Ebenezer R. Hoar - Alabama Claims Commissioner (1871)

Alabama Claims Commissioner (1871)

Hoar was one of five United States members of a joint high commission with the United Kingdom to settle Civil War claims, and also territorial claims in relation to the Dominion of Canada. The commission's work led to the signing of the Treaty of Washington in 1871.

The treaty defined a method for international arbitration to settle disputed sovereign maritime and territorial issues, and also clarified the rules for maritime trade between Canada and the US, especially in the Great Lakes and the St. Lawrence. The issues deferred to the defined arbitration process were: the Alabama Civil War claims; other claims and counterclaims growing out of the Civil War; the San Juan water boundary with the Dominion of Canada in Puget Sound; and Nova Scotia fishery rights. A subsequent joint arbitration commission, acting under the treaty, issued a decision in September 1872, rejecting American claims for indirect war damages but did order Britain to pay the United States $15.5 million as compensation for the Alabama claims.