court of the Commonwealth to the memory of Ebenezer Rockwood Hoar. Cambridge, Mass.: J. Wilson and Son, University Press, 1895.
Storey, Moorfield, and Edward W. Emerson. Ebenezer Rockwood Hoar: A Memoir. Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1911.

External links

Legal offices
Preceded by William M. Evarts	United States Attorney General Served under: Ulysses S. Grant March 5, 1869 – November 22, 1870	Succeeded by Amos T. Akerman
United States House of Representatives
Preceded by Constantine C. Esty	Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Massachusetts's 7th congressional district March 4, 1873 – March 3, 1875	Succeeded by John K. Tarbox

United States Attorneys General

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Cabinet of President Ulysses S. Grant (1869–1877)

Vice President	Schuyler Colfax (1869–1873) • Henry Wilson (1873–1875)

Secretary of State	Elihu B. Washburne (1869) • Hamilton Fish (1869–1877)

Secretary of the Treasury	George S. Boutwell (1869–1873) • William A. Richardson (1873–1874) • Benjamin Bristow (1874–1876) • Lot M. Morrill (1876–1877)

Secretary of War	John A. Rawlins (1869) • William W. Belknap (1869–1876) • Alphonso Taft (1876) • J. Donald Cameron (1876–1877)

Attorney General	Ebenezer R. Hoar (1869–1870) • Amos T. Akerman (1870–1871) • George H. Williams (1871–1875) • Edwards Pierrepont (1875–1876) • Alphonso Taft (1876–1877)

Postmaster General	John Creswell (1869–1874) • James W. Marshall (1874) • Marshall Jewell (1874–1876) • James N. Tyner (1876–1877)

Secretary of the Navy	Adolph E. Borie (1869) • George M. Robeson (1869–1877)

Secretary of the Interior	Jacob D. Cox (1869–1870) • Columbus Delano (1870–1875) • Zachariah Chandler (1875–1877)

Persondata
Name	Hoar, Ebeenezer Rockwood
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	February 21, 1816
Place of birth	Concord, Massachusetts, U.S.
Date of death	January 31, 1895
Place of death	Concord, Massachusetts, U.S.