He was unsuccessfully nominated to the United States Supreme Court by President Grover Cleveland in 1893.

[1] After Sandra died, Hornblower married her sister, Emily Sanford Nelson, who was herself a widow.

[3] A lifelong member of the Democratic Party, in 1890 he was appointed by New York governor David B. Hill to a commission on state constitutional amendments.

[4] On September 19, 1893, President Grover Cleveland nominated Hornblower as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, following the death of Samuel Blatchford.

Shortly before his death, Hornblower was appointed to a seat on the New York Court of Appeals, but served for just ten weeks.