Hoar, Ebenezer Rockwood, 1816–95, American lawyer, U.S. Attorney General (1869–70), b. Concord, Mass. While serving (1846) in the Massachusetts senate, he declared that he would rather be a “Conscience Whig” than a “Cotton Whig,” thus originating an antislavery slogan. He was appointed U.S. Attorney General by President Grant, one of Grant's few good appointments. When Grant named him (1870) associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, the Senate, hostile to Hoar because he had insisted on filling new judgeships in the federal circuit courts with able rather than political appointees, refused to confirm the appointment. Grant, seeking Senate support for his project of annexing Santo Domingo, in June, 1870, abruptly requested Hoar's resignation as Attorney General. He continued to serve, however, until his successor was sworn in (Nov., 1870), and was the first head of the Dept. of Justice. Later Hoar helped negotiate the Treaty of Washington that settled the Alabama claims, and in 1873–75 he served in Congress.
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