Editing Garret Hobart (section)

=== 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}}