Ebenezer Rockwood Hoar was an influential American politician, lawyer, and justice from Massachusetts who was appointed U.S. Attorney General in 1869 by President Ulysses S. Grant. Hoar was the first U.S. Attorney General to head the newly created Department of Justice in July, 1870. As Attorney General Hoar worked with President Ulysses S. Grant and Secretary of State Hamilton Fish over contentious issues as settling the Alabama Claims with England and in keeping the U.S. from recognizing Cuban belligerency during the Ten Years War. Hoar assisted Grant in appointing two Supreme Court... justices that saved the nation's paper money supply as legal tender. Hoar himself, nominated by President Grant, was rejected by the Senate to fill a Supreme Court vacancy. Hoar's placement on Grant's Cabinet was tenuous, since two Cabinet members, Secretary of the Treasury, George S. Boutwell and Hoar, were from Massachusetts. As a result, and in part due to Hoar's reluctance to distribute federal patronage, Hoar was asked to resign the Cabinet by President Grant in June, 1870.
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