Hobart

William Joyce Sewell [g.v.], the delegates went
to the national convention at St. Louis without
specific instructions. When the nomination of
McKinley was assured, the New Jersey delega-
tion led the movement to nominate Hobart for
vice-president. The main issues of the campaign
were obviously to be the tariff and the currency.
The Democratic party would of course advocate
the recognition of silver on the basis of sixteen to
one. No Republican was more outspoken in up-
holding the gold standard than was Hobart; and
his attitude toward this issue, together with the
desire of the party to carry a traditionally Demo-
cratic state, was largely responsible for his nomi-
nation. In his speech of acceptance Hobart said:
"An honest dollar, worth 100 cents everywhere,
cannot be coined out of 53 cents of silver, plus a
legislative fiat" (Magie, post, p. 275); and later,
at Newark, he remarked: "When the result of
the election is finally and fully known, the great-
est lesson in political morality will be taught that
was ever taught in America" (Ibid., p. 100).
During his two years at Washington, Hobart
presided over the Senate with such ability that
Senator Lodge of Massachusetts declared that he
had "restored the Vice-Presidency to its proper
position" (Congressional Record, 59 Cong., i
Sess., p. 743). He cast the deciding vote in the
Senate against the bill to grant the Filipinos in-
dependence. He was an intimate friend of Presi-
dent McKinley, who frequently consulted with
him on affairs of state. Although Hobart lacked
oratorical ability, he possessed a pleasing voice
and disarmed even his opponents by his genial
manner. He made friends readily, and his home
in Washington was the scene of many brilliant
social gatherings. When his health broke down
in the spring of 1899, he went to Long Branch to
recuperate. Failing to improve, he returned to
his home in Paterson, where he died the follow-
ing November. President McKinley and many
representatives of the government attended his
funeral. He was buried at Cedar Lawn Ceme-
tery in Paterson. In 1903 the citizens of Pater-
son erected a bronze statue of Hobart next to
that of Alexander Hamilton on the plaza of the
City Hall.

[David Magie, Life of Garret Augustus Hobart,
Twenty-fourth Vice:President of the U. S. (1910);
memorial addresses in Cong. Record, 56 Cong., i Sess.,
Pp. 737-46, 1229-36; W. E. Sackett, Modern Battles of
Trenton (2 vols., 1895-1914); newspaper obituaries,
including those in the Evening Star (Washington), and
the Newark Evening News, Nov. 21, 1899.] j. £. p.

HOBART, JOHN HENRY (Sept. 14, IJ7S-
Sept. 12, 1830), bishop of the Protestant Epis-
copal Church, was born in Philadelphia, the son
of Enoch and Hannah (Pratt) Hobart and a

Hobart

descendant of Edmund Hobart who came from
Hingham, England, in 1633 an<* was one of the
founders of Hingham, Mass. Enoch, a captain
in the merchant marine, died a year after John
Henry's birth, and the latter was brought up by
his mother who by economy and self-denial af-
forded him an excellent education. Having re-
ceived his preparation at a school conducted by
a Mr. Leslie in Philadelphia and at the Episcopal
Academy there, he entered the University of the
State of Pennsylvania in 1788 but after two or
three years transferred to the College of New
Jersey, from which he graduated in 1793. He
then entered the counting-house of his brother-
in-law, Robert Smith, in Philadelphia, where he
remained until 1795. The following year he re-
turned to the College of New Jersey as a tutor,
studied for the ministry, and received the degree
of A.M. in 1796. On June 3, 1798, he was or-
dained deacon by Bishop William White and
took charge of churches in Oxford and Perkio-
men, Pa. In May 1799 he accepted charge of
Christ Church, New Brunswick, N. J., and a
year later of the church in Hempstead, L. I. On
May 6,1800, he married Mary Goodin Chandler
of Elizabethtown, N. J., daughter of Rev. Thomas
B. Chandler [gw.]. From Hempstead Hobart
was called to be an assistant in Trinity Parish,
New York, and was ordained priest in 1801 by
Bishop Samuel Provoost.

His abilities, energy, and devotion to Episco-
palianism soon made him a leader of the Church.
He was elected secretary of the Diocesan Con-
vention in 1801; deputy to the General Conven-
tions of 1801, 1804, and 1808; and secretary of
the House of Deputies in 1804. Through his per-
sonal influence and through his writings he did
much to awaken loyalty and a sense of responsi-
bility in clergy and laity and to strengthen the
Church, which had suffered greatly during the
Revolution and the constructive period of the
United States. Forcible as a preacher, he was
first of all an evangelist, striving always to stir
the conscience, "My banner," he wrote, "is
Evangelical Truth and Apostolic Order," Fervid
in religious piety, he felt that the natural outlet
for Christian faith and action was through the
doctrines and observances of the Church which
had come down in unbroken descent from apos-
tolic times. These views led him into many in-
tellectual combats. He became a formidable op-
ponent and was active in the defense of his
positions against all comers. In his desire to
train the young as well as the mature in the ways
of the Church he compiled, or wrote, many books
for their instruction. He republished William
Stephens' Treatise on the Nature and Consti-

93