Ogden Hoffman

{{short description|American politician}} {{for|his son, the California judge|Ogden Hoffman Jr.}} {{Use mdy dates|date=September 2020}} {{Infobox officeholder |name = Ogden Hoffman |birth_name = Ogden Hoffman |image = OgdenHoffman.jpg |resting_place = St. Mark's Church in-the-Bowery |birth_date = {{Birth date|1793|5|3}} |birth_place = New York City |death_date = {{Death date and age|1856|5|1|1793|5|3}} |death_place = New York City |education = Columbia College |office1 = 25th Attorney General of New York |term_start1 = January 1, 1854 |term_end1 = December 31, 1855 |governor1 = Horatio Seymour Myron H. Clark |preceded1 = Gardner Stow |succeeded1 = Stephen B. Cushing |office2 = United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York |term_start2 = 1841 |term_end2 = 1845 |preceded2 = Benjamin F. Butler |succeeded2 = Benjamin F. Butler |president2 = William Henry Harrison John Tyler |state3 = New York |district3 = 3rd |term_start3 = 1837 |term_end3 = 1841 |alongside3 = Edward Curtis Churchill C. Cambreleng (1837–39) Ely Moore (1837–39) James Monroe (1839–41) Moses H. Grinnell (1839–41) |preceded3 = Gideon Lee John McKeon |succeeded3 = Charles G. Ferris Fernando Wood James I. Roosevelt John McKeon |office4 = New York County District Attorney |term_start4 = 1829 |term_end4 = 1835 |preceded4 = Hugh Maxwell |succeeded4 = Thomas Phoenix |party = Democratic Party Whig |spouse = Emily Burrall Virginia Southard |parents = Josiah Ogden Hoffman Mary Colden |children = 5, including Ogden Jr. }} '''Ogden Hoffman''' (October 13, 1794 – May 1, 1856) was a 19th-century American lawyer and politician who for two terms was in the United States House of Representatives from 1837 to 1841.

==Life== Ogden Hoffman was born on October 13, 1794,<ref>[https://archive.org/details/genealogyofhoffm00hoff/page/n329/mode/2up?q=ogden+hoffman Genealogy of the Hoffman Family]</ref> the son of New York Attorney General Josiah Ogden Hoffman (1766–1837) and Mary (Colden) Hoffman. He pursued classical studies and graduated from Columbia College in 1812.<ref name="bioguide">{{cite web|title=HOFFMAN, Josiah Ogden – Biographical Information|url=http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=H000687|website=bioguide.congress.gov|publisher=Biographical Directory of the United States Congress|access-date=September 15, 2016}}</ref>

==Career== He served for three years in the Navy and was warranted a midshipman in 1814. He took part in the War of 1812 and the Second Barbary War as a crew member on the USS ''President'', and was taken prisoner when the ''President'' was captured in 1814.

After leaving the navy he studied law under his father, was admitted to the bar in 1818, and commenced practice in Goshen, New York.

===Political career=== Hoffman was District Attorney of Orange County from May 1823 to January 1826, and a member of the New York State Assembly (Orange Co.) in 1826. He then returned to New York City and there practiced law in partnership with Hugh Maxwell, who was New York County District Attorney.

Hoffman was again a member of the New York State Assembly (New York Co.) in 1828; and was New York County District Attorney from 1829 to 1835.

He disagreed with the Jackson administration over the need for a federally chartered central bank, and abandoned Tammany Hall and the Democratic Party for the Whigs after Jackson's decision not to re-charter the Second Bank of the United States.

In 1836, Hoffman defended Richard P. Robinson at his trial for the murder of Helen Jewett and got his client acquitted.

==== Congress ==== Hoffman was elected as a Whig to the 25th and 26th United States Congresses, holding office from March 4, 1837, to March 3, 1841.

==== Later political offices ==== He was United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York from 1841 to 1845. He later was New York Attorney General from 1854 to 1855, elected on the Whig ticket at the New York state election, 1853.

==Personal life== On June 27, 1819, he married Emily Burrall, daughter of Charles Burrall. Together, they had two children:<ref name="HoffmanGeni">{{cite book|last1=Hoffman|first1=Eugene Augustus|title=Genealogy of the Hoffman family : descendants of Martin Hoffman, with biographical notes ..|date=1899|publisher=New York : Dodd, Mead & Co.|url=https://archive.org/details/genealogyofhoffm00hoff|access-date=February 22, 2017}}</ref>

* Charles Burrall Hoffman (1821–1892), who married Harriet Bronson Willett, granddaughter of Dr. Isaac Bronson.<ref name="HoffmanGeni"/> * Ogden Hoffman, Jr. (1822–1891), who served as a federal judge in California for more than 40 years.

In November 1838, he married Virginia Southard (d. 1886), daughter of Samuel Lewis Southard, who was a U.S. Senator, Secretary of the Navy, and the tenth Governor of New Jersey.<ref name="rathbun">{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MY-5AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA118 |title=The Columbian institute for the promotion of arts and sciences: A Washington Society of 1816–1838. |first=Richard |last=Rathbun |access-date=June 20, 2010|year=1904 |publisher=Bulletin of the United States National Museum, October 18, 1917}}</ref> Together, they had three children:<ref name="HoffmanGeni"/>

* Samuel Southard Hoffman (b. 1839), who married Sarah Acklen<ref name="HoffmanGeni"/> * Mary Colden Hoffman (b. 1840)<ref name="HoffmanGeni"/> * Virginia Southard Hoffman (b. 1842)<ref name="HoffmanGeni"/>

He died on May 1, 1856, at his home on Ninth Street in New York City, of "congestion of the lungs." He was buried at St. Mark's Church in-the-Bowery.

==References== '''Notes''' {{reflist|30em}}

'''Sources''' * {{CongBio|H000687}} * [https://books.google.com/books?id=mK1JAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA35 ''The New-York Civil List''] compiled by Franklin Benjamin Hough (pages 35, 253, 257, 353 and 431; 1863) * [https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1856/05/02/78496555.pdf ''Death of the Hon. Ogden Hoffman''] in the ''New York Times'' on May 2, 1856 * [https://archive.org/stream/genealogyofhoffm00hoff#page/279/mode/1up ''Genealogy of the Hoffman Family''] by (Dodd, Mead & Co., NYC; pg. 279ff)

{{s-start}} {{s-legal}} {{succession box | before = Hugh Maxwell | title = New York County District Attorney | years = 1829–1835 | after = Thomas Phoenix}} {{s-par|us-hs}} {{US House succession box | state = New York | district = 3 | before = Churchill C. Cambreleng, Gideon Lee, Ely Moore, John McKeon | after = Charles G. Ferris, Fernando Wood, James I. Roosevelt, John McKeon | years = 1837–1841 with Churchill C. Cambreleng 1837–39, Ely Moore 1837–39, Edward Curtis 1837–41, James Monroe 1839–41 and Moses H. Grinnell 1839–41}} {{s-legal}} {{succession box | before = Benjamin F. Butler | title = U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York | years = 1841–1845 | after= Benjamin F. Butler}} {{succession box | before = Gardner Stow | title = New York Attorney General | years = 1854–1855 | after = Stephen B. Cushing}} {{s-end}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hoffman, Ogden}} Category:1794 births Category:1856 deaths Category:Columbia College, Columbia University alumni Category:United States Navy sailors Category:Members of the New York State Assembly Category:New York State attorneys general Category:United States attorneys for the Southern District of New York Category:New York County district attorneys Category:New York (state) Democrats Ogden Category:Whig Party United States representatives from New York (state) Category:People from Goshen, New York Category:Deaths from pulmonary edema Category:Presidents of the Saint Nicholas Society of the City of New York Category:19th-century members of the New York State Legislature Category:19th-century United States representatives