Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography/Hoar, Samuel

HOAR, Samuel, statesman, b. in Lincoln, Mass., 18 May, 1788; d. in Concord, Mass., 2 Nov., 1856. His father, Capt. Samuel Hoar, was a Revolutionary officer, and served for many years in the legislature. The son was graduated at Harvard in 1802, and was for two years a private tutor in Virginia. He then studied law, was admitted to the bar in 1805, began practice at Concord, and was for forty years one of the most successful lawyers in the state. He was a delegate to the State constitutional convention in 1820, a member of the state senate in 1825 and 1833, and was then elected a representative in congress as a Whig, serving from 7 Dec., 1835, till 3 March, 1837. In 1844 he was sent by the legislature to South Carolina to test the constitutionality of acts of that state authorizing the imprisonment of free colored persons who should enter it. His appearance in Charleston caused great excitement, and on 5 Dec., 1844, he was expelled from that city. On that day the legislature of South Carolina passed resolutions authorizing his expulsion. Mr. Hoar received the degree of LL. D. from Harvard in 1838, and was a member of the American academy of arts and sciences, the American Bible society, and the Massachusetts historical society. He married a daughter of Roger Sherman.—His son, Ebenezer Rockwood, jurist, b. in Concord, Mass., 21 Feb., 1816, was graduated at Harvard in 1835, studied law, was admitted to the bar in 1840, and practised in Concord and Boston. He was a judge of the court of common pleas in 1849-'55, and of the state supreme court in 1859-'69, and was attorney-general of the United States from March, 1869, till July, 1870. He was a member of the joint high commission, which framed the treaty of Washington with Great Britain in 1871, and served as a representative in congress from Massachusetts from 1 Dec., 1873, till 3 March, 1875, having been chosen as a Republican.—

Another son, George Frisbie, senator, b. in Concord, Mass., 29 Aug., 1826, was educated at Concord academy and at Harvard, where he was graduated in 1846. He studied law, was graduated at the Harvard law-school, and began to practise in Worcester, Mass. He was a member of the Massachusetts house of representatives in 1852, and of the state senate in 1857, and was then elected as a Republican to four successive congresses, serving from 4 March, 1869, till 3 March, 1877. He declined a renomination to congress, was elected U. S. senator from Massachusetts, taking his seat 5 March. 1877, and was re-elected in 1883. He was a delegate to the Republican national conventions of 1876, 1880, and 1884, one of the managers on the part of the house of representatives of the Belknap impeachment trial in 1876, and a member of the electoral commission in that year. He was an overseer of Harvard in 1874-'80, regent of the Smithsonian institution in 1880, and is now (1887) president of the American antiquarian society, is trustee of the Peabody museum of archæology, and a member of the Massachusetts historical society. He has received the degree of LL. D. from William and Mary, Amherst, Yale, and Harvard.