Garret Hobart - Lawyer and Part-time Politician

Lawyer and Part-time Politician

After graduation from Rutgers, Hobart worked briefly as a teacher to repay loans. Although Hobart was young and in good health, he did not serve in the Union Army. Addison Hobart's childhood friend, lawyer Socrates Tuttle, offered to take Garret into his office to read law. Tuttle was a prominent Passaic County lawyer who had served in the legislature. Hobart supported himself during his time of study in Paterson by working as a bank clerk; he later became director of the same bank. Hobart was admitted to the bar as an attorney in 1866; he became a counsellor-at-law in 1871 and was made a master in chancery in 1872.

In addition to learning law from Tuttle, Hobart fell in love with his daughter. Jennie Tuttle Hobart remembered, "When this attractive young law student appeared in our home I, then a young girl in my teens, unexpectedly played a rôle of importance by losing my heart to him". The two were married on July 21, 1869. The Hobarts had long been Democrats; Garret Hobart's marriage into the Republican Tuttle family converted him to that party. The couple had four children, two of whom survived infancy. One daughter, Fannie, died in 1895; Hobart's son, Garret Jr. survived him.

Socrates Tuttle was influential in Paterson, which worked to Hobart's advantage. According to Michael J. Connolly in his 2010 article about Hobart, the future vice president "benefitted greatly from Tuttle's beneficence". In 1866, the year he became a lawyer, Hobart was appointed grand jury clerk for Passaic County. When Tuttle became mayor of Paterson in 1871, he made Hobart city counsel. A year later, Hobart became counsel for the county Board of Chosen Freeholders.

In 1872, Hobart ran as a Republican for the New Jersey General Assembly from Passaic County's third legislative district. He was easily elected, taking nearly two-thirds of the vote. The General Assembly was then elected annually and he was successful in winning re-election the following year, although his margin of victory was cut in half. In 1874, still only age 30, he was voted Speaker of the Assembly. At the time, it was customary to step down after two terms, and he did so, although Hobart biographer David Magie maintained that he was urged to seek re-election. Instead, he campaigned for the Republican nominee for his seat, who was elected. In 1876, Hobart was nominated for the New Jersey Senate seat for Passaic County. He was elected to a three-year term, and was re-elected in 1879. In 1881 and 1882, he served as President of the state Senate, becoming the first man to lead both houses of the legislature. In 1883, he was the Republican nominee in the election for United States Senate—until 1913, senators were elected by state legislatures. As the Democrats had more legislators, a Republican had no chance of election—the nomination was simply a way of honoring Hobart for his political service. When he was asked his feelings about the nomination, he responded, "I do not worry about things that do not come my way." The "complimentary" nomination would prove to be Hobart's only electoral defeat.

Hobart said of his involvement in public affairs, "I make politics my recreation." He devoted most of his time to a law practice which according to Hobart's legislative biography was highly profitable. He was rarely seen in a courtroom; his official biography for the 1896 campaign admitted that "he has actually appeared in court a smaller number of times than, perhaps, any lawyer in Passaic County". Hobart's real work was in advising corporations how to accomplish their aims, yet remain within the law. He also had a lucrative business acting as court-appointed receiver of bankrupt railroads. Hobart reorganized them, and restored them to fiscal health. He often invested heavily in them; his success made him wealthy. In addition to the railroads for which he acted as receiver, he served as president of the Paterson Railway Company, which ran the city's streetcars, and as a board member for other railroads.

One reason for Hobart's success in both the private and public sectors was his genial personality. He worked well with others, and was noted for tact and charm. Senator Mark Hatfield, in his book on American vice presidents, suggests that these qualities would have made Hobart successful in Washington had he run for Congress. Hatfield states that the reason why Hobart chose not to move from state to national politics before 1896 was a reluctance to leave a comfortable life and successful law practice in Paterson. Instead, Hobart continued to involve himself in party politics; he was widely regarded as Northern New Jersey's most influential Republican. Beginning in 1876, he was a delegate to every Republican National Convention in his lifetime. He was a member of the New Jersey Republican Committee from 1880 to 1891, resigning the position as he became more deeply involved in Republican National Committee affairs—he was New Jersey's representative on the committee after 1884, rising to become vice chairman.