Katana VentraIP

Garret Hobart

Garret Augustus Hobart (June 3, 1844 – November 21, 1899) was the 24th vice president of the United States, serving from 1897 until his death in 1899, under President William McKinley. A member of the Republican Party, Hobart was an influential New Jersey businessman, politician, and political operative prior to his vice presidency.

Garret Hobart

William McKinley

Adlai Stevenson

Theodore Roosevelt

William Joyce Sewell

John J. Gardner

Isaac L. Fisher

George O. Vanderbilt

John Hopper

John W. Griggs

Robert M. Torbet

Robert M. Torbet

Garret Augustus Hobart

(1844-06-03)June 3, 1844
Long Branch, New Jersey, U.S.

November 21, 1899(1899-11-21) (aged 55)
Paterson, New Jersey, U.S.

Cedar Lawn Cemetery, Paterson, New Jersey, U.S.

Republican

​
(m. 1869)​

4

George S. Hobart (nephew)

Rutgers College (BA)

Cursive signature in ink

Hobart was born in Long Branch, New Jersey, on the Jersey Shore, and grew up in nearby Marlboro. He attended Rutgers College in New Brunswick, and read law under Paterson-based attorney Socrates Tuttle. He both studied with Tuttle and married his daughter, Jennie. Although he rarely set foot in a courtroom, Hobart became wealthy as a corporate lawyer. Hobart served in local governmental positions, and then successfully ran for office as a Republican, serving in both the New Jersey General Assembly, where he was elected Speaker in 1874, and the New Jersey Senate, where he became its president in 1881.


He was a longtime party official; during the 1896 Republican National Convention, New Jersey delegates to the convention were determined to nominate him for vice president. Hobart's political views were similar to those of William McKinley, the presumptive Republican presidential candidate. With New Jersey a key state in the upcoming election, McKinley and his close adviser, future U.S. Senator Mark Hanna, decided to have the convention select Hobart. The vice presidential candidate emulated his running mate with a front porch campaign, and also spent considerable time at the campaign's New York City headquarters. On November 3, 1896, McKinley and Hobart were elected.


As vice president, Hobart proved a popular figure in Washington and was a close adviser to McKinley. Hobart's tact and good humor were valuable to the President, as in mid-1899 when Secretary of War Russell Alger failed to understand that McKinley wanted him to leave office. Hobart invited Alger to his New Jersey summer home and broke the news to the secretary, who submitted his resignation to McKinley on his return to Washington. Hobart died on November 21, 1899, of heart disease at age 55; his place on the Republican ticket in 1900 was taken by Theodore Roosevelt.

Connolly, Michael J. (2010). . New Jersey History. 125 (1). Newark, N.J.: New Jersey Historical Society: 20–39. doi:10.14713/njh.v125i1.1019.

"'I Make Politics My Recreation': Vice President Garret A. Hobart and Nineteenth Century Republican Business Politics"

(1912). Marcus Alonzo Hanna: His Life and Work. New York: The Macmillan Company. OCLC 715683. Retrieved October 28, 2011.

Croly, Herbert

Gould, Lewis L. (1980). . American Presidency. Lawrence, Kan.: University Press of Kansas. ISBN 978-0-7006-0206-3.

The Presidency of William McKinley

(1997). Vice Presidents of the United States, 1789–1993 (PDF). Washington, D.C.: United States Government Printing Office. ISBN 978-0-7567-0968-6.

Hatfield, Mark O.

(1930). Memories. Mount Vernon, N.Y.: William Edwin Rudge. OCLC 4428978.

Hobart, Jennie

Horner, William T. (2010). Ohio's Kingmaker: Mark Hanna, Man and Myth. Athens, Ohio: Ohio University Press.  978-0-8214-1894-9.

ISBN

Jones, Stanley L. (1964). . Madison, Wis.: University of Wisconsin Press. OCLC 445683.

The Presidential Election of 1896

Law, Robert O. (1896). . unknown. Retrieved March 20, 2012.

The Parties and the Men; or, Political Issues of 1896

Leech, Margaret (1959). . New York: Harper and Brothers. OCLC 456809.

In the Days of McKinley

Magie, David (1910). . New York: G. P. Putnam and Sons. Retrieved November 22, 2011.

Life of Garret Augustus Hobart

Morgan, H. Wayne (2003). William McKinley and His America (revised ed.). Kent, Ohio: The Kent State University Press.  978-0-87338-765-1.

ISBN

(1922). The McKinley and Roosevelt Administrations, 1897–1909. New York: The Macmillan Company. OCLC 457006. Retrieved October 28, 2011.

Rhodes, James Ford

Williams, R. Hal (2010). Realigning America: McKinley, Bryan and the Remarkable Election of 1896. Lawrence, Kan.: University Press of Kansas.  978-0-7006-1721-0.

ISBN

Bibliography


Other sources

U.S. Senate biography

at Project Gutenberg

Works by Garret Augustus Hobart

at Internet Archive

Works by or about Garret Hobart

United States Congress. . Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.

"Garret Hobart (id: H000660)"

US Congress (1900). . Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office – via Google Books.

Memorial Addresses on the Life and Character of Garret A. Hobart, Late Vice President of the United States