George Frisbie Hoar

Massachusetts conscience senator who fought for reform at home and against empire abroad.

Overview

Hoar served in the House from 1869 to 1877 and the Senate from 1877 to his death in 1904, chairing the Judiciary Committee for long stretches. He managed the first impeachment trial of a cabinet officer in 1876, championed civil service reform, pressed the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act as a betrayal of treaty and principle, and defended the rights of Native and Chinese Americans. He chaired the investigation of the Spanish-American War's conduct and opposed annexation of the Philippines as an abandonment of American ideals, losing to Theodore Roosevelt's generation in his final fight.