George Stillman Hillard | |
---|---|
United States Attorney for the District of Massachusetts | |
In office 1866–1870 |
|
Preceded by | Richard Henry Dana, Jr. |
Succeeded by | David H. Mason |
Personal details | |
Born |
Machias, Maine |
September 22, 1808
Died | January 21, 1879 Boston, Massachusetts |
(aged 70)
Resting place | Mount Auburn Cemetery, Cambridge, Massachusetts |
Nationality | American |
Political party | Democratic |
Alma mater |
Harvard University Northampton Law School Harvard Law School |
Occupation | Attorney |
George Stillman Hillard (September 22, 1808 – January 21, 1879) was an American lawyer and author. Besides developing his Boston legal practice (with Charles Sumner as a partner), he served in the Massachusetts legislature, edited several Boston journals, and wrote on literature, politics and travel.
Hillard was born at Machias, Maine on September 22, 1808, and he was educated at the Boston Latin School. After graduating at Harvard College from 1828, he taught in the Round Hill School at Northampton, Massachusetts and attended Northampton Law School. He graduated at the Harvard Law School in 1832, and in 1833 he was admitted to the bar in Boston, where he entered into partnership with Charles Sumner, and developed an extensive legal practice.
Hillard was a Democrat who opposed slavery and supported the Union during the American Civil War. He was a member of the Massachusetts legislature: the Massachusetts House of Representatives in 1836, and the Massachusetts Senate in 1850. There he was conspicuous as an orator, and his policies were praised by Daniel Webster. He was a member of the Massachusetts constitutional convention of 1853, city solicitor for Boston from 1854 until 1856, and in 1866–70 was United States district attorney for Massachusetts.
Beginning in 1837, Hillard rented rooms to Nathaniel Hawthorne, who had recently taken a job at the customhouse in Boston. Around that time, he was a founding member of an informal social group called the Five of Clubs which also included Sumner, author Henry Russell Cleveland (1809–1843),Cornelius Conway Felton, and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.