312 HOAR. HOBART. During his first term in Congress, Mr. Hoar, by a timely and convincing speech, saved the bureau of education, when the committee on appropriations had reported it ought to be abolished. In this Congress, too, he vindicated General Howard from the charges preferred by Fernando Wood, supported Sumner in his opposition to President Grant's Santo Domingo scheme, and became known as a formidable antag- onist in debate. In the next Congress (the 43d) Mr. Hoar, by his conscientious and judicious dealing in contested election cases, was notably regarded as an impartial judge, honored by Republicans and Demo- crats alike. In the 43d and 44th Con- gresses he was the life and power of many movements in behalf of education, labor and internal improvements. In the man- agement of the impeachment of Secretary GEORGE F. HOAR. Belknap, in 1876, he awoke the conscience of the people, and gave the initial impulse to the wave of official and political reform which has not yet spent its force. But Mr. Hoar's most distinguished ser- vice in the 44th Congress was that con- tributed to the delicate and important work so successfully accomplished by the Electoral Commission. He declined re- nomination for representative in the 45th Congress. Mr. Hoar was elected to the United States Senate, as a Republican, to succeed George S. Boutwell, taking his seat March 5, 1877. He was re-elected in 1883 and again in 1S89 without a note of party dissent, a distinction not accorded to any man since the days of Webster and Sumner. His present term expires in 1895. In the Senate Mr. Hoar has been a member, and for some years chairman, of the committee on privileges and elections, and a member of the committee on claims, on the judiciary, library and others of less importance. In general, Mr. Hoar has occupied him- self in Congress with matters of wide scope and fundamental importance. His powerful arguments in the Senate on the tariff issues are embalmed in the classics of forensic debate. Mr. Hoar presided over the Republican state conventions of 187 [,'77, '82 and '85, was a delegate to the national Republican conventions of 1S76, '80 and '84, presid- ing over that of 1880. He was regent of the Smithsonian In- stitute in 1880 ; was vice-president and is now president of the American Antiqua- rian Society; is a trustee of the Peabody Museum of Archaeology; is a member of the Massachusetts Historical Society; was an overseer of Harvard College, i874-'8o, and has been officially connected with many other educational institutions. The record of Senator Ploar is one re- plete with brilliant and patriotic service to the State, whose favorite son he stands to-day. In every position of honor and responsibility to which he in a long and eventful career has been called to fill, not a single instance can be mentioned wherein he has failed to correctly interpret and energetically defend the public voice of his constituents. Nor has his powerful in- fluence been confined to the border of his own loved Commonwealth. The nation claims him as one of its strong, wise, in- corruptible leaders. His conservatism is founded upon the faith given the early fathers. His radical views are in a line with a quickened public conscience, and keenly alive to the maintenance of an abso- lutely free and enlightened Republic. He is indeed " one of a thousand " — one whom the old Bay State delights to honor. HOBART, FRANCIS A., son of John A. and Ann Francis (Arnold) Hobart, was born in Braintree, Norfolk county, Sep- tember 18, 1833. He worked on a farm till nineteen years of age, gathering a com- mon school education the while, and then
