CHOATE, Joseph Hodges, American lawyer and diplomat: b. Salem, Mass., 24 Jan.
1832; d. New York, 14 May 1917. He was graduated at Harvard University in 1852 and at the Harvard Law School two years later. After practising law in Boston for a year he went to New York city, where he achieved remarkable success as a lawyer. In 1856 he became active as a republican in supporting John C. Fremont. In 1884 he became a mesn ber of the famous legal firm of Evarts, Choate and Beaman. He won great distinction as a trial lawyer, conducting many celebrated cases in State and Federal courts and International tribunals. He successfully defended Gen. Fitz John Porter, prosecuted' the infamous Tweed Ring, appeared in the Tilden will contest, the Chinese Exclusion cases, the Income Tax cases of 1894, etc. In 1894 he was president of the New York State Constitutional Convention. In 1897 he was a candidate for the United States Senate, but was defeated by T. C. Platt. President McKinley
appointed him in 1899 to succeed John Hay as ambassador to the court of Saint James, in which capacity he served with distinction till 1905. He was elected Hon. Bencher of the Middle Temple of England on 10 April 1905. In 1907 he served as ambassador and leading delegate of the United States to the Inter national Peace Conference at The Hague, and his activity as a public-spirited citizen was mani fested as a trustee of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and of the American Museum of Nat ural History, a governor of the New York Hospital (1877-1917) and in many other ways. Among his published writings are 'Addresses on Abraham Lincoln, Admiral Farragut, Rufus Choate, The Supreme Court of the United States,' etc., and The Two Hague Con ferences.'