Garret Hobart
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- Vice President to:
William McKinley - Republican, from
Ohio.
- William McKinley served 1897 - 1901. He died in 1901, at the age of 58.
- Dates Served: Hobart served as Vice President from 1897 - 1899.
- Political Party: Hobart was a Republican, from New Jersey.
- Born: 1844.
- Died: 1899, while in office, at the age of 55.
- The presidential opponent during the 1896 campaign was:
- Campaign issues in 1896:
- This year there was a brand new issue. Currency. US money was based on the gold
standard and many people viewed this as a tool of the wealthy East Coast banking
establishment to keep money from the common working American. William Jennings
Bryan, at age 36, preached an ideology of "free silver", in which silver coinage would
be freely minted without limit, not being
bound to the value of gold, in an effort to distribute the wealth and
remove the currency from being shackled to a single standard of value. He
also called for a nation-wide Income Tax, forcing more money out of upper-class
coffers and back to hard-working Americans. Bryan spoke with a dramatic, religious zeal, with
his supporters often driven to an almost religious frenzy during his fiery speeches.
The Democratic party ran him as their
candidate, but the party split as a result of East Coast Democrats not willing to
support his radical economic views. On the other hand, they couldn't support the
Republican candidate's high tariff views, since McKinley had sponsored the hugh
tariff increases under President Harrison. So they formed their own break-away
party called the National Democrats, otherwise known as the Gold Democrats, and
ran their own "gold candidate", James Palmer. Many members of the Republicans in
the Western states, so-called "Silver Republicans", defected and supported Bryan.
The Democrats painted McKinley as a Capitalist stooge, while the Republicans
painted Bryan as a dangerous, radical Socialst. With the backing of spooked
insdustrialists, and the Democrats split between coasts, McKinley won the election
by a clean margin. But they hadn't seen the last of Bryan.
- Notable Facts about Garret Hobart:
- Religious affiliation: Unknown.
- Originally a lawyer, Hobart began his political career by serving in the
State Assembly of New Jersey from 1873 - 1875, then in the State Senate from
1877 - 1882.
- Hobart was a strong supporter of the gold standard, and a key player in the Republican
National Committee, as well as being the Chair of the New Jersey Republican Committee
from 1880 - 1891. Thus he was naturally an obvious choice for McKinley's running mate
in 1896.
- His term as Veep was relatively uneventful, with his main contribution being the casting
of the tie-breaking vote in Senate in favor of retaining the Phillipines after the
end of the Spanish-American war.
- Hobart died in office after serving for 2 years, after a short period of fainting spells
which was determined, too late, to be heart disease.
Notable Events during his Vice Presidency:
- Moses Horwitz, later to become the Stooge named "Moe", is born on June 19, 1897. (Later changes
last name to Howard)
- The Pencil Sharpener is invented by John Love, on November 23, 1897.
- The USS Maine is dispatched to Cuba in 1898 to monitor trouble brewing there with Cuban rebels
harrasing Spanish leaders. While anchored in harbor, the USS Maine explodes, killing 260
American sailors, igniting the Spanish-American War, in which the last vestiges of Spanish
power in the Western Hemisphere was wiped out. After the war, the US winds up with several brand new
territories - the Phillipines, Guam, Cuba, and several Caribbean islands - none of which are ever
promoted to the status of full-fledged State, primarilly due to the locals not wanting it. The Phillipines
are eventually let go after a lot unpleasantness.
- The Hawaiian islands are annexed as a US Territory in 1898.
- US troops are sent to China to help quell the Boxer Rebellion, in 1899.
- US currency is formally placed on the Gold Standard, in 1900.