Josiah Ogden Hoffman was an American lawyer and politician. He served as a member of the New York Assembly and attorney general of New York State.
Background
Josiah Ogden Hoffman was born on April 14, 1766 in Newark, New Jersey, United States. He was the son of Nicholas Hoffman и Sarah Hoffman, and was descended from Martin Hoffman, born at Revel, on the Gulf of Finland, who emigrated to New York in 1657.
Career
In the practice of the law, Hoffman was associated with the Loyalist aristocracy, becoming a law partner of Cadwallader David Colden. His law practice just begun, Hoffman launched into an active political career, serving in the New York state legislature from 1791 to 1795, and again in 1797.
In 1798 he became attorney general of the state of New York, serving until the hecatomb of office-holders in 1801. Seven years later he was chosen recorder of the city of New York and continued in that office until 1815. Meanwhile, during the War of 1812, he led in opposing the ordering of the armed forces of the state beyond its boundaries and was hostile to the continuance of the conflict. He actively supported DeWitt Clinton for president in 1812 and looked for restoration to public office when Clinton came to power in New York in 1817. But though the governor professed his gratitude for Hoffman's services, he failed to reward him with an appointment. Hoffman thereupon became a party to the coalition between the Federalist malcontents and the sachems of the Tammany society, of which organization he had been made third Grand Sachem in 1791.
In the famous case of The Nereide in the Supreme Court in 1815, Hoffman, associated with Emmet against Dallas and Pinckney, argued for the first time the negative of the proposition that neutral property forfeits its character and neutrality by being put on board an armed ship of the enemy, and in this he was sustained by a majority of the court. His opening argument was regarded by his contemporaries as a splendid specimen of forensic learning and eloquence.
Three years later in Gelston vs. Hoyt, Hoffman, associated with David B. Ogden, successfully maintained against the arguments of Attorney General Rush the cardinal principle of the Anglo-Saxon legal system that government officials are not above the law. He rounded out his legal career as associate judge of the New York superior court, retaining his seat from 1828 until his death. Hoffman was a member of the Federalist land-holding coterie, and as early as 1792 he purchased extensive tracts of land in St. Lawrence County. His real-estate transactions in New York City in this period were on a large scale.
Achievements
Politics
Hoffman came from a family which had been Loyalist in sympathy during the War for Independence, so he naturally attached himself as a young man to the Federalist party in politics. As leader of the Federalist party in the Assembly, he was a bitter opponent of Governor George Clinton and effected the establishment of the new council of appointment, which was a stunning blow to the governor.
Personality
As a lawyer Hoffman was adroit, energetic, and eloquent. Joseph Story, in ranking the bar of New York in 1807, rated him just below the great Thomas Addis Emmet.
Like others of this Federalist gentry, he was a man of fashion, "a court of last resort in the quiddities of minuets and precedence at table. "
Connections
Hoffman was twice married. By his first wife, Mary, the daughter of David and Ann Colden, whom he married on February 16, 1789, he had four children, among them Ogden, who pursued with even greater distinction his father's profession, and Matilda, who died shortly after her betrothal to Washington Irving. By his second wife, Maria, the daughter of John and Mary Curtis Fenno, whom he married on August 7, 1802, he had three children, the eldest being Charles Fenno.