USA > New York > The bench and bar of New-York. Containing biographical sketches of eminent judges, and lawyers of the New-York bar, incidents of the important trials in which they were engaged, and anecdotes connected with their professional, political and judicial career > Part 2
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Hoffman had none of those mechanical arts of ora- tory which often conceal mediocrity of intellect.
In politics, he was a Democrat; and in the presidential contest which caused so much excite- ment throughout the country in 1823, he supported General Jackson ; but such was his devotion to his profession that politics were a secondary matter with him. He was never what is called a politician. As a legislator in the State Assembly, as a law-maker in a Constitutional Convention, and as a representative in Congress, his eloquence and his various parlia- mentary abilities raised him to the sphere of a states- man.
From his earliest years he was surrounded by the most prominent lawyers and legislators. His father was, as has been already remarked, one of the leading lawyers and legislators of his time. He was to the American bar what Edmund Burke was to the Eng- lish, and Moncreiff to the Scottish bar.
In the great case of the People v. Goodwin, tried in New York in 1821, his address to the jury equaled in power and judicial ability that of Mr. Curran's de- fense of Rowan in the Court of King's Bench.
He first entered the State legislature in 1791, and was continued in that body, with the exception of one or two years, until 1812-during a portion of which time his colleagues were the illustrious Kent, Brok-
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holst, Livingston, De Witt Clinton, Aaron Burr, and others equally celebrated. In the legislature of 1794, with Ambrose Spencer, he was the leader of the Fed- eral party. During that session he made his celebra- ted speech against the council of appointment, con- cluding by moving that the members composing that body be immediately arrested.
He was one of the earliest and most brilliant attor- ney-generals of the State,-succeeding, in 1795, the celebrated Nathaniel Lawrence. Identified with the early struggles and triumphs of the Federal party, and with the early history of the New York bar, it is not strange that his name stands out conspicuously in the history of the State.
Perhaps the early political contest of his father gave Ogden a certain dislike for the political arena which he never fully overcame ; for, whatever success awaited him there, he always retired from it with pleasure to the more congenial pursuit of his profes- sional duties.
In the autumn of 1825 the Democrats of Orange County unanimously nominated him for member of Assembly, and he was elected by a very large major- ity. His reputation as a lawyer gave him a high posi- tion in the legislature. In the debates which occurred in that body he frequently took part. His eloquence was of that peculiar nature which rendered his speeches always acceptable. Samuel Young was Speaker of the Assembly ; unfortunately, between him and Gen- eral Root, then a member from Delaware, a bitter feud existed.
As the legislature was about to adjourn, the usual vote of thanks was unanimously tendered to Colonel Young "for the able and impartial manner in which he had performed the duties of the chair, during the session." As soon as this vote was announced, Gen- eral Root objected to its entry in the minutes of the clerk. A singular and exciting scene occurred. Mr. Hoffman, although a friend to General Root, insisted
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that as the resolution had unanimously passed, it ought to be so entered in the journal.
The pointed and laconic speech of Mr. Young to the legislature on this occasion, will be found in an- other part of this work.
For some time Mr. Hoffman had contemplated re- moving to the City of New York. At the close of his legislative term, he was offered a partnership by the late Hugh Maxwell, an eminent lawyer of the New York bar, and at that time District-Attorney of the City and County of New York. He was first appointed to that office in 1817, and again in 1821, after the adop- tion of the new constitution. He continued in office until 1829, when he was succeeded by Mr. Hoffman. He possessed the most rare and peculiar qualifications for a prosecuting officer. Deeply and thoroughly learned in the English and American criminal law, with rare elocutionary powers, a pleasing, genial man- ner, he was formidable before a jury. But his natural hatred of crime gave him that determination in the trial of criminals which sometimes rendered him ob- noxious to the charge of being vindictive in his efforts to convict persons indicted.
The offer of Mr. Maxwell was accepted, and Ogden Hoffman became his law partner and a resident of the City of New York. About this time, Henry Eckford, Jacob Barker, General Swift, Lawton, Mowatt, and others, were indicted by the grand jury of New York, for a conspiracy to defraud the public.
The high social and political position of some of the defendants, the peculiar nature of the crime with which they were charged, the strange, determined, and ingenious defense which they made, gave to the trial unusual significance and interest.
Mr. Hoffman assisted Mr. Maxwell, and he was thus at once placed conspicuously before the public ; perhaps on no occasion did he ever appear to better advantage than in conducting this trial. He grappled all the difficulties of the question with facility and boldness ;
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"he pushed every argument to the uttermost ;" and in short, so fully developed the qualities of a great lawyer, that he at once took a commanding position in this new field of action.
As we have seen, Mr. Hoffman commenced life a Democrat, an ardent supporter and admirer of Gen- eral Jackson. But he believed the United States Bank to be a moneyed corporation created for national pur- poses, which had proved superior to, and regardless of, legislative restraint, and which controlled, aid- ed and advanced the whole resources and industry of the country ; therefore, the removal of the deposits was a hazardous experiment, dangerous to the country and ruinous to its prosperity. When the President actually proposed such a removal, Mr. Hoffman, Moses H. Grinnell, Dudley Selden, and a large number of other prominent citizens, abandoned the Democratic party.
These distinguished personages, in a large and en- thusiastic meeting, publicly declared the reasons which guided them in this step. Mr. Hoffman, in an able and statesman-like speech, sustained his com- peers in thus deserting their party.
" Men will see," said he, "that henceforth the rela- tion between the government and the Bank must be hostile, and between the banks selected for holding the deposits mistrust, doubt and uncertainty will take the place of confidence. Without a National Bank, the stability and safety of the whole monetary system will be endangered."
From that time, during the existence of the Whig party he continued to act with it-devoting, however, but little of his time to politics ; the duties and labors of his profession engrossing his time and talents. He gave his attention mostly to criminal business, and for twenty-five years there was not an important crim- inal trial in the City of New York in which he was not employed as counsel.
Among these was that of the People . Richard P.
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Robinson, tried in the City of New York in 1836 for the murder of Helen Jewett. The inflexible determin- ation with which he defended this desperate case, added much to his reputation.
On the morning of April 10, 1836, the body of Helen Jewett was discovered, terribly mangled, in her room, at the residence of Mrs. Townsend, in the City of New York. Between eight and nine o'clock in the evening previous, Robinson came to Mrs. Townsend's and requested to see Miss Jewett. He wore one of the cloaks which at that time were fashionable ; and while asking for Miss Jewett he leaned against a post in the hall, so that the per- son of whom he inquired had a view of his face. Helen was at this time in the back parlor ; but hear- ing the inquiry, came into the hall. The man was then ascending the stairs which led to her room. She followed him up the stairs, and when near him she exclaimed, " My dear Frank, how glad I am that you have come !" They then went up stairs and were not seen again until eleven o'clock, when Miss Jewett came to Mrs. Townsend and asked for a bottle of champagne. After a few minutes that lady took the wine to Miss Jewett's room, where she again saw Rob- inson, who was holding a candle and reading a book. From that time until the discovery of the murder, no person saw Helen Jewett. The house was closed a little after twelve o'clock. In the course of the night, some one asked Mrs. Townsend to be let out ; she made no reply, and the demand was not repeated.
Quite early in the morning she went to Helen's room, and on opening it, a quantity of smoke gushed out. She gave the alarm, and a watchman came in, extinguished the fire, and discovered Miss Jewett's body shockingly mangled with some sharp instru- ment. In searching the back yard of the house, a hatchet, covered with blood, was discovered; and in a yard adjoining, Robinson's cloak was found. A piece of twine was attached to the hatchet, and an-
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other piece, corresponding with that on the hatchet, was found tied to the cloak. The hatchet had un- doubtedly been tied to the inside of the cloak by the twine, and thus concealed. It was evident that the man who left the cloak and hatchet escaped by climb- ing the fence between the two yards. This fence was covered with a heavy coat of whitewash. Robinson was found at his lodgings soon after this discovery ; his pantaloons were marked with lime, indicating his contact with the fence in the rear of Mrs. Townsend's residence. He was a young man, about twenty-two years of age, a clerk in a wholesale dry-goods house. His relations with Miss Jewett had been of the most intimate nature, and there appeared no motive what- ever for the commission of the terrible crime. He was promptly arrested, committed to jail, indicted, and brought to trial. Ogden Hoffman and William M. Price, afterwards United States District-Attorney, were retained by the friends of Robinson to defend him.
Of all the criminal trials which up to that period had occurred in the City of New York, none created the interest which this did. A week or more was con- sumed before it was given to the jury.
Mr. Hoffman, "in one of those brilliant, eloquent, and fervid effusions, which in the career of his large and extensive practice, gave him imperishable ce- lebrity, and never - dying fame, opened the case for the defense." He spoke with keen and cutting satire upon the character of the witnesses. He dwelt with great ingenuity upon the question of the identity of the person calling for Miss Jewett on the evening before the murder-upon the significance of the fact, that she accosted the man who called for her in the evening, by the name of Frank, and not Richard ; con- tending that mistakes upon this subject so frequently occur in the common affairs of life, even with respect to persons with whom we have had immediate com- munication, that before a man should be sent to the
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gallows, there should remain no doubt whatever that he was really the person who committed the crime ; espe- cially where there is an entire absence of all motive. On the question of motive, he made a strong and for- cible argument. "Where the evidence is merely cir- cumstantial," said he, "the absence of any motive for the commission of the crime, is a strong point in favor of the accused." Finally, the veracity of the wit- nesses for the people, their tenacity of memory, acute- ness and accuracy of hearing and observation, were commented upon with the most sagacious skill by the eloquent advocate. But his own hypothesis of the prisoner's innocence was as bold and ingenious as it was ably maintained.
Mr. Price followed Hoffman in an address to the jury of great power and weight.
The prosecution was conducted by Thomas M. Phoenix, Esq., District-Attorney, assisted by the ablest lawyers in the city, who made every effort in their power to convict Robinson ; but the impression which the thrilling eloquence of Ogden Hoffman made upon the jury could not be overcome. After an ab- sence of three hours and a quarter, they returned with their verdict. They filed into court with that peculiar tread, which nothing but a returning jury has ; amid the most breathless silence of the vast au- dience assembled, they took their seats ; it was a ter- rible moment for Robinson and his friends, -a moment in which life or death was to hang upon a single word, and that word was about to be uttered. Those who watched Ogden Hoffman at that moment, as he sat within the bar, apparently calm and emotionless, could discover in the deep lines of his speaking face, the in- tense anxiety-the contending emotions of hope and fear-which pervaded his breast. At length the clerk arose, and in a voice which rang clearly through the court room, asked the momentous question :
"Gentlemen of the jury, have you agreed upon your verdict ?"
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The foreman arose and solemnly answered, "We have."
Again the voice of the clerk rolled over the audi- ence : "Prisoner, look upon the jury ; jurors, look upon the prisoner at the bar. Do you find the pris- oner guilty, or not guilty ?"
There was a moment of silence, -a moment of al- most heart-bursting suspense. All bent forward to catch the answer, as it came from the lips of the foreman- "We find the prisoner at the bar, not guilty."
Those who have witnessed that portentous stillness which awaits the coming of the storm-one moment a silence so deep that the pulse of nature seems to have ceased, the next the wild sweep of the hurricane-will have some idea of the scene that followed the an- nouncement of this verdict. The pent up emotions of friend and foe gave way, and for a moment a pas- sionate outburst swept through the court room ; but Richard P. Robinson was free. The moment the verdict was pronounced he fell insensible into the arms of his friend, Mr. Hoxie.
This unequaled and singularly successful defense loses nothing of its brilliancy when compared with Erskine's defense of Hadfield, or Curran's effort in behalf of Orr. It gave Mr. Hoffman a high rank among the great popular orators of his day and pro- fession.
As a distinguished lawyer said of him: "In crim- inal cases, he was infinitely the superior of any man at the bar. Primus inter pares-he stood without a compeer. Here his perfect knowledge of criminal law -his deep insight into the springs of human action- his solid sense, combined with his surpassing elo- quence, gave him a position for which none had the temerity to contend."
His defense of Walker, charged with the murder of his wife, was another of those successful and pow- erful defenses in which he succeeded against circum- stances which pointed with fearful certainty against
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his client, but which were answered by an ingenious hypothesis, sustained by an eloquence which caused the heart to bow to its supremacy, replete with cutting sarcasm and logical acuteness.
In the character of a prosecutor, he was as power- ful as in the defense. This was exhibited in his prose- cution of Colonel Schlessinger, a "discomfited filli- buster in Nicaragua," and John L. O'Sullivan, Doug- lass Benson, and other cases of great importance.
But it must not be supposed that Mr. Hoffman had no abilities as a civil lawyer. On the contrary, some of the most difficult cases, involving the most intricate legal questions ever tried at the New York bar, were conducted by him, as were many of the reported cases adjudicated in the Supreme Court, Court of Errors, and Court of Appeals.
His ideas of the criminal practice will be better understood by a reference to a conversation which he once had with Mr. Evarts, as related by that gentle- man himself, who at an early period of his practice had been engaged in a criminal trial against Mr. Hoff- man, in which he was defeated.
"I was," said Mr. Evarts, "a stranger to Mr. Hoff- man until then ; but I have never forgotten, neither the singular kindness of the man, nor the singular wisdom of his counsel."
"Mr. Evarts," said he, "though you conducted this case in a manner highly creditable to you, and though it may not be agreeable to you to know that your efforts have been defeated, let me say to you, that it is the most fortunate circumstance in the result of the trial to you. I was, some years ago, the counsel for a criminal accused of a great crime. The result of my effort secured his acquittal. I gained in profes- sional repute, but I have ever been sensible, though my own conscience suggests nothing to reproach my- self with, that the sober sense of the community has taken some umbrage at that result. Now, in the re- sult of this trial, you are safe from this influence. 2
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Take my advice : adhere to civil business, and let the criminal courts alone."
"He was," continued Mr. Evarts, "a very able lawyer; and I mean it in the sense that every lawyer is able, if he be able at all ; he was able to the time, the occasion, and the effect. He had embodied, di- gested, and assimilated to himself the great principles of the law and reasoning that make up the character of the lawyer."
Mr. Hoffman once said, in speaking of Thomas Addis Emmet, "Listening to him, you were struck with his power ; he seemed like a piece of immense machinery, moving with the greatest regularity and smoothness, and yet as if restraining its gigantic power."
Like William Wirt, Mr. Hoffman was entirely the lawyer. The consciousness that his proud position at the New York bar gave him more real fame than could be won in the political arena, kept him from politics ; and yet he was strongly attached to his party, and possessed partizan zeal. Often, in the great political gatherings which took place in the city, he was called upon to address his fellow-citizens on political subjects. At such times he was always en- thusiastically received, and his country, its institu- tions, its policy, its interests, its destiny, were the topics on which he descanted. His loyalty to truth caused him to avoid all arts of the demagogue; and he spoke the honest conviction of his own mind "straight out," with an intensity of thought, with an elaborate finish, and a cogency of reason, which marked the productions of the great English statesmen.
In the winter of 1828, he was a member of Assem- bly from the City of New York. His labors as a mem- ber of the Judiciary Committee are remembered by several elaborate reports recommending amendments to the practice and procedure of the State courts- bringing complicated actions to the plainest construc- tions of law and reason. His touching and beautiful
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speech, delivered on the announcement of the death of Governor Clinton, is not excelled in the English language. With the exception of this legislative term, Mr. Hoffman remained several years free from the storms and the anxieties of political life.
At length he was compelled to enter public life for a time. In September, 1836, amid the political con- test which resulted in the election of Mr. Van Buren to the presidency of the United States, Mr. Hoffman was nominated by the Whigs of the third Congres- sional district for member of Congress, and was elected by a large majority.
In the mean time, the pecuniary pressure which followed the issuing of the specie circular, and which was already general and severe, was rapidly ap- proaching its crisis. In May, 1837, the event for some time anticipated by many -a general bank explosion -took place, the banks in the City of New York by common consent suspended specie payment, and a panic followed in the commercial world, unparalleled in its results and duration, and which convulsed the nation, throwing a cloud over the administration of Mr. Van Buren.
Soon after the suspension in New York, the Presi- dent issued a proclamation for an extra session of Con- gress, to be convened on the 15th of September following. With the opening of this session Mr. Hoffman entered Congress. In the debates which took place in the House during this exciting session, he took a conspic- uous part, though he did not often occupy the floor ; yet when he did he always commanded respect and attention. His position on the Committee of Foreign Relations subjected him to great labor. The industry and ability with which he discharged the duties thus committed to him gave him much prominence.
On the 16th of October the extra session adjourned, and Mr. Hoffman returned to his constituency. An immense meeting was waiting to receive him on his arrival in the city, and his reception amounted to an
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ovation, such was his popularity. His speech on that occasion was warmly commended.
"I come to you, my masters," said he, "as your servant, commissioned in an hour of peril with high and responsible duties, to give you an account of my stewardship. I am conscious that it is for you to weigh your public servants in the balance, and, if found wanting, to displace them. No public officer is absolved from his responsibility to the people. Polit- ical power is not a prize which justifies arts and com- pliances that would be scorned in private life. Polit- ical power is a weak engine compared with individual intelligence. The great hope of society is individual character."
He then entered upon a consideration of the dis- tresses of the country :
"In all periods of our history," said he, "the state of the country has afforded a topic of controversy. One class of politicians, in their zeal to find fault, have been disposed to exaggerate every partial misfortune or local distress ; while others were equally ready to magnify all our advantages-to gloss over failure and mishaps, to set down our increasing prosperity to the credit of political sagacity and skill. As it is frequently more profitable to praise than to blame men in power, the latter class of politicians have been the most numerous and confident ; and not content with refuting the arguments of their oppo- nents, they have, in most cases, treated their com- plaints as mere factious clamor, proceeding from the sinister motive of private interest or ambition.
"The present times, however, present the singular spectacle of unanimity on the actual condition of the country. Here is, unhappily, no longer any room for controversy on this formerly doubtful point, and the tardy conviction of the most incredulous now yields to the irresistible evidence of facts too notorious to be denied. One universal cry of distress is heard throughout the land. Nor is it particular branches
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of industry that have decayed ; but every sphere of industry is at a stand-and this, too, in a community such as ours, with every advantage of agriculture and science, with artizans well trained in every mode of refined and ingenious industry. The laborer has now to struggle against the double calamity of low wages and want of employment. The same causes which have entailed such general distress on the laboring classes, have assailed their employers. Why is it then, that with such unexampled advantages to secure national and individual prosperity, we are reduced to a state of actual wretchedness? What principles of mischief have been operating to counteract the strong basis of society to improvement, and to undermine the solid foundations of prosperity ?
"On this question, various and contradictory opin- ions have been formed ; we all agree that distress is upon us, but differ as to its cause. I propose now to give my reason for the cause of the great evils under which we are suffering."
He then reviewed the causes of our financial diffi- culties, and his speech on it was considered at the time as one of the ablest and most statemanlike dis- sertations upon the great questions then before the public, which had in any form appeared before the people, and it was read with interest by persons of all parties.
The regular session of Congress opened on the fourth of December, 1837. The great questions before that body were the establishment of an independent trea- sury ; the bill to repeal the Specie Circular of July, 1836; the annexation of Texas; the petitions for the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia. These questions, some of them of the most exciting nature, were discussed with an ability which gave Congress a paramount position over the parliamentary bodies of the civilized world. In these debates Mr. Hoffman frequently participated. His labors on the floor, and
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on the important committees to which he belonged, rendered his labors arduous and difficult.
On the third of March, 1839, the twenty-fifth Con- gress adjourned.
Mr. Hoffman was not desirous of a re-nomination ; but the Whigs of his district strongly insisted upon returning him; and in the fall of 1839 he consented to accept a second nomination for Congress. He was again elected; from December, 1839, until March 3, 1841, the laborious duties which devolved upon him by the twenty-sixth Congress, occupied the principal part of his time. Before this session closed, he was tendered a re-nomination, but he emphatically de- clined.
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