author
George Frisbie Hoar
1826–1904
A sharp-minded Massachusetts reformer, he spent decades in Congress arguing for honest government, civil rights, and a stronger role for education in public life. His career stretched from the early days of the Republican Party to the dawn of the twentieth century.
1 Audiobook
Autobiography of Seventy Years, Vol. 1-2
by George Frisbie Hoar
About the author
Born in Concord, Massachusetts, in 1826, George Frisbie Hoar studied at Harvard College and Harvard Law School before building his legal career in Worcester. He entered politics young, served in the Massachusetts legislature, and became one of the early organizers of the Republican Party.
Hoar went on to serve in the U.S. House of Representatives and then in the U.S. Senate, where he represented Massachusetts from 1877 until his death in 1904. He became known as a thoughtful, independent Republican who pushed for cleaner government and took strong interest in education, civil service reform, and constitutional questions.
He is also remembered for speaking out when he believed the country was straying from its principles. Even within his own party, he could be a dissenter, and that mix of party loyalty, reform energy, and moral stubbornness helped make him one of the more distinctive political voices of his era.