Editing Garret Hobart (section)

== Vice presidency (1897–1899) ==
[[File:William McKinley 1897 inauguration.ogg|thumb|Film of the 1897 inauguration with later audio commentary. Hobart appears, and is commented on briefly, beginning at the 0:38 mark.]]
Hobart spent much of the four months between election and inauguration reading about the vice presidency, preparing for the move, and winding down some business affairs. He did not, however, resign from the boards of corporations which would not have business before the federal government. "It would be highly ridiculous for me to resign from the different companies in which I am officer<!-- That's what it says --> and a stockholder whose interests are not in the least affected, or likely to be, by my position as Vice President."{{sfn|Connolly|pp=27–28}} On March 2, 1897, Hobart and his family left Paterson to travel to Washington by special train.{{sfn|Magie|p=112}} On March 4, he was inaugurated as vice president in the [[United States Capitol#Senate Chamber|Senate Chamber]].{{sfn|Leech|p=117}} The ''[[Chicago Daily News]]'' predicted, "Garret A. Hobart will not be seen or heard until, after four years, he emerges from the impenetrable vacuum of the Vice Presidency."{{sfn|Hobart|p=15}}

=== Presidential advisor ===
[[File:McKinley and Hobart.png|thumb|McKinley (left) and Hobart, photographed in [[Long Branch, New Jersey]], during the summer of 1899]] 
After moving to [[Washington, D.C.]], the Hobarts established themselves at the [[Arlington Hotel (Washington, D.C.)|Arlington Hotel]], which was the Washington, D.C. home to many political men of the era, including Hanna. Soon, however, Senator [[J. Donald Cameron|Don Cameron]] of [[Pennsylvania]], who was retiring from office at the time of Hobart's inauguration, offered them the lease of the house he owned at [[Benjamin Ogle Tayloe House|21 Madison Place]], diagonally across [[Pennsylvania Avenue]] from the Executive Mansion, as the [[White House]] was then known. The asking price was $10,000 per year; the vice president bargained Cameron down to $8,000, equal to the vice-presidential salary, by suggesting that the public might assume he stole the excess.{{sfn|Hobart|p=13}} Among the frequent visitors at what came to be known as the "Cream White House" was Hanna, by then a senator, who would come by for breakfast and talk with the vice president until it was time for both to go to the Senate.{{sfn|Connolly|p=29}}

The president and vice president were already friends from the campaign; after the inauguration, a close relationship grew between the two men and their wives. The [[First Lady of the United States|First Lady]], [[Ida McKinley]], had health issues, and could not stand the strain of the required official entertaining. Jennie Hobart often substituted for the first lady at receptions and other events, and also was a close companion, visiting her daily. The Hobarts and McKinleys visited each other's home without formality; according to Jennie Hobart, writing in 1930, "it was an intimate friendliness that no vice president and his wife, before or since, have had the privilege of sharing with their chief administrator."{{sfn|Hobart|pp=13–15}} The Hobarts often entertained at their house, which was useful to McKinley, who could attend and meet informally with congressmen without placing strain on his wife with a White House function. McKinley, who had become insolvent while [[governor of Ohio]], turned over a portion of his presidential salary to Hobart to invest.{{sfn|Hatfield|p=291}}

The vice president had in recent administrations been considered a relatively low-level political functionary, whose activities were generally limited to the constitutional function of presiding over the Senate. Hobart, however, became a close adviser to McKinley and his Cabinet members, although he was not called upon to attend Cabinet meetings. Reporter [[Arthur Wallace Dunn]] wrote of Hobart in 1922, "for the first time in my recollection, and the last for that matter, the Vice President was recognized as somebody, as a part of the Administration, and as a part of the body over which he presided".{{sfn|Hatfield|p=291}}

Through late 1897 and early 1898, many Americans called for the United States to intervene in Cuba, then a Spanish colony revolting against the mother country. These calls greatly increased in February 1898, when the American battleship [[USS Maine (ACR-1)|''Maine'']] sank in Havana harbor after an explosion. McKinley sought delay, hoping to settle the disputes peacefully, but in April 1898, Hobart told the President that the Senate would act against Spain whether McKinley liked it or not. McKinley gave in; Congress declared war on April 25, beginning the [[Spanish–American War]], and Hobart sent McKinley a pen with which to sign the declaration.{{sfn|Hatfield|pp=291–292}}

=== "Assistant President" ===
Hobart was more assertive as [[United States Senate|U.S. Senate]] president than his predecessors had been. It was customary for the vice president not to rule on disputed points, but to submit them to a vote. Hobart, with his experience as a presiding officer in the New Jersey Legislature, took a more assertive role, ruling on disputes, and trying to expedite legislation.{{sfn|Connolly|pp=28–29}} Hobart was initially diffident in his role, feeling himself unproven beside longtime national legislators, but soon gained self-confidence, writing in a letter that "I find that I am as good and as capable as any of them. If they know a whole lot of things I don't know, I also know a whole lot of things they don't know. And there is a common humanity running through them all that makes us all as one, after all."{{sfn|Connolly|p=31}} Hobart was so successful at guiding the administration's legislative agenda through the Senate that he became known as the "assistant President".<!-- Cap in original -->{{sfn|Miller Center, "Hobart"}}
[[File:GHobart.jpg|upright=0.7|thumb|left|Vice President Hobart]]
Hobart was constant in his attendance at the Senate; one onlooker called him a "chronic audience".{{sfn|Connolly|p=30}} Vice President Hobart cast his tie-breaking vote only once, using it to defeat an amendment which would have promised self-government to the [[Philippines]], one of the possessions which the United States had taken from Spain after the war.{{sfn|Connolly|p=31}} Hobart was instrumental in securing the ratification of the [[Treaty of Paris (1898)|Treaty of Paris]], which ended the war; according to McKinley biographer H. Wayne Morgan, Hobart was "almost the president's alter ego, [turning] every screw with his legendary politeness".{{sfn|Morgan|p=320}}

One post which Hobart refused to relinquish upon his inauguration was his position as one of three Joint Traffic Association (JTA) arbiters. The association was a group of railroads which sought to coordinate rates; if two railroads applied rates in different ways, the matter was settled by Hobart and two other arbiters. Hobart heard appeals while vice president.{{sfn|Connolly|pp=23, 27–28}} An October 1897 [[Supreme Court of the United States|Supreme Court]] decision signaled that the JTA was likely to be found in violation of the [[Sherman Anti-Trust Act]] (it was, the following year) and Hobart resigned as arbiter in November 1897.{{sfn|Connolly|p=32}} Hobart was a major investor in the Ramapo Water Company; he had interests in many New York and New Jersey water utilities. In mid-1899, there was controversy over the so-called "Ramapo Scheme", whereby the Ramapo Water Company, which owned large tracts of land in the [[Catskill Mountains]], would sell New York City $5&nbsp;million in water per year for 40&nbsp;years at high rates. The proposal was never agreed to, and a Republican-controlled investigating committee found no wrongdoing, but Hobart's role in the company was widely discussed in the press.{{sfn|Connolly|pp=33–38}}

=== Illness and death ===
[[File:Hobart mausoleum.jpg|thumb|The mausoleum of Garret and Jennie Hobart at [[Cedar Lawn Cemetery]] in [[Paterson, New Jersey]]{{sfn|''The New York Times'', June 10, 1902}}]]
By late 1898, Hobart was ill with a serious heart ailment, which he at first concealed from the public. He continued his responsibilities in the U.S. Senate, but nearly collapsed after delivering an address closing the session. He accompanied the president on a vacation trip to Hanna's winter home in [[Thomasville, Georgia]], but quickly contracted [[influenza|the flu]] and returned to Washington, D.C.. By April 1899, Hobart's illness was well known, though Hanna assured media that Hobart would be on the ticket in the [[1900 United States presidential election|1900 election]], saying, "nothing but death or an earthquake can stop the re-nomination of Vice President Hobart".{{sfn|Connolly|p=33}}

Hobart rented a home in his birthplace of [[Long Branch, New Jersey]], which was then an upscale [[Jersey Shore]] resort. Doctors prescribed complete rest, and the vice president amused himself by feeding two pet fish, a gold one named McKinley and a silver one named Bryan.{{sfn|Connolly|pp=33–34}}

Despite his vice president's ill health, McKinley called upon him to break the news to [[United States Secretary of War|Secretary of War]] [[Russell Alger]] that McKinley wanted him to resign; the secretary had previously ignored or misunderstood repeated hints from McKinley.{{sfn|Gould|pp=175–176}} According to McKinley biographer Margaret Leech, "the president did not show his usual hypersensitive regard for other people's feelings in handing over to a sick man a disagreeable task which it was his own duty to perform."{{sfn|Leech|p=376}} Hobart invited Alger to Long Branch for the weekend, and broke the news, and Alger promptly submitted his resignation to McKinley.

Hobart's condition worsened in the days following Alger's visit, and he became bedridden. ''[[The Sun (New York City)|The Sun]]'', a New York City-based newspaper at the time, attributed Alger's resignation to Hobart's "crystal insight" and "velvet tact". Following the description, Hobart wrote to McKinley, "My 'crystal insight' is still clear, but the nap is slightly worn off my velvet tact".{{sfn|Gould|pp=175–176}}

After a vacation with the McKinleys on [[Lake Champlain]], Hobart returned to Paterson in September. On November 1, 1899, his family announced that Hobart would not return to public life. His condition deteriorated rapidly, and he died on November 21, 1899, at age&nbsp;55.{{sfn|Connolly|pp=33–38}}<ref>{{cite news|newspaper=[[The Philadelphia Times]]|url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-philadelphia-times/163222081/|date=November 1, 1899|page=6|title=Hobart Still At Death's Door|via=Newspapers.com|access-date=17 January 2025}}</ref> President McKinley told the family, "No one outside of this home feels this loss more deeply than I do."{{sfn|Hatfield|p=292}}

[[Foster Voorhees]], the [[Governor of New Jersey|New Jersey governor]], ordered that state buildings be draped in mourning for 30&nbsp;days, and that flags be flown at half staff until Hobart's funeral.{{sfn|Magie|p=224}} Hobart's home, Carroll Hall, was opened to the public for four hours so that citizens might pass by his open casket; 12,000&nbsp;people did so. Hobart was laid to rest at [[Cedar Lawn Cemetery]] in Paterson after a large public funeral, attended by President McKinley and many high government officials. Although the large government delegation precluded many local residents from attending the service, a crowd of 50,000 came to Paterson to honor Hobart.{{sfn|Magie|pp=226–241}}

The mausoleum over Hobart's grave was erected in 1901. His wife purchased eleven plots adjoining the family plot to accommodate the structure. The building has massive marble columns in the front with a heavy metal door; on the back above the sarcophagus is a stained glass window. There are two sarcophagi in the center of the building, for Garret Hobart and his wife. Around the tomb are niches for other members of the family. At the time of construction in 1901, the mausoleum cost about $80,000.<ref>Matawan Journal May 16, 1901 - Page 4, column 1</ref>